Our Fabulous NHS – Academy of Fabulous Stuff

• Portrait of a Life: The past, the present, the person  
  It’s much easier to meet someone’s needs when you know exactly what they are, but if someone has trouble expressing […]
• Cumbria’s NHS joining forces to get patients up, dressed and moving  
  NHS Trusts in Cumbria have joined forces to raise awareness and help patients across acute and community hospitals to get […]

HSJ Roundup (contact the Library for further details)

• Mapped: STF winners and losers by area
  Analysis by HSJ reveals which health regions gained the most from the first year of the £1.8bn “sustainability and transformation fund”.
• Biggest winners and losers from £1.8bn national fund
  Two large teaching trusts have been awarded almost £60m of extra central funding after bettering their financial targets.
• NHS chief defends cyber attack response
  NHS Digtal’s interim chief executive has defended the organisation’s performance in the wake of last month’s cyber-attack, saying it responded quickly to help infected trusts.
• Mackey reveals next steps to tackle ‘ridiculous’ PFI deals
  NHS regulators have set out next steps in their efforts to help trusts buy out private finance initiative contracts which have “absolutely ridiculous” profit margins.
• NHS Improvement to introduce random checks of directors’ CVs
  NHS Improvement is to introduce random checks of the non-executive directors’ CVs, HSJ can reveal.
• Trolley death trust criticised for “culture” of treating A&E patients in corridors
  A troubled hospital trust where patients died on trolleys last winter has failed to meet a deadline to resolve outstanding failures of care, CQC inspectors say.
• Second court defeat for NHS England
  Lawyers have been granted permission to challenge NHS England over its decision to refuse a drug for a seven-year-old boy in a case which could have far reaching consequences.

Delayed discharge
The NHS Confederation has published What’s the hold up? This infographic provides data on delayed discharge of care and details the most common factors for delayed days in 2016.

How is the NHS performing? June 2017 – The King’s Fund
Our latest quarterly monitoring report finds that NHS is now planning to delay or cancel spending in half of local areas this year to meet financial targets. The survey of NHS trust finance directors suggests that NHS finances have improved over the last quarter of 2016/17 but whilst progress has been made in reducing agency spending, the underlying financial position remains a source of concern with many trusts having relied on one-off actions to improve their financial position.

NIHR Signals
The National Institute for Health Research regularly publishes Signals.  Signals are summaries of recently published research and intended to provide decision makers in health and social care organisations with evidence they can use.
Better prescribing might prevent thousands of strokes in the UK
A blood test threshold for diagnosing heart failure in general practice is reviewed
A dose of corticosteroids benefit most women anticipating a preterm delivery
Induction of labour within 24 hours, if waters break at 37 weeks of pregnancy, can reduce womb infection
Very strict blood sugar control in critically ill children provides no benefit

The hospital as a multi-product firm: the effect of hospital competition on value-added indicators of clinical quality – Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)
This paper examines the impact of the introduction of patient choice in elective surgical procedures on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). It finds that by introducing competition via the mechanism of patient choice, there may have been a negative effect of clinical quality.

Getting a Brexit deal that works for the NHS – Nuffield Trust
This briefing finds that the NHS could face costs of almost half a billion pounds if retired British people living in other EU countries decide to return to UK in the event of their healthcare being withdrawn after Brexit. Additionally, this figure could be substantially higher if the NHS has to pay to replace staff if EU migration is reduced, or if it faces a rise in the cost of medicines. The briefing also estimates that care homes and home-care agencies could end up as many as 70,000 staff short by 2025/26, if migration of unskilled workers from the EU is halted after Brexit.

Accident and emergency
The Institute of Health Management has published The winter’s tale: leadership lessons from emergency departments under pressure. This second report on this topic is the culmination of a series of in-depth interviews undertaken with acute trusts across England about their experiences of providing emergency care through last winter. The report focuses on the processes and behaviours of the emergency teams managing to deliver results despite the ever increasing challenges.

NICE surveillance reports
NICE Surveillance Reports provide a summary of new evidence published related to a guideline and provide an in depth commentary on a selection of this evidence.  They include the decision that NICE has taken about the need to update the relevant clinical guideline in light of new evidence.

• Myocardial infarction: cardiac rehabilitation and prevention of further cardiovascular disease (CG172) – surveillance decision: NICE plan an update of this guideline.
• Head injury: assessment and early management (CG176) – surveillance decision: no update is required at this time.
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in adults: diagnosis and management (CG163) – surveillance decision: no update is required at this time.

Statistics

• CCG Prescribing Data – January to March 2017
• VTE risk assessment, Q4 2016/17
• Overall Patient Experience Scores: 2016 Adult Inpatient Survey update