Health Management and Policy Alert

Interim bulletin: harm caused by delays in transferring patients to the right place of care

Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch -
This investigation explores issues around patient handover to emergency care. This bulletin outlines early investigation findings and recommends a national response to tackle this issue. Findings so far emphasise that an effective response should consider the interactions of the whole system: an end-to-end approach that does not just focus on one area of health care and prioritises patient safety.

• Bulletin
• Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch - publications

Shared decision making standard

Professional Record Standards Body -
This standard on shared decision making aims to provide a framework for clinicians to record the decision-making process between themselves and their patients. The standard also allows the shared decision information to be shared between professionals and their different record systems.

• Standard

Re:Birth summary report

Royal College of Midwives -
This project worked with representatives from across maternity care, including staff, advocacy groups and service users. It advises that midwives and obstetricians put the needs and wishes of women at the heart of all conversations about their care. It recommends that maternity staff should follow the five As: acknowledge, ask, affirm, avoid and annotate.

• Summary report
• Royal College of Midwives - press release

Public attitudes towards institutions involved in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic

The Policy Institute at King's College London -
According to this international study of six countries three in four (74 per cent) people in the UK think the government is motivated by building or protecting its own reputation when it comes to Covid-19, while six in ten (61 per cent) believe it is motivated by making lots of money in relation to the pandemic. However, majorities in other nations share the same perceptions. These perceptions also extend, although to a lesser extent, to scientists involved in tackling coronavirus.

• Report
• King's College London - news

 

Valuing lived experience - learning report: are you ready to commit to the work of co-production?

National Voices -
Voices for Improvement is a National Voices project which seeks to strengthen collaboration between those with lived experience and decision-makers, in the service of improving health and social care. The project supports those with lived experience to provide coaching and mentoring to those in senior positions in health and care. The coaching allows clients to gain deeper understanding of lived experience perspectives and promotes the confidence to try new approaches to co-production in their own work. This report summarises two years of work of the project.

• Report
• National Voices - publications

The government’s response to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee’s ninth report of session 2021-22, 'Clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic'

Department of Health and Social Care -
This report sets out how the government is working with its arm’s length bodies to help the NHS clear the waiting list for elective care.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Supporting patient engagement with digital health care innovations: lessons from the Care City test bed

Nuffield Trust - 

Health apps and digital tools have the potential to help alleviate some of the huge pressures the NHS faces from Covid-19, the backlog of care and rising demand. But introducing these tools into health care and supporting people to use them is never a quick fix, and they will not work for everyone. This summary provides a set of lessons for ensuring digital health innovations are applied in optimal ways for the people using them. The findings are based on a large-scale evaluation of digital technologies being implemented in health and social care in East London.

• Report
• More detail

The public’s experience of monitoring their blood pressure at home

Healthwatch England - 

People with high blood pressure are increasingly being asked to monitor their condition at home. The NHS programme ‘Blood Pressure @Home’ ([email protected]) enables people with high blood pressure to measure and share their blood pressure readings with their GP from home. This report evaluates that programme to see how it is working for patients and how GPs use their readings, and suggests steps the NHS can take to improve support and outcomes for people who monitor their blood pressure from home.

• Report
• Press release

Hospital discharge and community support guidance

Department of Health and Social Care -
This document sets out how health and care systems can ensure that people are discharged safely from hospital to the most appropriate place and continue to receive the care and support they need after they leave hospital.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2021

The King's Fund -
This analysis of the 2021 British Social Attitudes Survey (undertaken by The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust) finds that public satisfaction with how the NHS runs has fallen sharply to 36 per cent – an unprecedented drop of 17 percentage points from 2020 and the lowest level of satisfaction recorded since 1997. Despite this, support for the principles of the NHS is as strong as ever. The overwhelming majority of people expressed high levels of support for the founding principles of the NHS when asked if they should still apply in 2021: that it is free of charge when you need it (94 per cent), primarily funded through taxation (86 per cent) and available to everyone (84 per cent).

• Read it now
• The King's Fund - blogs