Archive for category Health
Sending the Right Smoke Signals
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Health, Politics on 11/11/2011
By Emily Clarke
In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, from cannabis to heroin, in an attempt to reduce the number of drug related deaths and the spread of HIV/AIDS. After several years there was tentative discussion about the success of Portugal’s scheme (see for example the Economist’s article of August 2009) and although I don’t intend to add to the debate about the decriminalisation of drug use here, I do hope to discuss one particular element of Portugal’s policy that I find laudable.
Population growth and the risk of pandemics
Posted by Nick Cowen in Foreign Affairs, Health on 07/11/2011
By Emily Clarke
Last night thousands of viewers watched as “Spanish Flu” swept through Downton Abbey, taking the life of one of its residents. With no antibiotics, the effects of the 1918-1920 flu epidemic were devastating as approximately 25-30% of the world population was infected and 40 million people, mostly between the ages of 20 and 40, were killed. Although channelled through the medium of ITV drama, it is nevertheless important to take note of this deadly episode as we reach an important milestone in the history of humankind.
Life’s Too Short to Understand the PCT Funding Formula
Posted by Nigel Williams in Health, Politics on 02/08/2011
Following the announcement of new funding formulae for NHS primary care trusts, accusations have begun about political bias. Manchester, says a report by Public Health Manchester, would lose £42m. Tower Hamlets would lose £19m, whereas Surrey and Hampshire would gain £113m between them.
In any such reallocation, beneficiaries are likely to conclude that the new version is fairer, whereas anyone losing out will prefer the old version. The Yorkshire Evening Post quotes Maureen Idle of Leeds Hospital Alert as saying “If the money has been given in the first place then there’s clearly an acknowledgement that it’s needed.” Read the rest of this entry »
Moving the chairs… again
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 19/01/2011
Over the past few weeks Civitas staff have written many articles questioning the Government’s plans for the NHS, not on invigorating competition – which is needed, particularly with the productivity challenges the NHS faces – but on commissioning: on abolishing all PCTs, the current commissioning bodies in the NHS, by 2013, replacing them with ‘consortia’ of GPs.
Girl Power
Posted by Annaliese Briggs in Health on 15/01/2011
Fat days, unrequited love, stomach-churning credit card statements, hangovers and hang-ups, tumultuous friendships and obsessive-compulsive-early-morning-snooze-function-disorder. Diagnosis: just the start of another day?
Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 22/12/2010
Trawling through the 167 pages of the Coalition Government’s response to the consultation on the NHS White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’, one cannot help but agree with Phil Collins’ recent comment piece in The Times… just why is the Secretary of State making NHS reform so hard for himself?