Quality comes from all angles: the value of corporate services staff

Quality comes from all angles: the value of corporate services staff: It’s a hard time for managers in the health service. They don’t just have the pressure to deliver with less, but they have to do this difficult task against a backdrop of organisations, policy makers and the media challenging the value of spending time doing anything that isn’t direct care for patients, says Penny Pereira. The Health Foundation

QIPP and lean running dominate the operating framework

QIPP and lean running dominate the operating framework:

The operating framework under which CCGs will make their way to authorisation in April 2013 contains few surprises, according to a briefing from PCC. Managing the NHS’s finances remains a top priority and CCGs are warned to expect a running cost allowance at the lower end of the range suggested in last year’s operating framework. NHS Networks

Industrial action on Wednesday 30 November

Industrial action on Wednesday 30 November:

Emergency and critical care services will be operating normally and 999 calls will be responded to, during industrial action in the NHS on Wednesday 30 November.

Accident & Emergency Departments and 999 services are for medical emergencies only.

The NHS Direct telephone service is available for patients with urgent needs: 0845 46 47 , as well as online symptom checkers. Further health and wellbeing information is available on NHS Choices. Department of Health

DoH will not release documents about NHS reform risks

DoH will not release documents about NHS reform risks: The DoH will not release documents about the risks of the NHS reforms as ministers fear it would 'seriously undermine confidence' in the reorganisation. GP Online

Patient records access standard urged

Patient records access standard urged: New research on patient records access recommends a set of national standards for implementation, training and promotion and a centralised IT support service. E-Health Insider

NHS reform 'set to cost £3.4bn' - The Press Association

NHS reform 'set to cost £3.4bn' - The Press Association:

shropshirestar.com

NHS reform 'set to cost £3.4bn' The Press Association Coalition reforms of the NHS will cost nearly £3.4 billion, Labour has claimed. Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham accused the Government of "burying" the true scale of the cost of the reorganisation in papers setting out the technical details of the ... NHS reform 'set to cost £3.4bn'Belfast Telegraph all 196 news articles »

The Press Association

NHS culture avoids blame when the priority is avoiding deaths, says report

NHS culture avoids blame when the priority is avoiding deaths, says report:

NHS Alliance, an independent medical lobby, wants a system that will study errors so that lessons will be learnt

Out-of-hours GPs and other primary care organisations are failing to admit potentially fatal mistakes or use formal alert systems designed to prevent similar accidents, according to a new report.

There is a "culture of avoiding blame" when the emphasis should be on avoiding deaths, the report, published by the NHS Alliance, said.

The alliance represents doctors, managers and commissioners, and is trying to persuade about 100 organisations providing emergency evening and weekend GP care for 7 million people a year in England to join an anonymous system.

This is being piloted by 10 organisations following the scandal involving Daniel Ubani, a German doctor who accidentally killed a 70-year-old patient in Cambridgeshire with a 10-fold overdose of the painkiller diamorphine.

An NHS investigation into the incident accused Take Care Now, a now-defunct out-of-hours provider, of systemic failings, including not heeding national safety warnings on the administration of drugs or sharing information on poorly performing doctors.

The NHS Alliance, backed by the Department of Health, the Royal College of GPs and national safety watchdogs, is trying to develop a new anonymised website and teleconferencing system to highlight errors and ensure lessons are learned.

The need for better links between out-of-hours and regular GP services on the one hand, and pathology labs and A&E departments on the other, are among the issues that have been raised.

The report said that the Ubani case "highlights how slow we often are to learn from mistakes, both within organisations and across the wider urgent care system". It adds that there is still "a very low level" of recent incident reporting using official NHS channels "both from out-of-hours and primary care as a whole", and it hoped the initiative would "shift the way providers think about incidents, giving them cultural permission to admit that occasionally we mess up".

Rick Stern, who is in charge of urgent care for the alliance, said new rules and guidance were not enough. "One of the biggest failings is the culture of avoiding blame and the lack of good systems for sharing what has been learnt," he said.

The alliance did not want to replace official reporting systems even though they were poorly used, he added.

The NHS's National Patient Safety Agency, which runs the formal incident reporting system, is being abolished as part of the coalition government's closure of quangos, but it is in talks with Imperial College NHS Trust in London to run the system for two years before it becomes the responsibility of the NHS commissioning board. The Guardian

Some NHS hospitals should perform fewer procedures, senior figure warns

Some NHS hospitals should perform fewer procedures, senior figure warns: Hospitals should stop carrying out complex procedures they only perform occasionally, a senior figure in the Department of Health urges today, after figures showed that it can put patients at up to 70 per cent higher risk of dying. Daily Telegraph

RCN: risky and irresponsible staffing levels on older people’s wards

RCN: risky and irresponsible staffing levels on older people’s wards: The Royal College of Nursing has branded staffing levels on some older people’s wards as risky and irresponsible. Royal College of Nursing

A Better Life - what older people with high support needs value

A Better Life - what older people with high support needs value:

What do older people with high physical and mental support needs say they want and value in their lives?

Part of the JRF's A Better Life programme, this paper:

• explores the views of older people and the factors that help or hinder them; and



• proposes a model which demonstrates how their needs could be met.

The circular model combines aspects of well-being older people say they value with the factors that they claim help or hinder their quality of life. read more

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Developing the new NHS Provider Licence: A Framework Document

Developing the new NHS Provider Licence: A Framework Document: This document aims to engage our stakeholders as we develop our thinking on a key element of our proposed new role, licensing providers of NHS services. Monitor