31/08/2016
Bevan Brittan provides high quality, comprehensive advice to the NHS and independent healthcare sector. This update contains brief details of recent Government publications, legislation, cases and other developments relevant to those involved in health and social care work, both in the NHS and independent sector which have been published in the last month.
If you have been forwarded this update by a colleague and would like to receive it directly, please email Claire Bentley.
Care
Publications/guidance
Managing care home closures: A good practice guide for local authorities, clinical commissioning groups, NHS England, CQC, providers and partners. This CQC guide is designed to be used by all parties involved in planning and carrying out closure of care homes. It contains a set of essential principles, underpinned by a framework of actions, to ensure that the needs of people using services, their families and carers remain at the heart of the closure process.
Being accepted being me: Understanding the end of life care needs for older LGBT people. The National Institute for Palliative Care has published a guide to help health and social care staff and volunteers to learn more about listening, understanding and responding to the unique needs of LGBT people. It follows the CQC’s report A Different Ending which found that discrimination continues to have an adverse impact on LGBT people’s access, needs and experience of services.
The Better Care Fund: Operating guidance for 2016-17. Guidance to partners for local Better Care Fund (BCF) plans – CCGs, local authorities, and Health and Wellbeing Boards – on the operational requirements for these plans in 2016-17. It sets out the legislation underpinning the BCF, the accountability arrangements and funding, the reporting and monitoring requirements for 2016/17, and the role of the BCF support team in supporting delivery. The guidance also outlines how progress against plans will be monitored and what the escalation process will look like.
Social care: paying for care home places and domiciliary care (England). The House of Commons Library has published a briefing note that sets out the means-test that applies to care home residents and those in other settings (such as care at home) in need of social care, and provides information on personal budgets.
The ultimate guide for pharmacists working in care homes. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published a guide offering practical support and comprehensive signposting to help pharmacists who are working in or with care homes, or are interested in starting this new role. It explains the different roles that pharmacists have in providing care to residents in care homes, and the support tools and guidance that are available to help with the role.
Oral health for adults in care homes (NICE guideline NG48). This guideline calls for oral health and access to dental treatments to be given the same priority as general health for all adults in care homes.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Accommodation under the Care Act and the General Power of Competence. High Court decision raises important issues around the interface between the Care Act 2014 and the Localism Act 2011.
Multi-Speciality Community Providers. Emerging Care Model and Contract Framework.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around care please contact Stuart Marchant.
Children
Publications/guidance
Childhood obesity: a plan for action. Sets out the Government’s plan to reduce England’s rate of childhood obesity within the next 10 years by encouraging industry to cut the amount of sugar in food and drinks and primary school children to eat more healthily and stay active.
There is also information on the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, which directly targets the producers and importers of sugary soft drinks to encourage them to remove added sugar, promote diet drinks, and reduce portion sizes for high sugar drinks.
News
Concerns for child health as paediatric units struggle to fill rotas. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has published an annual survey on paediatric staffing which finds that more than half of paediatric units are not meeting recommended staffing standards and, to keep services running, consultants are increasingly providing unplanned cover in addition to covering their own roles.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Children - which decision counts? It is a well-known principle in English law that a competent adult’s refusal to treatment cannot be overridden – no matter how unwise or incomprehensible that decision may be.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around children please contact Deborah Jeremiah.
Clinical Risk/Patient Safety
Bevan Brittan Training - If you are a client and would like to know about our free lunch time training sessions just ask Claire Bentley. You can attend in our London, Bristol or Birmingham office.
Publications/Guidance
The NHS LA have issued the following guidance:
Giving evidence in court
Being a witness in a clinical negligence claim
Being a witness in non-clinical claims
Guide for clinical audit leads. This guide is intended to support clinicians who are responsible for leading clinical audits in clinical services and at senior levels in healthcare organisations. This is an update to the previous guide for clinical audit leads which was published by HQIP in 2011. Please note that this resource requires free registration in order to access the full-text document.
