Health Management and Policy Alert

Engaging with care: a vision for the health and care workforce of England

This Nuffield Trust report focuses on the third phase of the Health Policy Futures series. It examines the current health and care needs of people in England and the human resources and facilities that will be required to meet those needs in the future. (Nuffield Trust - publications)

NHS-funded nursing care practice guide 2007

This practice guide sets out the process for determining eligibility for NHS-funded nursing care under the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care, to be implemented from 1 October 2007. (DH - publications)

Caring for dignity: a national report on dignity in care for older people while in hospital

The Healthcare Commission has published its report on dignity in care for hospital inpatients in NHS trusts. Overall it was encouraged by signs that the trusts were generally getting the right systems in place. However, work was still needed to offer dignity in care to all of the people all of the time. The national report draws on assessments at 23 NHS hospitals, Healthcare Commission surveys of 80,000 NHS inpatients and nearly 130,000 NHS staff, the Healthcare Commission's analysis of 10,000 complaints and National Patient Safety Agency information on safety incidents. The Healthcare Commission chose the 23 trusts by screening of performance data and identifying organisations where there was an apparent risk of non-compliance with government standards. (Healthcare Commission - press release)

Have your say: consultation on the regulations for Local Involvement Networks (LINks)

Legislation is currently before Parliament to establish LINks across England. To enable LINks to carry out their role, the legislation gives the Secretary of State a power to make regulations imposing duties on commissioners and certain providers of health and social care services to respond to LINks (to requests for information and to reports and recommendations made to them by a LINk) and to allow entry by LINks to premises under certain conditions. This consultation document outlines draft versions of these regulations, explains more about them, and asks for views and comments on them. The consultation period ends 21 December 2007.
(DH - publications) Also see the latest LINks bulletin, issue 6

Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention

In order to support both PCTs and dental teams in the delivery of a more preventive approach, the Department of Health commissioned the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry to develop this simplified prevention guide for primary dental care, designed for use by the whole dental team within the surgery setting.
(DH - publications)

The Mental Capacity Act 2005

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 will be fully implemented on 1st October 2007. This document, aimed at Directors of Adult Social Services and Chief Executives of NHS trusts, provides guidance and support for the implementation of the Act. (DH - publications)

0-18 years: guidance for all doctors

The General Medical Council (GMC) has published guidance that sets out doctors’ role and responsibilities towards children and young people. It provides advice on many of the sensitive and complex issues that doctors may face while dealing with children and young people. These include confidentiality, assessing a young person’s ability to make decisions about their treatment, child protection, sexual activity and contraception, access to medical records, and research involving children.
(GMC - press release)

MRSA equality impact assessment: halving MRSA bacteraemia by 2008

This document is an equality assessment of the MRSA target, which aims to achieve year on year reductions in MRSA levels. (DH - publications)

Intrapartum care: management and delivery of care to women in labour

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health have issued guidance to doctors and midwives on how to support and care for women in labour. All recommendations in the guideline are underpinned by the principle that women are provided with information and advice so they are in control of what happens to them during labour, and are able to make decisions that are right for them and their baby.
(NICE - press release)

Allergy

This report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee includes a number of recommendations on NHS allergy services, clinical surveillance, research, schoolchildren, food labelling and immunotherapy treatment. (House of Lords Science and Technology Committee - reports)