Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Roundtable summary - primary care
Roundtable summary - primary care: Monitor held a roundtable discussion in December to explore what the proposals in the Health and Social Care Bill will mean for primary care providers and clinical commissioners. Our roundtable, held under the Chatham House Rule, brought together a number of leading primary care leaders, practitioners and policy experts.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Implementing what works: the impact of the individual placement and support regional trainer
Implementing what works: the impact of the individual placement and support regional trainer:
This briefing describes a pilot in Sussex which found that this approach could achieve a 50%-60% employment rate for those with serious mental health problems. NHS Networks
AUDIO: Have views on NHS reform shifted?
AUDIO: Have views on NHS reform shifted?: Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance, who supports the governments proposed reforms of the NHS and Dr John Lister, director of the Health Emergency campaign group, who opposes them, debate the Health Bill. BBC News
GMC guidance on assisted suicide
GMC guidance on assisted suicide: The General Medical Council launches guidelines on assisted suicide to help it decide if doctors should face a disciplinary panel on the issue. BBC News
Health and Social Care Bill: Lords report stage briefing
Health and Social Care Bill: Lords report stage briefing:
In this briefing to peers, the BMA acknowledges that the Government has made some effort to try to address some of the association’s concerns, but says the Bill remains fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn.
Northants picks Civica to inform CCGs
Northants picks Civica to inform CCGs: NHS Northamptonshire has selected software from Civica to help it supply information to its clinical commissioning groups. E-Health Insider
Structural reform plan progress reports
Structural reform plan progress reports:
The Government has published January progress updates for each department’s Structural Reform Plans.
Lost in translation: how much is translation costing the NHS, and how can we both cut costs and improve service provision?
Lost in translation: how much is translation costing the NHS, and how can we both cut costs and improve service provision?:
This report investigates NHS spend on translation services, the overall costs, as well as the individual areas of spend.
Backers of NHS shake-up turn against Andrew Lansley's plans
Backers of NHS shake-up turn against Andrew Lansley's plans: 
Leading doctors voice concerns that reforms will suffocate GPs and jeopardise promised freedom to commission care
Two prominent backers of the coalition's NHS shake-up have joined the growing chorus of critics by claiming that GPs will be "suffocated rather than liberated" by the planned changes.
Dr Charles Alessi and Dr Michael Dixon have helped Andrew Lansley claim credibility for his plans among doctors over the past 18 months by strongly supporting his radical restructuring. They are leading lights in the NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care, two key pro-reform organisations.
But they now fear that the new consortiums of local doctors, which will start commissioning healthcare for patients in England from next year, will not have the freedom that the health secretary has repeatedly pledged. Lansley has attempted to persuade sceptics that his reorganisation will put family doctors in charge of healthcare.
NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) are due to be abolished next year.
But the doctors are worried that the GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which will replace PCTs, will find themselves unexpectedly under the control of another organisation, the NHA National Commissioning Board (NCB).
In July the NHS chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, said "CCGs will be the engine of the new system" and that the reformed NHS "gives pride of place to clinical leaders". But the reality is that primary care doctors and clinical commissioners will not have the promised ability to make key decisions because the current bureaucracy is simply being replaced by another that is growing up around the NCB, the pair claim.
The Department of Health's latest document about the design of the new board involves "layers of bureaucracy and management, with complex guidelines. The old 'footprint' [of the PCTs and SHAs], ie 50 local offices, remains there, plus four sector outposts, all using a single operating model," the two organisations said in a joint statement .
The fact that many of the staff of the new NCB will simply be staff who have joined from PCTs and SHAs "adds to clinical commissioners' concerns and perceptions that they will be suffocated, instead of liberated, which in our view is fundamental to the success of clinically-led commissioning", they added.
"What we are hearing and seeing are the same old messages and the same old structures, albeit with new nomenclatures", said Alessi, a key figure in a CCG in south-west London.
"If we put the same ingredients into the mix, the likelihood is that we shall deliver the same inefficient environment and outcomes. This is insupportable in an economy of tight financial restraint."
Most CCGs now see the new board as the greatest threat to their effective functioning, added Dixon, a GP in Devon and chair of the NHS Alliance.
The pair's comments are another blow to the health secretary as his health and social care bill prepares to undergo its report stage in the House of Lords, when peers will seek to force the government to accept further amendments to its plans. Labour seized on the men's remarks as further evidence of the growing concerns the bill is causing.
"Things are going from bad to worse for Andrew Lansley. In the last fortnight there has been a deepening crisis of professional confidence in the government's health bill, but until now the health secretary could rely on the support of the NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care," said Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary.
