Health Management and Policy Alert

Maternity services in smaller hospitals: a call to action

Nuffield Trust -
In rural and remote areas, the closure of maternity units can mean longer transfer times and poorer support for obstetric emergencies, but the viability of smaller maternity units is often questioned. This working paper discusses the issues affecting the delivery of safe and effective maternity services and serves as a call to action for areas of improvement that are within the control of employers and national organisations.

• Working paper
• Nuffield Trust - publications

Rapid report: learning from SARS-CoV-2-related and associated maternal deaths in the UK

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership -
This rapid report aims to identify lessons learned to guide future care and pathway changes in the context of infection transmission and the need for public health and NHS service measures to prevent infection. Please note that free registration is required to access this document.

• Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership - publications

Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in primary care: 2020 progress report

Patients Association - 

This report sets out to explore how antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes are working to tackle antimicrobial resistance by asking clinical commissioning groups about their practice and experience of local stewardship. The purpose of AMS is to ensure ‘the right antibiotic for the right patient, at the right time, with the right dose, and the right route, causing the least harm to the patient and future patients’. It is a follow-up to the Patients Association’s 2016 report on the same subject, and highlights some progress and scope for improvement in key areas. 

• Report
• More detail

Resilient health and care: learning the lessons of covid-19 in the English NHS

Institute for Public Policy Research - 

This analysis of the state of the health and care system in England in the run up to the Covid-19 pandemic finds that underinvestment in social and community care left four in five hospitals with ‘dangerously low’ spare beds as crisis hit. The report calls for a long-term approach for the health and care service in England, to build resilience for any future crisis and to ensure the system isn’t always ‘running hot’ during normal times.

• Report
• Press release

 

Covid-19 rapid guideline: arranging planned care in hospitals and diagnostic services

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - 

The purpose of this guideline is to help healthcare professionals deliver efficient planned care while minimising the risk of Covid-19 in the context of increasing or decreasing local prevalence. It also aims to help patients make decisions about their planned care. It is for adults, young people and children in hospitals and diagnostic settings. Planned care covers elective surgery (day surgery and inpatient stays), interventional procedures, diagnostics and imaging. It does not include services where people have ongoing outpatient and day-case procedures such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and dialysis.

• Guideline
• Press release

First do no harm

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review - 

This report comes after a two-year review, chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, of harrowing patient testimony and a large volume of other evidence concerning three medical interventions: Primodos, sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. It sets out nine major recommendations to bring much-needed help and support to those who have suffered as a result of these interventions, and to reduce the risk of avoidable harm from medicines and medical devices in the future.

• Report
• Press release

NICEimpact children and young people’s healthcare

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) - 

This report highlights progress made by the health and care system in implementing NICE guidance.

• Report
• More detail

Helping the NHS recover from Covid-19

Royal College of Surgeons of England -
The Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine have issued a joint memorandum to MPs calling for urgent action to help the NHS recover from Covid. It argues for planning now to deal with a ‘hidden waiting list’ of patients who have not yet been referred. The memorandum also features early results from a survey of surgeons, which indicates a quarter do not yet have access to “Covid-light” facilities for their patients.

• Memorandum
• Royal College of Surgeons of England - press release

Premature discharge from hospital

Patients Association - 

This is a report of a qualitative survey that explored unsafe, premature discharge from hospital. It shows how serious the consequences can be of discharging someone from hospital who is not ready to go home. Particular themes emerge around pressures on beds, and how premature discharge of people from mental health settings can quickly lead them to harm.

• Report

PPE portal: how to order emergency personal protective equipment

Department of Health and Social Care -  

The PPE portal can be used by social care and primary care providers to order and receive critical coronavirus (COVID-19) personal protective equipment (PPE). Providers who can use the service will receive an email invitation to register. The DHSC has partnered with eBay, Clipper Logistics and Royal Mail to develop this service. Orders will be managed in line with Public Health England guidance and wider availability from the NHS Supply Chain’s central PPE logistic operations.

• Guidance