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...
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...
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...
Education watchdogs have attacked the standard of sports lessons in England's schools, claiming that only a third are rated 'good' or better.
In a report published on June 16, Ofsted inspectors...
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...
Northern Ireland's comptroller and auditor general John Dowdall, an honorary CIPFA member, was made a CB in the Queen's birthday honours list on June 14.
There were knighthoods for Metropolitan...
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...
A £250m scheme to help public sector workers find homes in high-cost areas will fail to meet its target of assisting 10,000 people by next April, says the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister....
