CCG property sales ‘will fund new care models’ – Health Service Journal

Every clinical commissioning group in England has been directed to evaluate estate within its area to work out how much capital funding can be released by property sales.

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Seven-day NHS services: a factsheet –  Department of Health (DH)
This factsheet outlines the actions proposed by the government in order to develop seven-day services in the NHS.

Crunch time: annual report on hospital waiting times –  Patients Association
This report is the fifth in a series of annual reviews of hospital waiting times for elective surgical procedures in England. It finds that NHS patients are waiting longer than ever for surgical procedures such as hip replacements and cataracts. The report looks at seven key surgical procedures and finds that the mean average waiting time for all is 13 weeks.

Delay in the implementation of the cap on care costs –  House of Commons Health Select Committee
This letter from Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, highlights some questions and concerns about the delay on the implementation on the cap on social care costs.

Urgent and emergency care vanguards
NHS England has announced eight urgent and emergency care vanguards.  These vanguards are tasked with changing the way in which all organisations work together to provide care in a more joined up way for patients.  Six vanguards will cover smaller local systems which may include hospitals and surrounding GP practices and social care, while two network vanguards will be working with much larger populations to integrate care on a greater scale.

Use of alteplase in the treatment of ischaemic stroke: independent expert review
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has published Summary of the conclusions of the Expert Working Group of the Commission on Human Medicines on alteplase.  The review considered the latest data on the benefits and risks of alteplase in strokes, with a particular focus on the time window for effective treatment.  It concluded that alteplase is safe and effective for use within existing treatment guidelines.

Impact of primary care quality on inpatient length of stay for people with dementia
The Centre for Health Economics has published The impact of primary care quality on inpatient length of stay for people with dementia: an analysis by discharge destination (Research Paper 113).  The aim of this study was to determine whether achievement on the QOF dementia review by GP practices was associated with their patients having shorter length of stay in acute hospitals.  The analysis focused on admissions with a primary diagnosis of dementia.

NHS England annual report 2014/15
NHS England has published its second annual report 2014/15. As well as setting out its performance over the last year and its priorities for 2015-16, the report outlines some of NHS England’s achievements, the annual accounts, and gives a Directors’ report.

NICE consultations
NICE has published the following consultations:

• Bladder cancer: quality standard consultation.  Closing date for comments: 20 August 2015.
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (QS update): quality standard consultation. Closing date for comments: 20 August 2015

Managing provider failure
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published Principles paper: managing provider failure.  This paper explores the principles government departments should use to manage provider failure and suggests there is room for improvement in the way failure of providers is considered and managed.  The paper draws mainly on examples from NAO previous work on commissioning within departments, however, the lessons are relevant to all public sector commissioners, including local authorities, police and crime commissioners and the NHS.

Statistics

• Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England – April 2015, by provider
• Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data – April 2015; Special topic – Assaults
• Critical care bed capacity and cancelled urgent operations: monthly situation reports – June 2015