Anna Dixon

The other health story

The NHS is continuing to change even as opponents of the Health and Social Care Bill force delays to its timetable. Anna Dixon analyses some of the issues on the ground that should concern the public Read more

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Market mania in the NHS

Is the coalition focusing too much on market reforms in its health plans? The real problems facing the NHS – improving care for people with chronic conditions, the elderly and those at the end of life – are not going to be solved by hospital competition Read more

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Public health must not be sidelined, by Anna Dixon

Public health needs to move out of the lecture hall and into the living room, according to Anne Milton MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary (Public Health), speaking at The King’s Fund last week. She is right in one sense. Public health is everybody’s business; it is shaped in part by the actions and behaviours that we undertake every day at home, at work, at play. But it is also more than that. Read more...

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The Right medicine? By Anna Dixon

Many of the ideas and policy proposals in the Conservative’s draft health manifesto are already current government policy – patient choice of hospitals including the independent sector, more foundation trusts, paying GPs based on outcomes, and publishing quality data – although the suggestion is that they want to go further with these ideas than the current government have. There were a few ideas which distinguish the Conservative Party approach to the NHS and public health from that of Labour. Read more...

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The NHS’s perfect financial storm, by Anna Dixon

The NHS is entering a new era. After years of relative plenty, the health service faces a period of austerity and a ‘perfect storm’ of rising costs and growing demand fuelled by an ageing population and increasing patient expectations. Read more...

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