In the House of Commons last night MPs voted 321 to 235 in support of the second reading of Health and Social Care Bill. While the margin of difference between the ‘Yeas’ and ‘Nays’ was a clear one, as there are 645 votes available (650 in total but of course Sinn Fein don’t take up their seats) if all the abstainers voted against it wouldn’t have passed.
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Posts Tagged ‘Conservatives’
Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill clears the second hurdle
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011Is Coulson’s resignation the start of big changes to UK media?
Monday, January 24th, 2011When a spokesman needs a spokesman, it is time to step down. So said Andy Coulson on Friday as he resigned as Downing Street Director of Communications following persistent allegations that he oversaw journalists illegally hacking the phones of high-profile public figures during his editorship of the News of the World. To PR and media professionals, the way the resignation was announced is particularly interesting, not least from an issues management perspective. So how was this particular bomb dropped?
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What does the new Health Service Journal power list tell us about the UK policy landscape?
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010The HSJ100, an annual list of the most influential people in health, has been released by the UK’s Health Service Journal. Not only has the list doubled in size from 50 (in the 2006-2009 lists) to 100 this year, but it is also notable for the way the new Coalition Government health policy reforms have decided many of the contenders’ fates. In the wake of recent announcements about the changing role of the NICE, Chief Executive Andrew Dillon slips two places. In contrast, since GP commissioning is the new government’s flagship policy, there are nine GPs in the 100, including numbers 3, 8 and 11.
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Andrew Dillon speaks on the future for NICE
Monday, November 8th, 2010As we blogged earlier this week – and most people will have seen in the media – Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has announced that the future role for NICE will not be to make decisions on the cost-effectiveness of new treatments and issue guidance on recommended NHS prescribing. This role will fall to GP consortia as part of the government’s wider public sector reforms, and follow negotiations made between the government and pharmaceutical companies on ‘value based pricing’ for new treatments. Earlier this week, we were able to find out a little more about the potential role for NICE in the future as Chief Executive Andrew Dillon spoke at the annual Wellards healthcare policy conference.
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How will the NICE reforms affect patients and priorities for healthcare communications?
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010This week Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced that NICE will be stripped of its power to ‘ban’ drugs on the NHS that it does not recommend as cost-effective. Instead, from 2014, GP consortia will be responsible for these decisions. News headlines about patients being denied access to a life-saving or life-extending drug are common, but the announcement does not necessarily mean that patients will now receive greater access to drugs, despite the inevitable pro-patient rhetoric the government has used. ‘Wonder drugs’, or any other kind of drugs for that matter, must continue to show value and healthcare communications will play a vital role here, both as part of negotiations with the government on its value-based pricing scheme, and throughout the longer term dialogue with GP consortia. In short, the issue of value and controversy over drug pricing and access won’t go away by changing the way NICE works, and it could even make things more complicated.
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Under the white paper, will NHS services compete through social media?
Friday, October 15th, 2010Andrew Lansley’s Conservative Party Conference speech re-emphasised that under the NHS White Paper, an ‘information revolution’ will facilitate competition between health services and raise standards. So if people vote with their feet to make services successful, what are they looking for in terms of information? One answer is to be found in social media, which we will only see more and more of given the increasing number of NHS Twitter feeds and bloggers pushing this forward.
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NHS reforms to “unleash an information revolution”
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010In his speech at the Conservative Party conference last week, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley promised to “unleash an information revolution”. Despite criticism from the British Medical Association and Unison regarding the lack of consultation with key stakeholders, Lansley also pledged not to delay the proposed NHS reforms. Whether you are for and against the planned changes, the matter of access to information – especially online – is a hot topic for many patients and patient groups (as discussed in detail at September’s MedComms Forum event). So what might Lansley’s concept of an ‘information revolution’ mean for the NHS and healthcare communications?
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Sky News’ political Top Trumps
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010Sky News has unveiled their Top Trumps card game to mark party conference season…
Andy Coulson: A vulnerable man advising vulnerable politicians?
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Andy Coulson, Tory Party director of communications, is now likely to face a police interview after pressure mounts following a New York Times article which claimed an earlier investigation was cut short due to the assumed invulnerability and power of Murdoch’s newspaper group. A further inquiry has now been announced in which Ross Hall, the man who allegedly transcribed numerous voicemail messages from hacked phones, will also be interviewed. The pressure, relentlessly led by The Guardian and Observer, now seems greater than ever. So is Coulson in any position to advise on other government crises and issues when his own makes the headlines?
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Sky News’ Adam Boulton shows you how not to keep cool in interviews
Thursday, May 13th, 2010There have been many entertaining subplots to the UK election story. A favourite has to be the near on-air punch-up between Sky newsreader Adam Boulton and Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell. If you haven’t already seen it, give it a look at www.youtube.com/virgohealthuk - this is a great example of how not to handle an interview.
