Understanding analytical capability in health care: Do we have more data than insight?

Understanding analytical capability in health care: Do we have more data than insight? Analysis has a crucial role to play in shaping care for individual patients as well as across organisations and health systems. It also has a role in helping to improve quality and safety by identifying areas for improvement and monitoring service delivery.

There is a widely acknowledged problem that health services often cannot access the right level of skilled analysts. This can lead to decisions being made on based on limited or inappropriate evidence.

In this paper, Martin Bardsley explores issues around both supply and demand that need to be addressed to ensure good quality analysis is able to improve care.  The Health Foundation

CQC publishes inspection reports on Marie Stopes International

CQC publishes inspection reports on Marie Stopes International The CQC has published the reports of its inspections of Marie Stopes International from earlier this year.

The concerns identified by the quality regulator from these inspections led to Marie Stopes International suspending specific types of termination between 19 August and 7 October 2016, while it worked with CQC to address these concerns.

These restrictions were:

• Suspensions of all termination of pregnancies for under-18s and vulnerable groups of women
• Suspensions of all surgical terminations under general anaesthetic or conscious sedation
• Suspensions of all surgical terminations at its Norwich centre.

CQC issued four warning notices to Marie Stopes International, in response to regulatory breaches around 'consent', 'safeguarding', 'care and treatment' and 'governance', as well as a number of 'requirement notices', to support improvement. Care Quality Commission

See also:

• Marie Stopes abortion clinics found to have 2,600 safety flaws The Daily Mail
• Watchdogs release damning reports on Marie Stopes abortion clinics The Daily Telegraph

What is truth? An inquiry about truth and lying in dementia care

What is truth? An inquiry about truth and lying in dementia care This is the report of the major Inquiry about Truth and Lying in Dementia Care, commissioned and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

There are around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and the ageing population suggests this figure will rise significantly. Around half of these people may be living with different realities.

Carers often have challenging decisions to make when a person is living with different realities and beliefs - something that increases as the dementia accelerates. Should they agree or contradict? What should they say? This report looks to provide guidance in these situations. The Mental Health Foundation

NHS England transformation fund - call to bid

NHS England transformation fund - call to bid To support the implementation of the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved NHS efficiency, NHS England has created a transformation fund. This funding will enable local areas to deliver on key ambitions identified by the independent cancer and mental health taskforces. Additionally we will continue to build on the Transforming Care priority for those with learning disabilities and kick start, at scale, revolutions for diabetes treatment and prevention.

New care centres to improve services for millions with complex needs

New care centres to improve services for millions with complex needs An NHS England scheme to transform care for millions of disabled people and people those with long term conditions is being rolled out to six new areas across England.

Minimal consciousness

Minimal consciousness Advances in medicine have meant that many more people survive traumatic incidents than in the past.

Many people will have "prolonged disorders of consciousness" - either in a coma or vegetative state, where they show no awareness of their environment, or a minimally conscious state, like Paul Briggs, where they show very limited awareness.

However, the NHS does not publish data on these patients, so this autumn the BBC requested the information from all individual CCGs and NHS bodies across the UK.

The responses showed that more than 100 people with prolonged disorders of consciousness are currently being cared for by the NHS. BBC News

Nurse leaders blame government for drop in nursing degree applicants

Nurse leaders blame government for drop in nursing degree applicants Nurse leaders have blamed the government for the sharp fall in applications to nursing, midwifery, and allied health degrees, revealed by The Times.

On Saturday, the newspaper reported that applications for these degrees had fallen by a fifth compared with this time last year. And the drop in the number of these applicants was twice that of other courses, it said.

The figures, which draw on survey data from higher education body Universities UK, show that the shortfalls in applications are worst in London and the south east, and among mature candidates. OnMedica

A council tax rise alone will not solve the social care funding crisis

A council tax rise alone will not solve the social care funding crisis Collaboration between the public, private and voluntary sectors is essential to address funding and workforce challenges

The planned council tax rise and government pledge to fund social care have done little to abate the growing frustration at the crisis breaking in the sector. If the prime minister is serious about making social care fit for purpose, her government needs to take a broader, more comprehensive look at the care industry. A rise in council tax alone is unlikely to be the silver bullet that solves the social care funding conundrum.

Social care is at a tipping point, according to the Care Quality Commission. Recent figures show that 77 of the 152 local authorities responsible for providing care for older people have seen at least one residential and nursing care provider close due to insufficient funds, and far more face severe financial pressures. Every time a local authority cannot deliver the social care its residents need, it puts further strain on the NHS. Continue reading... The Guardian

Cash to boost children's mental health not getting through, says charity

Cash to boost children's mental health not getting through, says charity YoungMinds data shows half of England’s clinical commissioning groups used their share of new £1.4bn allocation for other purposes

Money to improve struggling children’s mental health services is often not reaching the NHS frontline despite soaring rates of self-harm among young people, new figures reveal.

Half of England’s clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are using their share of the £1.4bn ministers allocated to improve NHS care of troubled young people for other purposes, it has emerged. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• Children's mental health funding not going were it should YoungMinds
• 'I'm like a puppet to mental health - I hear voices' BBC News
• Children’s Mental Health Funding Is Not Going Where It Should Be Huffington Post UK

GP and senior manager spared jail after stealing £153,000 from the NHS winter budget to train doctors

GP and senior manager spared jail after stealing £153,000 from the NHS winter budget to train doctors A leading mental health GP and senior clinical commissioning manager have been spared jail after fraudulently taking £153,000 from the NHS winter budget to train doctors.

Dr Ian Walton and Lisa Hill admitted raising a false invoice for GP training from a charity, on whose board they both sat, before diverting the cash into the bank account of a private company they controlled.

Walton, a highly-regarded GP of more than 30 years, and Hill abused what a judge called their "considerable positions of trust" by having money to which they were never entitled. The Daily Telegraph