In April 1999 the Department of Health authorised funding for a pilot scheme of 40 NHS walk-in centres in 30 towns and cities across England, the first of which opened in January 2000. The overall aim of walk-in centres is to improve access to high quality health care in a manner that is both efficient and supportive of other local NHS providers. It is hoped that the centres will complement oth...

Background: How do Shopping Centre Managers use the Management Control System (MCS) to adapt available resources according characteristics of centre and external factors that may affect such management? We identified differences in MCS between three types shopping centres: urban-conventional centres, peripheral-conventional peripheral-outlet centres. Methods: This qualitative research, based on...

In this issue, Gafni et al.1 provide a strong and timely case for evaluating the reliability and validity of multi-station selection centres (SCs, sometimes referred to as assessment centres). In developing this important research topic, we highlight: (i) important differences between SCs and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs); (ii) the importance of demonstrating the construct ...

In one Inner London health district many doctors seemed reluctant to work in health centres. To investigate the reasons, 44 general practitioners in two matched groups were inter¬ viewed. Those working in health centres appre¬ ciated the advantages of pleasant premises and the presence of a primary health care team. Other doctors believed health centres were dis¬ liked by patients, were bureauc...

The proposed Graduate Medical School at the Outram Campus will open in 2007. The main value of this medical school is the transformation of the medical institutions in the campus and SingHealth into Academic Medical Centres. Such centres will train and host quality physicians and physician-scientists. It will help push the development of translational research, complementing the country's inves...