Avoiding unconscious bias - a guide for surgeons. The Royal College of Surgeons has published a guide that aims to encourage surgeons to be aware of unconscious biases, where judgements and thought processes are influenced by personal experiences, background and societal expectations, and sometimes adjust their behaviour so that their trainees and fellow staff do not misinterpret their actions.
Administrative Court judicial review guide. HM Courts & Tribunal Service has issued detailed legal guidance on judicial review cases in the Administrative Court, that covers: starting a claim; applying for permission for judicial review; substantive hearings; remedies; case management; specific practice points; ending a claim; costs; and appeals. The guide also includes contact details for the court, information on forms and fees, and addresses for serving documents on government departments.
News
Cosmetic clinics to be named and shamed in order to protect from poor treatment. Following fears that thousands of botched operations are going unreported due to the industry being "badly regulated", the Government is, for the first time, to name and shame cosmetic surgeons for poor practice. In order to protect patients, the Care Quality Commission will be giving clinics a rating of "outstanding", "good", "requires improvement", or "inadequate". The plans follow a critical report carried out for the Government in 2013 in the wake of the PIP breast implant scandal that saw many women affected after it emerged the implants did not contain medically safe material.
Desmond Fitzgerald, acting as litigant in person, has been ordered to pay costs on an indemnity basis for nearly £100,000, after a judge called his application against Frances Hughes, a partner at Hughes Fowler Carruthers "a farrago of nonsense" and stated that the allegations should never have been made. The ruling in the case highlights the issues surrounding applications brought by litigants in person, including the heavy cost if they pursue unreasonable litigation.
Bevan Brittan Updates
mHealth: the Latest App-date from the MHRA. The use of technology in the provision of health and social care is slowly gathering pace but appears to be lagging way behind the current technological world. The MHRA has issued new guidance to assist in checking whether or not an app is a medical device and what to look for to make sure the app is safe and effective.
Bevan Brittan Events
Dealing with Complaints - This practical training day will focus on best practice and guidance for front-line staff of the NHS and healthcare organisations to investigate and manage claims, complex complaints and adverse incidents.
London - Tuesday 18 October 2016, 09:30
Bristol - Wednesday 19 October 2016, 09:30
Birmingham - Tuesday 01 November 2016, 09:30
Bevan Brittan Training - If you are a client and would like to know about our free lunch time training sessions just ask Claire Bentley. You can attend in our London, Bristol or Birmingham office.
If you wish to discuss any clinical risk or patient safety issues please contact Joanna Lloyd, Catherine Radford or Penelope Radcliffe.
Follow us! Bevan Brittan's patient safety team is regularly tweeting the latest patient safety news @BBPatientSafety.
Commissioning
Publications/Guidance
Market shaping review: Place-based market shaping – Co-ordinating health and social care. The Institute of Public Care, Oxford Brookes University, has published a paper for health and social care commissioners looking to work together to develop a co-ordinated or place-based approach to market shaping. It explores the importance of developing a place-based approach to shaping the health and care market, looking at what this means for health and social care organisations. It maps the breadth of current relationships between commissioning agencies and examines their relative strengths and weaknesses.
There is also a paper for local authority commissioners to help them think through when and how to take a joint approach. The paper explores when a cross local authority or regional approach makes most sense, and what supports successful joint working as well as potential difficulties. Practice examples and case studies (in the Appendix) illustrate some of the approaches which have been taken to address these issues.
Securing meaningful choice for patients: CCG planning and improvement guide. NHS England and NHS Improvement have produced this guide to help CCGs deliver their statutory duties by highlighting the actions they now need to take to make choice work well for the populations they serve.
Demand management good practice guide. NHS England has published a good practice guide to demand management, containing initiatives for CCGs to consider to manage elective care services, particularly to reduce unnecessary outpatient appointments. The guide is supplemented by case studies and links to further help and advice.
Creating effective hospital-community partnerships to build a culture of health. This guide, released by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), focuses on how hospitals and communities can develop and sustain partnerships. HRET conducted 50 interviews with US hospital, health system and community leaders from 25 diverse communities to determine common themes and successful approaches for developing effective collaboration.
