Health Management and Policy Alert

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman scrutiny 2021–22

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee - 

This report of the annual scrutiny inquiry into the work of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) raised concerns with the PHSO continuing its policy of not considering less serious health complaints, introduced to reduce the backlog of cases resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Committee also noted that it received written evidence that expressed dissatisfaction with the PHSO’s handling of complaints, and that the organisation failed to meet its targets for time taken to close cases, as reported in its annual report and accounts.

• Report
• More detail

Pandemic preparedness for the real world: why we must invest in equitable, ethical and effective approaches to help prepare for the next pandemic

Institute of Development Studies -
This report warns the global health community to think beyond vaccines and lockdowns, proposing investment in a five point action framework for pandemic preparedness which responds to people’s experiences, knowledge and needs. The proposed five areas for investment are: health professionals; diverse knowledge, expertise and perspectives; reform of health, social and other systems and structures to support resilience to disease crises; people’s trust in politics; and ethics and social justice.

• Report
• Institute of Development Studies - news

Managing NHS backlogs and waiting times in England

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee - 
This report finds that cancer waiting times are at their worst recorded level and NHS England will not meet its first cancer recovery target and that the wider NHS recovery plan may not be achieved on time. It argues that the NHS is still not planning properly for the staffing and other resources it needs to deliver additional diagnostic and treatment capacity, though much of it was already needed before the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Report
• Press release

Long Covid & employment

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus - 

This report calls on government to introduce guidance for employers on long Covid alongside a compensation scheme for frontline workers.

• Report
• More detail

NHS Covid-19 Data Store and NHS National Data Platform: a summary of a private roundtable

Institute for Government -
This paper summarises a roundtable discussion bringing together public servants and others involved in the NHS Covid-19 Data Store and NHS National Data Platform, which NHS England launched towards the beginning of the Covid pandemic to provide national organisations responsible for co-ordinating the response with secure, reliable and timely data.

• Discussion paper
• Institute for Government - publications

Role of general practice teams in supporting patient access to treatments for Covid-19

NHS England - 

To help GP teams and reception staff deal with queries from patients on treatments for Covid-19, this fact sheet explains the pathway. It can be shared and printed for reception staff and is designed to help ensure that potentially eligible patients receive an urgent triage call or review with the practice clinical team and, where appropriate, a referral to a Covid-19 Medicine Delivery Unit.

• Fact sheet
• More detail

Understanding the fundamental role of racism in ethnic inequities in Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity - 

The briefing from the Runnymede Trust and the University of Manchester’s Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study to show that institutional and community-level factors, driven by structural and institutional racism, explain the large majority of ethnic inequities in vaccination rates.

• Briefing
• Press release

Overlooked, but not overcome: smaller hospitals and the staff response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Nuffield Trust - 

This briefing looks at the operational responses and management approaches taken by staff from ten smaller hospitals during the first and second waves of the pandemic. The briefing also makes a set of recommendations for future crisis planning and response.

• Briefing
• More detail

Technical report on the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK

Department of Health and Social Care -
This is a technical report on some of the scientific, public health and clinical aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the four nations of the UK. This is from the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA), UK deputy CMOs most closely engaged in the Covid-19 response, NHS England National Medical Director, and the UK Health Security Agency Chief Executive. It is written for a specific audience: future CMOs, GCSAs, National Medical Directors and UK public health leaders facing a new pandemic or major epidemic in the UK and who were not part of the public health response Covid-19 pandemic.

• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Mental health and wellbeing

Covid Social Mobility & Opportunities Study -
Poor mental health among young people (aged 16 and 17) has increased by more than a quarter since 2017, according to this research. This briefing explores the mental health and wellbeing of a sample of almost 13,000 young people across England who were in Year 11 in 2021. It finds that almost half (44 per cent) of young people were above the threshold for ‘probable mental ill health’, using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), indicating high levels of psychological distress. This has increased dramatically from 35 per cent in 2017 and 23 per cent in 2007 (from previous cohort studies looking at similar ages), pointing to a decline in the mental health and wellbeing of young people, likely accelerated by the pandemic.

• Briefing
• Covid Social Mobility & Opportunities Study - press release