Health Management and Policy Alert

Emergency healthcare: a national emergency

House of Lords Public Services Committee - 
This report includes an action plan, setting out suggestions as to what the Government should do to address the crisis regarding access to emergency care. It finds that, in many cases, patients are attending emergency care services because they have, or feel they have, no alternative. The report concludes that the Government should consider, consult upon, and establish a bold and ambitious new operating model for emergency health care.

• Report
• House of Lords Public Services Committee - news

Maternity surveys 2022

Care Quality Commission -
This survey aims to capture what people using maternity services in 2022 felt about the care they received while pregnant, during labour and delivery, and once at home in the weeks following the arrival of their baby. The survey of more than 20,900 women who gave birth in February 2022 shows fewer reporting positively about their experience of maternity care, with a decline in the number able to get help from staff when they needed it, compared to five years ago. However, many respondents were still positive about their interactions with staff.

• Survey results
• Care Quality Commission - press release

Urgent & emergency care: acting on patient and public perspectives

Eastern AHSN -
This report set out to understand the problem of urgent and emergency care from the perspective of patients who had engaged with that care, including how they might be supported by digital solutions. The research focused on where people go for urgent care, gathering positive and negative patient experiences, and using engaging methods to explore patients’ knowledge of existing digital services.

• Report
• Eastern AHSN - publications

Mind the gaps: understanding and improving out-of-hours care for people with advanced illness and their informal carers

Marie Curie - 

This research states that terminally ill people are struggling to access essential care at home during evenings and weekends, which the charity warns, means people are dying in pain. Amongst the findings is that out-of-hours emergency department attendance increases in frequency as death approaches, and is more common among people living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas.

• Report
• Press release

Directly bookable appointments: guidance for practices

NHS England -
This guidance sets out requirements for online appointment booking following changes to General Medical Services, Personal Medical Services and Alternative Provider Medical Services contractual arrangements that came into effect in England from October 2022.

• Guidance
• NHS England - publications

Understanding patient perspectives on improving GP referrals to secondary care through the use of specialist advice and guidance

Patients Association - 

The Patients Association has been working with NHS England to look at how to improve GP referrals of patients to hospital. The goal was to look at ways specialists could support GPs so they could reduce the number of outpatient appointments patients have to attend, without compromising care.

• Report
• More detail

Managing NHS backlogs and waiting times in England

National Audit Office -
According to this report, the plan to reduce long waits for NHS elective and cancer care services by 2025 is at serious risk. It finds that the funding government allocated for recovering services has not kept pace with inflation, and the NHS faces workforce and productivity issues.

• Report
• National Audit Office - press release

Advocacy services for adults with health and social care needs

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) -
This guideline covers advocacy for people using health and social care services in all adult settings (including young people under 18 using adult services). It describes how to commission and deliver effective advocacy, as well as identifying who should be offered advocacy (including who is legally entitled to it). It also covers monitoring and improving advocacy services, and training and skills for advocates and practitioners.

• NICE - guidance

Experiences of being in hospital for people with a learning disability and autistic people

Care Quality Commission - 

This report looks at what people with a learning disability and people with autism experience when they need physical health care and treatment in hospital.

• Report
• More detail

Austerity 2.0: why it’s critical for our health that the government learns the lessons of Austerity 1.0

The King's Fund -
On 17 November, the government will announce its Autumn Statement. What will this mean for public services and all of us who use them? Sally Warren from The King's Fund shares important lessons from the past that the new Chancellor must heed, as we head into Austerity 2.0.

• Blog
• The King's Fund - blogs