A guide to annual reporting on the legal duty to involve patients and the public in commissioning. NHS England has launched a new annual reporting guide for CCGs and NHS England staff that sets out the organisations’ responsibilities to report on how they meet their legal duties to involve patients and the public in their work. The guide includes useful tools, resources and good practice examples to support the development of annual reports. It also provides advice on making reports accessible and appealing.
Consultations
Consultation on Specialised Services clinical commissioning policies and service specifications. NHS England is seeking views on a proposed clinical commissioning policy proposition on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV. There has already been extensive engagement on this policy and it has been developed with the support and input of lead clinicians and patient and public representatives. It now wishes to test the policy proposal further with wider groups of stakeholders. The consultation closes on 23 September 2016.
If you wish to discuss the issue of commissioning please contact David Owens.
Employment/HR
Publications/guidance
Education & training tariffs: Tariff guidance for 2016-17. HEE document setting out the national tariffs for healthcare education and training placements in the academic year 2016/17, how the tariffs will be implemented and in what circumstances the national tariffs may be varied and how to do this. The tariffs cover non-medical placements and medical undergraduate and postgraduate placements in secondary care.
Consultations
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting – Public sector employers. The Government Equalities Office is seeking views on plans to introduce mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large public sector bodies in England and certain public authorities operating across Great Britain in relation to non-devolved functions. The consultation closes on 30 September 2016.
News
Prime Minister orders government audit to tackle racial disparities in public service outcomes. The Prime Minister has ordered Whitehall departments to identify and publish information showing how outcomes differ for people of different backgrounds, in a range of areas including health, education and employment. The audit will give every person the ability to check how their race affects the way they are treated by public services, and will help government and the public to force poor-performing services to improve. The audit will be led by a new dedicated Whitehall unit situated in the Cabinet Office, reporting jointly to DCLG and the Cabinet Office. The first data is expected to be published before the summer 2017 and will be updated annually to ensure the public can track improvement and better hold services to account.
Secret documents reveal official concerns over 'seven-day NHS' plans. The Guardian reports that leaked DH documents reveal that the health service has too few staff and too little money to deliver the Government’s promised "truly seven-day NHS" on time and patients may not notice any difference even if it happens.
Concerns for child health as paediatric units struggle to fill rotas. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has published an annual survey on paediatric staffing which finds that more than half of paediatric units are not meeting recommended staffing standards and, to keep services running, consultants are increasingly providing unplanned cover in addition to covering their own roles.
If you wish to discuss any employment issues please contact Julian Hoskins or James Gutteridge.
Finance
Publications and Guidance
Feeling the crunch: NHS finances to 2020. As recognised by the NHS’s Five Year Forward View, by 2020 the NHS will need to find savings of around £22bn in order to balance its books. But there has been no clear articulation of how that gap is expected to be closed. The options for doing so include NHS providers becoming more efficient; NHS commissioners reducing the pace at which NHS activity is increasing each year, either through reducing demand or limiting access to care; more funding for the NHS; or some combination of these. This analysis by the Nuffield Trust examines different scenarios to determine exactly what it would take to close the gap.
Local empowerment: How to achieve a sustainable health service. This report from Localis makes the case for a devolution revolution in the National Health Service, arguing that a healthier balance between central and local control is possible and practical. The publication, sponsored by KPMG, argues that much more NHS funding should be raised and controlled locally, with local NHS and local government leaders devolved total control of their entire local health budget. Correspondingly local areas should be increasingly free of central government control and direction, with greater local flexibilities. To provide the framework for this 'devolution revolution', Localis recommends that areas across the country negotiate health devolution deals with Government that empower local leaders to drive integration, transformation and financial sustainability in their local health and care economies.
Education & training tariffs: Tariff guidance for 2016-17. HEE document setting out the national tariffs for healthcare education and training placements in the academic year 2016/17, how the tariffs will be implemented and in what circumstances the national tariffs may be varied and how to do this. The tariffs cover non-medical placements and medical undergraduate and postgraduate placements in secondary care.
