Professor Alan Maynard considers whether system reform needs a psychiatrist or a grief counsellor - oh, and why global budgets must come back.

Any commentary on the current state of NHS policy must, as in so many domains of public policy, address the question of whether the world is mad or sad.

In the context of the NHS, I will address two areas of contention: the role of Monitor, and the recent draft document “Setting levels of ambition for the NHS Commissioning Board (latterly known as the national coal board)

Professor Alan Maynard on managing demand and perverse incentives, and the need for major change in primary care.

Compared to the cuts in local councils’ budgets, the NHS financial challenge could be viewed as modest. However, life is complicated by The Lansley’s re-disorganisation of the NHS which is reducing management capacity and destroying historical memory.

What is remarkable about the Nicholson challenge is its focus on the reduction of hospital care by mergers and closures and the need to develop “community care”.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard picks the three big themes of which we must beware over the implementation of the 2012 Health And Social Care Act.

Nigel Edwards recently wrote in the Health Service Journal that the Health and Social Care Act is, in my words, a dog’s breakfast.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard offers some reflections on the current state of transition in the NHS.

Some items to ponder in the bath, or whilst Eastenders or Match of the Day are on TV, or wherever you think about the enigmas and quaint old NHS fashions that continuously entertain us.

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Health economist Professor Alan Maynard lets the political confections go where they may, exploring real NHS reform and finding good reasons to praise former health secretary Frank Dobson.

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Click here for details of 'PM Cameron - Mr Lansley's "as one" or assassin?', the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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Professor Alan Maynard looks forward to the real reform conversations and challenges that will start once the Health Bill becomes law.

After an interminable debate about the NHS reform bill, it will be law in May. Not that that is very relevant: CCGs are already up and running in many places. The NCB is cutting and slashing (i.e. re-disorganising) so-called “bureaucracy” by creating five layers of management to control CCGs.

Health Policy Insight, 3 January 2012

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard has spent much of his career highlighting the differences in clinical practice. In his first Health Policy Insight column of 2012, Professor Maynard examines the history of the subject and asks whether the reduction of variation is in fact a mirage – and if so, then is ‘The Nicholson Challenge’ of £4 billion annual productivity savings actually a euphemism for cuts? He concludes that if QIPP is no mirage, then hospitals must cut beds and dismiss staff.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard acknowledges the festive season of goodwill with the generous provision of ten commandments for the NHS in 2012

The expensive diversion of NHS reform will drag on until April-May as their Lordships scrutinise their backsides. Of course the NHS is in turmoil of wasteful change, and the pressures from this will accelerate as 2012 matures.

So how to keep your head above the waters of Whitehall drivel? Here are ten commandments for NHS managers in 2012. Ignore them at your peril.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard greatly increases his chances of a knighthood with calls for the NHS Information Centre to be funded adequately to deliver the data to drive real improvement in NHS productivity and quality; less ‘leadership’ guff and more analytics; and more in-house NHS bureaucracy to replace management consultancies.

Feeble old Parliament has now nearly done with 'gasbagging' the NHS reform bill amidst a media frenzy which has largely ignored how to improve NHS productivity.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard dissects the direction and dentures required for CCGs to stand a chance of success.

The purchaser-provider split in the NHS has failed because PCTs have been price and quality takers rather than price and quality makers. This failure is caused by Whitehall controls and a reluctance to invest in analytical skills in most wannabe commissioning organisations.

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