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Editor's Blog | Health Policy Insight
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Editor's Blog

Editor's blog Monday 12 July 2009: First NHS fatality connected to swine flu; and the NICE over-ride

Publish Date/Time: 
07/13/2009 - 14:10

The NHS has suffered its first swine flu fatality. Dr Michael Day, a GP in Bedfordshire, died in Luton Hospital this weekend. Though he tested positive for swine flu, it is not clear that the virus was the cause of his death. Nevertheless, after the first fatality with no underlying pathology, these will be nervous times for all NHS staff, and their family and friends.

Editor's blog Friday 10 July 2009: NHS IT - intruding on private grief

Publish Date/Time: 
07/10/2009 - 04:59

Writing about the NHS IT project feels a bit like beating a two-year-old at chess: it's easy to make yourself look clever, but only in an unreasonable context.

Editor's blog Thursday 9 July 2009: WTF? Killing the wasp that stings you ...

Publish Date/Time: 
07/09/2009 - 22:12

This is a first: never before, outside of conference season, have I posted four times in one day.

Editor's blog Thursday 9 July 2009: NHS Tayside's £3 million deal with Netcare - marring academic freedom, or talking Pollocks?

Publish Date/Time: 
07/09/2009 - 14:03

Not everybody likes Professor Allyson Pollock's analysis of the involvement of the commercial sector in the NHS. Professor Pollock is, to put it mildly, clearly no fan of a mixed economy or competition, and she would appear to fundamentally distrust and oppose the involvement of the commercial sector in the NHS under all circumstances.

Editor's blog Wednesday 8 July: health in recessions, and Alain Enthoven on US health reforms

Publish Date/Time: 
07/08/2009 - 17:38

Those of you with longer memories will recall that I wrote about US economist Dr Christopher Ruhm's work on the health impacts of recessions a while ago.

Professor Ruhm's findings have been validated by EU-wide analysis research published in The Lancet.

Editor's blog Wednesday 8 July: The Cable guy

Publish Date/Time: 
07/08/2009 - 09:14

Good morning to you. Today's post relates to heath policy tangentially, through the medium of economics; specifically, the government's announcement later today of its plans for the banking sector.

We have had to become a good deal more literate about the financial sector: the recession has semi-professionalised intelligent amateurs who care about public policy.

Mostly, it has been a very alarming experience to realise that the wealth creation of the past decade has been to a huge extent about leverage and securitisation.

Gambling, basically.

Editor's blog Tuesday 7 July 2009: Simon Stevens on commissioning; and the combustibility of quangos

Publish Date/Time: 
07/07/2009 - 11:28

Hello. Today we have a new interview with Simon Stevens, conducted at the recent NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool.

The noisier debate about NHS reform over recent years focused more on the practical effects of Stevens' thinking about the introduction of choice and contestability into the NHS.

Editor’s blog Monday 6 July 2009: Mail chauvinism; cats exiting bags; not-smart cards; and Bob Sang’s memorial

Publish Date/Time: 
07/06/2009 - 16:21

You may not yet understand the Mail newspaper’s secret mission.

You may have thought of it merely as a reactionary, anxiety-peddling, little-Englander middle-market tabloid full of comedy health scare stories; gaily juxtaposing finger-wagging features about eating disorders with a PR puff for the latest diet book and a bitchy column about celebrity cellulite; balancing the intermittent interesting bit of news with ‘did aliens build Stonehenge?’ features.

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