Stevens sets out alternative approach to small hospitals The merger or closure of small hospitals might not be the best way forward for an already “centralised” English NHS, Simon Stevens has told the Commons health committee. The NHS England chief executive’s comments mark a significant change in direction from his…

Evidence Update: Physical Activity And The Environment – NICE Highlights new evidence relating to published accredited guidance, it identifies key points from the new evidence and provide a commentary describing its strengths and weaknesses on the topic of public health guidance on physical activity relating to environment. The Care Certificate…

Policy paper: Helping people live well for longer This document will help people understand how the national system as a whole is supporting local action to help people live well for longer. It includes actions already taken in prevention, early diagnosis and treatment.It focuses on the 5 big killers: cancer…

Open consultation: Healthcare providers supplying misleading information The Care Bill 2014 will make it a criminal offence for a healthcare provider to supply or publish false or misleading information. The offence included in the Care Bill is very wide in its application. It can be limited by secondary legislation so it…

Fergie, football and the NHS: building a leadership team for the future – Health Foundation Blog Simon Stevens’ recent maiden speech as Chief Executive of NHS England was received positively. In it, he reminded us of his familiarity with the machinations of the NHS but also humble acceptance of the…

Recommendations for safe trainee changeover – Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC)  Doctors in training in the UK have historically started new six-monthly rotations in February and August, with the majority of junior doctors rotating to new training programmes during the first week of August. There is an increasing body of evidence…

Workforce planning guidance 2014/15 – Health Education England (HEE)  This guidance highlights the importance of planning the workforce based on current and future patient need and outlines the high level process for developing plans later this year. Guidance HEE news Measuring the effectiveness of home telemonitoring – British Journal of Healthcare…

  NHS must renew hygiene efforts to tackle ‘unacceptable and avoidable’ infection rates Healthcare professionals should wash their hands before and after seeing every patient to help prevent the spread of infections such as MRSA and C difficile in the NHS. Around 300,000 people get an infection while being cared…

NICE Evidence update: Venous thromboembolic diseases NICE has published a new evidence update Venous thromboembolic diseases(Evidence Update 55). This Evidence Update provides a summary of selected new evidence published since the literature search was last conducted for the following NICE guidance: Venous thromboembolic diseases NICE clinical guideline 144 (2012). Evidence…

How is the NHS performing? April 2014 – The King’s Fund This is the eleventh in a series of quarterly monitoring reports which aims to provide a regular update on how the NHS is coping as it grapples with the evolving reform agenda and the more significant challenge of making radical improvements…