NHFT Libraries Health News

Friday, 25 October 2013

NGH to receive CQC inspection

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust is included in the next 19 acute and specialist trusts that will be inspected as part of the CQC's new hospital inspection programme under the direction of the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Sir Mike Richards.

Dr Sonia Swart, Chief Executive of NGH, said 'We welcome the opportunities that the CQC inspection will give us to make further improvements to the services we provide. Feedback from our patients and our staff, along with our own internal inspection processes, scrutiny and constructive challenge from regulators enables us to provide even better care for our patients.

'We know there are areas where we need to take action to ensure our services are of a consistently high quality and there is an enormous amount of work already underway. The CQC inspection will complement this work and help us to improve patient care even further.' NGH News

Poor care risk 'at 1 in 4 hospitals'

Poor care risk 'at 1 in 4 hospitals'
Northampton and Kettering hospitals are at raised risk of providing poor care, a review by the regulator shows. BBC Health News

NHS Trusts put in risk categories - full list

NHS Trusts put in risk categories - full list
Here is a list of the trusts in the risk categories identified by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Band 1 is considered the highest risk and band 6 the lowest. Independent

Hospital intelligent monitoring: October 2013

Care Quality Commission -
Intelligent monitoring looks at 150 different indicators covering a range of information including patient and staff experience and statistical measures of performance, with the aim of giving inspectors a clear picture of the areas of care that need to be looked at in NHS acute trusts. Together with local information from partners and the public, this monitoring helps the Care Quality Commission to decide when, where and what to inspect. A further 19 NHS trusts will be inspected from January 2014.

Daily aspirin 'risky' for healthy

Daily aspirin 'risky' for healthy
Healthy people should not take aspirin to ward off heart attacks and cancer, according to the most comprehensive review of the risks and benefits. BBC News

Co-ordinated care for people with complex chronic conditions: key lessons and markers for success

The King's Fund -
This report presents the findings from a two-year research project funded by Aetna and the Aetna Foundation, which aimed to understand the key components of effective strategies employed by studying five UK-based programmes to deliver co-ordinated care for people with long-term and complex needs. It elicits some key lessons and markers for success to help identify how care co-ordination might be transferred from the UK to the US context.

Medical tourism generates millions for NHS and wider economy, finds study

'Foreigners abusing system' claim contradicted by research that also shows more people go overseas for treatment than arrive

Medical tourism is a lucrative source of income for the NHS, according to a major new study that contradicts many of the assumptions behind the government's announcement that it will clamp down on foreigners abusing the health service.

Eighteen hospitals – those deemed most likely to be making money from overseas patients – earned £42m in 2010, according to researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and York University. Medical tourists spent an estimated £219m on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transport in the UK.

The researchers also found that more people leave the UK seeking medical treatment abroad than arrive in this country for care: about 63,000 people from the country travelled to hospitals and clinics abroad in 2010, while considerably fewer, about 52,000 people, came here.

The truth about ‘health tourism’: Twice as many foreign visitors pay to use NHS as exploit free healthcare in Britain Independent

Our response to the appointment of Simon Stevens as the new Chief Executive of NHS England

Commenting on the appointment of Simon Stevens as Chief Executive of NHS England, Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King's Fund said:

'Simon Stevens will take up a very different role to the one David Nicholson was appointed to in 2006. Although still the most senior leader in the national health system, he will not be the Chief Executive of the NHS.

'This will mean treading a careful line between responding to the priorities of ministers on the one hand and, on the other, working collaboratively with colleagues from the other main national bodies to provide strong collective leadership for the NHS.

'He will arrive in post at a time when the NHS is facing unprecedented financial and service pressures and its most significant challenges in a generation – meeting these challenges will require leadership skills of the highest order.

'Simon brings exceptional knowledge of working at the highest level of government, a strong commitment to the NHS and significant international experience. He will also have a keen appetite for addressing the challenges facing the NHS – as such I can't think of anyone better qualified for the role.' Kings Fund

Integrated health & social care — exploring how people’s care and support needs change and how the workforce has to adapt to meet the...

Integrated health & social care — exploring how people’s care and support needs change and how the workforce has to adapt to meet the... Skills for Care -

This review explores how people's care and support needs change and how the workforce has to adapt to meet the challenges that change can present. It has sought to understand the characteristics of effective workforce practice in integrated health and social care services with a particular focus on avoiding hospital admissions, improving reablement services, and speeding up and improving hospital discharge services and transfers between residential and nursing homes. NHS Evidence

NHS 111 service is stable and improving, says NHS England

NHS 111 service is stable and improving, says NHS England
The NHS 111 service is stable and improving, NHS England said today.

It issued an update on the organisations that are to replace NHS Direct, currently one of the providers of NHS 111 services.

