Stronger and more accountable Foundation Trusts needed to avoid “Staffordshire 2”

At least 400 died needlessly “These patients were not simply numbers: they were husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandparents. They were people who entered Stafford Hospital and rightly expected to be well cared for and treated. Instead, many suffered horrific experiences that will... 
[Continue reading]

Dear President Obama, build US healthcare on what works already

No Place to Hide from Healthcare Debate In between dodging blizzards and snowdrifts flying around the US from coast to coast for three weeks earlier this month for work and to see friends and family, there were lots of opportunities to soak up what the media and individuals were saying about the debate ... 
[Continue reading]

The world according to John Lewis

Suddenly the John Lewis Partnership is the flavour of the month with both the main political parties pushing mutualism and the principles of the co-operative as the way to go when it comes to delivering better quality service and goods.Waitrose has come top two years running as the Which? subscribers... 
[Continue reading]

Closed but not forgotten – a postmortem on the Post Office closure consultation

It is not often that people take the time to look back at a consultation and ask themselves the question ‘how did we do?’ After all, why bother? Though the dog may bark the caravan  moves on. Policy gets made or not and the issue dealt with after a fashion or left alone for another day,... 
[Continue reading]

NHS User Action Research – Choosing, Booking, Sampling and Giving

The headline says it all really. Log in and choose the appointment and wait while it whirrs away and does it. All very simple and hi-tec. But not the whole process – my referring GP wrote the details down in a big notebook first and the paper work reached me about 5 days later. Some productivity... 
[Continue reading]

Getting My Sh*t together and other belated New Year resolutions

Faecal occult blood has a certain fashionably vampire ring about it. It gives the right air of spooky mystery so encouraging us all to get engaged and involved in our own health by sending in our samples for the bowel cancer screening programme. The instructions for collection are admirably brisk and... 
[Continue reading]