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Procurement e-learning tool –  Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The CMA with the Crown Commercial Service has worked with Builtintelligence to produce a procurement e-learning tool. It is designed to help procurers and supply chain professionals understand why bid-rigging is harmful, learn how to spot tell-tale signs that suggest a bid may be illegal, deal with suspect bids and know where to go for further help.

Safe staffing laws needed in England and all settings, warn nurses – Health Service Journal
Safe staffing laws should be introduced across the whole of the UK and in all health and care settings, nurses have urged as they committed to lobby government more on the issue.

NHS finance directors pressured to agree ‘unsustainable’ targets – Health Service Journal
NHS finance directors are being pressured to agree to “fundamentally unsustainable” financial targets for 2016-17, according to the head of the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy.

Dalton: Change to private sector style inspections for chains – Health Service Journal
Sir David Dalton has called for a new approach to rating and inspecting trusts like his that run chains of hospitals.

NHS healthy workforce programme – new leadership resources – NHS Employers
Find out how the new health and wellbeing leadership resources can help you to engage your board and embed a culture of staff wellbeing in the NHS.

Seven day GP service reduces hospital emergency visits, study finds – BMJ
Opening general practices seven days a week reduced the number of visits to hospital accident and emergency departments by nearly 18% at weekends, an evaluation of a pilot scheme in London has estimated.

NHS England promises new technology tariff – Health Service Journal
NHS England plans to introduce a new “information and technology” tariff to encourage the take up of new devices and technology by providers.

Stevens: Give any extra funding to social care over NHS – Health Service Journal
The chief executive of NHS England has said there is a “strong argument” that ministers should prioritise allocating any additional funding available to social care services rather than the NHS.

Human factors in healthcare: welcome progress, but still scratching the surface – BMJ Quality & Safety current issue
Introduction – Calls to integrate human factors and ergonomics (HFE) within healthcare and patient safety have become increasingly frequent in the last few years.1 Judging by the number of recent articles in BMJ Quality and Safety that focus on HFE,2–4 we seem to be a step closer to achieving this goal. Within the USA and UK, groups such as the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the Chartered Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics (CIEHF) and the Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) are also making significant progress in working with clinicians, healthcare managers and patients. Developments such as the UK NHS Concordat on Human Factors and Healthcare5 and increasing interest from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) attest to this progress. These are welcome developments; however, there is still some way to go.

Are reductions in emergency department length of stay associated with improvements in quality of care? A difference-in-differences analysis – BMJ Quality & Safety current issue
We sought to determine whether patients seen in hospitals who had reduced overall emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) in the 2 years following the introduction of the Ontario Emergency Room Wait Time Strategy were more likely to experience improvements in other measures of ED quality of care for three important conditions.

Work conditions, mental workload and patient care quality: a multisource study in the emergency department – BMJ Quality & Safety current issue
Workflow interruptions, multitasking and workload demands are inherent to emergency departments (ED) work systems. Potential effects of ED providers’ work on care quality and patient safety have, however, been rarely addressed. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and associations of ED staff’s workflow interruptions, multitasking and workload with patient care quality outcomes.

New care models and staff engagement: all aboard –  NHS Confederation
This publication brings together the experiences of four vanguards which are placing staff at the centre of new care models. The vanguards featured recognise that those on the front line of care have the best ideas about how to improve it – but need to feel empowered to do so.