Making Every Contact Count guidance updated
The Departments of Health and Education, Public Health England and Health Education England have published Making Every Contact Count: evaluation framework. This framework has been developed to support the implementation of Making Every Contact Count (MECC) and is intended for use by local MECC programme managers and operational leads, and those who have an oversight of lifestyle services delivery within their role. It may also be of interest to local health improvement commissioners.  This document adds to the suite of other guidance documents published in January 2016.  

Trends in medical expenditure in England
The University of York Centre for Health Economics has published Medical spending and hospital inpatient care in England: an analysis over time (Research paper 127).  This paper presents a summary of the trends in medical expenditure in England and presents analysis of the growth over 15 years of expenditure and activity in hospital inpatient health care, which represents around 20-25% of all NHS expenditure.

Community trust’s failures compared to Mid Staffordshire – HSJ
A catalogue of governance and care failings at Liverpool Community Health Trust has been likened to those found at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust in a damning report.
The community trust has been heavily criticised for pursuing aggressive savings and foundation trust status, which led to a culture of bullying and harassment and substandard patient care. The report, by Capsticks Solicitors and published on Tuesday afternoon, heavily criticised board members for failing to spot and tackle emerging problems and in some cases said executive directors were guilty of downgrading serious risks or incidents and keeping information from non-executive board members.

Registered nurse, healthcare support worker, medical staffing levels and mortality in English hospital trusts: a cross-sectional study. Griffiths P, etal. BMJOpen 2016
This study found that ward-based RN staffing is significantly associated with reduced mortality for medical patients. There is little evidence for beneficial associations with HCSW staffing. Higher doctor staffing levels is associated with reduced mortality. The estimated association between RN staffing and mortality changes when medical and HCSW staffing is considered and depending on whether ward or trust wide staffing levels are considered.

RCN responds to ‘nursing associate’ consultation
The RCN has published its response to Health Education England’s consultation on proposals to introduce a new nursing support role to the health care workforce.

Scaling Up Improvement programme
The Health Foundation has selected seven health care projects to be part of its £3.5 million improvement programme Scaling Up Improvement. The programme aims to improve health care delivery and/or the way people manage their own care through the delivery of successful health care improvement interventions at scale.   The projects cover haemodialysis care, young people’s mental health, support for intensive care unit survivors, long-term conditions, young people with eating disorders, reducing injury after childbirth, and hip fracture.

External auditors for CCGs and NHS trusts
The Department of Health has published Guidance on the local procurement of external auditors for NHS Trusts and CCGs.  Under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups must select and appoint their own auditors and directly manage their contracts for the audits for the financial year starting on 1 April 2017.  This guidance is to assist NHS trusts and CCGs with their initial audit appointments.

Reducing stillbirths and early neonatal death
NHS England has published Saving babies’ lives: a care bundle for reducing stillbirth.  This guidance is designed to support providers, commissioners and professionals take action to reduce stillbirths and early neonatal death. It brings together four elements of care that are recognised as evidence-based and/or best practice:  reducing smoking in pregnancy; risk assessment and surveillance for fetal growth restriction; raising awareness of reduced fetal movement; and effective fetal monitoring during labour.

NICE Shared Learning

• Reducing the risk of stroke in AF: using the NICE PDA with patients not currently treated with anticoagulants– Solihull CCG
• Recognising and responding to physical deterioration of patients within a mental health and learning disability NHS Foundation Trust using a physiological track and trigger system – Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

NICE advice

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and young people: guanfacine prolonged-release  (ESNM70) Evidence summary: new medicine
• Icare rebound tonometer to measure intraocular pressure (MIB70) Medtech Innovation Briefing