A government green paper setting out proposals for a more standardised national system of social care has been questioned by experts and attacked as pre-election posturing by opposition parties.
Policy experts have dismissed Conservative plans to save money by cutting quangos. They say the potential gains are negligible and similar proposals have proved ineffective in the past.
Conservative health policies hark back to the days of family doctors and GP fundholding. They also promise to increase funding and scrap targets in favour of outcomes. But what do all these pledges...
Maternity services across Wales show unacceptable variations, the Wales Audit Office has found. The spending watchdog said a significant minority of women did not feel they were treated with dignity...
MPs have said patient safety is not being given a high enough priority in the NHS and that about one in ten patients is harmed as a result of hospital treatment, despite a decade of government...
The CIPFA Manifesto, to be launched next week, sets out the institute's ideas for restoring confidence in government. Steve Freer gives a flavour of its content
The new mega-regulator for health and social care has a huge task ahead, licensing a wide range of providers and ensuring standards of care. It will need to avoid mission creep and stay focused,...
Comprehensive Area Assessments should help improve the nation’s health by focusing on local partnerships. But, argues Andy McKeon, the notoriously parochial NHS will have to look beyond its narrow...
A nationwide outbreak of swine flu would severely test the National Health Service. Demand for services will soar just as staff sickness absence increases. The NHS needs to manage its human resources...
Board members on NHS trusts are ‘too trusting’ and fail to scrutinise information that could reveal major failures in patient care, auditors have found
Is April the cruellest month? By the time Alistair Darling finished his 2009 Budget speech, it was looking a lot nastier than November. The litany of figures the chancellor recited revealed just how...
Ten NHS trusts have been given Department of Health funding as part of a project aimed at improving late-stage dementia care by enhancing the patients’ living environment
The failings in the Baby P case were caused by staff shortages, poor recruitment and a lack of awareness and communication among medical staff, a watchdog report has found
An influential committee of MPs has backed a controversial report recommending that patients be able to ‘top up’ NHS treatment with private care, despite fears it will result in a two-tier system
