Pause, Reflect and Improve? MAC grabs the Lansley moment

We have a plan – a 10 point plan focusing on Public Accountability and Patient Engagement in the Health and Social Care Bill.  Listening to the Prime Minister this morning on the Today programme, he talked about the label of “GP commissioning” as being misleading – echoing a... 
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Mr Lansley Sums It Up

It’s quite a trick to condense a monster Bill like the Health and Social Care one  into a single sentence, but Mr Lansley managed in the 2nd reading debate this afternoon in the House.  He stated the purpose of the Bill as  “to improve health of the people of this country and the health... 
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Lansley must do better on accountability

Mr Lansley is a convinced man. But that’s not good if it means his mind is closed.  His understanding of accountability in the new NHS he is proposing is precarious, judging by what he said to Andrew Marr in an interview today.  Despite what is in the Bill,  he said nothing about how commissioning... 
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Collaborate on neurological commissioning – Lansley

This afternoon  we got the answer to one of our questions straight from the horse’s mouth on national radio.  Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley answered  on Radio 4′s PM phone in about the new NHS reforms the question we and others have been posing about how the more complex,... 
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Top Billing for Involvement in Lansley Bill

MAC’s initial response to the patient and public involvement (PPI) aspects of the Health and Social Care Bill introduced on 19th January is positive. The preamble describes it as a Bill whose purpose includes  “to make provision about public involvement in health and social care matters”.  That’s... 
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Lansley confirms legal duty of patient and public involvement

A legal duty of patient and public involvement on GP-led commissioning consortia was confirmed by a bullish Secretary of State Andrew Lansley before the Health Select Committee on the 15th at the same time as Ministers published their response to the white paper Liberating the NHS consultation (MAC’s... 
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Healthy Lives, Healthy People: nudge or fudge?

Is it nudge or fudge? Your verdict on Andrew Lansley’s public health white paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People: our strategy for public health in England launched in Wandsworth on Tuesday, ultimately depends on your philosophical stance about what’s desirable  – and possible – when it... 
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“Despairing. Gobsmacking. Claptrap” – PAC verdict on health inequalities

Sweating in front of a parliamentary select committee doesn’t get much worse than hearing your record described as  “Despairing …. Gobsmacking … Claptrap”.  That’s how Public Accounts Committee Chair Margaret Hodge MP (Labour-Barking) flayed civil servants – and by implication their... 
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Throwing snowballs at moving trucks

Looking for enlightenment from those putting the new commissioning system in place about how accountability to patients and the public will work?  So are we, but none was forthcoming at the recent session of the Health Select Committee quizzing DH mandarins David Nicholson, Barbara Hakin, David Colin-Thome... 
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Practical PPI advice to GP commissioners

The National Association for Primary Care (NAPC) and United Health UK the private sector provider HQ’d in the US have teamed up to produce what so far is the best guide there is to GP commissioning. Reputed to be Mr Lansley’s favourite group of GPs, the NAPC  – mainly the former fundholding... 
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