Knowledge @lert for Thursday 25th July

July 25, 2019 CCG Daily News

Transforming elective care services
NHS England has published the following handbooks to support the improvement of local health and care systems.  The documents describe what systems can do to transform the services at pace, why this is necessary and how the impact of this transformation can be measured.  They contain practical guidance for implementing and adopting a range of interventions to ensure patients see the right person, in the right place, first time.

Quality improvement in emergency departments
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has published the following reports from three national quality improvement projects:

  • Venous Thromboemolism risk in lower limb immobilisation – finds that emergency Departments have made significant progress against RCEM standards for assessing risk of blood clots in patients with lower leg injuries
  • Feverish child – finds that emergency Departments are struggling to achieve timely initial assessment and senior decision maker review of children presenting with fever symptoms
  • Vital signs in adults – finds there has been significant improvement in the process of repeating and acting upon abnormal vital signs and of appropriate actions taken in emergency departments.

Reducing avoidable conveyance to A&E
NHS England has published Planning to safely reduce avoidable conveyance.  This document aims to support ambulance services, lead commissioners and Sustainability & Transformation Partnerships / Integrated Care Systems to safely reduce the number of patients conveyed to Accident & Emergency Departments.

High Intensity User services
NHS England has updated its Setting up a High Intensity User service resource pack.  The High Intensity User (HIU) service has been shown to offer a robust way of reducing frequent user activity to 999, NHS 111, A&E, GP contacts and hospital admissions.  This resource pack is intended to support local health communities who think that these innovations can be adapted and adopted to support an improvement opportunity in their local area. 

NICE Shared Learning
The following case studies illustrating how NICE guidance has been implemented have been added to the NICE Shared Learning website:

Antibiotic overuse
NICE has published Antibiotic stewardship: duration of antibiotic treatment for common infections frequently exceeds guideline recommendations.  This ‘Medicine’s evidence commentary’ evaluates new evidence and highlights areas for improvement when prescribing antibiotics. The findings suggest that guidance on antibiotic use is not being implemented as well as it could be in all areas which may lead to antibiotic overuse.

Paediatric radiology services
The Care Quality Commission has published Findings from CQC’s IR(ME)R inspection programme of specialist paediatric radiology services.  This report brings together the findings from the CQC proactive inspection programme of specialist paediatric radiology services in 12 NHS children’s hospitals in England.  The CQC has found some examples of good practice but also identified some common themes and areas for improvement.

Better Care Fund planning requirements
The Department of Health and Social Care has published Better Care Fund planning requirements for 2019 to 2020.  This document sets out the Better Care Fund planning requirements, which support the core NHS operational planning and contracting guidance for 2019 to 2020. It also details the Better Care Fund operating guidance.

Reducing the loss of x-ray findings
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch has published Failures in communication or follow-up of unexpected significant radiological findings.  This report shows where technology could play a pivotal role in reducing harm caused by failures in communication or follow-up of unexpected significant radiological findings.

NICE stroke guidance: workforce and resource impact
NICE has published an NHS workforce and resource impact statement on stroke.  This statement is designed to help commissioners and trusts understand the potential impact on workforce and resources of implementing updated NICE guideline NG129 on stroke and transient ischaemic attack in over 16s.

End of Life care audit data collection
NHS England has published Sample retrospective end of life care audit data collection sheet.  This template has been provided to support practices undertake a retrospective death audit as part of the End of Life care Quality improvement module for 2019/20.

Interim Surgical Mesh Database
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership has published Interim database feasibility report: urogynaecological surgical mesh.  This report makes ten recommendations for the establishment of an interim database to collate data relating to urogynaecological surgical mesh implants.

Primary care indicators
In their latest indicator update, QualityWatch has looked at trends in the quality of primary care services.  The indicators cover access to GP services, patients’ overall experience of GP services, confidence and trust in clinicians, involvement in decisions about care, supporting patients to manage their long-term condition, potentially preventable emergency admissions, emergency admissions for children with chronic conditions, cancer screening and antibiotic prescribing.

Workforce Race Equality Standard annual collection
NHS England has published a template for the Workplace Race Equality Standard annual collection.  This template is intended to support NHS trusts and CCGs in collecting their 2019 NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard data for submission through SDCS.

NIHR Signals
The following research summaries have been added to the National Institute for Health Research website:

Statistics

 

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