Can the NHS handle the outsourcing of clinical services? Executive Summary The NHS now contracts out the provision of health services to the private sector to the tune of over £20 billion a year, or a fifth of the total healthcare budget. Although a significant proportion of this is made up of contracts with Dentists, … Read more
After five years of a government which pledged to protect the NHS, this election campaign makes it timely to assess its stewardship, since 2010, of England’s most precious institution. Our verdict, as doctors working in and for the NHS, is that history will judge that this administration’s record is characterised by broken promises, reductions in … Read more
By Chris Bowers, Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion It’s possible that not everyone who recognises the acronym ‘NHS’ knows what the letters stand for. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing, because I’ve always felt the National Health Service is a bit of a misnomer. To me, the body that administers our basic … Read more
I, like many of you, shop at the co-op because I know it shares our ethics and politics. As a business owned by its members it champions progressive causes, engaging politically to change society for the better. It’s never just been an ‘ordinary’ supermarket. We in the labour movement have long had a partner in … Read more
The most significant event for the Association in 2014 was the formulation of the Labour Party’s health policy and its agreement at Party Conference. This was the culmination of four years’ work in the National Policy Forum and it’s a mark of how much the Labour Party has changed that the policies were agreed both at the … Read more
By happy coincidence we organised a dinner last night for leaders in the NHS in Greater Manchester to discuss Devo Manc and the NHS. Those present welcomed the announcement that control of the NHS budget is to be handed to Greater Manchester authorities and look forward to working much more closely with these elected local authorities. … Read more
Announced today by UKIP’s Health Spokesman Louise Bours: Keep the NHS free at the point of delivery £3bn more invested in to NHS directed to frontline services Dementia funding £130m per year in line with what Alzheimer’s Research UK say they will need License to manage: as doctors and nurses are licensed so should medical management. … Read more
Why I Love the NHS by Carl Walker Publishing 27 February 2015 • Paperback • £9.99 • ISBN: 978-0-7198-1443-3 Carl Walker is a principal lecturer in psychology at the University of Brighton. He loves the NHS on every page of this book. All the royalties will go to the NHS Support Federation. He tells about 80 stories about … Read more
Avoidable deaths? No such thing. Death can only be postponed. Will hospital mortality league tables be a good thing? Well the link between poor care and premature death seems to be weak. My local hospital (Wythenshawe) did a case note review of all 1440 deaths in the hospital between July 2013 and July 2014. … Read more
Opening Balances, 1 January 2014 £19,475.50 Closing Balances, 31 December 2014 £17,044.53 Decrease in funds at bank … Read more
Bristol today became the first city in the UK to ban smoking in outdoor public places. Anti-smoking campaigners installed signs in two busy outdoor spaces – Millennium Square and Anchor Square – after a poll found 61 per cent of locals were in favour. The pilot scheme will see smokers asked to stub out cigarettes when … Read more
To Lord Livingston from Cecilia Malstrom, European Commissioner for Trade 26 January 2015 I am writing to follow up our meeting in November 2014, when you suggested that it would be helpful for me to write to correct some of the misconceptions circulating about the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the National Health Service (NHS) in the … Read more