A new single solution to recruiting temporary NHS healthcare staff. – NHS Employers
A new agreement has been introduced to help reduce the costs of recruiting temporary NHS staff.

How should we think about value in health and care? – National Voices
This paper asks readers to think about the elements of value in social care and examines difference approaches to thinking about value. The paper considers how new frameworks and measures of value can be created to assess financial, social and person-reported outcomes. It sets out how we might establish a broader way of understanding value and value for money in health and care.

Outcomes-based commissioning in the NHS – The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation has published Need to nurture: outcomes-based commissioning in the NHS. This reportexamines what outcomes-based commissioning means, the evidence to support it, progress to date on introducing the approach in England, and the optimum role of national policy in response to it. The work is the product of interviews and discussions with many commissioners, providers, policy makers, experts and academics; as well as a rapid literature review.

Mergers of trusts in the NHS – The Kings Fund
The Kings Fund has published Foundation trust and NHS trust mergers 2010 to 2015. Mergers of trusts in the NHS are often instigated by national bodies so that NHS trusts can gain foundation trust status or failing providers can be rescued from financial difficulties. This report looks at 20 mergers between 2010 and mid-2015 and finds that significant sums of money are being spent on such mergers (£2 billion on just 12 mergers over this period), often based on faulty argumentation and a lack of evidence that mergers offer lasting solutions.

Support for those bereaved by suicide – Public Health England and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance
An updated guide Help is at Hand designed to be given out by bereavement support organisations and by those who are likely to be first on the scene after a suspected suicide, including police and ambulance staff has been published. For the first time, individuals who have been bereaved by suicide have been the principal authors of the guide, with support from experts at Public Health England and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance.

New video on the role of pharmacists in A&E – The Royal Pharmaceutical Society
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has released a new video filmed at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, highlighting how pharmacists can improve patient care in Accident and Emergency Departments.  It shows what a specially-trained pharmacist can achieve in A&E and the impact the role has had on other health professionals in the department.

Increased complaints about acute trusts – Health Service Ombudsman
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has published Complaints about acute trusts 2014-15. The report reveals that the number of enquiries the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has received and investigated about acute trusts, increased in 2014-15, compared to 2013-14. It highlights that the top three reasons for hospital complaints investigated were poor communication, errors in diagnosis and poor treatment.  Other reasons for complaints in this period included staff attitude and behaviour, which were factors in two out of 10 complaints. The report outlines how many unresolved complaints the service investigated for every acute trust in England and the final decision made.

Nursing agency rules – Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority
Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority has added approved framework agreements to the suite of documents on nursing agency spending published in early September 2015. From 19 October 2015, trusts subject to the nursing agency rules will have to secure nursing agency staff via framework agreements that have been approved by Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority.

Sustainability of social care services – The King’s Fund
The King’s Fund has begun a research project in partnership with the Nuffield Trust to understand the effects of public spending reductions on social services over the past five years.  The project will focus on the need for a better understanding of the current pressures facing care services. It will examine relationship between changes in spending, and how this feeds through to the quality and quantity of services, and the impact on the health and wellbeing of people who use them.

Impact of out-of-hours GP services on A&E attendance rates – The National Audit Office (NAO)
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published as part of Audit insights papers series:Investigating the impact of out-of-hours GP services on A&E attendance rates: multilevel regression analysis. This reportsets out how the NAO used an analytical technique called multilevel regression modelling to investigate the factors affecting levels of attendance at accident and emergency (A&E) departments by patients registered at a GP practice.  Such analysis is conducted under statutory authority to examine and report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which government departments and other bodies have used their resources.

NICE guidance
NICE has published the following guidance:

• Virtual Touch Quantification to diagnose and monitor liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B and C. Medical technology guidance (MTG27)
• Edoxaban for preventing stroke and systemic embolism in people with non‑valvular atrial fibrillation. Technology appraisal guidance (TA355)
• Ruxolitinib for treating polycythaemia vera (terminated appraisal). Technology appraisal guidance (TA356)
• Low‑energy contact X‑ray brachytherapy (the Papillon technique) for early‑stage rectal cancer. Interventional procedure guidance (IPG532)
  

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Eyes on Evidence
The latest edition of Eyes on EvidenceSeptember 2015 includes the following items:

• Mortality in people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or venlafaxine in early pregnancy
• Long-term outcomes after endovascular coiling for ruptured cerebral aneurysm
• Silent cerebral infarctions in atrial fibrillation
• Neighbourhood fast-food outlets and type 2 diabetes
• Case study from the Quality and Productivity collection
• Evidence summaries from NICE’s Medicines and Prescribing Programme:
  • Type 2 diabetes: implementing NICE guidance on self-monitoring of plasma glucose
  • Digoxin in atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure
  • Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea: effects of PPIs and H2 receptor antagonists on clinical response and recurrence.
    

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Bulletins

• NHS Workforce Bulletin:  21 September 2015