Health Management and Policy Alert

Making care closer to home a reality: refocusing the system to primary and community care

The King's Fund - 

This report explores the factors that have prevented successive governments from achieving this vision so far and proposes several steps to begin this shift.

• Report
• Press release

Patient experience of diagnostics report

Patients Association - 

This report analyses the opinions and experiences of more than 1,000 NHS patients who had received diagnostic support from the NHS in the preceding six months. The survey (undertaken in partnership with Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland) found that patients want better access to early and accurate diagnosis of health problems. Many patients would consider paying to get tests done privately if they faced a long wait for NHS tests. Nine out of ten (90%) of the people who completed the survey said it should be easier to obtain access to the diagnostic tests they need.

• Report
• More detail

Commissioning framework for mental health inpatient services

NHS England - 

This framework summarises the commissioning guidance relating to mental health inpatient provision. It aims to: provide guidance for those responsible for the commissioning of mental health inpatient services and, within this, advance the system-wide requirement to ensure that services are local, inclusive and deliver safe, personalised, and therapeutic care; and support systems to develop local plans for change, so that inpatient provision better fits the needs of the population, makes more effective use of the funds available, and protects and improves the lives of citizens in the locality.

• Framework
• More detail

 

Commissioning framework for mental health inpatient services

NHS England - 

This framework summarises the commissioning guidance relating to mental health inpatient provision. It aims to: provide guidance for those responsible for the commissioning of mental health inpatient services and, within this, advance the system-wide requirement to ensure that services are local, inclusive and deliver safe, personalised, and therapeutic care; and support systems to develop local plans for change, so that inpatient provision better fits the needs of the population, makes more effective use of the funds available, and protects and improves the lives of citizens in the locality.

• Framework
• More detail

 

Evaluation of Carers Matter Norfolk

Institute of Public Care - 

This is the report of an of evaluation of Norfolk County Council’s model of support for unpaid carers. It found many positive aspects of the support that were highly valued by carers and enhanced their wellbeing, and makes recommendations on scope for further improvements. It did not find evidence that the service can offer substantial savings by preventing carer breakdown, and challenges the assumptions that underpinned these expectations.

• Report
• More detail

National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health: annual report 2024

National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health - 

This report is based on people aged ten and above who died by suicide between 2011 and 2021 across all of the UK. In addition to findings in relation to this general population data, it also contains key messages relating to: mental health patient suicides and acute mental health care; suicide by patients following one-off assessment; suicide by autistic people and/or patients with ADHD; suicide by in-patients aged under 25; suicide by students in England and Wales; and patients who died by suicide in public locations. It also shares findings on social and clinical characteristics.

• Report
• More detail

National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBoCA): state of the nation report

National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN) - 

This report is an audit of the care received by people with bowel cancer in England and Wales, focusing on the 35,779 patients diagnosed between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. It found that there was an increase in the proportion of patients presenting with stage I or II disease (from 35 per cent in 2017/18 to 42 per cent in 2021/22), while the number of patients presenting with colorectal cancer returned to pre-pandemic levels.

• Report
• More detail

The Hughes report: options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh

Patient Safety Commissioner - 

This report finds that thousands of women, children, and families have been harmed by these two medical interventions — valproate and pelvic mesh — and that there is a compelling case for the government to award them redress. The report recommends the government creates a two-stage financial redress scheme — an interim scheme to enable the identification of all those harmed ensuring patients receive financial redress quickly and a main scheme.

• Report
• More detail

Understanding differences in infant mortality rates across local areas

Nuffield Trust - 
Improvements in infant mortality rates in England have stalled since 2014, but the understanding of what's driving these trends and the part environmental factors might play remains limited. The health of children is determined by more than health care – so understanding the broader determinants of infant mortality is crucial to reducing it. This analysis assesses how local authority characteristics were associated with different rates of infant mortality in England in 2017.

• Report
• Nuffield Trust - publications

NHS public health functions agreement 2023 to 2024

Department of Health and Social Care -
This guidance contains information about NHS England's objectives and funding arrangements as it commissions public health services. The NHS public health functions agreement sets out the arrangements under which the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care delegates responsibility to NHS England for certain public health services. The services currently commissioned in this way are: national immunisation programmes; national population screening programmes; child health information services; public health services for adults and children in secure and detained settings in England; and sexual assault services.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications