The NHS Commissioning Board last week published a new list of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which will take over from primary care trusts in April 2013 in running primary care in England. As I was remapping the list for Guardian Healthcare Network (the map is also below), three things were striking about the new list: it’s shorter (212 ’emerging’ CCGs as opposed to 268 before); there are now far fewer very small CCGs; and the rich profusion of odd names in previous lists has been stamped out. Continue reading “NHS clinical commissioning groups drop odd names, adopt boring ones”
Category: Healthcare
UK male life expectancy mapped, from Glasgow to Kensington
The data used in the Guardian article quoted from below, on how life expectancy varies across the country, deserved mapping. I’ve focused on UK male life expectancy, which according to the Office of National Statistics varies by 13.3 years between Glasgow (71.1 years) and Kensington and Chelsea (84.4 years).
Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.
Red pointers represent male life expectancy of less than 75; pink from 75 up to 77; yellow from 77 up to 79; green from 79 up to 81; and blue 81 and over.
If you click on a pointer, you can find out how much longer men in that area can expect to live than Glaswegians, and how much less than residents of Kensington and Chelsea (and tweet it if you wish). Female life expectancy is also included. Continue reading “UK male life expectancy mapped, from Glasgow to Kensington”
Open source test results service adopted by renal patients
UK-wide online system letting patients see results within hours of a test may be used by other specialities
This is an unusual example of a system built by a couple of NHS organisations in one nation – health boards in Scotland in this case – which is then adopted by units across the UK. Continue reading “Open source test results service adopted by renal patients”
Religion and healthcare: why the NHS provokes holy arguments
The Hospice Comtesse, just north of the historic centre of Lille, opened in 1245, more than seven centuries before the formation of the NHS. It treated the sick for free, using income from its estates and donors, until 1796 when post-revolution reforms turned it into a hospice, a role it performed until 1939. As a tour of the buildings, now a museum, makes obvious, it was an explicitly Christian institution, with a chapel adjoining its huge dormitory ward and its healthcare provided by nuns. Continue reading “Religion and healthcare: why the NHS provokes holy arguments”
Stroke care in the south west: how do hospitals compare?
Last week, NHS South of England SHA cluster published detailed performance data on dementia and stroke care by the health service in the south west. It has set up a pilot website, Our Health, which allows fairly sophisticated graphical comparison of services on specific criteria (and has been backed by the prime minister), which may be expanded to other conditions and regions.
The south west contributed to the opening of medical performance data for the wrong reasons, when the failings of the children’s heart unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the early 1990s (highlighted by Dr Phil Hammond, the Private Eye columnist and comedian – currently on tour with a very funny show) and subsequent investigations led to all heart surgery units publishing mortality rates. So it’s good to see an NHS organisation taking the initiative in uncovering another aspect of the region’s data. Continue reading “Stroke care in the south west: how do hospitals compare?”