We need to talk about frail older patients
How do you explain the actions of someone who ignores the plight of an older patient in a soiled bed? Or who fails to respond when a patient cannot reach a glass of water and has not eaten her meal? ...
How do you explain the actions of someone who ignores the plight of an older patient in a soiled bed? Or who fails to respond when a patient cannot reach a glass of water and has not eaten her meal? ...
One evening last year, I was sitting with James discussing the NHS and our roles within it over a pint of Guinness. He was one of the hospital managers of the trust I was working at and, before long, ...
Like the curate’s egg, the Prime Minister’s announcement on improving the quality of nursing care on acute wards is good in parts. Given The King’s Fund’s and Health Foundation’s work on nursing round...
The health service is faced with a £20bn funding shortfall by 2015 and an increasing demand for services. The key challenges for the sustainable health service of the future are to save money without ...
If you are using readmission rates to measure hospital performance the answer is 'maybe'... A recent news headline caught my eye: ‘Scandal of NHS 'production line' as readmissions soar’. The articl...
Mary Portas: ‘queen of shops’, government advisor on the high street and TV presenter. In Channel 4’s Secret Shopper, the no-nonsense retail guru took some of the nation’s biggest retailers to task ov...
Today we’re launching a new report that gives a cogent and engaging analysis of what we’ve learnt from funding improvement leaders and projects over the last 10 years. Overcoming challenges to improvi...
I was seeing an older patient with early Alzheimer’s dementia in outpatients and, as is my usual practice, gave the patient feedback on the diagnosis, answered their questions and talked about treatme...
Last week saw the 2012 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Paris, and day two started with an inspiring keynote from the President of the International Health Institute (IHI), M...
This month’s Health Affairs contains a touching narrative by Amy Berman, a US health foundation executive who, with the help of a doctor that respected her goals, chose palliative care over aggressive...