Potential cost-savings from e-health are being jeopardised because computer systems cannot talk to one another, according to experts. Healthcare IT specialists also warn of resistance from healthcare workers and patients amid ongoing concerns over data protection.

Have Stalinist healthcare system, get Stalinist healthcare rationing. "Appalling standards of care have been exposed at Mid-Staffordshire Hospitals trust, where between 400 and 1200 more patients died than would be expected in just three years, according to a damning report by the Healthcare Commission." I think we can see where this one's going already. "It is not clear how many patients die...

With all the talk of healthcare reform in the United States, I read a sickening story of how a hospital is telling dying patients arriving as emergency patients that either they pay up front or they won't be treated. What a foul, warped society to produce such a system. Does the Hippocratic Oath mean nothing to these heartless doctors? Surely it is time for a more compassionate healthcare sys...

Patients get poorer healthcare in Britain than in the former Soviet republic of Estonia where services are provided for a fraction of the cost, according to a league table of 31 European countries published yesterday. The Euro Health consumer index, compiled by a Brussels-based Swedish research institute, shows that the Netherlands and Denmark have the most consumer-friendly healthcare systems. Br...

Right Democrat has this: With President Obama preparing to present his budget proposal, which is expected to include both an update on his economic stimulus initiatives and a renewed call for healthcare reform, the nation's largest organization of registered nurses today released new data on how the most comprehensive healthcare fix would create new jobs in nearly all areas of the national economy...

In workplaces where nurses are bullied, the quality of patient care declines, the health of nurses suffers, and the retention of quality nurses becomes difficult. A new article published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing reviews the psychological and social issues related to bullying in the workplace and strategies for creating a respectful work environment.

NHS hit squads will swoop on hospitals where unusually high rates of death, infection and botched operations appear to be harming or killing patients. As the first healthcare system in the world to operate such a system, investigators from the Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog for England, will monitor hospitals using official data and 'soft intelligence' from complainants and whis...

An official investigation is to examine why people with serious learning difficulties have died while under NHS care, after alleged neglect led to at least six fatalities, ministers will reveal today. The health secretary, Alan Johnson, is setting up an inquiry which will look at whether the quality of treatment that doctors, nurses and other health service staff gave to such vulnerable patients c...

The government was at loggerheads with doctors' and nurses' leaders last night over plans to give NHS patients in England personal budgets to buy physiotherapy, home nursing and other healthcare services. Alan Johnson, the health secretary, introduced a health bill that includes powers to make direct payments to people with long-term medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and Parki...

Some patients will soon be able to choose where they buy their healthcare using money paid to them directly, the government announced today.