📢 We’re looking for a Research Fellow (with a strong qualitative research background) to work on an NIHR-funded project exploring additional roles in primary care in England and Scotland. You will be working with a great team @kathcheckland.bsky.social @damianeh.bsky.social tinyurl.com/dnr6djtk

Barriers to Accessing Primary Healthcare in Jordan: Reflections from the 2025 HPPN Spring Event By Nour Al Quraan I was delighted to attend the HPPN Spring Event once again this year. After first joining the network at the 2024 event in Manchester, it was a pleasure to return in 2025, especially…

Health Services Research UK 2025 By Imelda McDermott The Health Services Research UK (HSRUK) conference is a must-attend annual event for those interested in health and care services research, policy, and practice in the UK and internationally. It brings together a diverse community including…

What a State: Why the U.S. is Still Bad for Your Health (Policy) The second Trump administration's centrepiece legislation, the modestly-named Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House of Representatives and going through the Senate at time of writing, offers an opportunity to reflect upon how the…

ZOMBIE POLICY APOCALYPSE… ANOTHER MORAL PANIC ABOUT THE NHS By Calum Paton According to Wikipedia, “zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies.” Well, thanks to Policy Exchange and its cheerleaders in…

THE VISION THING? – THE 10 YEAR HEALTH PLAN By Calum Paton First thing first: ‘Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England’ is not a plan. It is this government collecting and rebranding various themes which have run through ‘landmark’ national documents about the NHS and health in the…

Also just put our paper on clinical pharmacists supporting people with #dementia in primary care - exploring risk & safety of dementia care - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... @qmul-wiph.bsky.social @qmulpsychiatry.bsky.social

OUR NEW PAPER: the 'final findings' paper from the Remote by Default 2 study: "After the disruptive innovation: How remote and digital services were embedded, blended and abandoned in UK general practice" (will do thread on this soon) www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/publish... #academicsky 🧪

WHAT A STATE! (in the U.S., it's the politics, stupid) By Calum Paton My title doesn’t refer to the Trump v. Musk dust-up. (If politics is showbusiness for ugly people, then that is a Monster Movie for protagonists too politically ugly to get the roles of Godzilla and Kong.) No, I am referring to…

NHS Staff - Waste Not Want Not Currently the UK is training & losing large numbers of staff & then increasingly relying on overseas graduates Many reasons, pay, workload, stress, better opportunities abroad or alternative careers @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/defaul...

The partnership model has a long history, but the proportion of GPs in England working as partners has fallen over the last decade. The trend is more pronounced for younger GPs. Our briefing from @becksfisher.bsky.social‬ sets the scene and considers the case for alternative models: buff.ly/LL1f0gz

BOOM AND BUST, NHS BOOM AND BUST… ‘the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must’ By Calum Paton Gordon Brown (Chancellor, 1997-2007; PM 2007-2010) took years to acknowledge that his promise to ‘end boom and bust’ had been undermined by the financial crisis of 2008. The NHS has…

GENDER WARS: THE SEQUEL – coming to a hospital ward near you By Calum Paton The Supreme Court has ruled that in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), 'sex' means biological sex. This means that, under the Act, a 'woman' is a biological woman or girl (a person born female) and a 'man' is a biological…

STREET(ING) LEVEL By Calum Paton Health Secretary Wes Streeting is trying to learn from the Brazilian favelas, as part of his ‘prevention and promotion, get services into the community and save money’ mantra. We are told there is a ‘pilot project’ in Pimlico and 25 other ‘roll outs’ rolling along.…

Tune in to BBC Radio 4 tonight at 8pm for a new episode of #MoralMaze recorded at our Summit last month. 📻 Guests debate the ethical purpose of the #NHS. Should we care more about equality of outcome – being equally healthy – or equality of access – treating everyone the same?

Paper on pharmacist identity as clinicians among the top 10 most cited in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2023 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Well done @imcdermott.bsky.social @ellenschaf.bsky.social & team @uniofmanchester.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social

BJGPLife: Episode 201: Looking back at the BJGP Research Conference 2025 bjgplife.com/episode...

Lies, Damned Lies and Right-wing health ‘policy’ (Or, tell the big lie about the NHS often enough, and..)   By Calum Paton I can say, hand on heart, that I have never known a more depressing time in British politics. Why? Is it perhaps the ageing process wearying me (I am 69 later this year)? Or…

We open with Keynote Speaker Kath Checkland.

Thrilled to share that our paper on pharmacists' professional identity work is one of the Top 10 most-cited papers published by SHI in 2023! READ HERE onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @ellenschaf.bsky.social #TopCitedArticle #pharmacy #pharmacist #identity #sociology

Congratulations 🎉 to all new (& reappointed) NIHR Senior Investigators inc. @kathcheckland.bsky.social from @hope-uom.bsky.social See more: tinyurl.com/3bdru4xk @nihr.bsky.social @drdon.bsky.social @imcdermott.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social @uniofmanchester.bsky.social

Submit your abstract to Health Policy & Politics Network (HPPN) 2025 Annual Event (20-21 May) - hppnuk.wordpress.com/2024/12/16/h.... DEADLINE for abstract submission is next Friday 28 March 2025. We will be at HSMC Birmingham this year @hsmcentre.bsky.social

Here we go again... “The end of NHS England [...] 'reform' is one of the trickiest words in the political lexicon..." Read more 👇 @imcdermott.bsky.social @drdon.bsky.social @kathcheckland.bsky.social @benwealthy.bsky.social @richardbody.bsky.social @surin75.bsky.social @cath-lewis.bsky.social

My article for @uk.theconversation.com on plans to abolish NHS England. In summary: the policy centre does need rationalisation, but this sudden axing of NHSE together with halving staff in integrated care boards risks a distracting & protracted reorganisation. theconversation.com/abolishing-n...

