Massive changes to frontline services in Northamptonshire announced during budget

Massive changes to frontline services in Northamptonshire announced during budget Massive changes to frontline services run by Northamptonshire County Council have been agreed at a budget meeting at County Hall in Northampton. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

• Council to outsource all services BBC Northampton
• Biggest shake up of Northamptonshire County Council for 125 years is approved Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Let’s start promoting wellbeing, not just treating illness

Let’s start promoting wellbeing, not just treating illness We need to start seizing the opportunities to promote wellbeing collaboratively – between us, our communities and our health service, says Natalie Koussa. The Health Foundation

A problem shared? Essays on the integration of health and social care

A problem shared? Essays on the integration of health and social care This essay collection discusses how we can develop a system that responds to the needs of a patient in the round – whether in hospital or at home. With contributions from leading politicians, experts and those on the front line, the collection sets out views on the future role of commissioners, providers, patients and family carers, and sets out alternative perspectives on future funding for the NHS and social care. Our assistant director, Richard Humphries, contributed an essay on funding a future health and social care service. Social Market Foundation

Rationing in the NHS

Rationing in the NHS This briefing paper looks at what public attitudes to rationing and policy-setting are; how rationing decisions are currently made and how much explicit rationing there is; how NICE and the Cancer Drugs Fund are working; and how much money rationing can save. The Nuffield Trust

• Report
• Survey results
• Nuffield Trust - press release

Staff engagement: six building blocks for harnessing the creativity and enthusiasm of NHS staff

Staff engagement: six building blocks for harnessing the creativity and enthusiasm of NHS staff There is now an overwhelming body of evidence to show that engaged staff deliver better health care. Trusts with more engaged staff tend to have lower levels of patient mortality, make better use of resources, and have stronger financial performance and higher patient satisfaction, with more patients reporting that they were treated with dignity and respect. This paper encourages boards and other leaders to focus on staff engagement and suggests a number of questions boards can ask to assess their organisation’s level of staff engagement. The King's Fund

Methods for the estimation of the NICE cost effectiveness threshold

Methods for the estimation of the NICE cost effectiveness threshold Cost-effectiveness analysis used by NICE is essentially an assessment of whether the health expected to be gained from the use of a new medical technology exceeds the health likely to be forgone as other NHS activities are displaced to accommodate the additional costs of the new technology. The cost-effectiveness threshold represents an estimate of the health forgone as services are displaced. Currently the threshold used by NICE has little empirical basis. The aim of this research project is to develop and to demonstrate methods for threshold estimation which make best use of routinely available NHS data, allowing scrutiny by a range of stakeholders, improving accountability and predictability. Centre for Health Economics, University of York

Patients face fines on free scripts

Patients face fines on free scripts Patients with life-long conditions are being fined up to £100 for taking their free prescriptions, the BBC has discovered. BBC News

Priority call on child mental health

Priority call on child mental health Child mental health services in England must be prioritised more to tackle the complex problems they face, a leaked draft taskforce report says. BBC News

Resistant-malaria 'enormous threat'

Resistant-malaria 'enormous threat' Drug-resistant malaria has spread in Myanmar and has now reached the border with India, scientists report. BBC News

'Unsafe' trust in special measures

'Unsafe' trust in special measures The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk is the first in England to be put in special measures. BBC News

See also:

• News story: Monitor puts Norfolk and Suffolk into special measures Monitor

'Sick-note' culture to be stamped out under radical new scheme

'Sick-note' culture to be stamped out under radical new scheme Anyone ill for more than four weeks will face a fit-for-work test in a radical new scheme aimed at stamping out the “sick-note culture” which costs the economy billions of pounds each year.

All GPs will be expected to refer patients to a company that will assess their ability to work and draw up a plan for their return. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Fitness tests to combat the culture of sicknotes: Britons who are off more than four weeks face assessment to see if they are fit to work The Daily Mail

Barts Health chief executive and chief nurse resign

Barts Health chief executive and chief nurse resign News of departures of Peter Morris and Prof Kay Riley comes a fortnight after trust reported £93m deficit.

The chief executive and chief nurse of Barts Health NHS trust in London have announced their resignations, a fortnight after the trust reported a £93m deficit.


Peter Morris has been chief executive for six years, while Prof Kay Riley has been at Barts for eight years. Last summer Barts’ deficit was expected to be around £44m, but on 5 February it was announced that it had more than doubled. Continue reading... The Guardian

The learning disabled should live in the community, not under lock and key

The learning disabled should live in the community, not under lock and key Three decades after the closure of long stay hospitals began, thousands of disabled people are still waiting to move into the community.

