Engaging local stakeholders: more help on the way with the STAR tool

Engaging local stakeholders: more help on the way with the STAR tool: With CCGs now centre stage, Mara Airoldi from LSE talks about how the Star approach can help to assess current and future health interventions in terms of their health benefits, value for money and in setting priorities for health in local populations. The Health Foundation

Guidance: Integrated Care: Our Shared Committment

Guidance: Integrated Care: Our Shared Committment: This framework document on integration, signed by 12 national partners, sets out how local areas can use existing structures such as Health and Wellbeing Boards to bring together local authorities, the NHS, care and support providers, education, housing services, public health and others to make further steps towards integration. Department of Health

A&E 'must change or face collapse'

A&E 'must change or face collapse': Urgent changes must be made to the way A&E units are run - or the system could collapse, doctors and managers say. BBC News

See also:

• VIDEO: A&E departments face crisis BBC News
• A&E care needs urgent overhaul, NHS is warned The Independent
• Fifth of casualty units rely on junior doctors at weekends and evenings The Daily Telegraph
• A&E care requires overhaul amid rising pressure of patient numbers – report The Guardian

Push to improve dementia diagnosis

Push to improve dementia diagnosis: The NHS in England has been told to push for a rapid rise in dementia diagnosis rates. BBC News

See also

• Doctors told to improve dementia diagnosis rates The Guardian
• New targets for dementia diagnosis rates NHS England

DH must tackle 'huge workload challenges facing GPs', warns RCGP

DH must tackle 'huge workload challenges facing GPs', warns RCGP: Ministers must tackle huge rises in GP workload and provide extra resources if the profession is to play a key role in improved, integrated healthcare for the elderly, the RCGP has warned. GP Online

Asthma data sharing to address treatment quality

Asthma data sharing to address treatment quality: A new online tool has been launched to share data on asthma and address significant variations in quality of care across the country Public Service

The non-executive directors’ guide to hospital data part two: elective hospital admissions, waiting times and patient experience

The non-executive directors’ guide to hospital data part two: elective hospital admissions, waiting times and patient experience: This briefing aims to help non-executive directors (NEDs) better understand NHS data and how it can be used to determine what is going on in their hospital. It has been produced in association with CHKS and is the second in a series of four briefings which have been developed to increase the non-executive director's understanding of NHS data and give them the confidence to ask the right questions about it.

• Briefing
• NHS Confederation - publications

Angelina Jolie's surgery to 'reduce breast cancer risk'

Angelina Jolie's surgery to 'reduce breast cancer risk': Writing in the New York Times, actress Angelina Jolie has announced that she has recently undergone a double mastectomy (where both breasts are surgically removed) followed by breast reconstruction surgery.

More than a third have experienced 'poor NHS care' - ITV News

More than a third have experienced 'poor NHS care' - ITV News:

ITV News

More than a third have experienced 'poor NHS care' ITV News More than a third of people treated on the NHS believe that they have experienced unacceptable standards of care, according to an ITV News Index poll carried out by ComRes. They blame a target culture among management and a lack of compassion ... and more »

True integration involves the NHS, local councils and families

True integration involves the NHS, local councils and families: Families are the biggest providers of care, yet carers can find themselves cut out of decision-making and bounced between different bureaucracies
Caring is a fact of life. Whether a partner falls ill, or a parent needs support as they grow older, or a child is born with a disability – it will affect us all at some point.
At times like these, families pull together to support each other. But too often they find that the services there to support them don't do the same.

Ministers admit 111 line has been 'very disappointing'

Ministers admit 111 line has been 'very disappointing': Ministers have admitted the new NHS non-emergency advice line had a "very disappointing start" and is still not operating properly in several parts of the country. The Daily Telegraph

Does integrated care deliver the benefits expected?

Does integrated care deliver the benefits expected?: A two-year initiative by the Department of Health explored new ways of integrating patient care from different local providers. This briefing reviews the findings from 16 integrated care pilot initiatives in England. RAND Europe