Consultations
National tariff: policy proposals for 2017/18 and 2018/19. NHS Improvement is seeking views on its policy proposals for changes to the national tariff, along with other proposals relating to the pricing system. The closing date for comments is 26 August 2016.
If you wish to discuss any issues raised in this section please contact Claire Bentley.
Health and Safety
Bevan Brittan Events
Health & Safety Update. A number of recent developments mean that the potential impact of health and safety breaches is greater than ever before. Bevan Brittan is at the forefront of advising organisations in the UK to minimise your exposure from a financial, commercial and reputational perspective. This seminar provides a fantastic opportunity to ensure you are up to date with the law, to receive practical tips to help you achieve compliance, an interesting selection of break-out sessions to opt-in to, and a chance to share experiences with other colleagues
Bristol - Wednesday 02 November 2016, 09:15
London - Tuesday 15 November 2016, 09:15
Birmingham - Wednesday 16 November 2016, 09:15
If you wish to discuss any issues raised in this section please contact Sarah Knight or Debbie Rookes.
Information Sharing
Publications/Guidance
What if people controlled their own health data? The King's Fund has published another essay in its "The NHS if" collection that explores hypothetical scenarios and their impact on the future of health and care. In this one, Marcus Honeyman discusses how to realise the full potential of using health data.
News
Council fined after confidential social services papers found Hampshire County Council has been hit with a £100,000 fine by the ICO after documents containing personal details of over 100 people were found in a disused building. Social care files, along with 45 bags of confidential waste, were found at Town End House, in Havant. They contained highly sensitive information about adults and children in vulnerable circumstances.
Fine for GP surgery that failed to protect patients' personal data A GP practice that revealed confidential details about a woman and her family to her estranged ex-partner has been fined £40,000 by the Information Commissioner. The information was released in response to a Subject Access Request, a formal way of requesting information under the Data Protection Act.
Bevan Brittan Updates
GP Practice fined £40,000 for data protection breach. A GP Practice has been fined £40,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office for disclosing a woman's confidential details to her ex-husband.
Bevan Brittan Events
General Data Protection Regulation: What you need to know. Our specialist Information Law team is running this event to assist clients to understand what the new General Data Protection Regulation means for them, and what they can do now to prepare.
London - Tuesday 27 September 2016, 09:30
Bristol - Wednesday 28 September 2016 09:30
Birmingham - 04 October 2016 09:30
Leeds - Wednesday 05 October 2016, 09:30
If you wish to discuss any of the items raised in the above section please contact Jane Bennett.
Mental Health
Bevan Brittan Training - If you are a client and would like to know about our free lunch time training sessions just ask Claire Bentley. You can attend in our London, Bristol or Birmingham office.
Publications/Guidance
Mental health crisis care: health based places of safety funding. This guidance document sets out how local crisis care concordat groups can apply for funding to increase the capacity and number of health based places of safety. The funding programme aims to increase and improve health based places of safety and continue to reduce police cells being used as an alternative. Bids for a share of the £15 million fund will be managed by the DH. The closing date for submission of bids is 23 September 2016.
The first wave of bids, totalling £6.1m, have been awarded to 15 NHS trusts and partnership organisations covering 10 police force areas.
News
NHS England kickstarts programme to help 30,000 more new or expectant mums with serious mental illness
Landmark Alzheimer's research project launched A new £6.9m research project aims to dramatically improve the success rate of clinical trials for treatments in Alzheimer's disease. The study, funded by the National Institute of Health Research and the Medical Research Council (MRC) will include the most thorough and rigorous series of tests to detect Alzheimer's disease ever performed on volunteers.
Mental health check for people involved in Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks. The Department of Health has launched a mental health check for those adversely affected by the 2015 and 2016 attacks in Paris and Brussels, including those present and their close family members. Screening questionnaires are being issued and responses will be reviewed by Public Health England with those needing support being referred for clinical assessment.
