When is £8 billion not £8 billion?
As a health economist, I am often asked the same question: what does the government actually mean by its commitment to increase ‘NHS spending in England in real terms by a minimum of £8 billion over t...
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Three former health secretaries offer their diagnosis on how to be an effective minister
Last week the Institute for Government (IfG) and the Health Foundation brought Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, together with three of his predecessors to discuss the 'toughest job in g...
How can the NHS navigate tricky situations?
With models of NHS care widely seen as outdated and in need of major overhaul, the health service’s challenges are as complicated as Houdini’s tricks. But it is possible to successfully overcome them ...
Accelerating delivery: Health Foundation learning to inform next generation maternity services
"You need to stop the car. The baby is coming." Those remain the ten most heart-stopping words I‘ve ever heard in my life. Fortunately for our family, with the help of a hands-free iPhone on speake...
What can improvement contribute to solving the NHS productivity puzzle?
Everyone loves a good jigsaw. But for policymakers trying to solve the UK productivity puzzle, it might feel like someone has hidden the picture on the front of the box, and several of the pieces have...
Putting care back into health care
Over twenty years ago, my first job at the Department of Health was setting up the NHS Health Technology Assessment programme. At the same time, another programme was coming into being – the Cochrane ...
Medicine isn’t about protocols - it’s about people
A night on-call in a radiology department is a microcosm of the direction of travel of medical practice. Pathways are flashed in front of the duty radiologist – ‘if you follow the flowchart the patien...
From compliance to commitment: should the NHS look to the Danish on how to accelerate change and improvement?
I had the good fortune to visit Denmark earlier this month to talk at a seminar for leaders from the health regions in Denmark. It’s a time of great change for the Danish in their approach to health c...
Given the opportunity, what would I say to the new Secretary of State for Health?
I have pondered over this question many times. If I was in charge what would I do, what would I say, what would I want to achieve? During the last three decades working in the NHS (currently as Associ...
Learning our lesson: England’s place in the health improvement world
I used to play squash. I largely played with my family, and I thought I was pretty good. Three days into university, I happily agreed to a game with a fellow fresher. After 30 minutes of forlornly cha...
