NHS Confederation Briefing providing a  a summary of the key principles and commitments in the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat – Improving outcomes for people experiencing mental health crisis and highlights how stronger local partnerships can work together to deliver improved crisis care.

CASE STUDY:  It is a contractual obligation for individual trusts to monitor junior doctors’ hours every six months to make certain that they are compliant with the Junior Doctor Contract (known as New Deal) and to ensure that doctors’ pay is correct.

However, this process is carried out with variable success across the North West.

In response, Health Education North West’s Junior Doctor Advisory Team (JDAT) reviewed a selection of monitoring exercises across the North West from the past five years. The total number reviewed was 734, of which only 401 (55%) achieved a valid return rate.

CASE STUDY:  Practice placement opportunities for pre-registration student nurses are changing due to the reconfiguration of healthcare organisations and the services that they provide.  

As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide the variety of placement opportunities required to prepare students for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Yet there is a requirement by academic education institutions and NHS placement providers to ensure that students are fit for practice at the end of their three year education programme.

Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon tackles the difficult questions surrounding the extent of NHS funding shortfalls and the increasing drive toward greater efficiency. ‘There’s a mountain to climb in the next few years’ she says, but there’s lots that can be done, both nationally and at a local level too.

VIDEO:  Dympna Cunnane, Organisation Development Consultant and Programme Director at London Business School, discusses her views on how healthcare leaders respond to the pressures of the job and their role in ensuring high quality, compassionate care for patients.