Blog
Posts by Richard Blogger
Jeremy Hunt and the truth behind so-called Health Tourism
28 Aug 2013: Richard Blogger investigates: it looks very much like we get far more from tourists than so-called "healthcare tourists" get from us.
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Beware of the government’s NHS personal healthcare budgets
24 Apr 2013: The government wants personal health budgets introduced for NHS patients across the country. In this post, Richard Blogger looks at the problems PHBs could create.
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Private patients in NHS trusts: how it’s happening
29 Mar 2013: In this post and guide, the excellent Richard Blogger explains the "private patients in the NHS" phenomenon and how this is structured and growing:
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The fight against NHS privatisation is far from over: more mobilisation is needed
8 Mar 2013: The NHS privatisation juggernaut will roll on...
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Key community people excluded from NHS clinical commissioning groups
30 Sep 2012: Richard Blogger describes the evaporation of the government's commitment to community engagement in the NHS.
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Choosing to profit: how private NHS providers will be able to select or reject patients
7 Aug 2012: In Monitor's licence conditions for private health providers, Richard Blogger finds worrying evidence of patient selection criteria.
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BBC Radio 4 Today programme gives a huge PR boost to Circle
1 Aug 2012: The problems with the 1 August report on Hinchingbrooke.
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The ten principles of the NHS - as authored by Andrew Lansley
1 Jun 2012: Where are the ten principles that Lansley formulated in opposition to set out the rights of NHS patients?
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The real state of the Hinchingbrooke healthcare trust
27 May 2012: Why the Hinchingbrooke Healthcare Trust is living on borrowed time.
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The NHS, private patients and two-tier health
4 May 2012: The Health and Social Care Act opens the door for NHS hospitals to bring in a two-tier health system.
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NHS stone soup
17 Apr 2012: How can groups co-ordinate the next phase of opposition to the Health and Social Care Act?
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Where to now with the NHS?
3 Apr 2012: How joining the organisations that are being set up could make the NHS work for our benefit.
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Government reviews NHS constitution and involves Virgin Care
30 Mar 2012: The NHS constitution needs strengthening to help patients – but this is looking increasingly unlikely
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Three ways out of the NHS bill for the government
12 Mar 2012: How the government can step back.
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Cameron’s new target - how quickly he can privatise NHS care
25 Feb 2012: The government wants to see the percentage of patients choosing private providers increase.
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Breaking the NHS: reckless reforms will steal the nation’s health
15 Feb 2012:
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Key dangers in the Health and Social Care bill
8 Feb 2012: How the bill opens the NHS up to privatisation and closes its democratic structures down.
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NHS reform: the government wilfully ignores experts
30 Jan 2012: This bill is not about access.
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Lords failed to improve the NHS Bill – we must step up the campaign
25 Jan 2012: The government won every vote in the Lords but one. We must make our voices heard.
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Health bill could herald a new wave of hospital charges
18 Jan 2012: The NHS bill makes new charges more likely. How will this affect "patient choice"?
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Lansley is scared to publish his own department’s list of risks to the NHS
6 Jan 2012: The government must come clean and publish the full NHS Risk Register
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Cameron’s all-out assault on public sector workers
9 Dec 2011: Cutting pensions is just one part of the government's attack on public sector workers, writes Richard Blogger
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NHS hospital cuts that undermine Cameron’s claims
29 Nov 2011: While Cameron claims he isn't cutting the NHS, the Department of Health admits it is cutting payments to hospitals.
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How privatisation drives NHS pensions into deficit
17 Nov 2011: Transferring staff to the private sector won't just cut employees' future pensions. It will increase the government’s liability for existing pensioners
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Circle has been unable to make a profit. How will it turn around a hospital?
10 Nov 2011: Key questions for Circle Health, the private firm taking over a Cambridgeshire NHS trust
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Don’t be fooled by these pilot personal healthcare budgets
4 Nov 2011: Pilot personal healthcare budgets offer acupuncture, massage and smartphones. The real thing may turn out to be very different indeed.
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NHS Bill lets GPs restrict treatment. So what happens if you can’t pay?
