Dr Foster names safety underperformers
The Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2009 has named 12 NHS trusts that it says have significantly underperformed on its new measure of patient safety. The guide, published over the weekend, identifies patient safety as the single most important element of hospital care. For the first time, it has introduced a Patient Safety Score, awarding scores of one to […]
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Picture yourself old with the DH
The government is using face-transforming software to encourage the public to have their say on its proposals for a radical reform of the care system. The Big Care Debate Face of Care is harnessing online software that allows people to ‘age’ a photograph of themselves and generate an image of what they might look like […]
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Burnham: publish staff satisfaction data
Health secretary Andy Burnham has announced plans to publish data on staff satisfaction across the NHS. In his first major public speech since his appointment in June, Burnham said there needed to be “a better focus on staff satisfaction” and that this could be achieved by “measuring staff satisfaction more systematically.” Speaking at the King’s […]
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Lords question flu response
Members of the House of Lords have told the government they have “significant concerns” about the delay in the launch of the full National Pandemic Flu Service, which is not due to be ready until 1 October. In a report on pandemic flu, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee said the government appeared […]
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Interim flu line for 100,000 cases a day
The Department of Health’s interim flu line service is expected to be operational by next week, as the government predicts 100,000 swine flu cases a day by the end of August. The interim arrangements for the flu line, which has had its name changed to the National Pandemic Flu Service, have been put in place […]
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Money, money, money
The theme of this year’s NHS Confederation conference was money; or rather the coming lack of it. Lyn Whitfield reports.
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Burnham wants ‘health service fit for the digital age’
New health secretary Andy Burnham has said that despite the NHS’ coming financial problems, he still wants to see a health service fit for the digital age. Speaking at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool this morning, Burnham insisted that the NHS still had space to focus on reshaping its services focus on quality and […]
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Mike O’Brien new minister for NHS IT
Mike O’Brien, the MP for North Warwickshire, has become the latest minister to take responsibility for NHS Connecting for Health and NHS IT. O’Brien, a former solicitor general, was minister for pension reform at the Department of Work and Pensions before Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s reshuffle this weekend. He replaces Ben Bradshaw, who left the […]
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