http://www.nursesforreformblog.com The blog for Nurses for Reform, a growing pan-European network of nurses dedicated to consumer-oriented reform of European healthcare systems. Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:49:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This story is very much welcomed by Nurses for Reform.  The announcement that the independent healthcare provider Circle is to run Hinchingbrooke NHS Hospital is good very news. The deal, which would see Circle assume the financial risks of making this failing NHS hospital more efficient and would also involve the ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/11/10/nfr-welcomes-hinchingbrooke-private-sector-deal/ As the impact of the debt crisis starts to permeate consciousness and people come to understand the extent to which politicians have issued political cheuqes the state is not going to be able to cash, NFR welcomes this move by the GPs of the Haxby Practice in York. While elite interest ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/10/05/nfr-welcomes-move-by-haxby-practice-in-york/ Yesterday I was interviewed on the LBC lunch time show to comment on this story .  The head of the Royal College of Nursing, Dr Peter Carter, has been calling for family members of elderly patients on NHS hospital wards to help provide care, such as helping with eating and going ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/09/26/nfr-on-lbc-radio-8/ I have long made the point that with reform of human services such as healthcare, generally, the public are way ahead of the Government and the Media.  I have also been expecting the market to react accordingly. Yesterday my patience was rewarded.  I received an email from Argos linking to this ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/09/06/healthcare-insurance-from-argos/ This story from today's Daily Telegraph demonstrates clearly why the NHS cannot and must not be allowed to carry on in its current guise. Primary Care Trusts (PCT) are apparently asking NHS hospitals to delay seeing patients for many weeks to ration healthcare, enable the fiddling of the balance sheet and ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/09/05/pcts-ration-nhs-care/ I have been reading the Public Health White Paper, Health Lives Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England. The paper makes much in its introduction of wanting to move away from the Nanny State model of public health management.  A paragraph states: The dilemma for government is this: it is ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/08/19/the-nanny-state-marches-on/ How much longer will it take for politicians to realise that consumer groups for healthcare will not work if they are developed top down by government organisations? We have already seen the failure of Community Health Councils, bodies that were supposed to monitor NHS services and give patients a voice.  In ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/08/18/more-money-wasted-on-nhs-consumer-projects/ A report released early this month by a committee of MPs has shown the the NHS Electronic Patient Record Project (EPR) has cost billions of pounds and been a complete waste of time, failing on every count. The project is being abandoned and individual Trusts are now expected to develop their ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/08/18/billions-wasted-on-nhs-electronic-patient-record-project/ This is an interesting story that has been picked up by both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.  Due to traumatic experiences or poor service, more and more mothers are opting to pay privately for maternity care rather than risk having their babies in NHS hospitals. I am aware that ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/08/16/more-and-more-people-desert-the-nhs/ The summer holidays are a great time to catch up with reading and this is one publication that I highly recommend. Titled No need to flinch: The need for NHS reform, it is written by Miles Saltiel and published by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI).  It gives an in depth analysis ... http://www.nursesforreformblog.com/2011/08/15/adam-smith-institute-healthcare-paper/