Health Management and Policy Alert

31/08/06 - Improvement review into services for children in hospital

The Healthcare Commission has published the results of its review of services for children in 157 hospitals in England. The review looked at the treatment of children in child specific and child friendly environments, the provision of sufficient number of staff trained in the care of children and the organisation of services. 25% of trusts assessed received a rating of excellent or good. The majority (70%) of trusts reviewed were rated as fair. Although services in these hospitals are largely satisfactory, the Commission says a number of improvements are necessary. 5% of trusts had a weak rating. The Commission says there are a significant number of key elements from the National Service Framework that these trusts are not yet meeting. A national report, outlining findings from the children services improvement review, will be published later in the year. (Healthcare Commission - press release) (BBC news item)

30/08/06 - Short-term funding for the National Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

Plans for the establishment of the new National PALS Network charitable company are set to be completed on September 7th 2006, when the National PALS Development Group (NPDG) meets to finalise the objectives of the Network, its constitution and governance arrangements. However, short-term funding requests from the NPDG Transition Group to the DH have recently been rejected, creating concerns over the development of the national organisation. (PALS - news)

30/08/06 - Funding for children's hospice care

The Secretary of State for Health has pledged £27 million over the next three years to support hospice services for children and young people within the voluntary sector whilst they develop a long term statutory funding strategy. This money will allow children and young people who are not expected to reach adulthood to access hospices or hospice at home services provided by the voluntary sector. The funding will support children's hospice services that deliver ongoing healthcare and support, intensive end-of-life care and emergency and planned respite, either at home or in a residential setting. To support this the DH has produced guidance notes and a grant application form. (DH - publications)

29/08/06 - Older people and malnutrition

Age Concern has published Hungry to be heard, a report on malnourishment of older people, particularly within hospitals. The report found that nine out of ten nurses do not always have time to help patients who need assistance with eating. The lack of nursing time and the failure by hospitals to introduce simple safeguards has hit the most vulnerable. It shows that six out of ten older patients are at risk of becoming malnourished or their situation getting worse while in hospital. It is estimated that the toll of malnutrition on health costs in the UK is estimated to exceed £7.3 billion per year – much more than obesity. Malnourished patients stay in hospital for longer, are three times as likely to develop complications during surgery and have a higher mortality rate. (Age Concern - press release) (BBC news item)

25/08/06 - Survey on missed NHS appointments

A survey from Developing Patient Partnerships, a charity partly funded by the Department of Health, shows that over 11 million GP appointments are missed per year and just over 5 million practice nurse appointments. The majority (88%) of practices who responded to the survey say that missed appointments cause them problems. When patients are able to book appointments in advance this results in an increase in the numbers that are missed, according to 30% of practices. Even with same day appointments, 49% of practices either don’t know if there has been any change in the number of missed appointments or they report numbers staying the same or actually increasing.

(DPP Press Release) [BBC News]

25/08/06 - Forecasting obesity to 2010

The focus of a report prepared for the Department of Health is to forecast what levels of obesity in England may be in 2010 if current trends in obesity prevalence continue unchanged.

The report is split into three main sections:

• looking at the current picture of overweight and obesity prevalence among children and adults, using data from the Health Survey for England (HSE) 2003;
• using trend data from HSE to project discernible trends forward to 2010;
• looking at the estimated number and proportion of adults and children who may be obese in 2010 within different socio-demographic groups.

(DH Publications) [BBC News]

25/08/06 - National review of diagnostic services

Details of a national review have been made available by the Healthcare Commission. The review found improvements in many areas of diagnostic services. But it also found wide variations in performance including unacceptable waits for scans at some hospitals. The review looked at three types of diagnostic services – imaging (x-rays and scans), endoscopy (examinations of the bowel and stomach) and pathology (tests on blood and tissue samples).

The Healthcare Commission will publish comparative results for 153 acute hospital trusts across England. 16 hospital trusts scored the highest rating of “excellent” and 15 scored the lowest of “weak”. 61 trusts got a rating of “good” while 61 were “fair”. Results of the review for individual trusts are available to download.

(Healthcare Commission press release) [Government News Network] [BBC News]

25/08/06 - Directed Enhanced Service (DES) for Choice and Booking measurement

This Dear colleague letter advises GPs that the measurement for Choose and Book starts from 1 September 2006 and gives an update on the development of a measurement of the choice component of the DES. (DH - letters)

New and updated Management Briefings and Hot Topics

Updated Hot Topic:
Preparation for compliance with Age Discrimination Legislation

24/08/06 - King's Fund report on cancer services

The King's Fund has published Future trends and challenges for cancer services in England: a review of literature and policy. The Cancer Plan was published in 2000 but demographic trends, new treatments, increasing survival rates and reforms in the NHS have altered the context in which cancer services operate. Cancer Research UK commissioned this paper to explore how cancer policy should evolve in response to these changes. Using a literature review and interviews with ten experts on different aspects of cancer, this report aims to stimulate debate about the next steps for cancer services in England.

(King's Fund press release) [BBC News]