Wednesday 27 June 2012

Healthy hearts campaign

Healthy hearts campaign:
A high-profile campaign called Know Your Pulse is launching in Corby on Monday, July 2, with an event to coincide with the Olympic Torch relay visiting the town.  Evening Telegraph

Evaluation of the 2010/11 local pilot cancer symptom awareness campaigns

Evaluation of the 2010/11 local pilot cancer symptom awareness campaigns:
These projects covered 109 primary care trusts (PCTs) across England, targeting a total population of over 13.6 million. The report is aimed at local NHS staff. NHS Networks

Two-hour meninigitis test developed

Two-hour meninigitis test developed: A potentially life saving new test that quickly identifies the main cause of bacterial meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia cases in young babies has been developed by British scientists. Telegraph

Blood clot patients to receive routine cancer checks

Blood clot patients to receive routine cancer checks: Tens of thousands of people with deep vein blood clots will be checked for cancer every year under new NHS guidelines, after evidence emerged the blockages could be an early warning sign of tumours.Telegraph

At least 30 health trusts in a critical condition

At least 30 health trusts in a critical condition:
More than 30 NHS trusts could be forced to merge, devolve services into the community and make job cuts as part of a radical restructuring of hospital care across England. Independent

Public health advice service for clinical commissioning groups

Public health advice service for clinical commissioning groups:
This guidance aims to help local authority based Directors of Public Health and NHS commissioners with local planning in the transition year before the new healthcare system goes live in April 2013.
The healthcare public health advice service (PDF, 278K) is a means of ensuring that specialist public health advice in NHS commissioning is not lost when the new healthcare system is created. It includes examples of existing Memorandums of Understanding and has a frequently asked questions section.
The policy intention is to make it, through regulations, a mandatory requirement for local authorities to provide this service to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but the detail of the arrangements will need to be planned locally by CCGs and Directors of Public Health.
This document replaces the draft guidance that was published on the Department of Health website on 22 February.
As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, CCGs will have access to public health advice, information and expertise in relation to the healthcare services that they commission and will be provided by local public health teams based in local authorities. Department of Health

The 2012 Local Health Profiles published

The 2012 Local Health Profiles published:
The 2012 Local Health Profiles give a snapshot overview of health for each local authority in England in a user-friendly format. They are a valuable tool for local government and health services in helping them understand their community’s needs, so that they can work to improve people’s health and reduce health inequalities. Produced by the Public Health Observatories of England, health profiles are available as interactive maps and charts on the Local Health Profiles website. The profile for each local authority in England includes:
  • an ‘at a glance’ summary description of people’s health in the area, which includes information on locally identified priorities
  • maps and charts showing how the health of the area compares to the national view and information on health inequalities within the local authority
  • charts presenting changes in death rates over a 10 year period, compared to rates for England
  • a ‘spine chart’ health summary showing the difference in health between the area and the regional/England average for 32 indicators within five domains (our communities, children’s and young people’s health, adults’ health and lifestyle, diseases and poor health, and life expectancy and causes of death)
Department of Health

NHS Confederation response to Secretary of State decision to consider placing South London Healthcare Trust in administration

NHS Confederation response to Secretary of State decision to consider placing South London Healthcare Trust in administration: NHS Confederation deputy chief executive David Stout said the decision showed the government was starting to grasp the nettle on the difficult issues the NHS faces. NHS Confederation

Impact of telehealth

Impact of telehealth: The Nuffield Trust has published 'The impact of telehealth on use of hospital care and mortality'. This report evaluates the impact of telehealth on hospital use and mortality from the Department of Health's Whole System Demonstrator pilots. The study found indications of a positive impact on hospital admissions and patient mortality, however, there was less evidence that telehealth will reduce costs. For intervention patients, the overall costs of hospital care (including emergency admissions, elective admissions and outpatient attendances), were £188 per patient less than for those in the control group. However, this cost difference was not statistically significant.CASH News Feed

Role shadowing arrangements for junior doctors announced

Role shadowing arrangements for junior doctors announced:
Junior doctors will spend a minimum of four working days shadowing the job that they will be taking up from this summer, it was announced. The Department of Health asked Medical Education England (MEE) for advice on enabling junior doctors to make the transition from student to doctor and employee in the safest way possible.
The MEE Shadowing Steering Group on national shadowing arrangements for appointees to the foundation programmer published by Medical Education England advised that shadowing should be undertaken with the aim that junior doctors are safe, provide a high quality service to patients and are well prepared to start work as a new doctor.
NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said:
‘There is some evidence of increased risk to patients as new doctors take their first steps. So, learning from pilots across the country, we have agreed that all new first year doctors should undertake a period of paid shadowing the doctor they will be replacing, for a period of at least four days. That scheme will start this year, and will operate in late July every year.
Patient safety and providing a high quality service is at the heart of a modern NHS. This shadowing period could potentially save lives, and will equip new junior doctors with the local knowledge and skills needed to provide safe, high quality patient care, from their first day as a doctor.’
Three pilots have been carried out over the last three years, at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge / University of East Anglia, and Cardiff Medical School. Department of Health

SIGN discharge document

SIGN discharge document: The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network has published 'Guideline 123: the SIGN discharge document'. The aim of this document is to present a template for a single discharge document that can be used as both the Immediate Discharge Document (IDD; sent to the GP on the day of discharge) and as the final discharge summary/ letter (in its extended format) for more complex cases. It is of relevance to all hospital medical and nursing staff, allied health professionals, general practitioners, community nurses, pharmacists, out-of-hours services, and patients their carers and relatives. This SIGN discharge document replaces SIGN 65 and reflects a number of developments including advances that have been made with regard to the production, use and transmission of electronic documents within NHS Scotland, changes in terminology, and the importance of medicines reconciliation. CASH News Feed

Call for mental health research topics

Call for mental health research topics: RCN members are being encouraged to submit research topic proposals for the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (NCI) to consider.Royal College of Nursing