This country is wedded to the idea of a National Health Service. How well that works is, of course, the important part of the marriage. The government’s long-awaited ’10 year plan’, Fit for the Future, outlines how it hopes matters can be made better. Necessarily broad in scope, its overall aims are to be lauded…..
We’re delighted to announce the Peter Fisher Essay Prize for this year. Open to all doctors in training or Resident doctors. First Prize: £500. Second Prize: £200. (more…)
If ever there was undeniable evidence of the appalling failure to grasp the essential nature of training highly skilled people, the growing number of prospective doctors given placeholder jobs must surely rank as amongst the strongest. (more…)
The discourse about our current NHS problems often reduces these to notions and language better suited to manufacturing, commodities and utilities than to complex human bonds and interactions. What has happened? Why? And what can we do about it? (more…)
Last year, the government launched a very wide consultation exercise that will supposedly shape a forthcoming 10 Year Plan for the NHS, which should be published in the early summer. Submissions to this consultation were invited from organisations, with a closing date in December 2024, but contributions from the general public have continued into 2025…..
Health inequalities matter, and they are getting worse. One of the most common measures, life expectancy, is now falling in certain groups and locations, as it continues to rise in areas defined as more wealthy. (more…)
It is fashionable in some quarters to denounce the ‘inefficient’ way the NHS runs itself. ‘Administrators’ seem to attract particular attention. But this is nearly always unfair. And ultimately self-defeating. (more…)
There is a view, recently advocated by Health Advisor Paul Corrigan (paywall), which says that the NHS’s need to reflect more patient involvement in their healthcare can be facilitated by greater use of smartphones and expanding patient choice about treatment options and selection of hospitals. (more…)
Rachel Reeves’ budget, the first Labour budget for 14 years, gave the NHS much-needed money, despite the fact that the increase in employers’ national insurance would take a fair bite out of it so must be borne in mind. But how the figures are viewed matters almost as much. (more…)
No one uses fax machines any more. X-ray films in their bulging racks are a thing of the past. Online and phone consultations, hastened by Covid, are now commonplace. Progress happens and people can gain greatly. The NHS can be better this way. And yet… (more…)
