BMJ  2004;328:126 (17 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7432.126-a

News

Health tsars

Dr Roger Boyle

Katherine Burke

Health tsars: spin or substance?: Eight health directors ("tsars") were appointed from 1999 to 2002. Katherine Burke asked them to summarise their achievements and other people to assess their work. A ninth "tsar", Dr Sue Roberts, was appointed in March 2003 to cover diabetes. The full text is accessible at www.bmj.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Figure Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)
 Dr Roger Boyle

National director for heart disease

Appointed: March 2000

 
My achievements: Since my appointment, thanks to the hard work of thousands of dedicated NHS staff, major progress has been made. Cigarette advertising has been banned; over 300 000 smokers have been helped to quit. The national school fruit scheme is providing one million children with a free piece of fruit each schoolday. In primary care, the number of prescriptions for statins has risen by 30% each year.

In emergency care, we have seen steady improvement in ambulance response times and improvement in delivery of thrombolysis. The targets to reduce waiting times for heart surgery have long been eclipsed.

Professor Roger Hall, division of cardiology, Hammersmith Hospital, London, and editor of Heart: It is hard to say in a concrete way what would have happened had he not been there as cardiology has always been quite well . . . [Full text of this article]


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Health tsars
Harry Burns
BMJ 2004 328: 117-118. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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