Publications

Is enough emphasis and thought devoted to leadership styles, the culture this creates and whether this fully reflects the organisation’s aims and ethos?

Now, more than ever, we need a new, comprehensive approach to supporting and implementing change, say Richard Murray and Anita Charlesworth.

We speak to Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information at NHS England, about the role of technology in improving care.

The NHS needs a new transformation fund to support the kind of large scale change required by the NHS five year forward view, argue Anita Charlesworth and Richard Murray.

Politicians must look for evidence-based solutions and avoid the NHS becoming a political football, says Chris Ham.

How can patients be encouraged to participate in their own care? And just what does it mean to be an empowered patient?

In 2009, the English NHS introduced a world-leading initiative in the pursuit of quality health care: the measurement of patients’ views about their own health became a routine part of the delivery of NHS-funded services. So how has this laudable initiative progressed since its initial success? The answer is, sadly, barely at all.

Much less emphasis should be placed on the use of external pressures, such as targets and inspection, and much greater priority should be given to reforming the NHS from within.

There is evidence that patient activation is an effective way to measure the capacity of patients to manage their health and for providers to better tailor services to them. Helen Gilburt and Alf Collins explain how.

More money is needed – and soon – if the NHS is to avoid drifting into a financial crisis, says Richard Murray.

Organisations close to their communities can often respond to needs in a more targeted way, find solutions and co-ordinate services, says Lisa Weaks.

Over the past few months there has been considerable debate and argument about plans by the NHS to collect and centrally collate details of individual patient records from general practice for the first time. Such fears are perhaps not just hypothetical given past examples of lost patient notes and what appear to be the misuse of sensitive patient information (even for the best of intentions).

Anna Dixon questions whether the Outcomes Framework offers a coherent guide to help steer the health service through the more difficult financial times ahead.

Ruth Robertson, Anna Dixon and Julian Le Grand consider the factors that explain patient satisfaction with general practice physicians and how this may drive patients' choice of practice.