Last week we finally got the news that many of us have been hoping for: 3,000 people living in outdated and inappropriate Assessment and Treatment (A&T) units will be discharged. They will live where they belong, surrounded by their family and friends and in the community, with appropriate support.

The NHS has the power to close the 58 NHS operated A&T units, but not the 49 operated by the private sector. Continue reading... The Guardian

Increasing levels of suicide among men are linked to austerity

Increasing levels of suicide among men are linked to austerity More men are taking their own life than at any time since 2001, with the highest suicide rates occurring in deprived areas amid growing evidence of the link between austerity and suicide. The Independent

See also:

• Suicides in the United Kingdom, 2013 Registrations Office for National Statistics
• Policy paper: Suicide prevention: second annual report Department of Health
• Suicide in men 'highest since 2001' BBC News
• Rise of middle-aged suicide in men: 45 to 59 year olds most likely to take their own lives with 'heavy drinking, self-harm and a refusal to seek help often to blame The Daily Mail
• Why are so many middle-aged men committing suicide? The Daily Telegraph
• Male suicide rate worst since 2001, ONS reveals The Daily Telegraph

Patient safety fear GP 'defies NHS'

Patient safety fear GP 'defies NHS' A doctor who stopped taking new patients because of "safety" concerns is continuing to do so, despite being told he is in breach of his NHS contract.BBC Northampton 

Implementing the NHS five year forward view: aligning policies with the plan

Implementing the NHS five year forward view: aligning policies with the plan This paper calls for fundamental changes to how health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated to deliver the vision of the NHS five year forward view. The Forward View, published in 2014 by NHS England and other national bodies to broad approval, outlined how NHS services must change to move towards the care models required for the future. England, it argued, is too diverse for ‘one size fits all’ solutions. However, without significant changes to policy and new approaches to NHS leadership, this paper warns that the Forward View could suffer the same fate as many other NHS policy documents – and fail to deliver on its ambitions. It makes practical recommendations on what to do now to remove barriers to developing new care models and to support their implementation. Looking ahead, it argues that national leadership of the highest order will be needed to meet the challenges inherent in delivering these changes. The King's Fund

• Report
• The King's Fund - blogs
• The King's Fund - press releases

The emotional wellbeing of older carers

The emotional wellbeing of older carers This report, the second in a two part series, focusses on the findings on the subjective wellbeing of older carers.

The research finds that:
• Long term caregiving was associated with declines in quality of life and life satisfaction for carers, and an increased risk of depression.
• Giving up caregiving was associated with increased depression amongst both male and female carers.

The report addresses the wider context of these findings, highlighting how our ageing population could potentially lead to large increases in the number of older carers, with the number of carers over 65 already having risen by 35% since 2001. It also highlights the day-to-day realities faced by many older carers, including a high risk of emotional distress; the loss of friends, either because of a lack of time to socialise or because friends were unable to properly understand the constraints and strains of caring; and potential health risks. International Longevity centre UK

See also:

• Carers need support to continue after the death of a loved one, claims report The Independent

NHS child mental health care pledge

NHS child mental health care pledge Parents of children with mental health problems in England will get more say on their care, says the NHS after a survey suggests major problems. BBC News

NHS England and Monitor set out new tariff option for providers for 2015/16

NHS England and Monitor set out new tariff option for providers for 2015/16 Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England and David Bennett, CEO of Monitor have today written to providers of NHS-funded services setting out a new enhanced tariff option for 2015-16. It is worth up to £500m more to providers than the original package that was consulted on last November, which was prior to extra funding being made available to the NHS in December’s Autumn statement.

Details of the approach are set out in the below letter to providers, and a parallel letter from CCG leaders and Simon Stevens to CCG commissioners, also below.

Simon Stevens said “The NHS is looking for certainty about next year, and a constructive and shared approach to helping hospitals with the genuine pressures they’re facing. This new funding option offers that, without sacrificing critical new investments in primary and mental health services. In the round, it gives the NHS collectively our best chance of sustaining high quality services today, while also getting going on major efficiency improvements and the more fundamental changes in care set out in the Five Year Forward View.”

• View the letter from NHS England and Monitor.
• View the letter issued NHS England.

NHS 'paying too much for medicines'

NHS 'paying too much for medicines' The price the NHS agrees to pay for new medicines in England could cause more harm than good by depleting funds for other services, a report argues. BBC News

See also:

• NHS should stop buying drugs which cost more than £13,000, researchers say The Daily Telegraph
• Patients suffer when NHS buys expensive new drugs, says report The Guardian
• NICE is doing 'more harm than good' by offering expensive new drugs on the NHS, claim health economists The Independent