£20bn cash savings necessary in the NHS by 2014, David Nicholson, the NHS Chief Exec, announced some months ago now. Only now is one grand-plan ‘leaked’: a report from back in March by the management consultants McKinsey commissioned by the DH. It paints a stark picture of type of cuts that will be necessary.
EU regulation came into force yesterday banning the manufacturing and importing of 100w incandescent (clear and non-clear) bulbs and inefficient halogens writes Ariane Poulain. This ban is the first phase of the regulation which requires a progressive phase-out of all inefficient light bulbs over the next three years.
Lesbians are about to be able to name as the second parent on the birth certificate of any child one might have through IVF their female partner rather than its biological father.
Education secretary Ed Balls and his Tory counterpart, Michael Gove, are battling over what belongs in the league tables. Are they focusing on the right thing? Continue reading at Guardian CiF: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/27/education-league-tables
The Patients Association today releases a compendium of sixteen stories from patients that have contacted them with ‘shocking accounts of hospital care’; that, extrapolating from the hundreds of phone calls they have received in recent times and from the two per cent of patients who rate their care as ‘poor’, they say could reflect the… [Read More]
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ should be the Labour Government’s new slogan because the EU is burning a hole in the UK’s wallet and the Government was hoping you wouldn’t notice… writes Ariane Poulain.
Last week’s release on ‘compassionate grounds’ from Scottish jail of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Ali al-Megrahi must surely go down as one of the most disgusting acts of political ineptitude ever perpetrated by anyone to hold any kind of ministerial office in Britain.
As we have noted in recent weeks, health system reform has been high on the agenda of policy makers in both the US and UK, and has been featured widely in international news media. Here is a round-up of recent opinions and contributions to the debate:
One of the crucial ironies that today’s youngsters face is that they have more future options and choices than ever before, yet coupled with this overwhelming onslaught of opportunity is poor guidance, frustrating inaccessibility, bureaucracy and a notorious lack of reliable information.
It is of great sadness that political dogma manages to blank out any consideration that methods and experience from elsewhere could ever be applicable in the UK, writes Ed Hoskins.