District general hospital gives up standalone FT bid – Health Service Journal
A district general hospital has become the latest organisation to abandon plans to become a standalone foundation trust.

The future of general practice 2015 – British Medical Association (BMA)
This briefing outlines key findings from an opinion poll of over 15,000 GPs. The poll also found that almost all GPs feel that their heavy workload is having a negative impact on the quality of patient services and many GP practices doubted they had the ability to provide blanket seven day opening.

Lincolnshire trust requests emergency DH bailout – Health Service Journal
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Foundation Trust has asked for one-off emergency loan from the Department of Health to help it deal with ‘unprecedented pressure’ on its finances.

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‘Trusts with no future’ list to stay secret until after election – Health Service Journal
National officials are keeping confidential until after the general election potentially controversial information showing which NHS trusts are unlikely to have a future as independent organisations.

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NHS to switch ESR to IBM in June – EHI News
The Department of Health has confirmed that the transition to a new electronic staff record system for the NHS in England and Wales will begin in June this year as part of a phased rollout to conclude in November.

Hospital cleaning: revised specification published
Maintaining standards of cleanliness is a key factor in preventing health care associated infections. All staff play a vital part in this process. The British Standards Institution has published a new version of the specification for planning and measuring hospital cleanliness (PAS 5748). This updated cleaning specification is free to download for all NHS staff and organisations. Trusts that choose to adopt it can use it to show how they plan to comply with Care Quality Commission requirements on cleanliness.

Shape of Caring published
‘Raising the Bar’, the final report from the Shape of Caring Review, was published on 12 March.  Led by Lord Willis, it brings together findings and expertise from recent major reports i.e. Willis (2012), Berwick (2013), Francis (2013), Keogh (2013), and Bubb (2014). It intends to promote good practice from across the country and provoke debate on a number of high profile issues relating to the education and training of care assistants and nurses. In addition to the final report, there is also a film showing Lord Willis talking about the recommendations. Health Education England and the Nursing Midwifery Council will engage with a wide range of stakeholders before they agree to take recommendations forward.

Hospital finances and productivity
The Health Foundation has published Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition? This report examines the financial performance of NHS providers, focusing on hospitals. It identifies areas of cost pressure using their 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.

Equity in the provision of palliative care
The London School of Economics and Political Science has published Equity in the Provision of
Palliative Care in the UK: Review of Evidence. The study was commissioned by Marie Curie and provides a summary of available academic and statistical evidence on inequities in palliative care for adults across the UK.  In particular, it aimed to identify and explore systematic differences in access or outcomes, between geographical areas, settings or different groups of service-users, and to do this, as far as possible, in the context of people’s different needs and preferences.  The report discusses the economic case for extending the reach of palliative care to those currently under-served, looking at the evidence on cost effectiveness and the costs of extending palliative care to those who would benefit from it but are not currently receiving it.