Is the concept of informal psychiatric admission in jeopardy? A commentary on the current crisis in mental health beds
“There has been a gratifying media response to the excellent investigation conducted by Community Care and the BBC into the drastic shortage of acute psychiatric beds across the country.” The Masked AMHP argues that the cuts in psychiatric beds are leading to unsafe and possibly illegal practices, which could harm patients.
My second email to Jeremy Hunt on the fraudulent GP practice boundary policy
“There is of course another very important question here that I feel, as a professional and as a citizen, needs to be addressed. What is wrong with the system that we have come to this?” George Farrelly challenges the move towards abolishing GP practice boundaries.
How to save the NHS
“In essence it’s a guide to how to become a politically engaged citizen. It would appear that we are only going to be able to save the NHS if we can save democracy while we’re at it.” Jonathon Tomlinson reviews NHS SOS.
My warning to Jeremy Hunt on policy to abolish GP boundaries: is it fraudulent?
“This patient ‘choice’ appears on the surface to be a welcome development. But as someone who has worked as a GP for over 25 years, it simply does not work…” George Farrelly explains his concerns with abolishing GP practice boundaries - and suggests what may really be behind this reform.
Frontline Friday 6th September 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 2nd September 2013 – from progressive education and emotional intelligence in schools, to transforming healthcare through technology and the human touch.
Health service transformation is urgently needed
“The Francis report, mortality rates, the treatment of whistleblowers, relentlessly negative media coverage, and a system crisis over last winter, have combined to create a perfect storm in the NHS.” Dr Mark Newbold makes the case for transformation of the health service.
Channel 4′s Benefit Britain and the expansion of the Welfare State after 1948
“Moreover, thanks to the Coalition, poverty in Britain is actually increasing. What we need are fewer programmes purporting to show how generous modern welfare provision, and more that show how the Coalition’s policies and cuts are actually making it more widespread.” Beastrabban takes aim at Channel 4′s much-criticised Benefits Britain programme.
Shadow politics: Three reasons why public services feel increasingly less public
In the shadow politics, public services feel increasingly less public - from the development of policy to the delivery and regulation of services - in a way that may come back to haunt the political class itself.
Clinical commissioning groups… fancy doing a survey?
I have recently been doing the monumental task of looking through each of the 211 new clinical commissioning groups (these replaced Primary Care Trusts) websites. Clinical Commissioning Groups are a flagship health policy of the Coalition, giving spending control of 60% of the NHS budget to groups of practitioners – notably General Practitioners or GPs. […]
What do you call a person who receives mental health services?
There are people who have had bad experiences of mental health services – you only have to look in the comments sections of my posts on this blog to find people who have nothing good to say about mental health services - who would answer “victim”. (I just thought I’d get that in first). But this […]
So we’ve raised awareness about mental health, what’s next?
Summary I’m hearing a lot of noise, but not seeing much action on healthcare delivery As I mentioned earlier this year, recovery from my mental health crisis seems a long way away. Little seems to have changed health-wise. Being trapped by inertia is one thing, but having next-to-no support from the NHS in this field is […]
Shadow politics: The NHS is more than a logo
Perhaps the most blatant example of the shadow politics is what the political class has doing to the NHS over the past 30 years. To most people, the NHS is more than a logo - but for how much longer?
Frontline Friday 2nd August 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 29th July 2013, from welfare reform to privatisation of the NHS, probation and the Court Service - and should practitioners write about real cases?
A foot in both camps
Over the last few weeks I have enjoyed following @Northwestdoc. It has struck me that much of what Dr Holmes as said has rung true with what I have been saying and, coming from a medical professional, this really interested me. I wanted to know more so I asked Dr Holmes to write a guest […]
Room to breathe in defence of the NHS
“We need to engage with the already existing, vibrant user-led movements and NHS workers challenging conventional mental health care and think about what these movements could offer for health care as a whole.” Ramona argues that we can criticise NHS mental health care at the same time as making the case for why privatisation would be worse.
So who is in charge?!
Here’s what’s wrong with mental health care in the UK << he modestly claimed! No one is in charge of it – at all. It’s not a system – it’s a coincidence. You might want to pop the kettle on before you tackle this one! You’ve only got to follow the @Twitter feeds of a few MH trust Chief […]
NHS SOS
It has taken a year in the making but I was so proud to see the book I had contributed to on a shelf at WHSmith the other day. Last year a few of us sat down and realised we needed to set the record straight on the betrayal that the NHS was subjected to […]
Frontline Friday 19th July 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 15th July 2013 - from male mental health to the NHS, welfare reforms to payment by results.
If Bruce Keogh had been investigating police services…?
This morning, I spent some time reviewing the report just submitted by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh KBE, MD, DSc, FRCS, FRCP (National Medical Director, for the NHS in England) into 14 NHS Trusts that have been causing concern due to higher mortality ratios. His report (rather than the reporting of his report) deserves to be […]
Back to school
Two of the largest public institutions in the United Kingdom are taking a bit of a hammering at the moment. The NHS is currently having its performance culture dissected with clinical precision whilst the police are barely out of the news with stories of alleged cover-ups, inappropriate activity and general inadequacy and inefficiency coming out […]