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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The individual budget bandwagon is rolling; who’s got the map?

Labour A quick browse through both Labour and Conservative manifestos – and what will the LibDems effort bring? – reveals a bandwagon rolling about personalisation and individual budgets.  Here are some excerpts: Labour –   Everyone with a long-term condition, such as those with diabetes,... 
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Health Act rag bag delivers part of the real prize

Health Act Rag Bag Almost unremarked in the rush of bills getting  the Royal Nod on Friday  the 13th was the rag bag of measures collectively known as the Health Act 2009. Tucked away among new powers to strengthen tobacco control; to place a duty on all NHS bodies, private sector and third sector... 
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More on MND film ‘Sarah’s Story’

We have inserted as a comment on the original piece in February this year, news about the ASA judgement following complaints that the film ‘was offensive and distressing’.  Read More →

Mugged in Soho by MND

“Text cloud” for this post below, created by www.wordle.net Last week I went to the Curzon Soho to see Sarah’s Story, an awareness raising cinema advert produced for the MND Association. It runs for 90 seconds. Believe me, you don’t want it to be longer; your awareness couldn’t... 
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New Health Bill moves towards individual commissioning budgets

The Health Bill 2009  introduced into Parliament on 15 January boosts the personalisation and choice agendas by enabling direct payments for healthcare to people in England.  There are already 60,000 people receiving direct payments for social care.  This is a big step towards the objective of individualised... 
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Best Practice in End of Life Care – MND Association case history

This week the MND YOC (the Year of Care commissioning tool) got prominent exposure as a featured example of condition-specific good practice in the National Audit Office’s End of Life Care report.  The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will now conduct hearings on the NAO report on 17 December... 
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August Newsletter – Health without frontiers and devolved responsibilities

A mixed range of opinions posted in July and early August. I offered the NHS a new rock anthem ‘Turn Me Loose and Set Me Free’ to celebrate as the NHS moves from targets to devolved responsibilities under the new Constitution. David Nicholson the NHS Chief Executive told patient and user... 
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Section 242 and the Disability Equality Duty – Making a Happy Marriage

We do not get many comments on the blog so we were delighted when Michelle Valentine, the author of the piece that follows, was sufficiently interested by an entry that Andrew Craig wrote in March on complying with Section 242 to note in our comment box “This new duty could be quite a powerful... 
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Complying with the Section 242 Duty to Consult and Involve Users of Health Services

From his perspective as a PEC member in London’s PCT-land, Andrew Craig offers a personal view about how to start complying with the new legal duty in Section 242 and make it work to the advantage of good governance in the NHS. What is “Section 242″? The NHS loves shorthand and “Section... 
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