Health Management and Policy Alert

Redesigning health and social care: challenges and opportunities from an IT and digital perspective

Socitm - 
This report presents a high-level, illustrated guide to recent and forthcoming reforms, including the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Care Act 2014, and sets out some of the consequences, especially for IT and digital policy and activity.

• Report
• Press release

Quality accounts: guidance for NHS trusts on arrangements for external assurance 2014 to 2015

Department of Health (DH) - 
This guidance sets out recommended arrangements for NHS trusts to get external assurance that their quality accounts for 2014 to 2015 are reliable and accurate.

• Guidance
• DH news

Secondary analysis and literature review of community rehabilitation and intermediate care: an information resource

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - 
This research presents a reanalysis of two merged datasets from intermediate care studies in order to identify patient characteristics associated with outcomes. It provides additional evidence that interdisciplinary teamworking in intermediate care may be associated with better outcomes for patients, but care should be taken with overinterpretation.

• Report
• Summary
• Abstract

Focus on: hospital admissions from care homes

QualityWatch - 
This analysis explores how care home residents use hospital services, and how this information could prompt improvement in the way care is provided. It raises important questions about the use of hospital services by care home residents, and how they can prompt improvement in the way care is provided.

• Report
• Appendices
• Press release

Regulation of health care professionals and regulation of social care professionals in England

Department of Health -
This report contains the Government’s response on behalf of the four countries of the UK to the Law Commissions’ report on regulating health care professionals in the UK and social care professionals in England.

• Report
• Department of Health - publications

Midwifery regulation in the United Kingdom

Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) -
In December 2013 the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published a report raising concerns about the public protection allowed by the unique arrangements for midwifery regulation. The NMC considered the report in January 2014 and commissioned an independent review of midwifery regulation by The King's Fund. The King's Fund was asked to make recommendations for an approach to midwifery regulation that met a set of principles outlined in the report. The work involved a literature review, a call for evidence, focus group work and significant engagement with key stakeholders across the UK.

• Report
• NMC - news

International profiles of health care systems 2014

The Commonwealth Fund -
This publication presents overviews of the health care systems of Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Each overview covers health insurance, public and private financing, health system organisation and governance, health care quality and coordination, disparities, efficiency and integration, use of information technology and evidence-based practice, cost containment, and recent reforms and innovations. In addition, summary tables provide data on a number of key health system characteristics and performance indicators.

• Report
• The Commonwealth Fund - publications

Standards for medical education and training - consultation on draft standards

General Medical Council (GMC) -
The GMC has launched a consultation on new standards which, for the first time, will create a single set of standards for organisations delivering medical education and training across the UK. The standards will bring together the medical education and training received by all doctors and is designed to make sure that fairness and patients’ safety, experience and quality of care lie at the core of teaching and training. The standards set out how organisations must promote and encourage a learning environment and culture that allows learners and trainers to raise concerns about patient safety, and the standard of training, without fear of adverse consequences.

• Consultation
• GMC - press release

Labour's 10-year plan for health and care

Your Britain -
This document sets out the Labour Party's plan for health and care for the next ten years. It aims not just to protect the NHS but to improve it for years to come by making sure that the health service can meet the challenges of the 21st century and remain sustainable for the future.

• Ten year plan
• Your Britain - policy

The code: professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives

Nursing & Midwifery Council -
This revised code of practice places public expectations at the heart of good nursing and midwifery practice. It has been written with the input of many patients, carers, nurses and midwives. It is shaped around four statements, which state that good nurses and midwives will prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety, and promote professionalism and trust.

• The code
• Nursing & Midwifery Council - press release