Knowledge @lert for Friday 5th June

June 5, 2015 Daily News

£200m cut to public health budgets – Health Service Journal
Department of Health is to consult on an in-year cut of £200m to council controlled public health budgets, plus the rest of today’s news and commen.

Two key waiting time targets abolished – Health Service Journal
Two headline waiting times targets for planned care are being dropped by the NHS on the basis they are creating ‘perverse incentives’.  The move to drop the admitted and non-admitted elective waiting time targets is expected to be announced by the health secretary this morning.  The third elective target – the “incomplete standard”, which states 92 per cent of patients who have not yet started treatment should have been waiting no more than 18 weeks – will be retained.

CQC to rate hospitals’ efficiency – Health Service Journal
The health secretary has asked the Care Quality Commission to include a hospital’s efficiency as one of the “key criteria” for rating the quality of its leadership. Jeremy Hunt said he did not want a situation where “we have the government and Monitor asking for transformation and efficiency, and the CQC inspection regime asking for a different set of priorities around safety and quality”.

Your ageing workforce – An infographic from the Working Longer Group
The Working Longer Group have released an engaging and informative infographic highlighting vital statistics on the NHS workforce and what employers can do to support staff to work longer.

Improved circulation: unleashing innovation across the NHS – Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
This report argues that one of the most important things the NHS can do to tackle the squeeze between demand and resources is to make better use of innovative technology and methods. It explores the barriers to introducing and spreading innovation in the NHS, and how to help those who develop, commission and use potentially revolutionary healthcare innovations.

NHS Employers respond to safe staffing levels review –  NHS Employers news
Responding to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens’ announcement that the approach to setting safe staffing levels is to be reviewed

National survey of NHS leaders – NHS Confederation
This survey presents the view that local leaders can only address the challenges facing the NHS if they have the political support, if national bodies improve the way they work together and if there is better support for social care and mental health services. More than 90 per cent of NHS leaders believe that social care cuts are directly affecting patient care in their organisations.

Nurse prescribers have ‘come of age’ and are now essential – Nursing Times
Nurse prescribing has “come of age” and will be recognised as essential for future models of care, but those in the role should not resist other professions joining, according to a former senior nurse.

Talent Management: Developing Leadership Not Just Leaders – The King’s Fund 
In light of the high number of board-level vacancies in the NHS and an increasing reliance on expensive locum and agency staff, NHS organisations need to have effective strategies in place to develop future leaders. It identifies four key areas:

  • recruiting the right staff to meet not only the organisation’s current needs but also its future needs
  • retaining and developing staff by valuing their contribution and encouraging personal growth
  • deploying talent effectively by providing stretch opportunities and rotating leadership roles
  • succession planning to identify critical roles and consider how internal candidates might fill these when a vacancy arises.

Collaboration in clinical leadership: the role of secondary care doctors on CCG governing bodies – NHS Clinical Commissioners
This briefing highlights how collaborative working between CCG leaders and secondary care doctors can provide benefits to the health service provision of local people. Since the Health and Social Care Act established CCGs in 2012 there has been some uncertainty around how secondary care doctors, on CCG governing bodies, can best support local commissioning. This report demonstrates the potential that this role can have, whether this is for the clinicians involved, or the wider CCG, or for local people and patients.

The four steps to capitalise on talent management in the NHS – Health Service Journal
Successful talent management is an ethos and is core to developing a safe, compassionate culture. Sarah Massie and Katy Steward outline four key components of a successful strategy for developing future leaders.

NICE suspends work on nurse staffing levels – Health Service Journal 
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has suspended with immediate effect its work to determine safe staffing levels across the NHS. The decision appears to mark a significant departure from recommendations of the Francis report.  NICE moved to suspend work on the safe staffing programme yesterday, in response to a speech by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens to the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool.

Time To Act – Urgent Care And A&E: The Patient Perspective – The Royal College of Emergency Medicine
This report concludes that the NHS not only needs to ensure that patients are fully informed of services such as out-of-hours GPs, walk-in centres and the NHS 111 service, but must also ensure that these services have sufficient capacity and are available when required to prevent more pressure on A&E services.

Consultation On Changes To The Risk Assessment Framework: June 2015 – Monitor 
This consultation proposes a number of measures to strengthen Monitor’s regulatory regime so that foundation trusts live within their means and support improvements in financial efficiency across the sector. These changes will enable Monitor to take regulatory action earlier if a foundation trust is in deficit, failing to deliver its financial plan, or not providing value for money.

Five Year Forward View – The Success Regime: A Whole Systems Intervention – Monitor
The Five year forward view signalled the intention by the national bodies to introduce a new regime to create the conditions for success in the most challenged health and care economies. This guidance is aimed at providing increased support and direction to the most challenged systems in order to secure improvement in three main areas.

Two key waiting time targets abolished – Health Service Journal
Two headline waiting times targets for planned care are being dropped by the NHS on the basis they are creating ‘perverse incentives’.  The move to drop the admitted and non-admitted elective waiting time targets is expected to be announced by the health secretary this morning.  The third elective target – the “incomplete standard”, which states 92 per cent of patients who have not yet started treatment should have been waiting no more than 18 weeks – will be retained.

English trust to take hard line on payments for Scottish, Welsh and Irish patients – Health Service Journal 
One of England’s largest specialist providers is to take a stricter approach to accepting patients from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, after struggling to secure payments from commissioners. University College London Hospitals Foundation Trust said some commissioners outside England use a “burdensome” prior approval process, where a funding agreement is needed before each stage of treatment. The process can cause delays for patients as decisions often take two working days.

Socioeconomic Inequality Of Access To Healthcare: Does Patients’ Choice Explain The Gradient? Evidence From The English NHS – University of York, Centre for Health Economics 
Equity of access is a key policy objective in publicly-funded healthcare systems. Using data on patients undergoing non-emergency heart revascularization procedures in the English NHS, this research paper finds evidence of significant differences in waiting times within public hospitals between patients with different socioeconomic status (up to 35% difference between the most and least deprived population quintiles).

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards resources
The Social Care Institute for Excellence has published new resources covering the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. The resources look at how sometimes there is a case for depriving people of their liberty; for instance, when someone lacks the capacity to consent to their care and treatment.  The case for the decision is taken in order to keep them safe from harm.

NICE guidance
NICE has published the following guidance:

Statistics

Bulletins

CCG Knowledge @lert for Thursday 4th June

CCG Knowledge @lert for Friday 5th June