The Coalition Government has now set out its plans to establish a Cancer Drugs Fund from April 2011. The long-awaited Fund will help patients get greater access to cancer drugs that their doctors recommend for them.
(Not to be confused with an ‘emergency’ pot of £50million which has been available since last month)
Andrew 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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Improving your image as a junk food brand in the age of obesity is no easy feat. Partnering with a credible and vital campaign is one route, and so Kit Kat joined hands with the government Change4Life campaign. However, the offer involved having to eat many bars of the chocolate to collect wrappers which can be exchanged for free family activities. So under this scheme little Johnny has to get fat before he gets fit?
In 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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Following the parallel exporting exposé by the HSJ last month, a multi-agency plan to improve the drug shortages crisis has been issued by several parties which include the Department of Health, the RPSGB and the ABPI. In the past, the finger of blame for parallel trade has often been pointed squarely at the pharma industry. In response, the ABPI has been vocal in highlighting manufacturers are doing all they can and that better regulation is needed against exporting within the health service itself. So will these latest measures do the job?
David Cameron’s focus on healthcare has been very clear since pre-election campaigning kicked off in January, when the BBC reported that the NHS was Cameron’s “number one priority”. At this point, the health service was also a priority for the wider Conservative Party, with the NHS ranked as the fourth most important policy area. But have the recent internal affairs of the party affected this?
With the Conservative Party consistently ahead in opinion polls, solid approval ratings for its leader and the widespread respect of the media, there is a strong likelihood that there will be a Conservative government by June 2010. With this in mind, Virgo HEALTH and public affairs partner Open Road hosted a breakfast briefing with Mark Simmonds, the Conservative Shadow Health Minister, acknowledging that successful public relations and public affairs strategy depends on comprehensive, well-informed scenario planning.
