Drug use at lowest level since 1996

Drug use at lowest level since 1996 The proportion of adults who say they use illegal drugs has fallen but 6% of young adults used "laughing gas" in the last year, a Home Office study finds. BBC News

New virus 'not following Sars' path'

New virus 'not following Sars' path' The new Mers virus, which has killed half of those infected, is "unlikely" to reach the same scale as Sars, ministers in Saudi Arabia say. BBC News

NHS Employment Check Standards have been updated

NHS Employment Check Standards have been updated The NHS Employment Check Standards have been updated. There are six documents in total that outline the employment checks that employers must carry out before appointing staff into NHS positions across England. NHS Employers

Enter the CCG

Enter the CCG From time to time I come across something in the NHS that leaves me screaming, but this is the mother and father of them all - the Section 251 debacle. E-Health Insider

Strength in numbers: how independent hospices could raise more income

Strength in numbers: how independent hospices could raise more income This report explores the opportunities and challenges for hospices to raise more income from voluntary and donated sources in the future.

• Report
• Help the Hospices - publications

Auditing the accounts 2012/13: NHS bodies

Auditing the accounts 2012/13: NHS bodies This report summarises the results of auditors’ work for 2012/13 at NHS bodies within the Commission’s audit regime. These bodies comprised NHS trusts, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. It covers the timeliness and quality of financial reporting, auditors’ local value for money work, the extent to which auditors utilised their statutory reporting powers, and the challenges facing NHS bodies for 2013/14. 

• Report
• Audit Commission - publications

Can the new NHS bodies solve the current problems?

Can the new NHS bodies solve the current problems? Few people would look at the new NHS structure and conclude that the health service needs more organisations.

Who is in charge? Hidden among the predictable dissection of urgent and emergency care woes in the health select committee report, published on Wednesday, are serious concerns about whether the myriad of new NHS bodies are capable of sorting the problems out.

Labour calls for investigation into rise in deaths of older people

Labour calls for investigation into rise in deaths of older people Official figures show 23,400 more deaths of older people than expected in 18 months, with many in poorest parts of country.

A&E doctors 'should focus on patients, not pay'

A&E doctors 'should focus on patients, not pay' A&E doctors should worry less about their pay packets and more about their patients, the head of NHS Employers has claimed as he dismissed complaints about evening and weekend work. The Daily Telegraph

£25 to see your GP: Majority of doctors want to charge patients for routine appointments

£25 to see your GP: Majority of doctors want to charge patients for routine appointments

The ideal of an NHS free at the point of need was dealt a serious blow today, as a survey of family doctors revealed unprecedented levels of support for charging patients for routine appointments. The Independent

See also:

• Patients should pay us, say doctors The Daily Telegraph
• NHS bosses rule out charging patients to visit GP The Guardian

NHS staff told to stop moaning and come up with solutions

NHS staff told to stop moaning and come up with solutions In an effort to boost morale NHS bosses have banned staff from moaning unless they come up with a solution to the problem. The Independent