Ten NHS organisations leading the way as best places to work – NHS Employers
Ten NHS organisations have been celebrated for their commitment to staff engagement in the annual Best Places to Work awards.

How to save the NHS £56m on antibiotic prescriptions – Health Service Journal
Measuring C-reactive protein levels using point of care testing in primary care could reduce antibiotic prescriptions by up to 10.2 million annually.  Antimicrobial resistance emerged almost as soon as penicillin and tetracyclines reached the clinic during the 1940s.

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Three Budget messages for the NHS – Health Service Journal 
HSJ’s roundup of what Wednesday’s Budget means for the NHS. Chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday delivered what will be seen as a bombshell announcement for public sector workers, including many in the NHS, with news that pay restraint is going to continue for at least another four years. Mr Osborne told MPs public sector pay rises would be limited to 1 per cent a year for four years – a move likely to anger unions and staff alike, following last year’s pay dispute in the NHS which saw staff take industrial action.

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Health economics and integrated care: a growing and challenging relationship – International Journal Of Integrated Care
In recent decades, the number of published health economic studies – especially economic evaluation studies – in the field of integrated care has increased substantially. In general, these studies do not focus on developing innovative health economic methodologies, beyond the current state of art, but instead apply traditional methods usually developed within the medical field. The problem with this approach is that integrated care is often being evaluated with unsuitable health economic methods, as the main characteristics of integrated care models often differ from more traditional models of medical care. Consequently, a continued use of traditional health economic methods might result in invalid conclusions. This may hamper scientific research as well as policy-making on integrated care.

Hospitals that try to be ‘islands of autonomy’ will fail – Health Service Journal
The new minister for NHS productivity has warned that acute trusts will fail if they try to get through the coming NHS savings drive as ‘islands of autonomy’. Lord Prior made the comment to HSJ in his first interview since his appointment as a health minister in May.

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Devolved authorities could ‘share’ NHS functions – Health Service Journal
Combined authorities could ‘jointly’ hold NHS powers, instead of them being removed from government or health service bodies entirely, under government devolution plans. Ministers plan to lay an amendment next week which will specify this option. It will also create the first explicit mention of NHS functions in the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill.

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New rules about tobacco, e-cigarettes and smoking: 1 October 2015 – Department of Health 
This document explains changes to the laws on tobacco, e-cigarettes and smoking that come into force on 1 October 2015. In particular, it explains the rules about smoking in private vehicles, including when the rules do and don’t apply.

NICE Quality Standard: atrial fibrillation
NICE has published a Quality Standard Atrial fibrillation: treatment and management (QS93).  This quality standard covers identification, treatment and management of atrial fibrillation (including paroxysmal, persistent and permanent atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter) in adults (18 years and older).

Online tools may help patients manage chronic pain – Nursing Times
Patients can manage chronic pain and reduce their reliance on opioids through an internet-based programme that teaches non-medical alternatives, according to US nurse researchers.

Statistics

• Provisional Monthly Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in England – April 2013 to March 2014, July 2015 release
• Provisional Monthly Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in England – April 2014 to February 2015
• National Survey of Bereaved People (VOICES), 2014
• Measuring National Well-being – Inequalities in Social Capital by Age and Sex, July 2015
• Annual Epidemiological Commentary: Mandatory MRSA, MSSA and E. coli bacteraemia and C. difficile infection data – 2013/14
• MSSA bacteraemia quarterly accounts by acute trust and CCG and financial year counts and rates by acute trust and CCG UP to the financial year – 2014-15
• Clostridium difficile infection: quarterly accounts by acute trust and CCG and financial year counts and rates by acute trust and CCG UP to the financial year – 2014-15
•  Referral to Treatment waiting times statistics – May 2015

NICE Quality and Productivity collection: template reports for radiology cancer staging
NICE has added Template reports for radiology cancer staging: improving information to guide treatment decisions to its Quality and Productivity case study collection. Published by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the case study uses templates to record tumour staging information from magnetic resonance (MR) investigations.

Bulletin

• NHS Workforce Bulletin-6 July 2015