Do the ‘sunny uplands’ of Labour’s NHS demonstrate ‘the dividend obsession’?
With Andy Burnham MP ‘restored’ as Shadow Secretary of State for Health after the latest Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, one can only assume that ‘responsible capitalism’ has not totally subsumed UK Labour’s...
View ArticleWhat’s best for a person isn’t necessarily what’s best for a hospital
It is pretty clear that the NHS as currently engineered puts Foundation Trusts on an elevated platform. Hospitals, being paid on the basis of activity involved for any one patient, can act for a sink...
View ArticleAre integrated care packages like M&Ms? Expect a competition law armageddon.
Somewhere along the path of the subconscious of this current Government they realised competition law, as the trojan horse for implementing the private market of the NHS, would be the ‘nuclear option’...
View ArticleMarket Madness and Hospitals
According to the Regulators (Monitor, NHS Trust Development Authority and the Care Quality Commission) just under half of our acute trusts have serious problems. Most are made up of a single hospital...
View Article“The twittering machine”– Michael White, the NHS and Paul Klee
Just before I got in a black cab to go to my slot for a viewing of Paul Klee’s amazing paintings at the Tate Modern, I was finishing a Twitter conversation which included Michael White (@MichaelWhite)...
View ArticleHow to Create the Conditions for a Healthcare Market: The Step-by-step...
An Outline of Marketisation Processes in the English NHS On The Basis of Marketization Theory Final Report for the Research Project “The Effects of Marketization on Societies: The case of Europe...
View ArticleMany people were warning about competition in the NHS long before Polly...
Many people were warning about competition in the NHS long before Polly Toynbee this morning. Me for example. There are very few people who registered this issue as such a big issue while devoting...
View ArticleThe future of the NHS? Lessons from the market in social care in England
Executive summary This was first published by the The Centre for Health and the Public Interest where the full paper is available and is reproduced by permission. The authors are Marianna Fotaki, Sally...
View ArticleThe NHS and markets – the drugs don’t work
This week, David Cameron MP mocked Ed Miliband MP for sounding like a person who’d rung up a radio show whingeing. Cameron replied, “And your problem is caller?” The problem is a complete collapse of...
View ArticleA New Threat to CCGs, Hospitals and Accountability
We need a regime for financially failing Trusts – but this is not it. The government used the existing regime in Lewisham and found that the law only applies to the failing Trust, making their unjust...
View ArticleSize isn’t everything…. except in Labour’s competition policy
There are a few squares to circle when it comes to how Labour negotiates the future direction of health policy for the National Policy Forum later this year. One of them will have to be Labour’s future...
View ArticleEverything is thought about apart from the patient
Student doctor, pharmacist and nurse from Wythenshawe Hospital explain what working in an NHS hospital is like today. Wythenshawe Forum with Andy Burnham and Mike KaneThe post Everything is thought...
View ArticleDavid Prior is right, but his solution is wrong. Radical change is needed to...
In an article in the BMJ in 2011, entitled “How the secretary of state for health proposes to abolish the NHS in England” (BMJ 2011; 342 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d1695 (Published 22 March...
View ArticleFor flood victims, the State is not a dirty word. So why should it be for...
Ironically, just as Ed Miliband gave his Hugo Young 2014 lecture on “an unresponsive State”, many people in the SW England saw their sandbags being delivered to a different location. The floods have...
View ArticleSHA policy on the NHS and social services we need
The SHA should take the approach taken by its predecessor, the Socialist Medical Association, when it led the fight to create the NHS. We need to re-establish an NHS publicly owned, publicly run and...
View ArticleAt what cost? Paying the price for the market in the English NHS
Summary 1. Extreme financial pressure upon the English NHS for the foreseeable future makes avoidance of waste imperative. The ‘market’ in the NHS is a major source of waste. Creating and maintaining...
View ArticleProposed policy on the NHS and social services we need
The SHA should take the approach taken by its predecessor, the Socialist Medical Association, when it led the fight to create the NHS. We need to re-establish an NHS publicly owned, publicly run and...
View ArticleI agree. The effects of the free market on the NHS are indeed terrifying.
Tony Benn said famously, of Tony Blair, “It’s not up to Mr Blair to rename my party. I haven’t suddenly become a member of New Labour. I was never a member of Old Labour.” There is a therefore a...
View ArticleWhat market-based patient choice can’t do for the NHS
The theory and evidence of how choice works in health care Introduction 1. Patient and user choice is at the forefront of the debate about the future direction of the provision of health and other...
View ArticleChallenging the cult of competition in the NHS
Evidence is short that competition leads to improved healthcare performance, says Prof Kieran Walshe. Collaboration and service integration is a better policy goal. For some time – under both this...
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