Role of the Medical Director in the NHS – The Good Governance Institute
The Good Governance Institute has published The role of the Medical Director in the NHS. This paper explores the role of the Medical Director in acute trusts in the NHS.  It examines background to the role:; responsibilities of the Medical Director; what makes an effective medical director; accountabilities and reporting lines and the wider team; training for the role and career progression; and  barriers and challenges.

Regional review of medical education and training in the south west of England: 2016 –  General Medical Council (GMC)
This report outlines the findings of a review of medical education and training in the south west of England. Overall, it found that medical students and doctors in training are learning in positive and supportive environments but training time becomes squeezed when doctors’ workloads increase.

Is the NHS in crisis? – The King’s Fund
The NHS is struggling to cope with record demand and social care services are stretched to the limit. Here the King’s Fund highlight a selection of its work to explain the pressures on services and what needs to be done to put the health and social care system on a sustainable footing for the future.

NHS performance statistics up to and including November 2016 – NHS Confederation
This briefing provides an overview of the key findings from the latest set of NHS performance data and some points of comparison. It looks at A&E attendances, emergency admissions, trolley waits and delayed transfers of care.

NHS efficiency map – Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)
The HFMA and NHS Improvement have worked in partnership to update and revise the NHS efficiency map. The map is a tool that promotes best practice in identifying, delivering and monitoring cost improvement programmes in the NHS. The map contains links to a range of tools and guidance to help NHS bodies improve their efficiency.

The importance of the clinical lead for staff wellbeing – NHS Employers
A new podcast has been launched for our NHS Employers Virtual Board series, where senior leaders in the NHS discuss the importance of wellbeing and its challenges. In this new podcast, hear Dr Julia Smedley, head of occupational health at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, explain the importance of having a clinical lead in a staff health and wellbeing programme. Julia explains the importance of her role, the impact it has had, and the challenges she has faced.

NICE shared learning
NICE has added the following items to its local practice collection:

• SHAPE: Supporting Health and Promoting Exercise in Young People with Psychosis
• Rheumatology referral prioritisation: the right care in the right place at the right time
• OASIS Group: improving quality of life in patients with lower limb Osteoarthritis
• Innovative ways to support smokers requiring nicotine management in a mental health organisation
• Enhancing the Quality of Heart Failure Care
• Blackburn with Darwen Integrated Wellbeing Service
• New IV Fluids: Very NICE
• Incorporating NICE guidance into the Sepsis Care Pathway at Tameside: improving patient care, safety and mortality in relation to sepsis
• Hypertension: Improving blood pressure management in primary care
• Successful implementation of NICE SSI guidance and quality standard

NIHR Signals
The National Institute for Health Research regularly publishes Signals.  These are summaries of recently published research and intended to provide decision makers in health and social care organisations with evidence they can use.

• Nine different drug classes reviewed for type 2 diabetes
• Propranolol generally safe in treating childhood haemangioma birthmarks
• Drug coated balloons have some short-term benefits for peripheral arterial disease
• General surgery is mostly safe during pregnancy
• Whole brain radiotherapy provides little benefit for lung cancer that has spread
• The nitric oxide breath test offers little benefit when monitoring asthma
• No clear “best” treatment of mild or severe sickness in pregnancy

Delegated commissioning case studies – NHS England
NHS England has produced a series of Delegated commissioning case studies to show how CCGs are using delegated commissioning to improve care for local people.  The case studies are from the following CCGs: Rotherham, Bolton, Gloucestershire, Oldham, and Barking and Havering, Dagenham and Redbridge.  

NICE guidance
Medtech innovation briefing:

• MIB 91 Boston Keratoprosthesis Type I for corneal blindness
• MIB92 CentriMag for heart failure
• MIB93 Ekso exoskeleton for rehabilitation in people with neurological weakness or paralysis

Statistics

• Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England – October 2016, by provider
• Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data – April 2016 – November 2016

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

• Six out of seven people haven’t heard of STPs 
  Research shared exclusively with HSJ has found very low awareness of sustainability and transformation plans among the general public.
• The hospitals with the worst nurse staffing 
  Almost every NHS acute hospital in England is failing to meet its own nurse staffing targets, an investigation by HSJ has revealed.
• Pressure on NHS ‘toughest I have ever seen’, says NHSI director  
  One of England’s most senior nurses has said the pressures facing the health service, including nurse shortages, are the worst she has ever seen.
• Nurses reveal strain of working on understaffed wards  
  Patients have been left waiting for medications, unwashed or had vital observations delayed because hospital wards do not have enough nurses, HSJ has been told.