Survey of NHS staff 2009 (17th March 2010)The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published the 7th annual survey of NHS staff. it provides trusts with information about the views and experiences of employees that can help to improve the working lives of staff and the quality of care for patients.
The 2009 survey provides 40 key findings about working in the NHS. Of these, 26 show improvements from 2008, two have deteriorated and eight have remained unchanged. A further four key findings are new to the survey in 2009.
Results Regulating for better care (17th March 2010)This is the first edition in the CQCs new 'regulating for better care' series.
This series looks at high quality care and improvements in health and social care following action by CQC.
The first edition focuses on improvements made by Ambulance Trusts after infection prevention and control inspections by CQC.
Publication
The standard NHS contracts for acute hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services and supporting guidance (18th January 2010)The NHS standard contracts for Mental Health and Learning Disability, Ambulance Services, Acute Hospital and Community Services are published today.
The contracts support the NHS Operating Framework for 20010-2011: The contracts should be read in conjunction with the Principles and Rules for Co-operation and Competition and the PCT Procurement Guide.
Documents Funding and Performance of Healthcare Systems in the Four Countries of the UK Before and After Devolution (20th January 2010)Political devolution means there are now four National Health Services in the United Kingdom. The health services of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all funded by the UK taxpayer, but have developed different systems of governance and different methods of providing healthcare.
Funding and Performance of Healthcare Systems in the Four Countries of the UK Before and After Devolution examines the impact of this by studying key performance indicators for the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at three time points – 1996/7, 2002/3 and 2006/7. The report also undertakes a completely new comparison of NHS performance in the English regions and the devolved countries. This is the first time such an analysis has been conducted.
Report The operating framework for the NHS in England 2010/11 (4th January 2010)This briefing details the key points of the operating framework, the white paper and the Pre-Budget Report.
Briefing NHS European Office: policy priorities 2010 (5th January 2010)The NHS European Office has published its policy priorities for 2010. The work of the European Office covers a wide range of EU policy and legislative proposals of key relevance to the NHS; as a provider and commissioner of healthcare, as an employer and as a business.
This document outlines the main policy areas on which the European Office will be working throughout the calendar year.
Document The new EU Remedies Directive: proven procurement is of the essence (13th January 2010)New EU rules which improve access to rapid and effective review procedures for suppliers who allege that public authorities have breached procurement rules have taken effect in the UK.
The EU Remedies Directive amends the UK Public Contract Regulations and will affect all procurement contracts commenced after 20 December 2009.
The NHS European Office have published this briefing to raise awareness amongst NHS managers involved in procurement of the key changes to the rules and to highlight new provisions in the law which public authorities can use to protect themselves from challenge.
Briefing Controlling public spending: The NHS in a period of tight funding (7th January 2010)Policy Exchange research, which included a roundtable discussion with a number of senior academics and business leaders with expertise in the NHS, considers some of the options for the NHS in a period of tight funding. They believe that in order to protect the NHS into the future the next Government needs to make bold decisions on:
Performance related pay
Reducing variations in clinical practice
GP fundholding
Decommissioning services
Transformational change project
Report
Pandemic (H1N1) influenza: a summary of guidance for infection control in healthcare settings (8th January 2010)This document is an updated version of Pandemic flu: A summary of guidance for infection control in health care settings issued in September 2007. It is specific to the current pandemic influenza virus, pandemic (H1N1), and thus represents current guidance.
Guidance Pandemic influenza: summary infection control guidance for ambulance services during an influenza pandemic (8th January 2010)The purpose of this document is to set out concise summary guidance for infection control for the ambulance services and it is intended for use during the pandemic. The guidance in this document is equally applicable to lay responders, who should adopt the same infection control and hygiene measures.
Guidance
EVENT: Service line reporting and management in mental health (4th November 2009)The presentations from this event that was held at the Congress Centre, London for mental health foundation trusts are now available to download from the Audit Commission.
Presentations Report on the prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs to people with dementia (12th November 2009)In recognition of widespread concern about the over-prescription of anti-psychotic drugs, and as part of the priority being given to improving care for people with dementia, Professor Sube Banerjee was asked to undertake an independent clinical review of the use of anti-psychotic drugs. Professor Banerjee has completed his review and the Government has issued its response to his findings.
Report Counting the Cost: caring for people with dementia on hospital wards (17th November 2009)This new report from Alzheimer's Society's reveals unacceptable variations in the quality of care for people with dementia in hospital.