28 Oct 2011: If Andrew Lansley were to make patients pay for blood tests there would be uproar. The NHS Bill lets him pass this decision to GPs.
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By undermining social solidarity, health bill puts NHS at mercy of EU competition law
23 Oct 2011: Cross-subsidies in the NHS help ensure a comprehensive service. Any Qualified Provider will end that.
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Health bill will let more GPs say “buy my services or go without”
7 Oct 2011: A simple amendment to the health bill will stop GPs offering private treatment in place of free care.
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How to respond when your MP says “I am deeply committed to the NHS”
23 Sep 2011: Richard Blogger rebuts the claims of pro-NHS bill MPs
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Health Bill: let’s see some real transparency
12 Sep 2011: The Lords must inject some real transparency into the NHS Bill.
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Why are our private hospitals so shy of lucrative markets?
31 Aug 2011: If English private hospitals are unable to compete for lucrative US health tourists, how will they compete for far less profitable NHS care?
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Private providers are banking on this government driving patients into their hands
25 Aug 2011: 80% of healthcare is public, 20% private. What will the balance be at the next election?
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Department of Health guidelines falsely inflate NHS costs
18 Aug 2011: Incorrect government figures make private sector treatment appear cheaper than the NHS.
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How Lansley is fiddling hospitals’ Payment by Results system
11 Aug 2011: Hospitals are being paid less to provide treatments – in plain English that's a cut
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NHS bill will put hospital governance in the hands of unskilled volunteers
26 Jul 2011: I'm a Foundation Trust governor who – like my colleagues – volunteered to help my hospital serve the community. The NHS bill will give us huge financial responsibilites for which we are unqualified
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Clegg promised no back-door privatisation of NHS. But new white paper opens the front door
19 Jul 2011: The government's Open Public Services white paper takes us a step closer to NHS privatisation
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Health reforms place even greater burden on an inspection regime that can’t cope
12 Jul 2011: The government claims its inspectors will make sure "qualified providers" of healthcare really are qualified. But even now the system is struggling to cope.
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Instead of fixing social care, Lansley broke the NHS
7 Jul 2011: Social care in England is broken – and the Health Secretary has delayed every opportunity to fix it
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The unaccountable super-quango at the heart of NHS reforms
1 Jul 2011: Instead of liberating the NHS, Lansley wants to liberate government from the NHS. The result is a new super-quango.
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NHS bill set to create new layers of bureaucracy
23 Jun 2011: The new structure has more organisations and layers than before, writes Richard Blogger.
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Lansley clings on to NHS “Any Qualified Provider” policy - but it’s in a mess
17 Jun 2011: The Government's response to the Future Forum's recommendations on NHS reform is disappointing but not unexpected.
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Health reforms will cut quality rather than boost productivity
10 Jun 2011: The recent rise in waiting lists are a sign of things to come.
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Lansley’s plans increase the risk of a Southern Cross-style crisis in the NHS
2 Jun 2011: One leading healthcare provider has worrying parallels with the struggling care homes company
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What the health bill means for hospital trusts – and why it matters
26 May 2011: Much criticism of the health bill has focused on GP commissioning. But changes to hospital trusts pose a threat to the NHS too.
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Government has ignored every opportunity to “pause and reflect” on health bill
19 May 2011: There have been many opportunities for the government to "pause, listen and reflect" on the Health Bill. It's ignored them all.
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‘Efficiency savings’ for the NHS, cuts for everyone else
12 May 2011: Isn't it about time the government dropped the words "savings" and "reinvest" and instead be honest?
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Government blueprint spells it out: consultants’ and nurses’ jobs will go
4 May 2011: McKinsey report says NHS "efficiency savings" require frontline job losses
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NHS “efficiency savings” achieved by cutting cataract and hip ops
27 Apr 2011: As rationing increases, GPs are referring more patients to the private sector
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Cameron’s NHS “ringfence” makes Thatcher’s increases look generous
20 Apr 2011: David Cameron claims that NHS funding is ringfenced and will increase in real terms. He's wrong on both counts.
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