Health Management and Policy Alert

28/02/07 - Standards Fund Grant 117 for Education/Health Partnerships (Healthy Schools) 2007/8

The DH has gained financial approval for the Standards Fund for Healthy Schools in 2007/8. This Dear colleague letter includes a spreadsheet  that gives details of the amount of grant for all local programmes in England. (DH - letters)

28/02/07 - Communities for Health

The DH has published learning case examples and best practice from the pilot areas of Communities for Health. These pilots detail how communities have addressed a wide range of health issues and tackled health inequalities. Rural and urban deprived areas have worked to address obesity, healthy eating, mental health and sexual health. (DH - publications)

28/02/07 - Service improvement: Quality assurance of major changes to service provision

This Dear colleague letter from David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the NHS, to SHA Chief Executives, sets out the findings and recommendations from Sir Ian Carruthers' review of service change and reconfiguration proposals. David Nicholson outlines his thoughts on the key issues and how he expects NHS organisations to take this forward locally. (DH - letters)

28/02/07 - Review of children's hospital services

The Healthcare Commission (HC) has published Improving services for children in hospital: improvement review, a review of children’s hospital services in England.  The review included six service types, emergency care, emergency and planned surgery, day case care, outpatients services, and inpatients. The overall results of the review were: 4% of organisations received an overall score of ‘excellent’; 21% scored ‘good’; 70% scored ‘fair'; and 5% scored ‘weak’.
(HC - press release) [BBC news item]

27/02/07 PFI and LIFT schemes

A further seven private finance initiative (PFI) hospitals, worth around £1.5 billion, have passed checks on affordability and value for money. These are at: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust; Bristol North and South Gloucester PCTs; Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust; Peterborough NHS Trust; North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust; Mid Yorkshire NHS Hospitals Trust; and Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. The Department of Health has produced a series of maps showing the hospital builds and LIFT schemes. (DH - Health reform article) [DH - press release]

27/02/07 Dementia UK

The Alzheimer’s Society has published 'Dementia UK: a report into the prevalence and cost of dementia', which is a major study on the social and economic impact of dementia in the UK. The research, commissioned through King’s College London and the London School of Economics provides the most detailed and robust picture to date of prevalence and economic impact of dementia in the UK. The report shows that as the UK’s population ages the number of people with dementia will grow substantially. It also shows that dementia costs the UK £17 billion a year on dementia. A report summary is available. (Alzheimer's Society - press release) [BBC news item]

27/02/07 Mesothelioma Framework

Following consultation, the Department of Health has published advice for the NHS on how to organise services for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma patients to improve quality of care across the country. (DH - publications) [DH - press release]

27/02/07 New/updated Health Management briefings/hot topics

New briefing:

Choice at referral

Updated briefings:

Clinical leadership

Clinical negligence

Updated hot topics:

Financial balance in the NHS

Practice based commissioning

27/02/07 - Health and social care awards

Twelve teams from NHS and social care organisations across England - plus one outstanding achiever individual - have received awards at the final of the 2006 Health and Social Care Awards held in London. The winners were chosen from more than 1,500 entrants whose innovation and ideas with others in the health and social care field was recognised. (DH - press release)

26/02/07 - Slips, trips and falls in hospital

This report, from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), aims to improve NHS organisations’ understanding of the scale and consequences of patient falls in hospitals, identify areas where efforts to reduce falls and injury are needed most, and direct NHS staff to some of the evidence-based resources for preventing falls. (NPSA - news)