Might be a good time to resurrect our historical review of previous NHS organisational structures.... researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/46... Short version: however you organise it, you always need a number of layers to effectively manage something as complicated as the NHS

SO FAREWELL THEN…NHS ENGLAND By Calum Paton Once upon a time, there was a man called Roy Griffiths. He advised Mrs. Thatcher and her health Ministers (Norman Fowler and Ken Clarke) that it would be a good idea to take control of the NHS out of day-to-day political control. The NHS Management Board…

🔸 Unpaid work limits women's careers 🔸 Gender gaps in time use narrowed in 1980s-2000s but have now stalled 🔸 Men still do little unpaid work & change is too slow To close these gaps, we need paid parental leave, flexible work & cultural shifts. #InternationalWomensDay

Interesting and timely review on Physician Associates 👇

MEET THE FLINTSTONES By Calum Paton Or…reinventing a square wheel made of stone Oh, Wes lad…how could you? In my last blog, I advised you to stick to the day job (instead of sounding off about Ukraine in a manner even more unhelpful to the search for peace than we knew at the time. You were of…

"Key limitation of term non-pharmaceutical intervention lies in its definition by negation. It describes interventions by what they are not—pharmaceutical products e.g. drugs and vaccines—rather than by what they are" read more👇 @richardbody.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social @imcdermott.bsky.social

MILIGAN’S MADNESS OR…zombie governments beget zombie policy. By Calum Paton It had to come, didn’t it? It was an accident waiting to happen, hanging over a gullible Wes ever since he communed with his inner Blairite and recruited the old gang to advise him. “NHS will compete with itself in…

Principles for embedding health equity language in policy research, writing, and practice onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

What an interesting project jonwilliamson.uk/projects/isr...

THE SOUND OF CRYING Or…the end of ideology (again) Hang out the flags, a new world order's on the way Start singing now, a song to greet the joyful day Just when we thought the time was right for celebrating With music of the spheres What's this - another boat of fleeing refugees On a sea of…

Our new paper delves into the complexities of employment and deployment models of #ARRS staff. Using #realistevaluation we explored how #PCN & #GPpractice decision behind staffing choices influence the operationalisation of ARRS @kathcheckland.bsky.social @smspooner.bsky.social⬇️

Announcing a new and exciting role for 2025: journals.sagepub.com/page/hsr/edi...

Then they came for the research funding bodies and there was no science and no evidence ... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm pleased to share the below job post for a post-doc research associate to join us in @hscwru.bsky.social at KCL on an exciting new health and social care project. This is a full-time post for 30 months. Accepting applications until 29th Jan. Please share ➡️ www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/103567-...

MEET THE NEW BOSS. SAME AS THE OLD BOSS. (‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, The Who.) By Calum Paton Call me naive, but about two years ago I was looking forward to this Labour government. That Keir Starmer - he’s neither Blair nor Corbyn, innit? But I was wrong. He’s Blair only devoid of money and…

A reminder here about the call for abstracts and workshop proposals for the Health Services Research UK @hsruk.bsky.social annual conference at Newcastle University in July 2025! All the information is here: hsruk2025.org #healthpolicysky #medsky #healthservicesresearch #NIHR #HSDR #healthpolicy

If you are curious about #QualitativeResearchMethods we're running our 8 week evening class, from 22/1/25... Pull up a comfy chair and join us as we read the Pope and Mays textbook and chat to expert researchers (& chapter authors). @oxprimarycare.bsky.social www.phc.ox.ac.uk/study/short-...

We Need to Talk about Nigel By Calum Paton I have taken the liberty of adapting the title of Lionel Shriver’s novel by replacing ‘Kevin’ with ‘Nigel’! We do need to talk about Nigel. Not because he is a psychopath, like Kevin - but because the Labour Party’s strategy of (almost) ignoring him and…

The enshittification of uk general practice. (He’s talking about our paper!!) led by @oohgpwales.bsky.social bjgp.org/content/75/7...

HPPN 2025 Annual Event Call for Abstracts We are delighted to announce that HPPN 2025 will be held on 20-21 May at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) (University of Birmingham).  We invite submissions of abstracts (up to 500 words) on any topic related to health politics, policy or…

APPLICATION FOR CHAIR OF NHS ENGLAND: PERSONAL STATEMENT *** By Calum Paton Dear Wes It has come to my attention that NHS England is looking for a new Chair. So for the sake of my wife (who is at her wits’ end having me under her feet since my retirement), I thought I would apply. After all, three…

Rosy was our editor at Nature Protocols! Worth a follow for good science posts. 🧪

Coming January - online evening course based on the book ‘Qualitative Research in Health Care’ ed. Catherine Pope and Nicholas Mays. Self-paced learning with input from experienced qualitative researchers providing an accessible introduction to qualitative research. www.phc.ox.ac.uk/study/short-...

'The implementation of current Health Research Authority approval processes for low risk staff research has the potential to use more NHS organisational resources than the research study itself.' The governance burdens of research highlighted. bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

"'How are you?' These are the three most useless words in the world of communication." This compelling (but wrong/daft) assertion is based on #communication myth rather than how we actually talk 🧐 And asking "how are you" can even save lives... 🧵 1/15 [Bringing #EMCA threads to Bluesky!]