Category: Healthcare

Crisis helplines move online; why Bletchley Park couldn’t happen now

Guardian Voluntary Sector Network has published my piece on crisis helplines moving from telephone to online: the NSPCC’s ChildLine now handles half of its contacts online, the Samaritans receives 18% of contacts through text messages and emails and BB Group, which runs advice services for young people, is entirely digital.

The Samaritans, which has just turned 60 – see also this BBC News report, which covers its use of new channels – finds that those asking it for support through SMS or email are more likely to have suicidal feelings (almost half, compared to one in six of those calling). Elaine Chambers of ChildLine said the NSPCC helpline sees something similar, although it depends on the individual:

There is some evidence that the more high-risk things come to us online, because it can be easier to express yourself about the really difficult things in your life online. Continue reading “Crisis helplines move online; why Bletchley Park couldn’t happen now”

The NHS Risky Rectangle: a Bermuda Triangle for hospitals?

NHS acute trusts vary widely in quality. It’s quite easy to spot the good ones – they appear regularly in the media, they win awards and they are famous as organisations. It’s certainly not always the case, but an appetite for attention tends to indicate an organisation that is proud of what it does and where staff have confidence to talk about what they are doing right – as well as a press office and management team happy to let them. Their ranks include Cambridge University Hospitals, King’s College Hospital, Salford Royal, Great Ormond Street, The Christie and University College London Hospitals. Continue reading “The NHS Risky Rectangle: a Bermuda Triangle for hospitals?”

No NHS criticism please, we’re British?

Last week, Victoria Macdonald, who has covered health and social care for Channel 4 News since 1999, felt that she needed to let everyone know that she does not hate the NHS. This followed online accusations that she did, one nastily linked to her daughter’s treatment for a head injury in an NHS hospital. Continue reading “No NHS criticism please, we’re British?”

Reporting the local NHS: credit where it’s due

The National Union of Journalists has started a campaign to support reporting of health and the NHS, especially in the local and regional media. It’s a good choice – and there’s a good article about it in the NUJ magazine The Journalist (starts on page 14), with contributions from Shaun Lintern, who covered Mid Staffordshire relentlessly for the Express and Star, and now works for Health Service Journal.

As one of my colleagues at EHI says, the NHS isn’t national. She also says it doesn’t deal with health and doesn’t provide much of a service, but leaving that aside, the point is that the health service is essentially local: you are normally cared for by your local GP, then your local NHS trust (or board, in Scotland and Wales). Trusts and boards vary greatly in quality – some are brilliant, a few are awful, many are somewhere in between. Continue reading “Reporting the local NHS: credit where it’s due”

Hospital charities fight to raise funds as giving slows in austerity Britain

Charities supporting hospitals are finding new ways to reach out to donors as traditional cash cows dry up

In ‘A journey to… let’s not go there’ in his most recent book Holidays in heck, American journalist PJ O’Rourke writes about being treated for cancer. (For those who don’t know O’Rourke, the fact that his many books include Republican party reptile should give you a clue that he comes at things from a right-wing perspective, although that’s less important than him being very funny and perceptive.) He feels concern about the quality of his medical care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre – he has reaonable insurance, but what happens to those who don’t, he asks the centre’s press officer?

We’re a charitable institution. No one will ever be refused care here. On the other hand, we have to keep the lights on. We do try to find any possible means of payment – government programs, private insurance, et cetera.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock finds that 60% of patients who think they aren’t eligible for assistance are, but offers discounts and payments plans – and gave away $63m of treatment in 2007. Continue reading “Hospital charities fight to raise funds as giving slows in austerity Britain”