Friday 2 May 2014

Northampton General Hospital investing in the future of radiology

Northampton General Hospital investing in the future of radiology

Staff at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) are involved in a new development that will transform the way radiology images and reports are used, helping to improve patient care. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

St Andrew’s Hospital patient caught after running out of breath following attack on staff

St Andrew’s Hospital patient caught after running out of breath following attack on staff

A patient at St Andrew’s Hospital in Northampton has been fined £100 after assaulting a nurse and a therapist. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Kettering Hospital gets award recognition for patient flow

Kettering Hospital gets award recognition for patient flow

Kettering Hospital has received a national award for the way its Ambulatory Care Unit has contributed to improved performance in accident and emergency. Evening Telegraph

Mass tests to track risk of dementia

Mass tests to track risk of dementia

A third of a million UK adults are to be asked to complete online reasoning and memory tests as part of a project to try to track dementia causes. BBC News

UK cancer survival rates ‘a national shame’ says Macmillan Cancer Support

UK cancer survival rates ‘a national shame’ says Macmillan Cancer Support

Britain’s leading cancer support charity has said that survival rates and care of cancer patients in the UK should be a “national shame”. The Independent

NHS funding increase needed as financial crisis looms

NHS funding increase needed as financial crisis looms

A significant increase in funding is needed to prevent a financial crisis in the NHS, according to a new report from The King's Fund.

The report finds that there are still significant opportunities to improve efficiency within the health service, for example by improving procurement and changing clinical practice. However, with more than a quarter of trusts already in deficit, the report warns that a financial crisis is now inevitable by 2015/16 and could arrive sooner than this, with damaging consequences for patient care.

The report highlights the progress made in improving efficiency in the face of the unprecedented slowdown in NHS funding since 2010. But it warns that the main ways of reducing costs - holding down salaries, reducing the prices paid to hospitals and cutting management costs - have now almost been exhausted.

Just 8% of NHS trust non-exec board members are healthcare professionals, study finds

Just 8% of NHS trust non-exec board members are healthcare professionals, study finds

Half of NHS hospitals do not have a single doctor or nurse on their non-executive board, a new study has revealed, in findings that have revived fears over the “commercialisation” of the culture of the NHS. The Independent

Vitamin D deficiency link to prostate cancer

Vitamin D deficiency link to prostate cancer

A study by Northwestern University in the US took biopsy samples from 600 men in Chicago and found that any which lacked vitamin D were strongly associated with prostate cancer.  Daily Mail

Could measuring cortisol levels become a biological test for risk of depression in adolescent males?

Could measuring cortisol levels become a biological test for risk of depression in adolescent males?

Is it possible to work out which of two adolescents sitting before you complaining of unhappiness, which one will go home and sleep it off and which will go on to develop an episode of major depression? Has the biological revolution in psychiatry finally come to fruition with a useful biomarker for making treatment decisions? [read the full story...]  The Mental Elf

Dementia prevalence calculator

Dementia prevalence calculator

This tool aims to provide locally relevant information about dementia care to facilitate the local planning of services specifically around the diagnosis of people with dementia. NHS England 
Calculator

EC consults on mobile health

EC consults on mobile health

Healthcare systems in Europe will have to open up to receiving data from patients, collected via mobile apps, the European Commission has said.  EHI News

NICE to support the NHS in gaining free trial access to medical research

NICE to support the NHS in gaining free trial access to medical research

NICE to support the NHS in gaining free trial access to medical research

Second Business plan launched

Second Business plan launched

Jo Lenaghan, Director of Strategy and Planning is pleased to announce the launch of our second Business Plan

“This plan sets out how we will deliver our commitments which includes the mandate published today.

Whilst our plan for 2013/14 reflected our status as a newly formed body in transition, our Business Plan for 2014/15 reflects our growing ambition and the challenges we face as a key part of the wider NHS system.

In particular reflecting on the way we see the workforce developing into more primary and community based services.

Read the full document here

Local health professionals to get more power to improve NHS primary care

Local health professionals to get more power to improve NHS primary care

Stevens announces new option for local Clinical Commissioning Groups to co-commission primary care in partnership with NHS England.

England’s 211 clinically-led local Clinical Commissioning Groups will get new powers to improve local health services under a new commissioning initiative announced today by NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens.

Speaking to GPs and other NHS health professionals at the Annual Conference of NHS Clinical Commissioners in London, Simon Stevens said:

“England has now taken the bold step – unique in the western world – of putting two thirds of its health service funding under the control of local family doctors and clinicians.

“If we want to better integrate care outside hospitals, and properly resource primary, community and mental health services – at a time when overall funding is inevitably constrained – we need to make it easier for patients, local communities and local clinicians to exercise more clout over how services are developed.

“That means giving local CCGs greater influence over the way NHS funding is being invested for their local populations. As well as new models for primary care, we will be taking a hard look at how CCGs can have more impact on NHS England’s specialised commissioning activities.

“So today I am inviting those CCGs that are interested in an expanded role in primary care to come forward and show how new powers would enable them to drive up the quality of care, cut health inequalities in primary care, and help put their local NHS on a sustainable path for the next five years and beyond.

“CCGs are still young organisations at different stages of development, and with different local needs. So rather than specifying a one-size-fits all solution, and having listened carefully to what CCGs have been saying, I’m keen to hear from CCGs themselves about what next steps they would like to explore.”

Mr Stevens announced that NHS England will be writing next week to all CCGs in England with details of how to submit expressions of interest in taking on enhanced powers and responsibilities to co-commission primary care.

Applications will need to describe the additional powers and responsibilities the CCG would like to assume. They will need to meet a number of tests, including showing they will help advance care integration, raise standards and cut health inequalities in primary care.

They will also need to show how they will ensure transparent and fair governance -with a continuing oversight role for NHS England to safeguard against conflicts of interest – all in the context of the CCG’s five-year plan for its local NHS services.

NHS England will work with the NHS Commissioning Assembly, NHS Clinical Commissioners and other stakeholders to advance this agenda.

CCG expressions of interest should be developed by June 20, the same date that CCGs will complete their initial five-year ‘Forward Views’ for local NHS services.

Each proposal will be discussed by the applicant CCG and the local Area Team of NHS England, which will subsequently make a recommendation for approval by the Board of NHS England.  NHS Commissioning Board