Reducing hospital admissions by improving continuity of care in general practice – The Health Foundation
This briefing summarises research that analysed data from over 230,000 anonymised patient records for older people aged 62 – 82 years. The research found that there were fewer hospital admissions for certain conditions when the patient saw the same GP more consistently. Patients who saw their usual GP two or more times out of every ten were associated with six per cent fewer avoidable hospital admissions.

STP governance arrangements
The Healthcare Financial Management Association has published Emerging approaches: developing sustainability and transformation plan governance arrangements.  This briefing explores the emerging governance arrangements being developed to support the delivery of sustainability and transformation plans.  It includes a view on what is working well and details of where further work is required.

NHS acute hospitals report
The Care Quality Commission has published The state of care in NHS acute hospitals: 2014 to 2016: findings from the end of CQC’s programme of NHS acute comprehensive inspections. The report has been derived from three years’ worth of CHC inspections into the quality of care being provided by NHS acute hospitals. It finds that most hospitals are delivering good quality care and looking after patients well, however, some trusts have blind spots about the quality of care they are delivering in a particular core service, even in some trusts rated good overall.

How is the NHS performing?
The King’s Fund has published its 22^nd quarterly monitoring report How is the NHS performing?  This report combines publicly available data on selected NHS performance measures with views from NHS finance directors and Clinical Commission Group finance leads.  It provides an update on how the NHS is coping with productivity and reform challenges.

Shifting the balance of care
The Nuffield Trust has published Shifting the balance of care: great expectations. This report is based on a literature review assessing the evidence for moving care out of hospital and the assumption that it will save money.  It explores five key areas: elective care, urgent and emergency care, admission avoidance and easier discharge, at risk populations, and self-care.  The report is intended to help inform local strategies and STPs.

Productivity, technology and the NHS
Newchurch has published an occasional paper on Productivity, technology and the NHS (pdf).  This paper looks at the approach of the NHS to productivity improvement half-way through the implementation of the Five Year Forward View.  It particularly examines the role of digital technology in delivering productivity improvements.

Hospital doctors’ experiences
The Royal College of Physicians has published Against the odds: experiences from the NHS front line.  This report collates hospital doctors’ experiences of working in NHS hospitals between December 2016 and January 2017.

Financial sustainability of the NHS
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published Financial sustainability of the NHS.  This report examines the growing pressure on health finances and sets out new and urgent recommendations to government.  It calls on the Department of Health, NHS England and No. 10 to work together saying that central government is asking local bodies to solve multiple problems and deliver a range of priorities without a proper understanding what they can realistically achieve.

Seven day services
NHS Improvement has published a number of case studies relating to the implementation of the seven day services programme. The seven day services programme is designed to ensure that patients admitted as an emergency, receive high quality consistent care, whatever day they enter hospital.  27 trusts have been early adopters of the four priority clinical standards and are working towards implementing these by April 2017. 

Cyber security
The Healthcare Financial Management Association has published Cyber ABCs: an introduction for accountants, board members ad chief finance officers in the NHS.  The briefing looks at areas where the NHS needs to try harder in its approach to cyber security and sets out a series of pointers that will help organisations think about their approach. It includes links to further sources of information.

New specialised treatments
NHS England has confirmed that three new specialised treatments will be made available for patients:
Second allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplants
Eculizumab for the treatment of the kidney condition C3 glomerulopathy
Riociguat for pulmonary arterial hypertension