Mental health crisis care: health based places of safety funding. The first wave of successful applicants for funding to improve the provision of mental health places of safety has been announced. The funding aims to support the creation of new places of safety and the refurbishment of existing sites, to prevent people who are experiencing a mental health crisis and have committed no crime, from being placed in a police cell. The first wave of bids has been awarded to 15 NHS trusts and partnership organisations and the bidding process for the remaining £8.9 million is now open.
Bevan Brittan Updates
The secret life of medication – are you ready for scrutiny about covert medication practices? Will Pickles considers the recent AG Judgment from the Court of Protection dealing with the controversial topic of 'Covert Medication'.
A step closer to breaking point? The further widening of Deprivation of Liberty in the recent case of Staffordshire County Council v SRK [2016] EWCOP 27
Bevan Brittan Events
Court of Protection Seminar - This session will focus on practical issues that practitioners, commissioners and providers encounter in matters engaging the Court of Protection; covering relevant legislation, guidance and case law and their impact on managing incapable patients.
Bristol - Wednesday 23 November 2016, 09:30
Birmingham - Thursday 24 November 2016, 09:30
London - Tuesday 29 November 2016, 09:30
Leeds - Tuesday 29 November 2016, 09:30
If you wish to discuss any of the items raised in the above section please contact Simon Lindsay or Stuart Marchant.
Primary Care
Publications/guidance
Safe working in general practice. This report discusses measures which could help to manage the rising workload of GPs and help to calculate sustainable and safe working levels within the specialty. It outlines proposals for GP appointments to be lengthened to 15 minutes and consultations to be limited to a target of 25 a day. It also considers the potential impact of locality hubs - a central facility where demand, patient lists and safe working limits would be managed for a number of local practices and suggests that GPs could benefit from the integration, collaboration and flexible employment patterns potentially on offer.
2016/17 Primary care commissioning activity report: Guidance notes for completion. The primary care commissioning activity report (PCAR) is a newly introduced bi-annual collection to support greater assurance and oversight of NHS England’s primary care commissioning responsibilities, and inform the strategic direction for general practice. It focuses on key operational areas for commissioned general practice services, including: Management of contractual underperformance; Management of contract disputes; Financial assistance to providers; Procurement and expiry of contracts; and Availability of services, including closed lists.
Neurology and primary care: Improving the transition from primary care for people with neurological conditions. Examines the issues affecting neurological patients’ transition from primary to secondary care. It also explores the primary care perspective on the key issues and challenges facing the neurology specialism and people living with neurological conditions today. The results strongly suggest that there are significant issues affecting the primary care transition for people with neurological conditions. sets out eight recommendations aimed at improving the primary care pathway for people with neurological conditions, including a call for the development of a "watch list" of the ten signs and symptoms GPs should be aware of during patient interactions in primary care settings.
Retained Doctor Scheme guidance 2016. The Retained Doctor Scheme is a package of support which includes financial incentives and development support to help GPs who might otherwise leave the profession to remain in clinical general practice. From 1 July 2016, NHS England is increasing both the money for practices employing a retained GP (RGP) and the annual payment towards professional expenses for GPs on the scheme. This guidance describes the improvements to the Retained Doctor Scheme, as part of the commitments to support general practice set out in the General Practice Forward View, and how it will operate during 2016.
General Practice Resilience Programme. NHS England guidance on the implementation of the General Practice Resilience Programme that aims to deliver support to help practices to become more sustainable and resilient, to tackle the challenges they face now and into the future, and to secure continuing high quality care for patients. It describes how the programme will deliver the commitment set out in the General Practice Forward View to invest £40m over the next four years to support struggling practices.
See also NHS England takes action to ease pressures on general practice and provide joined-up care, that announces agreed new steps to implement plans to strengthen general practice, ease the pressure on GPs and improve services for patients.
