Just how well are we?

The EUROCARE-4 study into cancer survival released this summer in the Lancet Oncology once again threw the NHS’ apparently inferior performance in terms of health outcomes into the limelight. The UK is depicted as out on a limb, with survival rates remaining ‘stubbornly low’ and the exception - with Denmark - to the general rule that countries spending the most on health care do better...

Screening for vascular disease promises major public health benefits, so long as it is not half-hearted

The Prime Minister has announced plans for a new programme in England to screen all men over 65 years of age for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and to assess adults for risk factors or early signs of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes...

Cancer Reform Strategy

Health secretary Alan Johnson has launched a comprehensive five-year plan to further improve NHS cancer services. In the biggest review of cancer services since the Cancer Plan of 2000, the NHS Cancer Reform Strategy contains a wide-ranging package of measures to tackle cancer and improve patient care...

Does Nanny know best?

Should smokers be forced to apply for an annual licence to purchase cigarettes? And what about one hour’s exercise every lunch hour for all employees during the working day? When Professor Julian le Grand raised the issue of how far the state should try to prevent individuals from leading unhealthy lifestyles, we asked three public health specialists for their views...

Tough on disease, tougher on the causes of disease

It was more of a pep-talk than a policy statement. More about dressing the stall than shifting the tectonics. More for the media than the health community. But to me as a public health person, the Prime Minister’s New Year speech on the next big leap for the NHS came across as an event of some significance, says Dr Alan Maryon-Davis...

How are we doing?

Gary Needle, head of NHS assessment at the Healthcare Commission, gives an insight into this year’s annual health check results

Regulation does not tend to set many people’s pulses racing. However, its importance in healthcare has certainly come under the spotlight of late...

Behaviour change and the health of England

Mildred Blaxter looks at two recent publications - The Health Profile of England 2007 and NICE public health guidance Behaviour Change at Population, Community and Individual Levels...

Large variations in medical cover in hospitals at night

Research carried out by the Royal College of Physicians has identified large variations in the provision of medical cover at night, with some doctors being responsible for up to 400 patients.

The study, to be published later in the year in Clinical Medicine, examined the makeup of clinical teams in hospitals in England and Wales and the number of patients for which each team was responsible. It found that, at night, doctors were responsible for an average of 61 patients...

Let’s all start playing the game

Thanks to funding primarily from the Premier League and fittingly from the Professional Footballers Association, the Football League Trust has been established with one of its key priorities ‘to promote health and wellbeing in Football League club’ communities, says Dave Edmundson

There is an LS Lowry original painting displayed prominently at the Manchester offices of the Professional Footballers’ Association. ‘Going to the Match’ depicts in true Lowry style...

Together we stand

In the current financial climate, the NHS is finding itself under increased pressure to reduce costs and at the same time improve patient outcomes. Many professionals now see integration, which enables the joining up and more efficient use of resources to better meet people’s needs, as the obvious solution, says Richard Kramer

Turning Point’s experience of working with people with complex needs shows that services must become more joined up in order to effectively meet the needs of...

From rhetoric to reality

As the financial squeeze tightens, the NHS will need a radical overhaul. Whether it will get it or not remains another matter, says Dr Michael Dixon

At the NHS’s core, we need to end that terrible disconnect between managers, who believe they are running the show, clinicians who are spending their money (and happy to remain doing so on the touchline) and patients, who sometimes feel that they are simply stooges being pushed down the tramlines created by...

Co-operatives – dividends for healthcare?

Over the last few months, there has been much talk in political circles about the role of co-operatives in public services. Co-operatives have been around for a couple of centuries and more, but could they help the modern NHS deliver better services more efficiently, asks Mo Girach and Geraint Day

Like the organisational units of the NHS, co-operatives come in many guises. They all adhere to a number of principles agreed...

'With' us rather than 'at' us

The coalition government needs to focus on cultural change, if it is to deliver on its health reforms, according to the NHS Alliance.

The NHS Alliance – a primary care coalition that brings together PCTs with practices, clinicians with managers and board members – believes that the Department of Health cannot take a top down approach and cascade instructions down to the frontline.

Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance said: “Command...

Doctors say patients with a learning disability receive poorer care

Almost half of doctors and a third of nurses say that people with a learning disability receive a poorer standard of healthcare than the rest of the population, according to a survey published by learning disability charity Mencap to launch its new campaign, Getting it right.

Mencap’s Death by indifference(ii) report in 2007 highlighted six cases of people with a learning disability who died unnecessarily in NHS hospitals. Since then the charity has received more accounts of...

National Award for Lancashire Alcohol Campaign

Lancashire Drug and Alcohol Action Team (LDAAT) have collected a national award for their ‘Make Your Night Last Longer’ campaign.  The campaign successfully helped to encourage young people in Lancashire, particularly university students, to drink more sensibly.

The ‘Make Your Night Last Longer’ campaign collected two awards at the prestigious Best of Health Awards 2010 ceremony which...