Thursday 29 May 2014

Beyond Francis and Berwick...sign up to improvement?

Beyond Francis and Berwick...sign up to improvement? We’ve faltered in England. There hasn’t been a medium term strategy for improvement in the NHS based on recognised tried and tested quality improvement techniques, some from other industries with complex high risk systems like the NHS. Isn’t it now time for something more strategic, on the back of Francis and given the financial squeeze? asks Dr Jennifer Dixon. The Health Foundation

QualityWatch: Focus on: antidepressant prescribing

QualityWatch: Focus on: antidepressant prescribing This research, conducted jointly between The Nuffield Trust and The Health Foundation, reveals that the financial crisis and subsequent recession saw a significant acceleration in the numbers of antidepressants prescribed by GPs. This striking increase is despite the incidence of depression having risen much more slowly over the same time period, meaning that either antidepressants were heavily under-prescribed in 1998, or they are heavily over prescribed now.

Meet the people using social media to make a difference

Meet the people using social media to make a difference NHS Employers have collaborated with HSJ and Nursing Times to celebrate healthcare’s social media pioneers.

Call to 'resist e-cigarette controls'

Call to 'resist e-cigarette controls' Public health specialists are pressing the World Health Organization to "resist the urge to control and suppress e-cigarettes". BBC News

NICE: 'Obese should be prescribed slimming clubs'

NICE: 'Obese should be prescribed slimming clubs' “GPs told to prescribe £100 slimming courses for millions of obese patients,” the Daily Mail reports.

The news is based on new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that aim to encourage sustainable weight loss in the obese; “lose a little, and keep it off”.

The guidance is mainly aimed at commissioners (who plan and agree which services will be provided in the NHS and monitor them), health professionals and groups who provide lifestyle weight management programmes. The recommendations may also be of interest to members of the public, including people who are overweight or obese.

The guidance has been issued because being overweight or obese is a common and important health problem in the UK. In 2012 about a quarter of men and women aged 16 and over in England had a body mass index (BMI) over 30, classified as obese.

Less than half of patients accept NHS Health Check

Less than half of patients accept NHS Health Check Check up numbers rose by 9.5% in past year. OnMedica

Clinical commissioning groups are key to transforming the NHS

Clinical commissioning groups are key to transforming the NHS CCGs can build relationships locally and take the lead on integrated and innovative work.

For the past year clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have been working hard to make a difference in a system that isn't set up to support them. But in spite of increasingly unstable finances and an NHS that is still embedding and adapting to new ways of working, CCGs are making responsible, clinically-led decisions in partnership with GPs, patients and providers which are making a difference to the care being delivered to their communities. Our Taking the Lead publication highlights 16 CCGs across the country who are unleashing the power of clinical leaders, working with local government, the voluntary sector and other key partners.

The 16 examples show what results for patients the innovation, enthusiasm, energy and clinical leadership of CCGs can have for example, in Corby, senior GPs now work part of their week in a new urgent care facility, and local people no longer have to travel eight miles to A&E for an x-ray. Or take Oldham, where the CCG is working with the local council and a housing association to lift people out of fuel poverty so that 1,000 households stay warm in the winter. In Leicester, health coaches are helping people with chronic lung disease to look after themselves, and in east London people recovering from mental ill-health can now be seen out of hospital in their GP surgery. Continue reading... The Guardian

New guidelines to improve healthcare's 'horrendous' supply chain record

New guidelines to improve healthcare's 'horrendous' supply chain record Calls for a statement of ethical procurement to be included in the NHS constitution as public sector lags behind business

"There are some horrible working conditions; kids as young as seven making surgical instruments; people losing limbs. It's horrendous," says Dr Mahmoud Bhutta, consultant surgeon and founder of the British Medical Association's (BMA) Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group, established in 2007. "Many of the companies [which supply the NHS] have been burying their heads in the sand."

Bhutta does not hold back in his criticism of the companies that collectively spend £30bn of public money on behalf of the NHS. The publication of new BMA guidance for GPs and commissioners, which strive to protect workers' rights in medical supply chains, only highlights the lack of progress since 2008 when the guidelines were released. Continue reading... The Guardian

UK women are fattest in western Europe: 1 in 12 are clinically obese

UK women are fattest in western Europe: 1 in 12 are clinically obese Young women in the UK are fatter than anywhere else in western Europe with one in 12 being clinically obese, a study has shown. The Independent

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