OFT's value-based pricing scheme is well-founded, but could increase overall NHS drug spend
... In most markets consumers are used to the idea of paying a high price for goods that give...New agreement questions NHS relation with industry
... ... But before embracing this agreement with open arms, we should examine what it actually says and what the deeper implications might be, warns Professor M...Frontline NHS staff should be trained to tackle alcohol misuse
... ... About 217m is currently spent on specialist alcohol treatment, compared with the 20bn estimated cost of alcohol misuse. The government recently announced that 3.2m was to be made available for new initiatives for people who may be damaging t...Is it time to give the NHS more independence?
... ... "Democratic control is essential," argues Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of The Health Foundation. "Democratic checks and balances are the best way to ensure we continue to move the NHS in the right direction, not the creation of a barely account...Independent experts needed to save UK's NHS from failure and privatization
... The NHS was on...NHS should be removed from direct government control
Only an NHS free of direct government control, managed by an all-party body with clinical and health service experts, will save the NHS from being used as a political football, says a leading public health consultant in this week's BMJ.... ... Dr Layla Jader, a member of the British Medical Association's Public Health Committee Wales, argues that the NHS has seen valuable resources wasted in "con...NHS could save 2bn by using generic cholesterol drugs
The NHS in England could save over 2bn in the next five years if doctors simply switched patients to cheaper generic cholesterol lowering drugs (statins), say two senior doctors in this week's BMJ.... ...Statins are one of the great success stories of preventive medicine, write James Moon and Richard Bogle. Prescriptions have increased by 30% every year in England and statins represent the larges...Decent NHS care for older people still too patchy
Good, respectful NHS care for older people is still too patchy, argue senior members of the British Geriatrics Society in this week's BMJ....... Last month's government report A New Ambition for Old Age examined how the national service framework (NSF) for older people is being implemented and announced new aims and targets under three themes: dignity in care, joined up care, and healthy ageing.....Harsh famine ahead for NHS, warn experts
As the "feast" of increased NHS funding comes to an end, we need to prepare for a harsh famine ahead, warn health economists in this week's BMJ. ...... In 2000, the Labour government initiated a programme of NHS investment unequalled in any other healthcare system. Almost seven years on, the spending has improved services, but these improvements have not kept pace with the spending increases, say...NHS cash crisis will delay national bowel screening programme, warns expert
The NHS financial crisis will delay the government's bowel cancer screening programme, which is due to begin this week, warns a senior doctor in this week's BMJ....... The government has said that, from April 2006, it will provide 37.5m to screen men and women aged 60-69 every two years. But this deadline cannot be met, argues Professor Wendy Atkin, because it will take around six months to commi...BMJ Editor calls for independence for the NHS
In this week's BMJ, Editor Fiona Godlee calls for independence for the NHS....... These are bad times for the NHS, she writes. The words "crisis" and "meltdown" are flying around and few people say these are exaggerations. Record spending has delivered record deficits and uncertain value for money. For the first time in anyone's memory, sizeable numbers of NHS staff are losing their jobs. How has...Have targets improved performance in the English NHS?
