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...
Southwark council has named Cambridge Education Associates as the stopgap manager of its troubled education service, after consultant WS Atkins pulled out.
CEA will run the service for a year while...
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...
A career civil servant from the Child Support Agency is to take over the helm at the Criminal Records Bureau.
Vince Gaskell, change director at the Child Support Agency, was appointed as the new...
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...
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....
Teaching unions and school standards minister David Miliband have welcomed proposals for a radical shake-up of the examinations system.
Former chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson, who...
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.
Town hall leaders this week hit out at ministers for relegating councils to the sidelines in the rush to reform public services, and promised to 'fight for local government'.
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...
The Audit Commission has given in to pressure from council leaders and scaled back plans to increase the thresholds between performance categories when the Comprehensive Performance Assessments are...
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...
In the hothouse atmosphere of Whitehall, secrets have a habit of leaking out. Not so Alan Milburn's resignation as health secretary last week. Even his old sparring partner Gordon Brown was said to...
The government and Unison were back on a collision course this week after the prime minister announced that more services would be 'opened up' to the private sector and the union warned of strike...
The new health service watchdog must be more objective, less prone to mistakes and more supportive than its predecessor, the NHS Confederation has warned.
The managers' body surveyed more than 40...
The government's patient choice scheme risks increasing inequality in the NHS, the King's Fund warned this week.
Its report, What is the real cost of more patient choice? , said extending patients...
