Money meant for frontline council services is being used to fund an ever-burgeoning local government pension bill instead. Local authorities in England and Wales spent almost £2bn in 1998/99 on...
The government signalled further expansion of the health service telephone helpline NHS Direct this week after a study found it had lifted some of the pressure on out-of-hours GP services.
GPs were told direct from Downing Street that they must embrace change or face extinction this week. The health service must be reinvented as a 'twenty-first century service sector industry', Prime...
The government defiantly signalled its increasing commitment to public-private partnerships this week with the announcement that the total value of such projects will almost double to £20bn over the...
The health service's financial problems look set to deepen, with health authorities and hospitals predicting major deficits for 2000/01, despite ministers' hopes of a return to financial balance.
NHS managers and doctors were asking how they would cope with increased patient expectation and lack of cash this week as Health Secretary Alan Milburn launched a plan to cut deaths from heart...
The chief inspector of nuclear installations told MPs this week that concerns that a public-private partnership for the troubled British nuclear industry would reduce safety were unfounded.
Up to 1.3 million local government workers are set to receive a pay rise of just 3% despite warnings that councils are facing a worsening recruitment crisis.
The recent reforms proposed by Sir Richard Wilson, the head of the civil service, are 'self-indulgent' and take no account of cost, according to a leading former civil servant.
Health minister John Denham has called on health authorities to give greater support to primary care groups (PCGs) after a Department of Health survey showed wide variations in the amount of money...
Relatives of those who died in the Paddington train crash have criticised the 'U-turn' by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in allowing the rail operating company Railtrack to retain much of its...
Well-off patients could have to pay £50 for a 20-minute consultation with a GP as part of a radical overhaul of primary care services, family doctors have predicted this week.
New research shows that an 'alarmingly high number' of GPs are not connected to the Internet and those who are, have strong concerns about illegal access to clinical information.
The National Assembly for Wales has announced an extra £2m for children's services following a damning report that traced two decades of child abuse in local authority homes.
The government has been forced radically to revise its attempts to regenerate the regions after a damning report from its own Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) criticised Labour's approach as...
A growing number of senior industrialists may be attracted to top jobs in the civil service following the appointment of Peter Gershon to head the new Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
The head of the powerful Public Accounts Committee of MPs has slammed health authorities and trusts for not taking seriously the threat of infections picked up by patients in hospitals.
