Stephen Dorrell, MP for Charnwood, is the widely-respected chair of the Commons Select Committee on Health. He was health secretary at the end of the Conservative government under John Major, after having been a junior health minister.

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A few years ago, I programmed and chaired a conference called 'Following The Money'. The title still works. It's just about all you can do to understand the plumbing of power in practical terms.

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Click here for details of BMA: “Resign, Lansley! But fix our pension deal first” - Is SOS Lansley a misunderstood genius channelling Schopenhauer?, the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

Oral Answers to Questions

Health

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Click here for details of BMA: “Resign, Lansley! But fix our pension deal first” - Is SOS Lansley a misunderstood genius channelling Schopenhauer?, the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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The Secretary of State was asked—

Clinically Led Commissioning

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett, 'Worstward Ho'

The chat in NHSland is that 2013 is to be 'The Year Of Pain' - one long run of long-delayed closures. The hope seems to be that the political pain begins to subside in time for a 2015 general election.

Mmmm. And mmmm some more, I rather think.

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Opposition Day [4th Allotted Day]

National Health Service

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Click here for details of BMA: “Resign, Lansley! But fix our pension deal first” - Is SOS Lansley a misunderstood genius channelling Schopenhauer?, the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab):
I beg to move

I know slightly and admire greatly Dr Peter Brambleby. An interview with him for this site can be found here.

When we last met at recent a Wellards seminar at The Kings Fund, he told me he had left NHS Croydon PCT and Croydon Council, where he was joint medical director.

Peter added that he was feeling very happy that he had done so.

We now know a bit more about why.

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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)

I was privileged to be asked to give a talk on health policy and politics to today's meeting of the Board of Trustees of Macmillan Cancer Support.

They have a very serious group of people, who heard me with great courtesy (all the more so since I over-ran the allocated time).

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'Never Again?’ by Nicholas Timmins

Institute For Government / Kings Fund 2012

This tightly written, fast-paced biography of the 2012 Health And Social Care Act by Nick Timmins (also author of the seminal ‘The Five Giants’ and until recently public policy editor of the Financial Times) is very good indeed.

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Today's statement on the draft White Paper on social care was accompanied with absolutely nothing on the key subject of funding.

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