Politicians must 'be brave' and admit that decentralisation of decision-making in the NHS could lead to further accusations of a postcode lottery of care, health minister Hazel Blears was warned.
Unison leaders will meet next week to discuss government plans to ensure ancillary workers in privately financed hospitals continue to be employed by the NHS.
Chancellor Gordon Brown this week prepared the ground for his widely anticipated tax rises to pay for the NHS, but warned that any spending commitments must be matched by rapid improvements in...
Charles Kennedy is attempting to forge closer ties with the trade unions and exploit widespread disenchantment with the government's management of public services.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn has signalled a significant increase in social services spending in this summer's Spending Review but insisted it will be allied to 'radical' reforms, including the de...
Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken his argument for a radical reshaping of the public services direct to frontline staff.
A 30-page pamphlet setting out Labour's vision for a more efficient public...
Guidelines that could add significantly to the demand for and cost of diabetes services in England and Wales were issued this week by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.
The government's drive for greater public involvement in the NHS is being hampered by primary care reorganisation and lack of funding, the King's Fund said this week.
Local government representatives have urged the government to tackle the 'grim' state of social care and fill the struggling service's £200m funding gap.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn was this week told to stop tampering with the structure of the NHS and ignoring his own department's ten-year strategy to give staff more time to deliver his much...
The row between Downing Street and the Whitehall establishment took a new turn this week when government sources claimed 'resentful' civil servants were trying to undermine the government.
Cannabis-based pain relief drugs could be approved for use in the NHS on prescription by 2004 or 2005 after the Department of Health this week included them in new remedies referred to the National...
A report released by Incomes Data Services has predicted that public employees' salaries will rise faster than that of their private sector counterparts during 2002.
An influential group of public sector leaders has thrown down the gauntlet to Tony Blair and demanded that he defend frontline workers from attacks on their professionalism.
The NHS must become a 'world-class employer' if it is to deliver the high levels of care demanded by patients, Prime Minister Tony Blair said this week.
The appointment of Mike Tomlinson to replace the combative Chris Woodhead as chief inspector of schools and head of Ofsted has brought a welcome change of tone, MPs have said.
The health service must change the way it measures performance if it is to make a success of franchising arrangements for failing trusts, the NHS Confederation has warned.
Unison this week raised 'serious concerns' over the potential scope for public sector employers to push experienced staff into early retirement to save money on pensions.
The government has given nurses renewed hope of higher wages and more flexible working hours after it revealed that the NHS had reached its target of recruiting an extra 20,000 nurses three years...
The NHS is investing in the healing power of poesy. The organisers of Poems for the Waiting Room hope to inject some humanity into the service by soothing patients with sonnets and displaying...