NHS efficiency map: engaging staff
The Healthcare Financial Management Association in partnership with NHS Improvement has updated the NHS efficiency map.  This latest update includes a case study from Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust’s Save 7 programme.   This aims to give all staff the chance to be involved in innovative change projects that simultaneously deliver financial savings, cultural change and service improvement (Open the efficiency map to access the link to the case study – search for “engaging staff” within the map).

Electronic referrals
Two hospital trusts and their referring GP practices have become the first in the country to adopt a digital process for booking patient hospital appointments. Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust are now processing all of their hospital referral appointments electronically via the NHS e-Referral Service. Patients are also able to change or cancel their appointments through the system with analysis showing that use of electronic referrals has halved the rate of patients missing appointments from 10% to 5%.

Reviewing local health policies – Southport & Formby CCG
We are inviting your views on over 100 policies for routine health treatments and procedures that we are reviewing and updating to reflect the latest medical evidence about what works and what does not. We are joining together with six other CCGs around the region – Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, South Sefton, St Helens and Warrington – to carry out the 12 month phased review, which aims:

• To ensure that the latest medical guidance and techniques are being used and so the best treatment is being provided to each patient
• To ensure that NHS resources are being used in the best possible way for all patients
• To provide more equal access to healthcare and treatments, where possible

Lancashire-wide review and harmonisation of clinical policies – Have your say: West Lancashire CCG
As part of the ongoing review of clinical policies for all the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Lancashire and South Cumbria, we are now seeking feedback on the two latest policies to be reviewed or developed.

National Guardian’s Office publishes findings from Freedom to Speak Up guardian survey 
Findings and recommendations from their first ever Freedom to Speak Up Guardian survey

Improvement Hub
NHS ​Improvement has organised its collection of online improvement tools, resources and ideas into themes on its Improvement Hub.
Themes are emergency care, patient safety, QI, workforce, cancer, finance, mental health, operational performance, elective care, culture and leadership, maternity and neonatal, patient experience and learning disabilities.

New care models: harnessing technology
An examination of how digital tools can help to deliver health and care services.
The report stresses the importance of involving stakeholders, both service users and clinicians, at all stages of introducing new digital technologies, and that local areas should “steal with pride” and make use of learning and evidence from other areas.
Case studies from five vanguards – East and North Hertfordshire, Better Care Together Morecambe Bay, Better Together Mid Nottinghamshire, Salford Together and East Midlands Radiology Consortium.

Spotlight on specialised services
Specialised services funded by NHS England are grouped into six National Programmes of Care: blood and infection; cancer; mental health; internal medicine; trauma; and women and children. This pamphlet highlights examples of recent investments across these areas.

Resource to reduce alcohol stigma
A new e-learning programme has been developed for NHS healthcare professionals to reduce the stigma faced by patients with alcohol problems. A package of training materials, including facilitator’s notes, are included in the programme, which aims to help health professionals to have a better understanding of alcohol dependency and to improve longer-term outcomes for patients. The resources will be of interest to health and social care staff who come in to contact with patients with alcohol problems in either: hospital, primary care or community settings.

Large scale general practice
In July 2016, the Nuffield Trust published Is bigger better? Lessons for large-scale general practice. This study examined the factors affecting the evolution of general practice and its impact on quality, staff and patient experience. The Nuffield Trust has now release four booklets which sit alongside this main report covering: the leadership and governance of large-scale general practice organisations, sustainability, working with the wider health economy, and improving quality.

Getting flu jab is best way to protect everyone, says Public Health England 
Public Health England has stressed the importance of being vaccinated against flu, as NHS leaders are warned to brace themselves for a ‘pressurised’ flu season this winter.

HSJ Roundup (contact the Library for further details)

• NHS regulators face scrutiny in new Kirkup inquiry 
  A new inquiry by Bill Kirkup into the death of a baby girl 16 years ago will examine the role of NHS regulators and national bodies whose inaction led to a “regulatory gap”, HSJ can reveal.
• Third of hospital’s patients unable to leave as CCGs struggle to fund services 
  A trust in the West Midlands is unable to discharge 30 per cent of patients from one of its hospitals as commissioners in the region struggle to fund community services, HSJ has been told.
• Study reveals common errors in maternity care 
  Almost two-thirds of clinical negligence claims involving maternity services included mistakes in monitoring baby’s heartbeats, a study has found.
• Waiting list over 4 million for a second month 
  Waiting times remained stubbornly close to 20 weeks at the end of July, the 17th consecutive breach of the 18 week target
• NHS trusts told to check unqualified staff are not working as ‘nurses’ 
  England’s most senior nurses have instructed NHS trusts to check whether they are employing unqualified care staff with job titles describing them as “nurses”, HSJ has learned.
• CCGs rule out merger as ‘unwelcome distraction’ 
  Three clinical commissioning groups in Leicestershire have ruled out merging as it would be “an unwelcome distraction”.
• DH spent £3m on consultants for abandoned NHS Professionals sale 
  The Department of Health spent almost £3m on consultant advice for its plan to sell off NHS Professionals, which was dropped earlier this month.
• Leaders of major hospital worried over £30m owed by private patients 
  One of the world’s most famous hospitals is owed more than £30m by international private patients, HSJ can reveal.
• Landmark hospital merger to lead to major service reshuffle 
  A merger to create one of the country’s largest acute trusts will lead to some specialist services being shifted between hospitals, an NHS Improvement report reveals.
• HEE expects to beat record GP recruitment numbers 
  Health Education England is “on track” to exceed last year’s record GP recruitment, a senior official has told HSJ.
• Trust pleads guilty to health and safety charge over patient’s death 
  One of the country’s largest mental health and community trusts has pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety law over the death of a teenage patient.
• Beleaguered trust forced to revise finance plan after ‘significant slippage’ 
  A struggling trust tasked with making savings worth nearly 7 per cent of its income is set to submit a revised finance plan after “significant slippage” in its efficiency schemes.
• Smokers and obese patients face six month surgery waits 
  Elective surgery referrals for smokers and patients with a body mass index over 35 look set to be delayed for six months under a new commissioning plan in Yorkshire.