NHS England to take forward safe staffing approach – NHS Employers
Simon Stevens has announced that NHS England will take forward work on safe staffing as part of wider service improvement.

Payment and economic evaluation of integrated care – International Journal Of Integrated Care
Chronic diseases have an increasingly negative impact on:

1. population health by increasing morbidity and mortality,
2. society by increasing health inequalities and burden to informal caregivers, and
3. economy by requiring enormous financial resources and jeopardising macro-economic development (e.g. consumption, capital accumulation, labour productivity and labour supply).

Integrated care is the most promising concept in redesigning care to tackle the increasing threat of chronic diseases. Several European countries have experimented with models for integrating care, most frequently in the form of disease management programmes. These models were often supported by payment schemes to provide financial incentives to health care providers for implementing integrated care. These are investigated by this article.

Developing a Patient Care Co-ordination Centre in Trafford, England: lessons from the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)/Advancing Quality Alliance integrated care fellowship experience – International Journal Of Integrated Care
In the north-west of England, the Trafford health and social care economy have been working through a competitive dialogue process with industry to develop an innovative and dynamic solution to deliver seamless co-ordination for all patients and service users. The strategy is to develop a new Patient Care Co-ordination Centre, which will be responsible for the delivery of co-ordinated, quality care. The Patient Care Co-ordination Centre will work at clinical, service, functional and community levels across multiple providers covering risk stratification, preventative, elective and unscheduled care.   Following study of examples of care coordination from UK and international sites, this learning from these visits has been assimilated into the design process of the Patient Care Co-ordination Centre.

How do we make community-oriented integrated care work? – London Journal Of Primary Care
Editorial that following an interview with Lord Darzi identifies that it is processes of transformation, rather than structural change that will build integrated care. It  identifies four major questions that may obstruct implementation:

1. Can primary care development and investment be protected in a cold financial climate?
2. Does the current marketisation of health care erode integration?
3. Does the health and social care system in London behave like a real system?
4. Is there really a cultural shift towards empowerment and organizational learning?

The parallel universes of NHS wonder and woe – Health Service Journal 
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens is worried NHS leaders are too busy dreaming about what life will be like once they are living in the sunny uplands envisaged by the Five Year Forward View. Or perhaps after the government has bailed them out in response to growing pressures and for not facing up to the difficult decision they need to make to deliver the former and avoid the latter. He fears that, like St Augustine, the NHS knows it must improve but does not want the pain that will involve just yet.

• Contact the Library & Knowledge Service to request this article in full or Phn. 01704 704202

Carter to unveil hospital efficiency ‘index’ – Health Service Journal 
A landmark review of NHS productivity is to produce a new measure for rating every hospital in England on the efficiency with which it uses staff and resources. The Department of Health-backed review, led by Lord Carter, will report that hospitals could save £400m a year through better planning of staff rotas and shifts. It will also conclude that the NHS could save £1bn by 2020 by cutting the number of product lines it uses from more than 500,000 to less than 10,000 and improving procurement practices.

• Contact the Library & Knowledge Service to request this article in full or Phn. 01704 704202

Staff shortages threaten move into community care services. Nursing Management – UK; 06/01/2015
Developing new models of care to move services out of hospital and into the community is widely seen as central to the future prosperity of the NHS in England. However, according to a review by the King’s Fund, this aim is under threat because of pressures and shortages in the workforce.

Staff engagement outside the NHS – NHS Employers 
Find out how organisations outside of the NHS have sought to develop and sustain staff engagement strategies, read our new briefing ‘Staff engagement outside of the NHS‘.

Continuity of Information is key to person-centred care – Martin McShane – NHS England 
Dr Martin McShane, NHS England’s National Director for Patients with Long Term Conditions, explains why building care plans is so vital.

NICE Savings and Productivity and Local Practice Collections
NICE has published three audit tools and two costing statements to its collection of resources.  They are as follows:

• Radiofrequency ablation for gastric antral vascular ectasia.  (IPG520)
• Ultrasound‑enhanced, catheter‑directed thrombolysis for deep vein thrombosis (IPG523)
• Ultrasound‑enhanced, catheter‑directed thrombolysis for pulmonary embolism (IPG524)
• Obinutuzumab in combination with chlorambucil for untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. (TA343)
• Ofatumumab in combination with chlorambucil or bendamustine for untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. (TA344)

Bulletins

• Emergency department bulletin

• Bulletin of The Royal College of Surgeons of England – June 2015