Health Management and Policy Alert

General practice in the post Covid world: challenges and opportunities for general practice

Royal College of General Practitioners - 

This report calls on the four governments of the UK to each produce a comprehensive plan to support GPs in managing the longer-term effects of Covid-19 in the community. The RCGP says the plans should contain: costed proposals for additional funding for general practice; solutions for how the current GP workforce capacity can manage new and pre-existing pressures; commitments to continue the reduction in regulatory burdens and ‘red tape’ which has enabled GPs to spend more time on frontline patient care during the pandemic; a systematic approach for identifying those patients who are likely to require primary care support; and proposals for how health inequalities will be minimised to ensure all patients have access to the necessary post-Covid-19 care.

• Report
• Press release

How to improve the health and wellbeing of the UK population: devolution and reform of health and social care

ResPublica -
This report, which was largely completed before the Covid-19 outbreak, aims to provide comprehensive and actionable recommendations for the reform of health and social care. It looks at the role of individual circumstances in determining health outcomes, the operational measures that can improve patient outcomes, and population health and the need to streamline responsibilities so it is clear who is accountable for performance.

• Report
• ResPublica - publications

Prevention in the age of information: public education for better health

Institute for Public Policy Research - 

Government has recognised there needs to be action to reduce the burden of preventable illness. This is an opportunity to deliver a paradigm shift in preventative health policy in the UK and embed public education as a major tool for driving better health. This report begins to set out how this might be achieved.

• Report
• More detail

How to enhance the integration of primary care and public health? Approaches, facilitating factors and policy options

European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies - 

This policy brief explores how primary care and public health can be brought together to improve the health of patients and populations. It describes the types of initiatives that have been undertaken; provides examples of such initiatives in Europe and beyond; and summarises the factors that can help to enhance or hinder the integration of primary care and public health.

• Policy brief
• More detail

How do we secure more effective place-based primary care networks for the long-term?

Institute of Public Care - 

This paper considers how local partners in health, care and wellbeing services across the UK have responded to the coronavirus pandemic so far. It argues that to build effective place-based primary care networks on the ground for the longer term, partners will need to work together now to drive through further changes in shared services, systems, commitments and leadership.

• Paper
• More detail

Primary Care Networks: briefing paper for VCSE sector organisations

National Voices -
This briefing paper explains a new way in which health and care services are being organised locally across England and explores how VCSE organisations might supply knowledge, expertise and training to help PCNs develop. The authors argue that this could be vital in making sure PCNs become more closely engaged with their local communities.

• Briefing
• National Voices - publications

‘Hospital mergers increase death and harm’? Not so fast…

Health Foundation - 

In February 2019 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a working paper on the impact of hospital competition on rates of patient harm in the English NHS. The Health Foundation examined the central conclusion of the CMA paper – that the research provides ‘further empirical evidence that competition ultimately benefits patients’ – finding that this cannot be substantiated from the analysis.  This working paper outlines how more rigorous well-designed research is needed to measure the impact of competition on the quality of care.

• Working paper
• More detail

Improving mental health services in systems of integrated and accountable care: emerging lessons and priorities

Royal College of Psychiatrists - 

This report sets out recommendations for local and national health and care leaders to support the prioritisation of mental health as local areas develop into integrated care systems (ICSs).

• Report
• Press release

 

Transforming imaging services in England: a national strategy for imaging networks

NHS England and NHS Improvement - 

This strategy sets out a proposal for implementing collaborative imaging networks on a national basis across England. This approach will deliver better quality care and better value services for patients and provide hardworking NHS staff opportunities to develop their career and increase their productivity. 

• Strategy
• More detail

Establishing the evidence base for ‘multiple site single service’ (MSSS) models of care: systematic review

Public Health England - 

Models of care which deliver a single clinical service over multiple hospital sites, theoretically offer the potential to maintain geographical access to services whilst delivering care, finance and workforce outcomes. This systematic review is the first to describe the evidence base for multiple site, single service (MSSS) models of care and highlight the current limitations of available research. The report also sets out a universal framework to categorise different MSSS models which may be employed in the reorganisation of secondary care services, and a suggested set of outcome measures to guide planning, implementation and evaluation of future clinical service reconfigurations to better understand the population impact of service change.

• Review
• More detail