Editor's blog Thursday 17 June 2010: Interesting things

Morning. No time for anything much yet today, so here are some links:

to a response piece I wrote for Guardian Public about not assuming entrepreneurialism will solve every NHS problem

to the new NAO report on NHS PFI schemes - mostly positive about their delivering the expected value-for-money short-term, yet with the little-noticed caveats that "there continue to be risks, however, to the long-term value for money of these contracts ... twelve per cent (9 of the 76) operational PFI contracts have no-one from the public sector assigned to contract management ... there is a lack of central data on the performance of the PFI portfolio. The Department does not use the leverage over the market it possesses from having 76 contracts in force. With more information on Trusts’ projects, the Department could use this leverage to update contracts on common issues or facilitate performance and efficiency improvements". And no mention of risk transfer, in what I've read.

to the BBC News report about surgeons' complaints on targets (how politically timely) and time constraints

to a Guardian piece indicating that shadow health secretary and Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham disagreed with his own party's manifesto commitment to ring-fencing the NHS budget.