Editor's blog Thursday 18 November: NHS Alliance conference - a big hint from Jim Easton on inherited debt

A full-ish report from the NHS Alliance conference will follow later today. Excerpts and bits can be found at www.twitter.com/HPIAndyCowper

For now:

Top of the pile was a massive hint from DH's National Director for Improvement and Efficiency Jim Easton on possible debt forgiveness. "We’re trying to think through though how to create the right starting point for people between not saddling people with impossible legacies and not pretending they don’t exist. The Secretary of State is minded to act, but we shouldn’t pretend some people have nothing to do with historical debts, it would be wrong to pretend because it’s not the case."

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Michael Dixon of NHS Alliance wants all providers of NHS-funded care to operate on an "open-book" basis. Mmm. That is quite a challenge.

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Bruce Keogh: "“Have we (the medical profession) always stepped up to the plate? Why did it take an irate Secretary of State to get real action on MRSA? What about venous thrombo-embolism? We’ve failed to address that: a failure that’s been killing 25,000 a year; we as a profession should be lading that. We haven’t always done it: now is our chance"

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Admiral Lionel Jarvis (asked for advice on how to make all this work): Thank goodness all I’ve got to do is run a war in Afghanistan”
Phil Hammond: “We need to get ourselves some uniforms”
Chris Ham: “Well, it is called ‘Liberating The NHS”

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Phil Hammond orchestrated a show of hands in the main plenary whether delegates have more faith in GP commissioning consortia or integrated care organisations. There was one vote for consortia, and a landslide for ICOs

Right. Off to see 'The £15-20 Bllion Pound Man', NHS CE David Nicholson. See you later.