Funding healthcare: making allocations to local areas – National Audit Office (NAO)
This report finds that there is wide variation in the extent to which £79 billion in central funding allocated to local health bodies differs from target allocations that are based on relative need. In 2014-15, over three-quarters of local authorities, and nearly two-fifths of CCGs, are more than five percentage points above or below their fair share of funding per person. It makes recommendations towards ways in which funding could be allocated in a way to help reduce health inequalities.

Keep up with change: The trusts transforming the outpatient pathway – Health Service Journal Article 
The delivery of care within the NHS requires continuous improvement to keep up with increasing expectations on services, advances in medicine and changes in the lives of our patients. Lisa Hollins and colleagues discuss the successful changes made by six large trusts.

Transforming Care At The End-Of-Life: Dying Well Matters – Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
This report finds that at least £4.5 billion is spent each year in England caring for those at the end of their lives. Analysis of national reviews and audits over the past 18 months highlights shortcomings and concerns about the large degree of variation in services across the country.

Guideposts Dementia Information Prescription: Evaluation of its impact on care providers and service users – Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
Post-diagnostic support is key to the effective management and care of people with dementia and their carers. Over the last few years, a number of approaches to post-diagnostic support have emerged, but to date, there has been limited evaluation of their effectiveness. This Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions report evaluates one approach, Dementia Information Prescription (DIP), developed by the Guideposts Trust. The evaluation found an overwhelmingly positive support for the DIP as an effective post-diagnostic support tool with 87 per cent of care providers (including GPs) considering it either very good or excellent. The DIP was seen as user-friendly with approximately 76 per cent of carers using it to find information on local healthcare support and 91 percent of people with dementia and their carers likely or extremely likely to use the DIP again. Whilst the DIP is only one of a number of Dementia support tools available, it demonstrates the demand for post diagnostic information, how much it is needed and valued, particularly the ease of access for up-to-date information customised to each locality.

Living well with frailty – NHS Improving Quality 
Long Term Conditions year of care data presented at RCGP conference 2 October 2014.

National neonatal audit programme: annual report 2013 – Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)
This audit of neonatal care in England found that care for babies born in England and Wales has improved greatly over the last seven years as a record high number of neonatal units meet national care standards. It highlights variations in experiences of care across the country with babies born early in the south of England more likely to go home breastfeeding than those born in the north of England, increasing the chance of those babies born in the north of infection and disease – particularly concerning for premature babies needing specialist care.

NHS Choice 2 pension being offered – Royal College of Nursing
During October and November 2014, some members of the 1995 section of the NHS pension scheme in England and Wales will receive a letter inviting them to choose whether to move their pre 2015 pension benefits into the 2008 section of the pension scheme.

How integrated care can reduce A&E admissions – Health Service Journal Article
A recent frontline project has broken new ground in reducing accident and emergency admissions using integrated care to create efficient pathways for care. With the party conference season already confirming that the NHS, and integrated care in particular, is set to play centre stage at the 2015 election, there is timely evidence from Wandsworth that suggests that an integrated care approach can ease pressure on accident and emergency departments.

National seasonal flu campaign
Public Health England’s national seasonal flu campaign has been launched.  The campaign targets people of all ages with a health condition, as well as pregnant women and parents of children aged 2 to 4.  It runs across press, radio and online channels.

Commissioning intentions for prescribed specialised services
NHS England has published details of its commissioning intentions for specialised services for 2015/16.  Commissioning intentions 2015/16 for prescribed specialised services serves as notice to all providers of specialised services in England of changes and priorities for the coming year for the specialised services to be commissioned by NHS England, as well as some services for which commissioning responsibility will move to clinical commissioning groups.

Trends in acute activity
The Nuffield Trust has published NHS hospitals under pressure: trends in acute activity up to 2022. This analysis looks at trends in admissions and bed use over the last few years, and use population projections to explore the likely pressures on hospitals in the future. The analysis shows that if admission rates continue to rise, the NHS will need an additional 6.2 million ‘bed days’ by 2022 which equates to 22 hospitals with 800 beds each.