NHS Direct has had some difficulties in providing these services and decided in agreement with NHS England that it would withdraw from the market. The NHS 111 service in England is divided into 44 areas, nine of which are currently provided by NHS Direct.

NHS Direct to close in 2014

NHS Direct to close in 2014 Telephone advice service set up in 1998 was forced to withdraw from new NHS 111 service owing to its slashed budget

NHS Direct, the telephone advice service that many GPs refer patients to after-hours, is to close at the end of the financial year, putting more than 700 jobs at risk.

NHS Direct, which has been running for 15 years, has been effectively superseded by the NHS 111 scheme, which was introduced in some areas earlier this year to cope with people who felt they needed care but were not a 999 emergency.

NHS Direct was set up by the Labour government and had continued to operate. It took on some of the 111 contracts around the country, but was forced to withdraw from them earlier this year. Five ambulance trusts have taken on the staff and call centres from NHS Direct, but other redundancy costs could rise to £15m.

In the end, it came down to money. NHS Direct could not provide the 111 services at a financially sustainable cost and commissioners could not afford to pay for the former's services separately from the latter's.

Joanne Shaw, chair of NHS Direct, said: "The closure of NHS Direct marks the end of its 15 years of continuous innovation, during which time it has led the world in remote health assessment, advice and information. It is an enormous privilege to have been part of this journey, and I look back over my 10 years with NHS Direct with gratitude and respect for the staff who have created this exceptional service.

"I look forward to seeing other organisations take forward a number of the services developed by NHS Direct, and I wish them well as they exploit the ever-growing reach and power of technology, to provide value to patients and the NHS."

NHS England says that 93% of the population now has access to NHS 111 and that 92% of people who call up are satisfied with the service. Guardian

Thursday, 24 October 2013

Officers back hospital replacement

Officers back hospital replacement Plans for a development to replace a Northamptonshire hospital in Brackley are expected to be approved. BBC News

Nurse struck off after pain relief dispute

Nurse struck off after pain relief dispute A nurse who refused to give pain relief to a patient at Kettering General Hospital has been struck off. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

Morphine-refusal nurse struck off BBC News

Hospital plans £45 million unit in Northampton to help children with autism

Hospital plans £45 million unit in Northampton to help children with autism A new £45 million unit to help children with autism and learning difficulties is to be built in Northampton. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Ex-Blair adviser linked to US healthcare giant is new NHS boss

A former adviser to Tony Blair who has spent a decade at the top of an American private healthcare giant has been appointed to run the NHS in England. The Independent

See also:

US health chief becomes new NHS boss BBC News
Blair advisor Simon Stevens appointed new NHS chief executive The Daily Telegraph
Former aide to Tony Blair to become new head of NHS England The Guardian v

If care planning is so good, why aren’t more people doing it? asks Jeremy Taylor

If care planning is so good, why aren’t more people doing it? asks Jeremy Taylor “I’ve been a doctor for ten years and I have no idea what a care plan is or looks like.” This refreshingly honest admission, heard at a recent conference, perfectly illustrates the continuing gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to person-centred care. National Voices is working to narrow that gap. Policy makers, progressive … Continue reading » NHS Choices

Saturated fat link with heart disease questioned

Saturated fat link with heart disease questioned "The risk from saturated fat in foods such as butter, cakes and fatty meat is being overstated and demonised, according to a cardiologist," BBC News reports.

In an opinion piece, a doctor specialising in heart disease writes that warnings over saturated fats are misguided.

Proposed changes to EU data protection rules "would erode UK healthcare and research"

Proposed changes to EU data protection rules "would erode UK healthcare and research" Changing data protection rules could lead to less effective NHS, warn NHS Confederation and Royal College of Physicians.

Lessons from Europe: the value of tariff redesign

Lessons from Europe: the value of tariff redesign With responsibility for pricing structures being shifted to NHS England and the pricing function moving to Monitor, this briefing reviews the European experience of paying for specialist health services and examines whether it is time to redesign the NHS tariff in England to facilitate the development of new models of care.

Lessons from Europe: assuring quality through regulation
This briefing highlights approaches to quality assurance taken in Germany and the Netherlands. It identifies lessons for NHS leaders and policymakers in England on how to approach the challenge of regulating effectively for quality as the current regulatory system is being reconsidered.

Feel better outside, feel better inside: ecotherapy for mental wellbeing, resilience and recovery

Feel better outside, feel better inside: ecotherapy for mental wellbeing, resilience and recovery This report includes new findings from the University of Essex showing the many benefits of ecotherapy for mental wellbeing. It finds that ecotherapy has been proven to improve mental health, boost self esteem, help people with mental health problems return to work, improve physical health, and reduce social isolation.