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The government has pledged to ring-fence the NHS budget from real-terms reductions, so in one sense the spending review is a done deal. Or is it?
As the election campaign ratchets up a gear prospective MPs are vying for our votes and using local service changes and promises to save hospitals as currency.
Can we guarantee patients compassionate care? Jocelyn Cornwell argues that while we can't currently guarantee this, we should be doing more to make it likely.
The British Medical Association's GPs Committee has published its 'fundamental principles' for GP commissioning - but will it help GPs to deliver high-quality care?
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The coalition has moved quickly in its first 100 days to set out its plans for the NHS. Do they build on Labour's health reforms, or are they much more radical?
Getting under the skin of GP referrals is notoriously tricky, but they are important to everyone. Chris Naylor examines the current issues with the system.
Public health needs to move out of the lecture hall and into the living room, according to Anne Milton MP. But what role should GPs be playing in public health?
The scale of the challenge facing NHS leaders in pushing through the major reforms outlined in the recent White Paper, with current financial constraints, is unprecedented.
The government's plans for NHS reform place a great deal of power in the hands of the proposed NHS Commissioning Board, but will this help to improve quality of care?
The coalition government is promising real-terms growth for the NHS, but in practice this will be very small. So how should the NHS respond to this new world?
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The coalition wants England to achieve the best health outcomes in Europe and deliver year-on-year productivity savings – could reconfiguration help to achieve this?
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Having previously studied integrated delivery systems in the United States, Chris Ham supports Andrew Lansley's comments on integrated health systems.
Information is destined to have a key role in the new vision for the NHS. But will it help to give patients choices and to increase public accountability?
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If the proposals set out in the White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence’ are implemented in full, the changes will have far-reaching consequences for the NHS.
The King's Fund believes the health White Paper will need to answer some difficult questions if it is to offer a credible plan for the future.
Quality accounts are intended to achieve two things - to increase boards' focus on quality, and to provide greater public accountability for quality.
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The spending cuts announced last week left the health care budget intact, but there were no such promises for social care. What is the impact on wellbeing?
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Over the past two years, the world class commissioning programme has attempted to measure the quality of commissioning and encourage improvement. The results of the second annual assessment, due to be published in July, are expected to show that PCTs have made improvements since 2009.
Much of the conversation at the NHS Confederation annual conference has been about productivity. How will the NHS cope with increasing demand?
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As expected, George Osborne’s first budget set out a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, but how will the NHS be affected?