Category: The South West

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?”

NHS trust plans alternative to ‘outdated hospital model’

Has North Bristol NHS trust found the answer to providing efficient health and social care after hospital closures?

New Southmead superhospital under constructionThis article appeared in the Guardian’s Society pages on 4 January 2012. I also wrote about North Bristol NHS trust’s progress towards its Southmead superhospital for Guardian Healthcare Network, based on the same set of interviews.

This image was taken of the site when I visited Southmead in mid-December 2011. Continue reading “NHS trust plans alternative to ‘outdated hospital model’”

Open up the numberplate recognition camera system

Police are reluctant to reveal locations of automatic numberplate recognition cameras, but their secretive approach is not working

This decision was reversed by a later tribunal in 2012, but the evidence shed new light on police ANPR systems, covered in this Guardian article. Continue reading “Open up the numberplate recognition camera system”

The ANPR secret

Police forces are making extensive use of their numberplate cameras, but proving coy about their locations

This was one of a series of articles I wrote on police ANPR. It eventually led to a Guardian page lead story in August 2012 – based on the information gleaned from the eventual failure of a Freedom of Information request to Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, which revealed a “patchy” national system – and an article for MATTER published in August 2013 which I co-edited.

The cameras mentioned on the M5 were still in place at the end of August 2013. Following the loss of the FoI case there is, of course, no way of being sure if they are run by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary (whose area they are in). Continue reading “The ANPR secret”

Devon force divulges ANPR towns online

Devon and Cornwall Police has published the location of some of its road surveillance cameras on its website, despite these normally being secret

This was the first article in a long series on police ANPR, based on the Freedom of Information request mentioned here. It eventually led to a Guardian page lead story in August 2012 – based on the information gleaned from the eventual failure of the FoI request, which revealed a “patchy” national system – and an article for MATTER published in August 2013 which I co-edited.
 Continue reading “Devon force divulges ANPR towns online”