If something is broken, can it be fixed? That may well have been the hoped-for question when the NHS was referred to as ‘broken’. The problem is, the NHS isn’t a car, a computer, a pothole or an attendance record. Its complexity and size make simple summaries such as ‘the NHS is broken’ almost guaranteed….
In 2003 the role of PA, then known as Physician Assistant, was introduced to the NHS. Some had trained as a Physician Assistant in the USA – a 3 year course there in comparison with 3 years in the UK. The numbers here were small and few of us were aware of them. (more…)
Both Labour and the Conservative pledges on the NHS announced recently amount to continued hardship and austerity in the face of record demands for services and increasing reliance on for-profit services, often in such a way that the public cannot readily discern the role private healthcare providers play – or the cash they take out….
DFNHS has joined with 15 other organisations in presenting evidence to Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) Inquiry into NHS leadership, performance and patient safety, in a bid to improve the way disciplinary procedures are carried out in hospitals. The Inquiry accepted the evidence to consider. (more…)
The Peter Fisher Essay Prize, open to all doctors in training, carries a first prize of £500 and second prize of £200. It is now in its seventh year. (more…)
Reputations are fragile and easily dashed. All the more so in the age of social media. (more…)
People can see it’s bad. They know the NHS is in trouble. If asked, most will agree that a slight hike in income tax – hypothecated to the NHS – is acceptable and necessary. They know staff are working too hard, for too long. They know it is becoming harder to get timely treatment. (more…)
It is clear that doctors in our NHS are increasingly unhappy and the workforce is crumbling fromdemoralisation and abandonment. This situation has been gestating for many years. Government and planners have hoped to substantially remedy this problem by depressurising doctors by delegating substantially more of their workload to other staff and agencies. This ‘substantially more’….
Anything as complex, large and difficult as a national health service will have problems. The greatest mistake anyone could make is to assume the NHS is itself the problem. (more…)
The government’s Review of the whistleblowing framework was long overdue before the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital became known in all their terrible and harrowing detail. (more…)