Improving how hospitals work with general practice – new requirements on hospitals in the NHS Standard Contract 2016/17. This letter from NHS England gives details of six new requirements in the NHS standard contract for hospitals to adhere to in relation to the hospital/general practice interface. Included are requirements for hospitals to: publish local access policies; send discharge summaries within 24 hours; improve management of onward referrals; provide medication on discharge; and detailed requirements around notification of the results of investigations and treatments.
Multispecialty Community Provider (MCP) emerging care model and contract framework. Describes what being an MCP means, based on assembling the core features from the 14 MCP vanguards into a common framework. In addition, the document includes proposals for how the new voluntary contract may work. It proposes the contract will be a multi-year contract with payment operating on the basis of a whole population budget, a new pay-for-performance incentive scheme and risk-and gain-share agreement with the hospital sector. NHS England welcomes feedback and suggestions on this document by 2 September 2016.
See also Two leading GPs explain what it means to be a Multispecialty Community Provider (MCP).
Local empowerment: How to achieve a sustainable health service. This report from Localis makes the case for a devolution revolution in the National Health Service, arguing that a healthier balance between central and local control is possible and practical. The publication, sponsored by KPMG, argues that much more NHS funding should be raised and controlled locally, with local NHS and local government leaders devolved total control of their entire local health budget. Correspondingly local areas should be increasingly free of central government control and direction, with greater local flexibilities. To provide the framework for this 'devolution revolution', Localis recommends that areas across the country negotiate health devolution deals with Government that empower local leaders to drive integration, transformation and financial sustainability in their local health and care economies.
News
NHS England agrees to consider package of support for GPs. The BMA reports that NHS England has promised to address unsustainable pressures affecting GPs, including looking at safe working, length of appointments and time-consuming bureaucracy. Health managers from NHS England will hold talks with doctors leaders based on proposals from the BMA’s UPGP (Urgent Prescription for General Practice), which calls for a package of support to address the growing crises facing GP services. The move was confirmed in a letter from NHS England.
Fine for GP surgery that failed to protect patient’s personal data. A GP practice that revealed confidential details about a woman and her family to her estranged ex-partner has been fined £40,000 by the Information Commissioner. The practice gave out the information despite express warnings from the woman that staff should take particular care to protect her details.
Bevan Brittan Updates
GP Practice fined £40,000 for data protection breach. A GP Practice has been fined £40,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office for disclosing a woman's confidential details to her ex-husband.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around primary care please contact David Owens.
Public Health
Publications/Guidance
Childhood obesity: a plan for action. Sets out the Government’s plan to reduce England’s rate of childhood obesity within the next 10 years by encouraging industry to cut the amount of sugar in food and drinks and primary school children to eat more healthily and stay active.
There is also information on the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, which directly targets the producers and importers of sugary soft drinks to encourage them to remove added sugar, promote diet drinks, and reduce portion sizes for high sugar drinks.
Improving outcomes and supporting transparency – Part 2: Summary technical specifications of public health indicators. Sets out the technical specifications of the indicators in the revised Public Health Outcomes Framework 2016-2019. Local authorities must consider this document when carrying out their public health functions.
Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF). This revised framework aims to be reflective of the prevailing public health landscape, ensuring that the public health workforce continues to develop the skills and competences needed both now and in future. There is also a user guide, setting out how the Framework can be used by individuals, employers and educational providers working in public health.
Consultations
Soft drinks industry levy. The Government announced at Budget 2016 that it would introduce a new Soft Drinks Industry Levy from April 2018, as part of the Childhood Obesity Plan. This consultation seeks views on proposals for how the levy will be designed and implemented. The consultation closes on 13 October 2016.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around public health please contact Claire Bentley.
Regulators
Publications/Guidance
Regulating the duty of candour: a report on CQC inspections and regulation of the duty of candour. This report by AvMA shows that CQC inspections of NHS trusts in 2015 were very inconsistent and often superficial in how they assessed compliance with the duty, and that even where they identified there was non-compliance, there was little or no evidence that the CQC was taking steps to ensure that NHS trusts improved. It was also found that the CQC could not identify a single example where they had taken action over an alleged individual breach of the duty reported to it, and had no system in place to monitor these. AvMA is calling on the CQC to make urgent improvements to how it regulates the duty of candour and makes several recommendations to that end.
