Health Matters | Paul Corrigan's blog

I am afraid that for today’s blog I can do no better than to completely reprint a Press Association Press release issued at lunchtime on Tuesday February 7^th,

LANSLEY ‘HAS FULL SUPPORT OF PM’

POLITICS NHS

Feb 7, 2012 1:17:26 PM Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I posted on the necessity for the Labour opposition to construct a set of medium to long term policies for the NHS which would clearly see them work with it over a period of time that I think of as ‘the long austerity’.

I received a number of comments from people who felt that the reforms in which as special adviser to Alan Milburn, John Reid and Tony Blair I was involved from 2001 – 2007 had laid the ground for the current reforms and that I should take some of the blame for the current Government. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of people said over the weekend that they thought my post on Friday about the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill was a bit of a tease. They wanted me to explain what I thought would actually happen next if the Bill is passed. I think there are three potentially different outcomes – each of which needs a post in itself.

Firstly there is the immediate politics of what happens if the Bill is passed – how do the Government – as victors – behave? How do those that wanted the Bill defeated behave – as losers? Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the real world of the NHS, away from the travails of the Health and Social Care Bill, there are some real potential game-changing shifts in health care happening in the field of technology.

Many new apps for the Iphone are being published and I thought I would review one every week or so. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the more interesting consequences of the Government’s outsourcing of their NHS reform policy is that those now under attack for wanting change are not the Government but the leaders of the Future Forum.

Today’s Times contains an article arguing for greater choice in the NHS. For me it makes a better common sense argument for choice than anything that the Government has tried to stitch together in the last 12 months. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend, there was a great deal of debate about NHS care and the elderly.

It is interesting that in the midst of all of the discussion about the politics of NHS reforms it has been the NHS Ombudsman’s report on care for the elderly that has stirred up most people. And given that most of the people I know are into politics this says a lot for the power of that report. Read the rest of this entry »

Today – February 18^th – David Bennett was appointed to chair Monitor as the new economic regulator for health care in England. David has a lot of experience in the development of private utility markets and will bring that experience to the regulation and management of the market in health provision. Read the rest of this entry »

On the day that Ann Abraham’s report came out on NHS Care for the Elderly I was working in several parts of the NHS. Quite a few people had, as I had, woken to the reports on the six o’clock news; and some had taken time out to read through the report during the day. Read the rest of this entry »

We are told quite frequently that this Government is proud of the NHS. The publication of the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey on 13 December should therefore see its chest bursting with pride and congratulatory press releases churning out of the machine. Read the rest of this entry »

As I have mentioned before’ there is a management consultant adage that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. So it was evident that at some stage in the current Secretary of State’s reform programme that some of the cultural certainties that make the NHS go round would develop a life of their own and undermine the reform programme. Read the rest of this entry »