Think tank warns party politics are risk to UK health

Author: Lindsay Moss
Reference: The Scotsman
Published: 14/07/2008

Extract Scotland and England need to be much more co- operative when dealing with health concerns, rather than relying on ad-hoc arrangements which could be at risk from party politics, a report warns today. Devolution has meant that the four nations of the UK have moved further apart when it comes to health policies, with Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon last week saying that there was a "battle of ideas" between Scotland and England. Read this article >

Report calls for better UK coordination to solve devolution problems

Author: Adrian O’Dowd
Reference: BMJ
Published: 14/07/2008

Extract The four national governments in the United Kingdom need to work far more closely and to coordinate formally over health issues or face growing conflict, a major report says.

Since 1999, devolution has meant ever widening differences in health policy between the four countries, and lack of coordination will damage all four healthcare systems, warns the report by the health policy think tank the Nuffield Trust.Read this article >

A fairly happy birthday

Author: Tony Delamothe
Reference: BMJ
Published: 05/07/2008

Extract This week the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday. It should be its most benign anniversary in recent memory.Read this article >

Forces of change threaten to shatter political consensus

Author: Nicholas Timmins
Reference: Financial Times
Published: 03/07/2008

Extract As the National Health Service enters its seventh decade it appears as safe from dismemberment as it has ever been.

David Cameron's determination to cauterise the NHS as an election issue means the service is basking in the warm glow of cross-party consensus for the first time since the 1950s. Read this article >

Managers put faith in Darzi's clinical vision

Author: Helen Crump & Rebecca Evans
Reference: HSJ
Published: 03/07/2008

Extract Managers believe Lord Darzi's vision for the NHS, where quality is financially rewarded and commissioning is the lynchpin of the service, is achievable within the next 10 years. Read this article >

Darzi quality incentive puts £1bn at stake

Author: Sally Gainsbury
Reference: HSJ
Published: 03/07/2008

Extract Up to £1bn - or 3 per cent - of annual hospital trust income will be contingent on meeting service quality requirements by 2010-11.

NHS chief executive David Nicholson revealed the figure when estimating the impact of two pay-for-quality initiatives announced in Lord Darzi's next stage review. Read this article >

The NHS at 60: Time to end the fairy tale

Author: Graham Watt
Reference: The British Journal of General Practice
Published: 01/07/2008

Extract Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who’s the fairest of us all?’

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs there is a tragic mirror that flatters all who look into it, saying that there is none as fair as they. The NHS has a similar effect, reflecting our best ideas and wishes for free health care, treatment according to need, personalised service, fairness, and so on. But while everyone has been admiring themselves in the mirror, the world has moved on. Read this article >

Do you have your own doctor, doctor? Tackling barriers to health care

Author: Graham Watt
Reference: British Journal of General Medical Practice
Published: 01/07/2008

Extract Doctors are more at risk of mental ill-health than the general population. The risk of suicide is higher than the general population, especially among GPs, anaesthetists, and psychiatrists. Studies from North America suggest that 8-18% of doctors will be affected by drug or alcohol abuse during their lifetime. So the way that doctors do or don’t access healthcare is important – for them, for their families, their colleagues, and ultimately, for their patients. An article in this issue reviews the literature on health behaviours of doctors and the barriers they experience in accessing care. Read this article >

NHS health gains do not match investments made

Reference: Healthcare Insurance Report
Published: 01/07/2008

Extract The last in the series of four reports commissioned by the Nuffield Trust entitled, The Quest for Quality: Refining the NHS Reforms, concludes that despite a decade of constant reform in the NHS, health gains do not match the investment made in health services. The UK is still outperformed by other countries especially in the areas of mortality from circulatory disease and cancer. The UK also has the highest rates of MRSA infection, although this has fallen in the past year. Progress was described as “sobering” by Jennifer Dixon, director of the Nuffield Trust.Read this article >

Round-up of reaction to the Darzi review

Author: Neil Durham
Reference: HealthCare Republic
Published: 01/07/2008

Extract BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said much of the change in the Darzi review was positive but success or failure would depend on the detail and engagement with those who worked in the NHS. Read this article >

The NHS was a glorious idea, but it needs urgent treatment

Author: James Gubb
Reference: Yorkshire Post
Published: 28/06/2008

Extract The NHS's aims have always been laudable – and they remain so today. A lack of money should never prevent anyone who suffers the misfortune of ill health from getting quality treatment.Read this article >

How the NHS measures up

Author: Tony Delamothe
Reference: BMJ
Published: 28/06/2008

Extract The previous four articles in this series have dealt with how the founding principles of the NHS have fared over the past 60 years. I have judged them against the utopian aspirations of 1940s Britain for a national health service that was universal, equitable, comprehensive, high quality, centrally funded, and free at the point of delivery. Much of my attention has therefore been directed backwards and inwards. Read this article >

Funding: Acute’s leftovers won’t feed public health

Reference: HSJ
Published: 26/06/2008

Extract At the NHS Confederation conference, Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon offered the heretical view that the policy of tilting NHS spending towards public health is a mistake.Read this article >

Integrated care – is it the beginning or the end for PBC?

Author: Chris Ham
Reference: Pulse
Published: 26/06/2008

Extract With the forthcoming Darzi review set to contain much about integrated care, Professor Chris Ham explains more about the concept and what the PBC opportunities are.Read this article >

Universality, equity and quality of care

Author: Tony Delamothe
Reference: BMJ
Published: 07/06/2008

Extract Sixty years on the NHS is still struggling to ensure equal access to the best care. One of the objectives of the National Health Service set out in the 1940s was “To ensure that everybody in the country – irrespective of means, age, sex or occupation – shall have equal opportunity to benefit from the best and most up to date medical and allied services available.” How have these founding principles of universality, equality and quality fared after 60 years? Read this article >

Darzi review will bring new PBC incentives for GPs

Author: Gareth Iacobucci
Reference: Pulse
Published: 03/06/2008

Extract Lord Darzi’s much-anticipated review of the NHS will ‘reinvigorate’ practice-based commissioning by focusing on transforming data quality and strengthening incentives for GPs, a key advisor has told Pulse.Read this article >

Think-tank calls for an NHS-wide 'QOF'

Reference: Independent Nurse
Published: 02/06/2008

Extract A quality framework should be in place for the whole of the NHS according to an independent health policy think-tank. The Nuffield Trust assessed quality in the NHS using data from six areas including effectiveness, access, capacity, safety, patient-centredness and equity, since 1997.Read this article >

Some good reasons to be cheerful

Author: Nicholas Timmins
Reference: British Journal of Healthcare Management
Published: 01/06/2008

Extract May 2008 was the month that for once contained far more good news than bad. Although the NHS being the NHS, whether some of it was good depends on where you are standing when you look at the issue.Read this article >

Prime minister signals link to outcomes

Reference: Healthcare Finance
Published: 01/06/2008

Extract Payment for Performance (P4P) in the NHS moved firmly into the centre stage last month when it was given the prime minister’s backing.Read this article >

Soft pedal on P4P says Nuffield

Reference: Healthcare Finance
Published: 01/06/2008

Extract The NHS should ‘go slow’ on introducing pay for performance (P4P) and look at other ways of incetivising improvements in quality, according to a leading health policy charity.Read this article >