In a recent article, Mannion and Davies argue that there are a multitude of ways in which organizations (such as the National Health Service [NHS]) can deal with wrongdoing or ethical problems, including the formation of policies that encourage and protect would-be whistleblowers. However, it is important to distinguish internal reporting about wrongdoing from whistleblowing proper, because the...

Correspondence: Dave Jeffery It has been identified that the occurrence of Workplace Violence (WPV) towards staff in UK mental health services is significant (National Audit Office, 2003). Moreover, findings from the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) suggest that between 2008-9 54, 758 NHS staff were victims of reported physical assault, with 38,958 instances occurring in mental health ...

The implementation of the National Health Service's Care Record Service (NHS CRS) is the most ambitious information technology innovation ever undertaken in healthcare. This electronic health record system represents the key component of the National Programme for Information Technology. Its implementation is however proving extremely challenging. Building on a recent systematic review of the e...

Clinical governance provides a framework for accountability and quality improvement. While research is concerned with discovering the right thing to do, audit is concerned with ensuring that the right thing is done. A First class service 2 outlined structures within the National Health Service (NHS) for setting standards: the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Ser...

it is well-established that for a considerable period the united kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (gdp) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. average european spending on health (as a % of gdp) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the united kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal prio...

The National Health Service and the private sector should be complementary; each needs the other. It is highly improbable that the Health Service will be privatised; much more likely that private practice will be publicised by bringing it within the National Health Service. This article discusses the size and growth of the private sector, looks at cost containment and quality and examines the p...

Despite fiscal stress, public confidence in the National Health Service (NHS) remains strong; privatisation has not hollowed out the service. But if long term challenges are to be overcome, pragmatism not rhetoric should be the guide.

Patient choice is not new to the National Health Service (NHS). The nationalisation of hospitals at the founding of the NHS made it possible for a patient to go to any NHS hospital with a referral from a general practitioner (GP). In practice, however, GPs made these decisions on behalf of their patients and, for the majority of the 60-odd years since the inception of the NHS, patient flows to ...