Whom did Margaret Thatcher encourage to 'cut the throat' of health reform? And which Secretary of State told the head of Monitor to 'piss off'? Passions run high when it comes to the NHS and our healt...
This is the first of two blogs I have written because of my increasing frustration with the failure to take up excellent ideas in health care. There is no shortage of creativity when it comes to ideas...
Pharmacy and pharmacists have been long been recognised for their role in ensuring the safe and effective supply of medicines to patients. In the UK, pharmacists have been able to prescribe for almost...
The annual report on the sustainability of public finances was published today by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – the government's independent economic forecaster. These are numbers that ...
With Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the World Cup over, half of 2014 is already behind us. And looking back over the last six months, there are three things which I think will play out to have significant...
Like many others working in health policy, I’m a big fan of a well chosen metaphor. My favourite at the moment is the so-called ‘iron triangle’ – that all health care systems are always looking to ach...
The NHS is often compared to a supertanker – huge and slow moving – but, in at least one regard, this analogy doesn’t work. That area is money. Whilst the sums involved in health care are huge, the fi...
Clearly the NHS is under stress. Up until now the quality of care broadly seems to have held up, as QualityWatch – our joint programme with the Nuffield Trust – showed last October. But the cracks are...
There is a paradox about safety in hospitals. In more than 20 years of research I often found errors in 5-10% (and sometimes far higher) of actions, and yet there are certain areas of hospitals in whi...
In many respects the NHS can be proud of what it’s done around human factors. No other national health care system has yet tried to do what we’re doing, so it’s no surprise that it’s hard. It’s been m...
