Despite its claims that the public audit model it encourages 'ensures against Enron-style failure', the Audit Commission has again warned public bodies to improve their financial management following...
Health minister John Hutton has indicated that the success of a new scheme to prevent costly 'health tourism' and fraud across the NHS could depend heavily on the government's controversial plans for...
Housing experts have warned ministers not to become over-reliant on the multibillion pound house-building scheme across key 'growth areas' of the Southeast announced this week, claiming it should not...
Tax increases to fund the government's programme of investment in public services have increased the average household's bill by £4,000 per year since 1997, according to a Right-wing think-tank.
Reported incidents of violence and aggression against health service staff have increased by almost half since the NHS launched a 'zero tolerance' campaign in 1999.
A report by the Public Accounts...
Nearly two-thirds of NHS mental health trusts failed to balance their budgets last year, according to research by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
The financial data of 18 trusts were...
Need a cataract operation, a hip replacement or a heart by-pass? Don't fancy the interminable wait at your local hospital? Fear not.
Within two years, according to plans announced last week by...
Ministers have been warned to stop playing politics with patient care following the publication of the first independent assessments of NHS services by the sector's watchdog.
The Commission for...
The Commons' health select committee has criticised the Department of Health for creating two parallel systems for involving the public in the NHS.
In a report published this week, the MPs said...
New types of health care workers and new responsibilities for patients are needed to improve the outcomes of NHS treatment, the Left-of-centre Institute for Public Policy Research said this week....
The government signalled the extension of its patients' choice scheme this week, only for the policy to be attacked immediately by Unison.
Health Secretary John Reid said that pilot schemes had...
NHS financial discipline must be tightened and deficits eradicated, Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt warned this week after a far-reaching review claimed that demand could overwhelm services in the...
Government plans to introduce NHS foundation trusts were hanging in the balance despite this week's narrow victory, after a furious Commons' debate on the issue.
The Department of Health is in talks to develop a bond market to allow foundation trusts to raise capital, Public Finance has learnt.
A source at the department said there had already been...
Six senior managers for Network Rail and Balfour Beatty and the firms that employed them have been charged with manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash that killed four people.
The six men and...
Patients harmed by substandard NHS care will be offered an explanation and compensation of up to £30,000 under proposals unveiled this week that aim to cut the burgeoning health service clinical...
The possibility of a merger of the ombudsman services for local authorities, central government and health has receded indefinitely, local government ombudsman Tony Redmond has complained in his...
Imposed targets and growing local autonomy must proceed hand-in-hand to improve public services, a study of some of England's best councils concludes.
The Improvement and Development Agency,...
Hopes that a deal on consultants' terms and conditions could be struck were raised this week when the new health secretary invited doctors' leaders to a meeting to discuss the way forward.
The NHS Confederation has called on the new health secretary to back the sector's managers and help fight the destructive myths about 'bureaucrats and pen-pushers'.
GPs are pushing for changes to the new contract they accepted overwhelmingly last week.
Though 79.4% of GPs voted in favour of the new contract, British Medical Association GP leader Dr John...
The British Medical Association has called on NHS managers to help stamp out racism against doctors from ethnic minorities.
A BMA survey published this week found that almost nine out of ten...