The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) – the framework that offers GPs financial incentives for meeting certain standards of care – has been accredited with improving clinical quality across general practice and cutting health inequalities for certain core diseases. But, as ever, we should be concerned with unintended consequences. Continued at bmj.com.
This coming Sunday sees the start in the Cornish town of St Just of a two-day festival that takes place there each year to celebrate its fourteenth century church. As well as that church and an obligatory public house that stands next door to it, the town also boasts a small secondary school catering for… [Read More]
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the new Defence Secretary, John Hutton, has backed the creation of a European fighting force, writes Judith Gollata,
A variation on the usual theme, the pantomime over ‘dumbed down’ standards between ministers and critics was this week played out in higher education. In a similar vein to what the government like to condemn as the ‘annual carping’ around rising school exam grades, the rising number of first-class and 2:1 undergraduate degrees is being… [Read More]
‘The number of people who will die as a result of diabetes is forecast to rise from one in ten to one in seven in less than 20 years unless obesity rates can be reduced significantly. Costs to the NHS of treating the disease are expected to rise by a third by 2025 as the… [Read More]
According to recent newspaper reports, philosophy is currently being taught in primary-schools to children as young as eight years. Since that subject does not have the widest application in the marketplace, one cannot help but admire the enterprise a philosophy graduate has shown by persuading several primary schools to use the services of his company… [Read More]
A report published by the independent Brussels-based think tank the Thomas More Institute for European Studies examines the performance of the French Presidency of the EU Council so far, assessing its contribution to the long term development of EU policy. The Presidency, which started in July this year and will end on 31st December, scored… [Read More]
“Family structure doesn’t matter,” is a favourite Labour mantra. The government’s keenness to distance itself from confused Tory “family ideals” is understandable, and on the basis of equality, in principle more appealing. There is a problem with Labour’s “diversity” embracing position, however, and that is that it’s inadvertently also embracing deprivation. Continued at Comment is… [Read More]
The Annual Health Check of NHS organisations, released today by the Healthcare Commission, presents a picture fit for the NHS’ 60th birthday bash earlier in the year. Sixty-two per cent of organisations are now rated ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ on quality of services, up from 41 per cent two years ago, and those rated ‘excellent’ or… [Read More]
Defenders of a society based on a liberal political culture and a market economy have often disagreed over the best way to handle drug taking. One of the great champions of free markets Milton Friedman was famously in favour of legalisation. Others favour strict control. This week the Home Secretary announced that cannabis is to… [Read More]