The star rating system for English NHS trusts seems to have improved performance, but systems need to be put in place to minimise gaming and ensure targets are not causing problems elsewhere, warn researchers in this week's BMJ....... Annual performance ratings have been published for NHS trusts in England since 2001. This process of naming and shaming gave each trust a rating from zero to three...NHS failing to provide health care according to need
The NHS needs to do more to provide health care according to need, argue researchers in this week's BMJ....... They analysed the availability of primary care according to deprivation and health need in Scotland. Their study was based on a sample population of 5.35 million people served by 1,050 general practices and divided into ten groups of equal size according to deprivation....... They show t...Aging population will impose huge NHS burden
New figures published by Dr Foster in this week's BMJ predict that the UK's ageing population will impose considerable workload and financial pressures on the NHS.... ...The number of people aged 65 and over is predicted to increase by about 53% between 2001 and 2031. This is likely to lead to an increase in the number of people who have chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.... ......Government spin on success of NHS cataract privatisation criticised
Patricia Hewitt, the UK's Secretary of State for Health, is wrong to announce that independent sector-treatment centers (IS-TCs) reduced waiting times for cataract operations, states the author of a correspondence letter in this week's issue of The Lancet.... ...Patricia Hewitt recently announced to the Fabian Society that "the first wave of IS-TCs has already brought down the waiting times for...Government plans for NHS more aggressive than Tories ever were
The Government's use of private health care in the NHS is a much more open and aggressive version of the "internal market" tried by the Conservatives in the 1990s, says an article in this week's BMJ - the first of a series examining NHS reforms....... Initiatives like 'payment by results', foundation hospitals, and the "deliberate injection" of independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) and oth...NHS England extend BioMed Central membership to 2008
BioMed Central is pleased to announce that NHS England have renewed their BioMed Central membership agreement until March 2008. Under the renewed membership agreement all 1.2 million NHS England staff can continue to publish their work in BioMed Central's growing number of open access journals without incurring a direct article processing charge. All the research content in BioMed Central's jour...Should drugs for rare diseases be given special status in the NHS?
The growing number and costs of drugs for rare diseases (orphan drugs) are straining healthcare budgets. Should the NHS continue to pay for them and how will this affect other health services, ask two articles in this week's BMJ?...... Orphan drugs are often expensive to produce and benefit only small numbers of patients. Historically, the NHS has paid for them because treatments for these diseas...NHS should have an independent regulator
The NHS should have an independent regulator like other public utilities in the UK, argues a senior doctor in this week's BMJ....... Many public utilities have independent regulators to see that commercial interests and unfair pricing do not disadvantage the public. ...... At present the UK does not have an independent regulator of healthcare reform, yet the consequences of ill judged reform of t...UK government's privatisation plans for the NHS put patient welfare at risk
The UK Government's programme of wide-ranging privatisation of the NHS must be stopped until there is independent evidence on the effect of the policy, states an editorial in this week's issue of The Lancet. ...... Last week the health secretary Patricia Hewitt pledged to continue with plans to introduce competition into primary care. In place of the single NHS, Britain now has an increasingly de...Private Finance Initiative may have had its day in the NHS
Government enthusiasm for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the health service - private sector investment in hospital building projects - may be dropping because of its high cost, says an editorial in this week's BMJ....... Hospital trust boards initially welcomed the financing system, which they were told was the major way they could fund new facilities, paying investors back in annual in...Reforming the NHS: Have we gone too far or not far enough?
The NHS is being taken over by big business so that money that could go towards clinical care is diverted to corporations and their shareholders, warn two senior doctors in this week's BMJ....... Robert Lane and Alex Paton argue that huge amounts are paid to large private firms for advice about the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs). Profits are then...The UK government's patient-led NHS will not improve health
The UK Government's view of improving the NHS by making it patient-led and encouraging patients to complain more will not lead to better health, states an editorial in this week's issue of THE LANCET. ...... Liam Donaldson, the UK Chief Medical Officer, wants patients' feedback to assume a similar role to that of customer feedback in big supermarket chains, states the editorial. However, by focus...Health professionals believe gender bias limits women's progression in NHS
The NHS suffers from an institutional gender bias that favours the progression of men over women according to health professionals....... New research at the University of Liverpool found that men occupy the most authoritative and influential positions in the NHS, with women believing they must assume a more aggressive male 'career personality' to achieve success. Those taking part in the study s...The political drive to implement the NHS's national programme for information technology is failing to take account of professionals' anxieties, argues a GP in this week's BMJ....... Dr Nigel de Kare-Silver describes his experience of workshops to introduce the new system to users. "We were shown screens of a third rate computer program lifted from the existing system of US hospital administrator...The NHS must overhaul its approach to adolescent health if it is to meet the health needs of young people in the UK, says a paper in the BMJ this week....... While the health of children and older people has improved considerably, young people have fallen through the gap in targeted services, argues Dr Russell Viner, the UK's only consultant in adolescent medicine....... Mortality rates for adole...