Knowledge @lert for Wednesday 17th June

June 17, 2015 Daily News

Prescription and other NHS charges
The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper The prescription charge and other NHS charges.  This paper sets out the provision for prescriptions and dental charges, which groups are exempt, and explains where charges vary in devolved countries.  It also covers efforts to reduce prescription wastage and examines the future of NHS charges.

Work experience toolkit for employers
NHS Careers has produced a new resource to help employers provide high quality work experience programmes.  More than Photocopying: Work Experience – a toolkit for the NHS provides guidance on how to recruit the best people, advice on setting work plans and tips on celebrating outcomes.

NICE shared learning case study; irritable bowel syndrome
NICE has added Improving evidence-based management of irritable bowel syndrome across Somerset to its shared learning database.  The shared learning example shows how NICE guidance and standards have been put into practice.

Eyes on Evidence
The latest edition of NICE’s Eyes on Evidence (June 2015) contains the following items:

  • Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality
  • Implementation of antibiotic prescribing guidance
  • Costs of autism spectrum disorders
  • Stenting versus endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis
  • Imaging techniques to diagnose suspected kidney stones
  • Evidence summaries from NICE’s Medicines and Prescribing Programme: COPD, infantile haemangioma, asthma, and acute coronary syndromes

Monitor and Trust Development Authority to move to single leadership
The Secretary of State has announced the move to a single leader of Monitor and the Trust Development Authority (TDA), the organisations who are together responsible for providing increased support to hospitals to continue to improve care and boost efficiency.  This change will mean that all NHS providers, whether they are foundation trusts or trusts, are under the oversight of one chief executive, overseeing teams working closely together.

Monitor and TDA to join under new chief – Health Service Journal
Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority are to work much more closely together and under a single leader, with a new chief executive due to be appointed by the end of the summer.

NICE consultations
NICE has published the following consultation documents:

Safe staffing
England’s Chief Nursing Officer has written to Nursing Directors, CCGs, Arm’s Length Bodies and other stakeholders about the next steps in ensuring the NHS is safely staffed.

New negligence rules render trust ‘unviable’ – Health Service Journal 
New NHS Litigation authority rules have major impact on North West trust’s finances. More than 40 trusts have lost their maximum discounts for premiums for 2015-16 now that changes to the way clinical negligence premiums are calculated have come into force. The changes, implemented in April, will have an especially heavy impact on Liverpool Women’s Foundation Trust

Workforce challenges will determine the government’s legacy – Health Service Journal 
The NHS – which is critically reliant on its staff – needs a comprehensive workforce strategy to meet all its challenges and meeting these successfully will need close cooperation across multiple organisations.

Care Act first-phase reforms
The National Audit Office has published Care Act first-phase reforms.  This report indicates the Department of Health has implemented the first phase of the 2014 Care Act well. Ninety-nine per cent of local authorities were confident that they would able to carry out the Act reforms from April 2015.  However, it warns that the Department’s cost estimates and chosen funding mechanisms have put local authorities under increased financial risk given the uncertain level of demand for adult social care.

Treatment of chronic Hepatitis C in patients with cirrhosis
NHS England has published Clinical Commissioning Policy Statement: treatment of chronic Hepatitis C in patients with cirrhosis.  There are a range of new oral treatments becoming available for Hepatitis C and so this policy statement sets out the hepatitis treatments that will be routinely commissioned by NHS England for the treatment of chronic hepatitis in patients with cirrhosis. It also sets out how access to treatments will be organised with the setting up of Operational Delivery Networks from August 2015 and arrangements in the interim.

Mycobacterial infections associated with cardiopulmonary bypass surgery
Public Health England (PHE) is working with the NHS, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and NHS England to investigate a small number of mycobacterial infections potentially associated with heater cooler units used during cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery.  After an alert from European colleagues at the end of February regarding Mycobacterium chimaera infections following cardiothoracic surgery, PHE has conducted a look-back and identified 13 cases of mycobacterial infections in people who had this type of surgery since 2007, 10 of which are Mycobacterium chimaera.

NHS staff wellbeing
The Picker Institute Europe has published Understanding staff wellbeing, its impact on patient experience and healthcare quality. This briefing sets out to understand the pressures currently affecting the NHS workforce and the impact that they in turn may have on the wellbeing both of individual staff and the health service as a whole. These include implications for patient care and experience and some consideration of the implications for improvement.

Productivity in NHS hospitals
The Department of Health has published Review of operational productivity in NHS providers. This interim report outlines work carried out by Lord Carter of Coles to review the productivity of NHS hospitals, working with a group of 22 NHS providers. The report provides interim recommendations and next steps.  A full report will be published in autumn 2015.

Statistics

NICE Quality Standards
NICE has published the following quality standards:

Bulletins

CCG Knowledge @lert for Wednesday 10th June

CCG Knowledge @lert for Wednesday 17th June