Health Management and Policy Alert

11/08/06 NHS Care Records Service – Summary Record Early Adopter

The NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS) will provide electronic health care records for every patient in England. NHS Connecting for Health is seeking primary care trusts to participate in early adopter implementations of the NHS Summary Record. The early adopter implementation will focus on the general practice element of the NHS Summary Record enabling it to be shared with appropriate healthcare professionals within the PCT area. If your PCT would like to be considered for the early adopter phase please write to [email protected] by 1 September outlining how you meet the criteria above.
(Connecting for Health - letter)

11/08/06 Medicines management review annual health check

The Healthcare Commission has published comparative assessments on medicines management for all 173 acute hospital trusts in England.The Medicines management review annual health check shows that 18 hospital trusts got the highest rating of “excellent” while 12 got the lowest of “weak”. Seventy trusts got a rating of “good” while 73 were “fair”.

(Healthcare Commission - press release, BBC News)

11/08/06 NHS financial performance - Quarter 1 2006-07

NHS financial performance - Quarter 1 2006-07, by the Department of Health for the Secretary of State for Health provides a summary of the current forecasts for NHS financial performance based upon the quarter one financial returns provided by NHS trusts, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. The figures in this report exclude NHS foundation trusts. The data shows that:

· the NHS as a whole is forecasting a small surplus for the year - £18m - after application of a £350 million contingency created by the Strategic Health Authorities;

· forecast gross deficits for the year total £883 million compared with £1,227 million in 2005-06;

· 120 organisations are forecasting deficits compared with 174 that returned deficits in 2005-06.

 

(DH - publications, DH - press release)

10/08/06 Care and respect in death: good practice guidance for NHS mortuary staff

This guidance, from the Department of Health, provides a resource for those running and working in NHS mortuaries which they can use to review their practice and protocols against best practice, ensuring local systems are set up to minimise the opportunities for error, and ensuring they reflect the underlying principles of care and respect in all areas of their work.
(DH - guidance, BBC News)

10/08/06 Teaching PCTs

Newly-reconfigured PCTs did not automatically inherit the right to the "teaching" title and logo of any of their constituent organisations. Ministers have expressed the view that new PCTs wishing to retain the title should be allowed to do so providing they meet appropriate criteria. The Department of Health has written a Dear Colleague letter to chief executives giving a suggested process for reconfigured PCTs to re-apply for teaching status.
(DH - letters)

10 Aug 2006 - Age Partnership Group report on ageing workforce in health and social care

Age Partnership Group has commissioned nine new sector research reports encouraging employers to tackle age discrimination in the workforce in advance of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 which come into force on 1^st October 2006. The report on health and social care is intended for consultation with employers, sector bodies and other interested organisations and individuals during 2006.

(Age Positive)

09/08/06 Commissioning

The King’s Fund has published a briefing setting out the key points from the Department of Health documents Health reform in England: update and commissioning framework The briefing, The commissioning framework, provides some commentary and analysis of the content.

(King’s Fund - briefings)

09/08/06 Long term conditions: Making the shift - early reviews

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement’s Long Term Conditions priority programme has published some early reviews of NHS experience and key success factors which will help the NHS make the shift in care of long term conditions from the traditional hospital setting to community based care. Making the shift: key success factors and Making the shift: a review of NHS experience were commissioned from the University of Birmingham's Health Services Management Centre.

(NHS Institute - press release)

09/08/06 How to assess structured diabetes education: an improvement toolkit for commissioners and local diabetes communities

To help local services meet the obligation of delivering patient education, the Department of Health, the National Diabetes Support Team and Diabetes UK have produced two Structured Diabetes Education Improvement tools, in consultation with a number of stakeholders, including the Healthcare Commission. The first tool is a Structured Education Programme Improvement Tool to help local service providers to assess whether the programmes they are delivering and commissioning meet the NICE criteria, and to identify gaps in current provision, so that the programmes can be improved. The second tool is an Educator Improvement tool, which serves as an adaptable framework to enable diabetes educators to reflect on their current practice and enhance their skills. It contains a number of useful resources including a patient course evaluation.

(DH - publications)

09/08/06 Variations in local NHS spending highlighted by King's Fund analysis

A King’s Fund report, Local variations in NHS spending priorities,  analyses new Department of Health data from 2003/4-2004/5 that shows how much money is being spent by primary care trusts (PCTs) in England on different diseases. The briefing reveals that some PCTs spend much more than others on particular diseases, such as cancer, mental health and coronary heart disease, even after differences in the health needs of local populations and other factors have been taken into account. (King’s Fund - press release, BBC News, NHS Confederation response)