It reveals people with dementia often spend longer in hospital than other people without the condition receiving the same treatment and nursing staff are ill-equipped to provide the specialist dementia care that they need.
Report The Chance of a Lifetime - Preventing early conduct problems and reducing crime (23rd November 2009)The most common childhood mental health difficulties are conduct problems. A very high proportion of those who have the most serious conduct problems during childhood will go on to become involved in criminal activity. Overall, we estimate that around 80% of all criminal activity is attributable to people who had conduct problems in childhood and adolescence.
This paper examines the links between early conduct problems and subsequent offending. It makes the case for greatly increased investment in evidence-based programmes to reduce the prevalence and severity of conduct problems in childhood. It shows that, in addition to improvements in the quality of life for many individuals and their families, the potential long-term benefits to society as a whole are enormous, particularly in terms of crime prevention.
Paper Getting to a good place: partnership working for mental health patients (16th November 2009)This Briefing explores how ambulance services and mental health services can work together to provide the best care for patients with mental health problems.
It sets out the key findings from a joint Ambulance Service Network and Mental Health Network project that looked at the challenges and opportunities for partnership working, including developing alternative care pathways for patients with mental health problems, improving training on mental heath issues for frontline ambulance staff,and encouraging the sharing of information.
Please note that you will need to register with the NHS Confederation website to access this.
Briefing Mental health and the economic downturn (12th November 2009)In September 2009 a one-day meeting on mental health and the economic downturn was held in London. The meeting was convened by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Mental Health Network, the NHS Confederation and the London School of Economics and Political Science. The meeting explored the impact the downturn was having on mental health as well as where some of the solutions may lie for those working at a local and national level in service provision and policy.
This briefing builds on the outcomes of that meeting. It outlines the challenges facing the sector and sets out how policy makers, organisational leaders and health and social care professionals should respond.
Briefing
Being open: communicating patient safety incidents with patients, their families and carers (19th November 2009)In 2005, the National Reporting and Learning Service (NRLS) issued guidance on communicating effectively with patients when things go wrong. Following changes to the NHS since the launch, the NRLS has reviewed the guidance and developed a new Being open framework.
The new framework is a best practice guide for all healthcare staff, including boards, clinicians and PALS. It explains the principles behind Being open and outlines how to communicate with patients, their families and carers following harm.
Framework
Pandemic influenza toolkit for NHS ambulance services in England (1st September 2009)This toolkit is part of the Department of Health’s (DH) programme for improving and enhancing the preparedness within NHS ambulance services for managing pandemic influenza. The aim is to support ambulance trusts in the delivery of an operational response. The body of the toolkit provides a summary statement of individual topics and signposts to further information, websites and material published by DH.
Toolkit
NHS trusts need to do more to meet essential standards (18th June 2009)All NHS trusts have now declared whether they are meeting core safety and quality standards. Overall, these declarations suggest that NHS trusts have made important improvements over the past four years:- 9 out of 10 trusts say they meet at least 90% of our essential standards;
- more trusts say they meet standards that have proved challenging for the NHS in the past.
However, the Care Quality Commission are concerned that:- only half of trusts say they meet all current standards;
- there is significant variation between regions;
- fewer trusts say they meet key standards on child protection, safety and employment checks.
Declarations Reviews in 2009/10 (23rd June 2009)This report describes how the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will assess health and adult social care services over the next year.
Report
Category C Ambulance Service User Survey 2008 (13th May 2009)This is the first national survey which specifically targeted people whose conditions were assessed by ambulance call handlers as Category C. The results show that most of those who responded to the survey had a positive experience of the way they were looked after by the emergency ambulance service.
Survey Survey of adult inpatients 2008 (13th May 2009)According to a survey published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) today, more patients have rated their hospital wards and bathrooms as "very clean" and have noticed doctors and nurses washing their hands between patients. However, despite some improvements, the NHS needs to do more to ensure hospital food is consistently of good quality and that patients are sent copies of letters between hospitals and GPs.
Survey Review of the involvement and action taken by health bodies in relation to the case of Baby P (13th May 2009)This report covers the four trusts that provided Peter's NHS care. Since Peter's death, the report shows that trusts have taken some measures to improve their child protection procedures, however more work needs to done to:
- ensure sufficient staffing levels
- improve attendance of healthcare staff at child protection case conferences
- address communication problems when making referrals
Report
