Getting patients quicker access to innovative healthcare – HM Government 
The Accelerated Access Review: final report, commissioned by the government and led by an independent chair, was published today (24 October). The review aims to make the UK a world-leader in healthcare innovation, with an NHS that embraces the new drugs and technologies that patients need and supports work with local areas to develop solutions to their specific healthcare needs.

Unlock your role in the local health economy – NHE 
Michael Wood, NHS local growth advisor at the NHS Confederation, explains why now is the time to be looking outside the health sector to build some of the relationships to make final sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) a reality. A better understanding of how the NHS relates to the local economy can help our local NHS leaders…

Hospital productivity growth in the English NHS 2008/09 to 2013/14 – Centre for Health Economics (CHE)
This report examines the extent to which NHS hospital trusts make better of their resources over time by increasing the number of patients they treat and the services that they deliver for the same or fewer inputs. The report finds that current methods of measuring productivity aren’t appropriate for individual hospital trusts and that a new approach is needed.

Over half of acute trusts ‘could be breaching their licence’ – NHE 
Over half of acute trusts are or could be in breach of licence, NHS Improvement (NHSI) has revealed as it published its shadow ranking of NHS providers’ support needs. The categorisations, due to be formally introduced next month, rank trusts in one of four segments based on the level of improvement support they need under the new…

Diabetes in pregnancy audit
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership has published National Pregnancy in Diabetes Audit Report 2015. This audit is a continuous audit of the care and outcomes for women with diabetes who become pregnant. All maternity units with a joint diabetes and maternity service are eligible to submit data. This is the third annual report and includes data on 3,044 pregnancies with outcomes between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2015 recorded by 155 antenatal diabetes services.

Unheeded warnings: health care in crisis: the UK nursing labour market review 2016 –  Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
This research highlights risks to the future nursing supply in England as it finds that half of nurses are aged 45 or over and are within ten years of being eligible for early retirement. In comparison, a decade ago just a third of the nursing workforce was aged 45 or over. The report calls on the government to scrap the pay cap for NHS staff to help to alleviate the retention crisis.

In the red: student nurse debt – UNISON
This report finds that two thirds of NHS students have had to take on work on top of their studies in order to supplement their income. The proportion of medical and health students taking on extra jobs has risen from 61 per cent to 68 per cent in the last decade and 64 per cent of those surveyed say that working these extra hours in affecting their ability to study.

Building a successful NHS workforce: the added value of specialist hospitals in England – Federation of Specialist Hospitals
This report sets out the Federation’s recommendations on how the NHS can make the best use of staff to ensure they can deliver the care patients need now and into the future. It includes several recommendations on how this might be achieved.

Taskforce to help integrate health and social care is scrapped – BMJ
Prime Minister Theresa May has come under fire for scrapping the Health and Social Care Implementation Taskforce which was set up by her predecessor, David Cameron.

HSJ roundup: (contact the library for further details on any of these HSJ articles)

• Government review reveals plan to speed NHS innovations  
  Patient access to some innovative drugs and other interventions could be brought forward by up to four years by restructuring the NHS’s approval and adoption process, a government commissioned review has concluded.
• Outstanding rating for ‘world class’ specialist trust
  The Walton Centre Foundation Trust has become the second specialist trust to receive an outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission.
• Chief executive quits shared leadership role
  The chief executive of Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has stepped down from his dual role as chief of Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust, just four months after accepting the role.
• Regulator’s list reveals trusts slated for takeover or franchise
  Several NHS trusts which were slated by officials for takeover or management franchise are revealed in a list obtained by HSJ, which regulators sought to keep secret for 18 months.
• New oversight ratings for every NHS trust
  Regulators have published proposed new ratings for every NHS trust that reflect the seriousness of the problems they face.