Developing trusted assessment schemes: essential elements – NHS Improvements
This guide describes how local systems could implement trusted assessment to effectively and safely reduce the numbers and waiting times of people awaiting discharge from hospital.

Nursing associates: consultation on the regulation of a new profession – Nursing and Midwifery Council
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are seeking the views of organisations and individuals about their proposals for regulating the new nursing associate role.This consultation will run from 9 April 2018 to 2 July 2018. The questions can be split into two main areas. The first includes where the NMC has developed new standards and procedures specifically for nursing associates. The second relates to the NMC’s proposals to apply the approach they currently have for nurses and midwives to nursing associates.

The changing nature of regulation in the NHS – NHS Providers
This report highlights the findings of NHS Providers’ fourth regulation survey. It details NHS trusts and foundation trusts’ experiences of regulation over the preceding twelve months and their views on the future of regulation. The survey findings show that trusts are concerned that the regulatory framework is not keeping pace with the developments taking place on the ground. They highlighted that the oversight of sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) and integrated care systems (ICSs) risks becoming an extra layer of performance management. Respondents also questioned whether STPs and ICSs can take on oversight and assurance roles for local systems without a statutory footing.

HSJ Roundup (contact the Library for further details)

• Legal challenge pushes back £147m hospital reconfiguration 
  Plans to split two hospitals into emergency and elective care centres as part of a £147m reconfiguration are being held up by a judicial review, which could delay a long awaited trust merger.
• Teaching trust to check 5,000 X-rays after data mismatch 
  A teaching trust is re-examining around 5,000 X-rays – some dating back more than a decade – after fears they may have been overlooked and patients could have been put at risk.
• Thousands of primary care staff ‘left behind’ by NHS pay deal 
  Tens of thousands of staff working in primary care could lose out on a pay rise after the government confirmed the new NHS pay deal would not apply to them.
• CQC warns ‘real danger’ for safety in private sector hospitals 
  Overreliance on informal arrangements by independent hospitals and doctors is a “major concern” and could put patients at risk, the Care Quality Commission has warned.

Our Fabulous NHS – Academy of Fabulous Stuff
***Get involved*** –  share your fab stuff!

• PR in VR – virtual reality pulmonary rehab programme A pioneering way to bring a programme that helps improve the well-being of people who have chronic or ongoing breathing problems has been  trialled in a south Cumbrian GP Practice and is now being rolled out further. The use of virtual reality to help with the exercise programme for patients has been introduced as […]
• First hospital to obtain latest surgical equipment Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become the first hospital site in the UK to gain access to the latest piece of surgical equipment for microscopic neurosurgery. Lancashire Teaching Hospitals is the first hospital in the UK to have purchased not just one, but two, ZEISS KINEVO 900 microscopes. This innovative equipment merges the […]
• NHS Resolution’s Did you know? leaftlet: The benefits of supported decision making (consent) NHS Resolution has a published a leaflet that aims to help start a conversation in organisations to help staff consider if their systems, processes, environments and behaviours support patient consent. NHS Resolution also encourage you to feedback good practice that we could share more widely. The leaflet includes information about: • the cost to the […]
• Queen’s Hospital saves money and helps the environment! Queen’s Hospital in Burton has unveiled its brand new sterile plastic recycler, which can melt polypropylene sterilisation materials such as surgery scrubs and trays into neat plastic blocks, reducing waste and saving money. The Sterimelt machine made its debut on the 22 March, which also marked NHS Sustainability Day, a day that highlights the important