Patients say the NHS is ageist

David Oliver: Is the NHS at war?

What else could explain such repeated economy with the truth from health ministers and the Department of Health’s own “war information ministry” (or press office) when discussing NHS funding, efficiencies, and services? And the supposedly independent NHS England does too little to challenge the misinformation. Propaganda includes confident but incredible assertions and denials, the burying of i...

Is the NHS getting better or worse?

What is the NHS Safety Thermometer?

The English National Health Service (NHS) announced a new programme to incentivize use of the NHS Safety Thermometer (NHS ST) in the NHS Operating Framework for 2012/13. For the first time, the NHS is using the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) scheme, a contract lever, to incentivize ALL providers of NHS care to measure four common complications (harms) using the NHS ST in a pro...

The NHS is right to fund homoeopathy.

The campaign to expel homoeopathy from the NHS continues unabated despite a position statement from the Department of Health: “We believe in patients being able to make informed choices about their treatment, and in a clinician being able to prescribe the treatment they feel most appropriate ... which includes... homeopathy.” To put this skirmish into perspective, the NHS spends about £4m (€4.5...

Will the NHS strategic plan benefit patients?

The first principle of the Toyota way, one of the world’s most successful management systems, is to base decisions on a long term philosophy that generates value for the individual, society, and the economy.1 The new strategic plan for the NHS (which, although often called the Darzi report, results from a year long strategic planning exercise involving thousands of NHS staff) is of internationa...