Friday 28 November 2014

£180,000 children’s assessment centre opened by Saints stars at Northampton General Hospital

£180,000 children’s assessment centre opened by Saints stars at Northampton General Hospital

A £180,000 new children’s assessment centre at Northampton General Hospital which has treated more than 400 youngsters in its first six weeks - was officially opened by a handful of Saints players yesterday. Northampton Chronicle

Care home in Northampton closed

Care home in Northampton closed

A care home in Northampton is closed to new residents for the second time in a month after an outbreak of norovirus. Northampton Chronicle

News story: New laws for more open and safe NHS care come into force

News story: New laws for more open and safe NHS care come into force

The 2 new laws come into force today. The Duty of Candour places a legal duty on hospital, community and mental health trusts to inform and apologise to patients if there have been mistakes in their care that have led to significant harm.

The introduction of the Duty of Candour is an important step in ensuring a more honest and open culture in the NHS, particularly when things go wrong. It is a major milestone in the government’s response to the Francis report into Mid Staffordshire, which called for a more open culture in the NHS. It forms part of a wider package of measures designed to support this.

The Fit and Proper Person’s Test will help to ensure strong and safe leadership in healthcare organisations. Under the new regulations, all NHS board members will be required to undergo the Test before they are appointed. This will include an assessment of their character and a robust consideration of whether the person has the right qualifications, skills and experience for the role. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will check during their inspections that providers have strong systems in place to carry out these checks before an appointment is made.

The Fit and Proper Person requirement comes into force for NHS healthcare bodies from today. It is intended to be extended to all other registered providers, such as care homes, in April 2015. Department of Health

The CQC has published guidance for NHS organisations to help them meet the requirements of these new regulations.

New hospital alert system to help prevent child abuse goes live

New hospital alert system to help prevent child abuse goes live


A new system to help doctors and nurses spot children suffering from abuse and neglect has successfully gone live. Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust are the first hospitals in the country to use the new Child Protection - Information Sharing (CP-IS) system which is designed to help avoid tragic cases such as Baby P being repeated.

The system will now be rolled out across the country, connecting emergency departments, out of hours GPs, walk in centres and local authorities through a national system that will alert clinical staff to those at risk of abuse or neglect.
 IC QOF

Independent report demands action on care of people with learning disabilities

Independent report demands action on care of people with learning disabilities

The report makes a series of recommendations for the NHS, local government, regulators and the government, that include a robust NHS commissioning framework to support people with learning disabilities and autism move out of hospitals and into the community. NHS Networks

Guide on care contact time

Guide on care contact time

The guide complements existing NQB guidance, NICE guidelines and NICE endorsed safe staffing toolkits.

The guide helps providers to make decisions about safe staffing care for their patients and service users and recommends that organisations review the contact time staff spend with their patients. NHS Networks

Patients deserve better out-of-hours care

Patients deserve better out-of-hours care


This undervalued service needs improvement if the NHS is to deliver 24-hour healthcare in the community
Community services are the future of the NHS

The annual headlines on A&E pressures are becoming almost a winter tradition. Solving this deep-rooted problem extends far beyond the front door of local emergency departments.

A&E and ambulance services are the 24-hour frontline part of this system – and get this scrutiny as the most recognisable “brand”, but we ignore at our peril the role that community nurses, pharmacists, walk-in centres and GPs can play in delivering a sustainable and consistent urgent care service. Guardian

Continue reading...

NHS England, Monitor and the TDA come together to issue joint guidance to the NHS

NHS England, Monitor and the TDA come together to issue joint guidance to the NHS

A collaborative approach to planning across the NHS in England is being taken forward, for the first time, by the three main organisations responsible for the system.

NHS England, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority will work together to co-produce one set of guidance for NHS commissioners, NHS trusts and foundation trusts. All three will work to collectively build on the recently published Five Year Forward View; galvanising the need for a joined up approach to secure sustainable high quality care across the health and care system.

The 2015/16 planning round provides an important opportunity to establish a foundation for longer term transformation based on the Five Year Forward View and to refresh, and to ensure sustained progress on, the two-year operational plans developed last year.

The jointly coordinated guidance will be issued in December. Further details including the planning timeline are available here. NHS Commissioning

Mental health deaths as beds cut

Mental health deaths as beds cut

Seven mental health patients have killed themselves in England since 2012 after being told there were no hospital beds for them, the BBC learns. BBC News

Ebola vaccine shows promise in human trials

Ebola vaccine shows promise in human trials


“Ebola vaccine trial results promising, says manufacturer,” The Guardian reports. Initial results from a trial involving 20 healthy adults found that the vaccine seems to be safe.

The trial was what is known as a phase one trial, which is designed to test if a drug or intervention is safe, rather than whether it is effective against Ebola.

There were some minor side effects – such as mild pain, fever and generally feeling under the weather – but all symptoms resolved after a few days.

Although the purpose of the study was to assess safety, the researchers also measured the antibody levels that had been produced following the vaccine, which gives an indication that it might be effective in granting immunity against infection. NHS Choices

Links To The Headlines

Ebola vaccine trial results promising, says manufacturer. The Guardian, November 26 2014

'Positive signs' from Ebola vaccine trial. BBC News, November 26 2014

Ebola vaccine promising in first human trials. Mail Online, November 26 2014

Ebola Vaccine Trial Shows Signs Of Success. Sky News, November 27 2014


Links To Science

Ledgerwood JE, DeZure AD, Stanley DA, et al. Chimpanzee Adenovirus Vector Ebola Vaccine — Preliminary Report. The New England Journal of Medicine. Published online November 26 2014

Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia: a critique by Laws, Langford and Huda

Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia: a critique by Laws, Langford and Huda

Keith Laws, Alex Langford and Samei Huda provide a critique of the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology report published today. The Mental Elf

AUDIO: Schizophrenia assumptions challenged

AUDIO: Schizophrenia assumptions challenged

A report published on Thursday challenges received wisdom about the nature of schizophrenia. BBC News

Blood test could pick up risk of cancer five years in advance, say Harvard scientists

Blood test could pick up risk of cancer five years in advance, say Harvard scientists

Harvard University has found that mutations in blood indicate that a person is at higher risk of developing cancer. Independent