Costing has a key role to play in the drive for higher quality services for patients. Costing is not – or at least should not be confined to the finance department. It is not an activity done solely to meet central demands for information about productivity and costs. Nor is it just to inform tariff … Continue reading
The pace of the news cycle may already have made the Francis report feel like yesterday’s news or a flash in the pan. But nothing could be further from the truth. We know that the issues of poor, undignified care and neglect that prompted the report are the cause for sober reflection among many people … Continue reading
Back in 1973 at The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, no-one talked about compassion. You were either a good student nurse or a bad one. Or, as in my case, one with plenty of room for improvement. It was a Saturday lunchtime, and I was in handover on the infectious ward. I was allocated … Continue reading
In the wake of the Francis report and Mid-Staffordshire scandals, it has recently come to light that a further 14 trusts are under investigation due to unnecessary deaths and appalling mismanagement. There may be more. It is clear that our current system of healthcare regulation has failed. More importantly, this has meant that the NHS … Continue reading
Delivering care for older people is a challenge which most health and care communities have failed to meet. In Warwickshire, we have had some success in delivering better and more sustainable care for older people across hospital and community settings. We have reduced mortality rates, acute hospital bed use, readmissions and the need for long-term … Continue reading
Undoubtedly, boardrooms across the land will be full of cathartic conversations, heads shaken in disbelief that a train wreck of this magnitude could be allowed to happen. Some leaders will solemnly declare “we can do better”. Public outcry is stoked by a media aware that the industry has been caught putting profit first, with economic … Continue reading
The inquiry into failings at Mid Staffordshire Hospital has finally reported. But what might it mean for management within the NHS? We know that some sort of enhanced managerial accountability is on its way. The Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, wants to consider a range of options, and our discussion paper and consultation on the … Continue reading
The NHS is struggling. Reports are pouring out suggesting that the health service needs more generalists and better trained general practitioners, as the patient coming through the door rarely has one pathology any more. Think of the olden days which had general medicine clinics and general physicians. They ‘specialised’ in having the bigger picture, could join … Continue reading
There is a change going on in the way we think about healthcare. The realisation that we can no longer afford to do what we’ve always done is looming large for all suppliers. Whether it’s expressed as the Nicholson Challenge or described eloquently as Hospitals on the edge, our existing systems have grown up with … Continue reading
In the new jigsaw which is rapidly becoming the 21st century NHS, a whole range of issues culminate in one operational headache, the inexorable rise in demand, which is being felt across the system. From primary care, through to ambulance and community providers and into the emergency department, the growth in unscheduled activity seems to … Continue reading
