Nurse jokes with patient, by NHS Employers, under a CC-BY-2.0 licence
NHS targets are a contentious, highly politicised, topic in the UK. Some claim they drive quality and achieve cost savings, whereas others vilify them for distorting clinical priorities and reducing the importance of compassionate care. The subject of much debate, cases where poor management of their achievement has led to […]
The publicly funded, free at the point of use NHS has been described as the UK’s ‘national religion’. Its significance in our national consciousness underlined by its prominence in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. Even Mrs Thatcher – whose government enthusiastically privatised many public enterprises such as telephones and utilities – maintained a rhetorical commitment to its […]
The NHS is buckling: the scale of the funding challenge is colossal, the service is under unprecedented strain and it is struggling to keep pace with relentlessly rising demand. So says the Commons Health Committee in its recent report into the impact of the 2016 Spending Review on health and social care. Things will only get worse post-Brexit – […]
In the face of Brexit, many social commentators are predicting what has been positioned as a renewed attack on the NHS and its basic principles. While the impact on the clinical workforce of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU will be heavily analysed, the role managers have to play in the maintenance of the NHS as it […]
A year ago, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) reviewed part of the country’s ‘shortage occupation list’ (SOL). The SOL features job titles and occupations with priority for Tier 2 work visas for skilled migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Migrants in such jobs do not have to earn the minimum £35,000 pay threshold that is now required […]
The healthcare system in the UK is currently facing what some are calling a leadership crisis. Leaders are under exceptional pressure to reduce running costs, meet regulator targets and continuously deliver high-quality care to patients with ever-growing expectations. The selection of leaders available to fill the increasing number of vacancies is falling, and the current targeting of support and […]
In 2010 NHS Walk-in Centres were a valued feature of around 200 communities in England, but many of these facilities have since closed or are facing closure. My research may go some way to explaining why: less than a fifth of patients attending a centre would otherwise have attended an A&E, meaning the centres do little to relieve pressure […]
Throughout the world, the share of national income absorbed by healthcare seems to rise inexorably. Technological progress, rising citizen expectations and an ageing population have all helped to propel this escalation in costs. In the United States, almost one dollar in every five is spent on health. In an era of budgetary austerity, policy-makers have been searching desperately for […]
The British National Formulary (BNF), a reference book for all medicines used in the UK’s National Health System (NHS), was first published in 1949 as a collection of adaptable recipes for making up remedies. With the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, the availability of pre-packaged, manufactured medicines, and their accompanying regulation, the BNF is now a repository of drug […]
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