Thursday 2 June 2016

Is strategic commissioning the future for the NHS?

Is strategic commissioning the future for the NHS? The current system of commissioning and providing health care in England is evolving in response to growing financial and operational pressures, and the new care models being implemented in the wake of the NHS five year forward view. Of particular importance is the requirement on NHS organisations to work together to develop sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) in the 44 areas of England designated for this purpose. The King's Fund

Supplying the Demand for Doctors: The need to end the rationing of medical training places

Supplying the Demand for Doctors: The need to end the rationing of medical training places This report proposes that instead of Health Education England (HEE) making upfront payments for the training of its medics (via bursaries, fifth year tuition fees and clinical placement fees), medical students should be required to take out a loan from the Student Loans Company to cover the total cost of their training; thus transferring the NHS’s immediate training costs to an asset on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ balance sheet.

The eradication of upfront payments by the NHS would mean the current cap on the number of doctors training each year could be lifted and the UK could finally train the number of doctors it needs. Importantly, such a training loan would be repaid on behalf of each medic by the NHS through HEE on condition that doctors work for the NHS after graduating. If graduates leave the country to work abroad or transfer from the NHS into the private sector they would become liable for the repayment of these loans. Civitas

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Midwife burn-out leading to safety fears says RCM launching new campaign

Midwife burn-out leading to safety fears says RCM launching new campaign Over half (52%) of midwives and maternity support workers (MSW) who responded to a survey said that they had seen an error, near miss or incident that could have hurt service users in the last month. Half of the respondents also strongly agreed or agreed with the statement ‘I am worried about making a mistake at work because I am exhausted’.

These are some of the disturbing results of a UK survey around health, safety and wellbeing of midwives, student midwives and MSWs, published by the Royal College of Midwives

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Workplace experiences of BME and white staff published for every NHS trust across England

Workplace experiences of BME and white staff published for every NHS trust across England The NHS Equality and Diversity Council is today publishing the inaugural report of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), showing results of the experiences of BME and white staff from the staff survey 2015 at every NHS trust across England.

This is the first time the WRES data has been collected and published nationally.

Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, and co-chair of the NHS Equality and Diversity Council said: “This report provides unvarnished feedback to every hospital and trust across the NHS about the experiences of their BME staff. It confirms that while some employers have got it right, for many others these staff survey results are both deeply concerning and a clear call to action. As this is the first year of the WRES, it provides a transparent baseline from which each employer will now be seeking to improve.” NHS England

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Doctors urged to help stop ‘chemical restraint’ as leading health professionals sign joint pledge

Doctors urged to help stop ‘chemical restraint’ as leading health professionals sign joint pledge New guidance launched today will support prescribing healthcare professionals to review inappropriate prescriptions for people under their care who have a learning disability and/or autism. NHS England

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Kissing it Better: simply making a difference – Jill Fraser

Kissing it Better: simply making a difference – Jill Fraser In the first of a series of blogs to mark Volunteers Week 2016, the chair and co-founder of a healthcare charity gives a moving example of how three million volunteers nationwide, who give their time freely to support healthy, welfare and disability organisations, are making a real difference. NHS England

New NHS safety body 'must be independent'

New NHS safety body 'must be independent' A new organisation designed to make the NHS in England safer must have its independence guaranteed in law, a cross-party committee of MPs says. BBC News

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Exclusive: CCG prescribing restrictions could put GPs in breach of GMC rules

Exclusive: CCG prescribing restrictions could put GPs in breach of GMC rules 'Hard-line' CCG advice to restrict prescribing of medicines available over-the-counter could put practices at risk of breaching GMC advice, the GPC has warned. GP Online

UK has highest rate of gonorrhoea in Europe

UK has highest rate of gonorrhoea in Europe Rates of gonorrhoea more than doubled across Europe between 2008 and 2014. OnMedica

Reshaping the workforce to deliver the care patients need

The future of the NHS is in the hands of its workforce Healthcare professionals can be enabled to deliver care by developing new roles, developing their practice and being taken care of by their employer

The diverse NHS workforce is working tirelessly to meet an ever-increasing demand on the health service. People need help to keep pace with the more complex and longer term needs of those they serve. I argue we need to look differently at staffing in two ways. Firstly a focus on learning the lessons of how new ways of working can help our patients, and secondly addressing the real variation in the experience of our people.

Our report with the Nuffield Trust looking at how we can reshape a future workforce recommended that those registered care professionals (nurses, allied health professionals and pharmacists) already working for us could be better enabled to deliver care by developing new clinical roles and developing the scope and extent of their practice. It also highlighted that the training of non-clinical staff to support patient care will help meet the changing needs of people today, but it will also mark a radical shift in the way that our workforce today is structured. Continue reading... The Guardian

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Suicidal and detained for my own safety, I saw the mental health system failing | Karl Knights

Suicidal and detained for my own safety, I saw the mental health system failing | Karl Knights More and more young people are being spat out of hospitals, or waiting three months for therapy when they can’t even make it through the day

I was detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. Campus security at my university had called the police when I expressed an intent to harm myself at a bar. As I was put in the back of the police car, I felt a mixture of shame at being treated like a common criminal, as though I’d done something wrong, and relief.

Now I didn’t have to bear the weight of my monochrome, depressed world and my fate was out of my hands. I was being taken to somewhere where I would receive treatment, they said. I was terrified. We arrived at suite 136, and I was detained pending an assessment.

Each conversation about mental health is a hand extended to someone who may otherwise feel isolated and alone Continue reading... The Guardian

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Computers will outperform doctors at diagnosing illnesses, says government technology adviser

Computers will outperform doctors at diagnosing illnesses, says government technology adviser Computers will soon outperform even the best doctors at diagnosing illnesses, because of the rapid growth of processing power, a government technology adviser has said.

Richard Susskind, an Oxford professor who has advised governments around the world, said that in the coming years, patients would be able to take pictures of their ailments and receive an accurate, computer-generated diagnosis. The Daily Telegraph

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