Being accepted being me: Understanding the end of life care needs for older LGBT people. The National Institute for Palliative Care has published a guide to help health and social care staff and volunteers to learn more about listening, understanding and responding to the unique needs of LGBT people. It follows the CQC’s report A Different Ending which found that discrimination continues to have an adverse impact on LGBT people’s access, needs and experience of services.
Consultations
Scope of performance sectors that they regulate and is seeking views on this issue. The consultation closes on 14 October 2016.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Court Challenge to CQC Factual Accuracy Process. The process of seeking Factual Accuracy corrections to CQC's draft inspection reports can be cumbersome and extremely frustrating for care providers.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around regulation please contact Stuart Marchant
General
Publications/Guidance
What if antibiotics were to stop working? This King's Fund paper, part of "The NHS if" collection, calls for international collaboration and action to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistance.
The medicine needed for the emergency care service. Joint report by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Nursing with key recommendations to tackle the situation facing emergency medicine. It follows a summit that examined solutions to coping with the increase in patients, which is outpacing the growth in the workforce, resulting in insufficient numbers of emergency doctors and nurses.
Devo-health: What & why? This booklet sets out the context for IPPR’s research on devo-health and the questions which it would like this programme of work to address. It also sets out some initial hypotheses about devo-health which it will look to test as it proceeds.
Failing well. This report by the Institute for Government looks at dealing with failure and turnaround from four critical areas of public service delivery. The system of organisations that deliver public services in the UK is complex and it is inevitable that failures will occur. But as recent high-profile cases have shown, when essential public services fail, citizens can be left without essential support or care. While new models of service delivery present opportunities for improvement, the risk of failure is heightened during change and transition. This research analyses the experiences of four different organisations that endured serious failures but nonetheless managed to successfully return to providing good services for citizens. It highlights eight lessons that can be learned from these case studies; it also draws some broader conclusions on understanding the nature of failure in the first place which should be borne in mind as current and future reforms are implemented.
Healthy Living Pharmacy Level 1 Quality Criteria: Assessment of compliance Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) Level 1. These quality criteria, and compliance with them, form part of the profession-led self-assessment process of becoming Level 1 Healthy Living Pharmacies.
Feeling the wait: Annual report on elective surgery waiting times. The Patients Association's sixth annual report on hospital waiting times for elective surgical procedures in England has found a big increase in the number of patients waiting over the 18-week NHS target for elective surgery.
Helping in hospitals: A guide to high impact volunteering in hospitals. With funding from the Cabinet Office and the DH, Helping in Hospitals worked with ten hospital trusts from 2014 to 2016 to help them build significant impact volunteering programmes. This guide by NESTA explores how hospital trusts can take a more strategic approach towards volunteering and how the impact of volunteering can be measured through rigorous evaluation. It is intended for those who are working to support volunteering in a hospital context. The guide provides tips and practical examples of what hospitals in the Helping in Hospitals programme have done to increase the scale and scope of their volunteering service. It also provides practical guidance on how to measure the impact of volunteering on patients, staff and trusts.
Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) explained. King's Fund briefing looking at what STPs really mean and what they will mean for the NHS.
News
Emergency care departments miss waiting-time targets. The BMA reports that waiting-time targets for Welsh emergency care departments have been missed again, according to the latest statistics. A total of 83.2 per cent of patients spent less than four hours in emergency care in July before being admitted, transferred or discharged, missing the Welsh Government target of 95 per cent.
Bevan Brittan Updates
CMA position on Private Health consultant upheld. The court of appeal has rejected the latest challenge to the CMA's Private HealthCare market investigation.
Medical Devices and Brexit. The dust has barely settled on the Brexit referendum and the future planning yet to begin.
NHS: Radical changes on the table from STPs. Health service under pressure to deliver step change quickly
If you wish to discuss any issues raised in this section please contact Claire Bentley.
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