Diagnosis of delirium in hospitals can be improved by the 4 A’s test 
A new shorter test for delirium appears helpful in assessing older people in hospital who may have the condition. A normal score on the 4 A’s test effectively rules out delirium while an abnormal score is reasonably useful for detecting the condition. People detected by the test would still need a full assessment to confirm the diagnosis. Delirium is common in older people who have been hospitalised, but it can go undiagnosed. To help combat this, the 4 A’s test was developed as an alternative to a longer screening process. This NIHR-funded study found that the test is easy to use and appears to have been widely adopted in NHS hospitals. The study also reinforced the high costs of patients with delirium to the service. For high-risk patients and those with sudden-onset confusion, these early results show that the 4 A’s test is a practical tool for initial assessment in time-pressured environments. It will need further testing in other settings.

Caring, supportive, collaborative: doctors’ vision for change in the NHS – British Medical Association (BMA) 
This report draws on the experience and expertise of BMA members across all branches of medical practice in the UK. It outlines where the BMA believe changes are needed to ensure patient care is safe, makes the NHS a great place to work and transforms services for the better.

Speak Up Month gets underway

A  national campaign aimed at raising awareness of speaking up begins tomorrow and continues throughout October.
Speak Up Month, led by the National Guardian’s Office (NGO), aims to increase NHS organisations’ commitment to fostering a strong speaking up culture and make Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) guardians more visible.

Doctors face new laws on reporting deaths to coroners – Health Service Journal
New laws will come into effect tomorrow requiring doctors to report deaths to a coroner for the first time in a bid to modernise the death reporting process in England and Wales.

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Trusts set to miss Axe the Fax deadline due to ‘concerning lack of progress’
Trusts with the most fax machines have collectively axed just 42% of them, with less than six months to go until the April 2020 deadline.

New hospital building programme announced
New hospital building programme to ensure the NHS’s hospital estate supports the provision of world-class healthcare services for patients.

The King’s Fund responds to the government’s announcement of additional capital funding for NHS hospitals

Commenting on the government announcement of additional capital funding for NHS hospitals Richard Murray, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said:

‘Today’s announcement is very welcome news for the hospitals selected, the staff that work there and the patients that use them. A significant amount of work is needed to bring NHS buildings and equipment up to scratch after years of capital budgets being raided to cover day-to-day running costs.”

Less than full time training: the trainee perspective
This report is based on the results of a survey of over 600 trainees and highlights the benefits and challenges of working less than full time (LTFT). It found that: doctors who worked LTFT were overburdened by administrative duties, proportionally more than full time colleagues; two thirds of trainees are considering LTFT training in the future; too few trainees are involved in working pattern planning; LTFT training is expensive; and there is not enough information about working LTFT.

NICEimpact: maternity and neonatal care
This report focuses on how NICE’s evidence-based guidance contributes to improvements in maternity and neonatal care. It finds that if all maternity units applied NICE’s recommendations on twin and triplet pregnancies, such as labelling the fetuses during scans so they can be told apart and monitored closely for complications, it could lead to 634 fewer emergency caesarean sections and 1,308 fewer neonatal admissions in England, per year. This could mean preventing around one in ten neonatal admissions of babies from multiple births in the UK each year.

Latest NHS staff sickness absence data for May 2019
See the latest NHS staff sickness absence data and take a look at our free tools and resources to support you to manage sickness absence.