Last week saw the publication of the latest Scottish Health Survey. There is plenty of interest – scroll down to figure 2, showing how cigarette smoking is correlated to deprivation, with about 12% of the least deprived fifth of men smoking compared with more than 40% of the most deprived fifth. But what it doesn’t do is compare Scotland’s health to that of other parts of the UK. Continue reading “The mystery of why Scotland’s health is worse than England’s”
Category: Healthcare
Hartlepool shows how pension funds could save NHS hospitals from PFI
A new NHS hospital typically costs hundreds of millions of pounds to build. Trusts do what anyone buying a new home does: they take out a mortgage. The problem has been that most trusts (in England, anyway) have had only one, weird type of mortgage available: a private finance initiative (PFI). Continue reading “Hartlepool shows how pension funds could save NHS hospitals from PFI”
Why are French pharmacy signs so animated?
Pharmacies in France are useful places. They offer a wide range of medicines and advice. However, the same is true of pharmacies elsewhere in the world… but they don’t have signs like French pharmacy signs. This one was filmed in Lille, but is typical of many. Continue reading “Why are French pharmacy signs so animated?”
NHS commissioning support units: CSU-zy names, CSU-zy regions
As noted in May, the eventual names of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have ended up being sensible and a bit dull – with the exception of appropriately-independent NHS Kernow CCG (Cornwall). But this is not the case for commissioning support units, which will provide a range of services to CCGs behind the scenes. Firstly, there’s been an in-flight change of generic name – CSUs were firstly known as commissioning support services, then they weren’t.
NHS CSSs are now going to be called NHS CSUs (commissioning support units). Official
#dotrytokeepup— David Williams (@dwilliamsHSJ) August 7, 2012
Continue reading “NHS commissioning support units: CSU-zy names, CSU-zy regions”
A healthcare systems medal table: USA wins inefficiency gold
It is tricky to compare different countries’ healthcare systems, as well as politically explosive. The World Health Organisation (WHO) last tried in 2000, concluding that France had the best in the world.
The following attempt is very simplistic, but also very easy to understand. It uses WHO data to calculate how much each country spends on each year of average lifespan beyond 45, per year per person in purchasing power parity-adjusted US dollars. 45 is chosen simply because it is slightly below the lowest average longevity, Malawi, of 47 years. In the map below, the darker the shade of green, the more expensive each extra year of life: the figure for each country will pop up when the cursor is over it. Continue reading “A healthcare systems medal table: USA wins inefficiency gold”