"Yet the bill's biggest cheerleaders are now lambasting the increasing layers of bureaucracy. Even the health bill's greatest supporters are now concerned that Lansley's plans are so complex and full of worrying uncertainties that they risk thwarting the principle of true clinician-led commissioning."
The British Medical Association also fears CCGs' freedom will be curtailed. "There are significant concerns that CCGs will not have genuine freedoms and sufficient independence to make locally sensitive, locally accountable, patient-focussed decisions," it said.
In a briefing to peers ahead of the report stage it says that, despite ministers agreeing to amend several aspects of the bill, the legislation should still be dropped because it involves too much use of "market forces", and could also affect doctors' relationship with their patients through financial incentives for CCGs.
The Department of Health said: "By handing power and responsibility for choosing and purchasing services to doctors and nurses on the ground, we are shifting the decision making closer to patients and building on the trusted role that GPs and other front line professionals already play throughout the NHS.
"The NHS commissioning Board will provide national standards, but doctors and nurses will have the freedom to make decisions about their patients and their organisations." The Guardian
NHS facing £15.7bn for rising number of clinical negligence claims
NHS facing £15.7bn for rising number of clinical negligence claims: The NHS faces a £15.7 billion bill to settle a rising number of clinical negligence claims, a report by MPs disclosed last night.
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
Force NHS trusts to admit mistakes to patients, urge groups
Force NHS trusts to admit mistakes to patients, urge groups: NHS trusts should be forced to tell patients when they make errors and cause harm, patients groups have said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph.
Monday, 6 February 2012
GPs fine hospital for A&E failures
GPs fine hospital for A&E failures:
DOCTORS are withholding funding from Kettering General Hospital’s accident and emergency department because it is failing to treat patients quickly enough. Evening Telegraph
Feeding support funding set to end - Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph
Feeding support funding set to end - Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph:
Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph Funding for the Mum to Mum Peer Supporters group, which has helped 5858 people during the past year, will end in April and is not being renewed by NHS Northamptonshire. The group has 60 volunteers trained to help new mums feed their babies. |
Northampton General Hospital treating more patients with alcohol problems - Northampton Chronicle & Echo
Northampton General Hospital treating more patients with alcohol problems - Northampton Chronicle & Echo:
Northampton General Hospital treating more patients with alcohol problems Northampton Chronicle & Echo By Rebekah Smith THE number of inpatients admitted to Northampton General Hospital with alcohol-related health problems has increased by more than 50 per cent in the last five years. Figures released by the Northampton hospital show that more than 5600 ... |
PFI hospitals 'get bailout fund'
PFI hospitals 'get bailout fund': Seven English NHS hospital trusts with debts caused, in part, by PFI repayments are to have access to a £1.5bn government bailout fund. BBC News - Health
Hospital patients more at risk at weekends
Hospital patients more at risk at weekends: Patients admitted on a Sunday at 16% higher risk of dying within a month than those admitted midweek, study showsPatients admitted to hospital at the weekend are more likely to die than those whose stay starts during the week, according to a major study that has renewed calls for action to end the "two-tier" NHS.Those admitted on a Sunday have a 16% higher risk of dying within a month than those admitted on a Wednesday, a finding the researchers called "a significant increased risk". Those who become ... Kings Fund Health News
Ed Miliband: NHS reform defeat could save 6,000 nursing jobs
Ed Miliband: NHS reform defeat could save 6,000 nursing jobs: Labour leader to say that official NHS statistics prove that the coalition's reorganisation of NHS is directly affecting patient careEd Miliband will claim on Monday that the total number of nurses working within the NHS has been cut by 3,500 since the general election, and could fall by a further 2,500 by the end of this parliament.The Labour leader will say that official NHS statistics prove that the Tories' reorganisation of the health service is directly damaging frontline patient care.At the ...Kings Fund Health News
999 patients failed by third of ambulance trusts
999 patients failed by third of ambulance trusts: A third of ambulance trusts are now failing to reach enough of the most seriously ill patients within the required time, new figures show.
Telegraph Health News
Telegraph Health News
NHS spends £23m a year on translators
NHS spends £23m a year on translators: The NHS spends £64,000 a day on translation services, a report has found.
Telegraph Health News
Telegraph Health News
Two glasses of wine a day triples risk of mouth cancer
Two glasses of wine a day triples risk of mouth cancer:
A new government campaign is to warn drinkers that consuming two large glasses of wine or two strong pints of beer a day triples their risk of developing mouth cancer. New adverts aim to show that even drinking just over the recommended daily limit for alcohol increases the risk of serious health problems. Independent
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