Toolkit to reduce poor experience of in-patient care
NHS England has published a toolkit to support NHS commissioners to reduce poor experience of in-patient care.  The toolkit has been developed to support NHS commissioners to work collaboratively with patients, carers and NHS provider organisations to reduce poor experience of in-patient care.  It has been co-designed with the help of a number of Clinical Commissioning.  It addresses key aspects of support identified by commissioners to assist improvement work and is intended to be updated annually.

Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition? – The Health Foundation
The NHS in England faces the huge challenge of meeting rising demand in a period of sustained financial pressure. The service is projected to overspend its budget by £626m in 2014/15, despite £250m additional Treasury funding and an extra £650m from transferred planned capital investment.  This report from The Health Foundation examines the financial performance of NHS providers, focusing on hospitals. It identifies areas of cost pressure using Hospital’s financial accounts up to 2013/14 and quarterly reporting data up to December 2014 (Q3 2014/15). It  also examines trends in efficiency and productivity from 2009/10 to 2013/14.
Additional Video
https://vimeo.com/124282147

Breast cancer incidence and mortality data
The National Cancer Intelligence Network has published The third all breast cancer report: back to basics: breast cancer incidence and mortality.   This report provides data to answer two questions: Each year, how many women are diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time?; and What do women diagnosed with breast cancer die from?
Please note the link above will take you direct to a pdf version

Evidence Update
NICE has published a new evidence update Promoting physical activity for children and young people (Evidence update 77).  It provides a summary of selected new evidence relevant to NICE public health guidance 17 ‘Promoting physical activity for children and young people’ (2009).
To access this document, follow the link above and scroll down to the ‘public health’ section. The update is at the top of the list in this section.

NICE guidance – Medical technologies:  VibraTip
NICE has published new medical technology guidance VibraTip for testing vibration perception to detect diabetic peripheral neuropathy (MTG22).   This guidance addresses specific technologies notified to NICE by manufacturers.  The ‘case for adoption’ recommendations are based on the claimed advantages of introducing the specific technology compared with current management of the condition. This ‘case’ is reviewed against the evidence submitted and expert advice. The medical technology guidance on VibraTip recommends further research. This recommendation is not intended to preclude the use of the technology in the NHS but to identify further evidence which, after evaluation, could support a recommendation for wider adoption.  NICE says that more research is needed before VibraTip can be used more widely in the NHS.

NICE consultation
Winter deaths – preventing excess winter deaths: topic engagement exercise.  Closing date for comments: 17 April 2015.

Information governance bulletin – 24 edition 2015

30 years of cancer intelligence
The National Cancer Intelligence Network has published 30+ years of cancer intelligence – challenges of technologies of the time.  This presentation provides an overview of the history of cancer intelligence since 1983.

How is the new NHS structured?
The King’s Fund has updated its series of organograms explaining how the NHS is now structured, including how providers are regulated, who can influence the commissioning of services and how the money flows.

Revised Code for nurses and midwives
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has published a revised Code for all UK registered nurses and midwives.  The Code which came into effect on 1 April 2015, has been updated to reflect changes in contemporary professional nursing and midwifery practice and to reflect the public expectations of care.  The NMC has published a number of additional resources to support the revised Code.

Governance challenges
NHS Providers and NHS Confederation have published Form follows function: Governance challenges for providers in light of the Dalton review. This report explores the governance implications of the different organisational forms proposed in Sir David Dalton’s review of organisational forms, published in December 2014.

Productivity of the English NHS
The University of York Centre for Health Economics has published Productivity of the English NHS: 2012/13 update, Research Paper 110.  Productivity is one of the key measures against which NHS achievements can be judged and is the focus of this report.  This report updates the previous analyses of NHS productivity growth since 2004/05, focussing on the change in NHS productivity between 2011/12 and 2012/13, the latter financial year being the latest for which data have been made available.

National Pulmonary Hypertension Audit
The Health and Social Care Information Centre has published National Pulmonary Hypertension Audit – 2014.  This report of the fifth year of the audit includes new analysis on diagnosis and therapy, analysis by specialised centre, a comparison of operated and not operated chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, an analysis of distance from a specialised centre as an influence on referral patterns, and new analyses concerning time to failure of drug therapies. The data presented in this report is for the year 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 and covers all patients seen at the designated centres. This audit includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.

NICE Local Practice Collection: shared learning case studies
NICE has added the following case studies to its Local Practice Collection.  The collection includes shared learning examples showing how NICE guidance and standards have been put into practice.

• Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Adult Fluid Prescription Chart 2014
• Medicines Optimisation Peer Review Programme – engaging GP practices to deliver medicines optimisation and implement NICE guidance
• The effectiveness of anonymised information sharing and use in health service, police, and local government partnership for preventing violence related injury
• NICER Guidance: fostering an organisational culture of evidence-based decision making
• To determine compliance of monitoring side effects of medication in the treatment of ADHD in children and young people as recommended by NICE CG72
• Management of Urinary Incontinence in females: Are we really NICE?

NICE Bites: gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
The March 2015 NICE Bites bulletin from the North West Medicines Information Service covers gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.  The aim of this publication is to provide healthcare professionals with a clear and succinct summary of key prescribing points taken from the NICE guidance NG1 GORD: children and young people. This guideline covers the recognition, diagnosis and management of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in infants, children and young people.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2015
The Mental Health Foundation has published a resource pack as part of Mental Health Awareness Week 11-17 May 2015. The free promotional pack contains posters, information leaflets, balloons and other materials aimed at raise awareness on the chosen theme of mindfulness. It also provides ideas and inspiration for those holding events, and information on how to spread the campaign messages.

Planning blood pressure services and initiatives
The Department of Health has added two new documents to the suite of documents previously published in November 2014 in relation to the High blood pressure: plan and deliver effective services and treatment. The details of these documents are as follows:

• Global Standardized Hypertension Treatment Project ToolkitThis toolkit gives healthcare providers the tools needed to improve blood pressure control among their clinic population, including information on how to create registries to manage panels of patients and track indicators, as well as how to use standardised hypertension treatment protocols to improve the treatment and control of hypertension in clinical settings.
• Train the Trainer’ program developed by The World Hypertension League provides resources to run the training sessions for the development of blood pressure screening programmes.

Methodological summaries
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published details of two insight papers.  These papers summarises the methodological approaches taken by the NAO in carrying out innovative or novel analysis. Such analysis is conducted under statutory authority to examine and report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which government departments and other bodies have used their resources. Details of the two papers are as follows:

• Modelling of maternity services in England
• Mapping between different commissioners of healthcare

Competition and privatisation in the NHS
The Health Foundation has published Evolution, revolution or confusion? Competition and privatisation in the NHS.  This briefing considers seven key questions relating to the role of competition and the role of non-NHS providers within the NHS.