Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Dame Sally Davies Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
Drug resistance and the lack of new antibiotics are creating a potential medical crisis, the government’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies warned in this year’s University of Manchester Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture. We are in danger of losing modern medicine. Growing drug resistance among bacteria, viruses and other microbes poses a catastrophic threat to […]
By Debbie Smith, Andrew Manley and Dame Tina Lavender Filed Under: Featured Posted:
How can information best be conveyed to influence behaviour? Choosing the right font type is surprisingly important, explain Dr Debbie Smith, Dr Andrew Manley and Professor Dame Tina Lavender. What do you take into account when trying to get your message across? The information to be communicated, of course. How to express it – using […]
The NHS has much that it could learn from integrated mental health and primary care in the Caribbean, explains Dr Dawn Edge. The government has signalled that health and social care providers must move from ‘engagement’ to full ‘integration’. While the details are being worked out, there is some (albeit muted) disquiet that mental healthcare […]
By Peter Coventry Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Multi-morbidity – having more than one long-term health condition, often affecting mental health – is a worsening problem. In the first of two blogs considering the issue, Dr Peter Coventry explains there are ways to improve care. Of the 53 million people living in England, more than 15 million live with a long-term health condition […]
By David Walker Filed Under: Devo, Featured, Westminster Watch Posted:
Just how good a deal is DevoManc? David Walker expresses scepticism. Here are two ways of framing DevoManc. The first is (somewhat breathless) localist enthusiasm. A principal city-region is being offered new power to shape spending and services in health and social care, infrastructure and transport. As important as substance is the theatre: a group […]
By Paul Wilson Filed Under: Featured Posted:
Social prescriptions have been hailed as a wonderful way of improving health outcomes, at low cost. But Paul Wilson argues that we need less rhetoric and more sound research to evaluate project results. The Queen’s Speech has seen the new government reconfirm commitments to make an extra £8bn of funding available to the NHS. But […]
By Gabriel Siles-Brügge and Nicolette Butler Filed Under: All posts, Europe, Featured Posted:
Although much of the criticism in the UK of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has focused on the NHS and ‘corporate tribunals’, Gabriel Siles-Brügge and Nicolette Butler argue that this overlooks one of its central purposes: a series of provisions that could make it more difficult for governments to regulate in the public […]
By Lawrence Benson Filed Under: All posts, Devo Posted:
SS DevoManc has now set sail after a six weeks stopover in port during the general election. Dr Lawrence Benson tries to plot its course. Let’s recap on DevoManc. It’s about the devolution of power and resources from Westminster to the city region of Greater Manchester (GM), including for health and social care. This marks […]
By Lawrence Benson Filed Under: All posts, Devo Posted:
Laurence Benson routinely uses the lateral thinking techniques of the original thinker Edward deBono to review new and old policy for public services. As a teaching focused academic at Manchester Business School here Laurence runs the recent devomanc policy through deBono’s Six Thinking Hats technique. Each hat has a different colour to represent a different […]
By Anne Stafford Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted:
The debate on the deficit has been dominated by the cost of bailing-out the banks and the affordability of the welfare state. The impact of expensive PFI contracts should not be overlooked, explains Dr Anne Stafford. No matter who wins the General Election, the next government will have to deal with the growing cost of […]
