Health Management and Policy Alert

Independent investigation of the National Health Service in England

Department of Health and Social Care -
In July 2024, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioned Lord Darzi to conduct an immediate and independent investigation of the NHS. Lord Darzi’s report provides an expert understanding of the current performance of the NHS across England and the challenges facing the health care system. Lord Darzi has considered the available data and intelligence to assess: patient access to health care; the quality of healthcare being provided; and the overall performance of the health system.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

People power: lessons from the health care response to the Grenfell Tower fire

The King's Fund - 

This report examines the health and care response to the Grenfell Tower disaster, how survivors, bereaved families and wider communities stepped in to make their voices heard, and the lessons health and care services across the country can learn.

• Report

Time to care: findings from a nationally representative survey of experiences at the end of life in England and Wales

Marie Curie - 

This report sets out the findings from a national post-bereavement survey, the QUALYCARE survey, conducted
in 2023 across England and Wales. The aim was to describe the outcomes, experiences, and use of care services by people affected by dying, death, and bereavement in England and Wales. The report reveals that in England and Wales one in three dying people were severely or overwhelmingly affected by pain in the last week of life, with bereaved people reporting how difficult it was to get joined-up support from health and care professionals at home.

• Report
• Press release

Talking about adversity, trauma and resilience: recommendations from FrameWorks UK

Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) - 

Earlier this year, ADPH invited FrameWorks UK to present a set of evidence-based recommendations to Directors of Public Health and other public health professionals to enable them to better explain the causes and impact of adversity, trauma and resilience in infants, children and young people to policy makers and the wider public. The recommendations, which have been endorsed by ADPH, The Health Foundation, School and Public Health Nurses Association, Institute of Health Visiting and NHS Scotland, provide practical guidance for improving understanding, as well as producing resources and literature, about adversity, trauma and resilience.

• Recommendations
• More detail

AI in health care: what do the public and NHS staff think?

The Health Foundation -

To help understand attitudes towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, the Health Foundation commissioned a survey, conducted in June and July 2024, of 7,201 nationally representative members of the public and 1,292 NHS staff members. It found that, on balance, support from both the public and NHS staff for the use of AI in health care, indicating a broadly receptive environment. However, the it found that around 1 in 6 members of the public and around 1 in 10 of the NHS staff surveyed think that AI will make care quality worse.

• The Health Foundation - publications

Beyond the breaking point: patient survey highlights NHS challenges

Patients Association - 

A survey of a sample of 1,000 nationally representative UK Respondents (aged 16+) and 210 respondents from the Patients Association's newsletter (conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by the Patients Association) revealed significant challenges in accessing care, reinforcing the charity's calls to fix the crisis in healthcare and improve patients’ access to the services they need to live well.

• Survey results
• Press release

Great expectations?: public perceptions and expectations for the new Government

Bright Blue -
This report aimed to find out: what the UK public’s expectations for this incoming Labour Government are; how those expectations match up with what the public’s own priorities are; their assessment of the previous 14 years under a Conservative Government; and which of the announced policies from the election manifestos of the main political parties the UK public think will be most helpful for the country’s younger generations.

• Bright Blue - publications

Still waiting: is it just England that still has a backlog problem?

Nuffield Trust -
The NHS wasn’t the only health system that experienced severe disruption of care during the pandemic, but how quickly have waiting times in England recovered in comparison to other nations? This long read looks at how waiting times have changed in England and in other countries since the peak of the Covid-19 crisis.

• Nuffield Trust - publications

Transfers of care toolkit

Professional Record Standards Body -
High volumes of patients are transferred every day between health and care settings. This toolkit concentrates on the PRSB eDischarge Summary Standard, which specifies the data to be shared between secondary and primary care to support the discharge of a patient from hospitals across the UK. It does not propose a one-size-fits-all approach and recognises that health and care services are organised in different ways across the UK.

• Toolkit

 

What health and care need from the next government: #4 – improving access to treatment

Nuffield Trust -
The fourth briefing in this series looks at waiting times for health care – the biggest cause for public dissatisfaction with the NHS and a central battleground of this election. It suggests seven tests that must be met which should be put to politicians as they battle to convince the public they have the answers.

• Briefing
• Nuffield Trust - press release