Enhanced care in care homes: building on a promising start

Enhanced care in care homes: building on a promising start Today is national care home open day. This has prompted me to reflect on how some areas have been successful in joining up health care and residential care to better meet the complex needs of people living in care homes. The best-known examples are perhaps the six vanguards for enhanced health care in care homes, but other areas outside NHS England’s vanguard programme have adopted a similar approach. The King's Fund

News story: More A&E funding to help hospitals prepare for winter

News story: More A&E funding to help hospitals prepare for winter The Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt has announced a second wave of funding to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments ahead of next winter.

The Secretary of State will confirm that a further £20.74 million has been awarded to 27 hospitals in England, which follows an initial £55.98 million given to 70 hospitals in April. This money is part of the dedicated funding announced in the Spring Budget to ensure local A&Es are prepared for the additional demands that winter brings. Department of Health

NHS moves to end “fractured” care system

NHS moves to end “fractured” care system The head of NHS England pledged to end the “fractured” health and social care system that leaves too many patients “passed from pillar to post” by giving local leaders and communities more control over how they improve health and social care.

Addressing the NHS Confederation in Liverpool, Simon Stevens said: “As the NHS approaches its 70th Birthday, we are now embarked on the biggest national move to integrating care of any major western country. For patients this means better joined up services in place of what has often been a fragmented system that passes people from pillar to post.”

He announced nine areas in England – covering some seven million people – which will be the forefront of nationwide action to provide joined up, better coordinated care breaking down the barriers between GPs and hospitals, physical and mental healthcare, social care and the NHS. NHS England

Trust and collaboration within vanguards is essential but not easy - new report

Trust and collaboration within vanguards is essential but not easy - new report A new report launched at Confed17, looks to better understand how to build trust across systems to promote more effective collaborative working.


Trustworthy Collaboration, written for NHS Employers by Prof Veronica Hope-Hailey of the University of Bath, explores the challenges of building trust across health systems, in the context of the 50 vanguard sites tasked with delivering transformational change through new care models. NHS Employers

Driving improvement: case studies from eight NHS trusts

Driving improvement: case studies from eight NHS trusts This report contains case studies of eight trusts that have shown significant improvement since a previous inspection. It explores what these trusts have done to become 'well-led'. The CQC asked people in those trusts how they had achieved improvements, looked at the steps their leaders had taken and the effect of those actions on staff and patients. Care Quality Commission

NHS expenditure

NHS expenditure This briefing documents NHS expenditure since 1948. It also contains a summary of the structure of the NHS and how it is financed. House of Commons Library

Acting without delay - how the independent sector is working with the NHS to reduce delayed discharge

Acting without delay - how the independent sector is working with the NHS to reduce delayed discharge This report from the NHS Partners Network highlights examples where the independent sector is working with the NHS to avoid delayed discharges of care. NHS Confederation

NHS cyber-attack was 'launched from North Korea'

NHS cyber-attack was 'launched from North Korea' The Lazarus group - who targeted Sony Pictures in 2014 - believed to have been behind NHS cyber-attack. BBC News

Exclusive: Hospitals could need more than 200 GPs to staff NHS A&E plans

Exclusive: Hospitals could need more than 200 GPs to staff NHS A&E plans Hospitals could hire more than 200 GPs to work in A&E departments in the next 12 months under plans to put primary care doctors 'on the front door' at every emergency department in the country. GPonline

Breast cancer drug that can extend lives approved for NHS use

Breast cancer drug that can extend lives approved for NHS use Joy as deal struck to make Kadcyla, which costs an annual £90,000 per patient at full price, available for routine use

A drug that can extend the lives of women with advanced breast cancer has been approved for routine use on the NHS.

Charities and campaigners reacted with huge disappointment when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) rejected the drug, Kadcyla, on cost grounds in 2016. Continue reading... The Guardian

Smoking rate in UK falls to second-lowest in Europe

Smoking rate in UK falls to second-lowest in Europe Public health chiefs pleased at steep decline in smoking rate among young adults, from 26% to 19% in six years

Smoking rates across the UK continue to fall, showing a sharp decline since 2010 among younger people, latest figures reveal.

In 2016, 15.8% of adults in the UK smoked, down from 17.2% in 2015, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• National Statistics: Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2016 Public Health England
• Official Statistics: Local tobacco control profiles for England: June 2017 data update Public Health England
• Pregnant women smoking rates 'concern' in England BBC News

GP shortage fuelled by rising numbers working part-time

GP shortage fuelled by rising numbers working part-time The average GP now works a four day week, fuelling shortages of doctors, health officials say.

The head of Health Education England (HEE) said the millennial generation did not want to work the hours done by baby boomers.

The average doctor now works four days a week, when it used to be around four and a half, health officials said.

As a result of this, the number of full-time-equivalent doctors in the system has reduced. The Daily Telegraph

Hunt: keeping EU health workers is priority and sympathetic to pay plea

Hunt: keeping EU health workers is priority and sympathetic to pay plea Allowing NHS workers from the EU to stay in the UK after Brexit is the top priority in Government negotiations, the Health Secretary has said.

In his first speech since being reappointed as health secretary, Jeremy Hunt said about 150,000 EU nationals were now working in the health and care sector.

"We need them, we want them to stay," he said. "They are part of the NHS family." The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Jeremy Hunt pledges to address public sector pay BBC News
• Jeremy Hunt hints at lifting of nurses' pay cap The Guardian
• Jeremy Hunt says he will consider pay rises for nurses in wake of UK terrorist attacks The Independent
• Jeremy Hunt: ‘EU staff are part of the NHS family – we want them to stay’ iNews