Health Management and Policy Alert

NHS progress against 18 week target

The NHS has met its commitment to reduce the time patients wait from referral from their GP to starting their treatment. By 31 March 2008, 85% of patients who require admission to hospital and 90% of patients not needing admission started treatment within 18 weeks of referral from their GP. Also, the NHS is on track to meet the Government's target that by December 2008 every patient, for whom it is clinically appropriate and who wants it, will start their treatment within 18 weeks. Many trusts have already delivered this target 9 months early. (DH press release)

NHS launches consultation on its draft Carbon Reduction Strategy

The NHS currently contributes approximately 3 per cent of England's total carbon dioxide emissions. Saving Carbon, Improving Health: A Carbon Reduction Strategy for the NHS in England commits the NHS to reduce these emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 in all areas, including procurement, travel and building energy use and sets out ways that this can be achieved. Proposals suggested within the strategy include: all NHS bodies to have a Carbon Management Strategy by 2009; organisations to report annually on their sustainable development progress; and for the NHS to recycle 75% of its waste by 2020. The Strategy is the first output of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit which is hosted by NHS East of England.  It is open for consultation and people are encouraged to respond by 21st August (feedback page).
(DH press release)

Smokefree mental health units

This Dear colleague letter highlights legislation that requires all mental health facilities to be smokefree from 1 July 2008.(DH - Dear Colleague letter)

New standard contracts for NHS mental health, community and ambulance services

Monthly bulletins on the development of new standard contracts for NHS mental health, community, and ambulance services, to be introduced from April 2009. The new contracts will be based upon many of the same principles and requirements of the standard acute contract (introduced through the Operating Framework in December 2007 for agreements between PCTs, as commissioners, and NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts as providers), amended as necessary to take account of the different service and organisational contexts. (DH what's new on the site)

Three new foundation trusts announced

Three new foundation trusts announced
Monitor, the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts, confirmed the following foundation trusts will be authorised from Sunday, 1 June 2008:  Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; North East London NHS Foundation Trust; and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.  The announcement means there are now 99 NHS foundation trusts in total, of which 26 are mental health NHS foundation trusts.  (Monitor press release)

Foresight Training Resource Pack

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has developed this resource to support nurses and midwives, working in all care settings to improve awareness of the factors that combine to increase the likelihood of patient safety incidents. It has been specifically designed to be flexible, so that it can be used in team meetings, handovers, mandatory training sessions and stand alone sessions, facilitated by members of staff. (NPSA press release)

NHS Digital mapping agreement

New arrangements for access to digital mapping data for NHS organisations under the NHS Information Centre procured framework agreement have been announced. The agreement will offer NHS trusts their chosen products from a basket of digital mapping data included in a fixed price schedule available over the 4 year period. More detailed information on this agreement, including frequently asked questions and answers, is available on the Dotted Eyes website.  (Information Centre press release)

An accreditation scheme for Health and Social care information - testing phase

An accreditation scheme for Health and Social care information - testing phase
The Information Accreditation Scheme aims to improve patient experience in that it will 'kite mark' information producers in order to make it easier for people to make their own judgements about the quality of information to make decisions about their health, health care and social care. The Scheme is moving into a testing phase and will be launched in early 2009.  As part of this phase, they are looking for a limited number of information producers to help test the Standard and certification process during this year.  (DH Dear Colleague letter)

NHS statistics

NHS Referral to Treatment times data March 2008  (DH statistical press release)

Cancelled operations - Quarterly update [detailed figures]  (DH statistical press release)
Cancer waiting times - Quarterly update [detailed figures] (DH statistical press release)
Elective Admission events - Quarterly update  (DH statistical press release)
NHS Inpatient and outpatient waiting times  (DH statistical press release)

 

Paying the price: the cost of mental health care in England

This report from the King's Fund, the results of a year-long study into the costs of meeting the mental health needs of the nation over the next two decades, reveals that mental illness in England cost £50 billion in 2007.  Almost half, £22.5 billion represents money spent on direct NHS and social care services to support people with mental disorders. The rest, £26.1 billion, represents the estimated cost to the economy of earnings lost because of the thousands of people unable to work due to their mental illness.

Although it finds that the prevalence of most mental disorders, including schizophrenia, is likely to remain stable over the next 20 years, it predicts a huge increase in dementia - up by almost two-thirds (61 per cent) from 582,827 to 937,636 due to an ageing population.  As a result of this, and above inflation rises in health care costs, the bill for mental health services is expected to grow from £22.5 billion to £47 billion.

The report contains chapters on eight different specific disorders: depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenic disorders, bipolar and related conditions, eating disorders, personality disorder, disorders affecting children and adolescents, and dementia.  (King's Fund press release)