Community trusts should play a key role in delivering the new range of care models outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View despite receiving very little mention in the flagship paper, a key sector figure has said, plus the rest of today’s news and comment
4.25pm The British Pharmacological Society has called for an increase in the number of clinical pharmacologists across the UK.
The BPS argues that clinical pharmacologists are well placed to help the NHS surmount its financial challenge.
Labour peer Professor Lord Winston said: “The NHS faces increasing demand for services and a decreasing budget. Evidence shows that clinical pharmacology is going to be vital if we are to meet this challenge, but the speciality has perhaps been a little too shy in coming forward. I am therefore pleased to help draw attention to this under-recognised group of doctors and the steps needed to increase their number.”
4.00pm Here are some reader responses to our story on increased pressure from NHS leaders over A&E performance:
“Sounds like the ‘30% marginal rate chickens’ coming home to roost. Pay people a third of the costs of delivery and then wonder why there are not enough beds to contain the demand? Compound this with year on year tariff ‘efficiency’ cuts and wonder why patients are backed-up in A&E??”
“And coming soon, the long awaited sequel to the 30% marginal rate fiasco - the better care fund £ deductions.”
2.40pm A review of mental health services in Cumbria will examine an apparent trend of patient suicides in connection to the local mental health trust, HSJ has learned.
The independent review, due to be published next month, is examining the issue after a coroner called for Cumbria Partnership Foundation Trust to be “assessed independently” after the deaths of a number of patients who had been treated by the trust.
Ian Smith, senior coroner for South and East Cumbria, raised concerns about the provider to national bodies last year.
Chancellor George Osborne made the announcement today. The mayor is likely to be in power by 2017 if the next government is Conservative.
1.20pm The General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council have today launched a public consultation on guidance designed to support doctors, nurses and midwives in fulfilling the professional duty of candour.
Today’s proposals cover the need to learn from ‘near misses’ as well as when something goes wrong and a patient is harmed. There is also advice on apologising to patients and those close to them.
The draft guidance also calls on clinical leaders and employers to support doctors, nurses and midwives by creating cultures in the workplace that are open, honest, and blame-free.
The consultation is open until 5 January 2015, with the aim of publishing new joint guidance in March 2015
Held already in Portsmouth and Brighton, the meetings are headed up by the chief executives of the NHS “tripartite” organisations: Simon Stevens from NHS England, David Bennett from Monitor and David Flory, from the NHS Trust Development Authority.
They come amid growing high level concern that any demand for extra resource will depend in part on the service’s ability to use additional income already received to hit national A&E targets.
12.15pm Guidance issued by the Royal College of GP has instructed GP receptionists to ask patients calling in with a fever, headache or muscle pain whether they have been to West Africa, The Times reports.
Matthew Winn, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust and chair of the NHS Confederation Community Health Services Forum, denied that community trusts had been “squeezed out” in the forward view.
The plan by the six NHS national leadership organisations outlines two types of new provider organisation which could cover a substantial area of the country by 2021.
11.50am The Times reports that only one in ten nurses feel they can look after dying patients properly, a poll by the Royal College of Nursing has found.
11.40am In The Times, medical professionals must admit and apologise to patients if they make a mistake, even no harm was caused, under guidance issued today by the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council.
It is proposing changes to legislation governing the General Dental Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Pharmaceutical Council so as to give them more explicit powers to reassure themselves about the English language skills of EEA applicants. It also proposes that action could be taken where concerns arise about a registered professional’s ability to communicate adequately in English.
The consultation will close on 15 December.
10.56am A health economy designated as one of the government’s integration pioneers has been warned its poor relationships with social care are putting patients at risk, HSJ has learned.
The NHS emergency care intensive support team was called into Cornwall after persistently poor performance against the four hour accident and emergency standard at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust.
Between June and September just 72.4 per cent of patients attending its main emergency department were admitted or treated and discharged within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent. The trust has not achieved this target since the end of 2012.
10.35am The Guardian reports that Labour will try to move the national debate to the NHS by backing an anti-privatisation bill.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, will be in Rochester to support Naushabah Khan, the party’s byelection candidate, who will challenge her rivals to say they would use their first day as an MP to support a Labour-backed bill to repeal some of the coalition’s health reforms.
Labour is trying to focus debate on the NHS amid fresh worries over Miliband’s public popularity, with a YouGov survey finding he had less support than Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader.
The NHS is likely to figure heavily in campaigning over the next six months, as surveys show it is near the top of people’s concerns and they associate Labour with protecting the health service.
Burnham will say that there will be a vote on Labour MP Clive Efford’s bill on 21 November – the day after the byelection – which will be heavily backed by the leadership. This would exempt the NHS from the EU-US trade treaty known as TTIP, repeal the ‘section 75’ rules that force compulsory tendering of all NHS contracts, remove the freedom that allows NHS hospitals to earn up to 49 per cent of their income from treating private patients, and restore the secretary of state’s responsibility for the NHS.
10.30am This week is your last chance to nominate an up and comer in our Rising Stars awards.
Our aim is to celebrate the people whose work and decisions are already improving healthcare, and who are considered likely to be the NHS leaders of the future. A panel of expert judges will decide on the final 25.
Sierra Leone came last out of the 142 countries in the Index.
The Sub-Index on Health measures infant mortality, life expectancy, healthcare spending along with a range of governance indicators. It finds that on all these indicators public health statistics in Sierra Leone are failing. The country has 0.4 hospital beds per person and health spending in the country is $205 per person. The country has the second highest rate of tuberculosis in the world (674 per 100,000 people), and the highest incidence of infant mortality at 117.4 per 1,000 live births.
The UK was ranked 19th in the world for health, behind other major European countries including the Netherlands (6th), Germany (7th) and France (9th) but ahead of Spain (22nd) and Italy (24th).
9.45am The Telegraph reports that middle-aged people will be screened by GPs for their risk of dementia and told how their “brain age” compares to their biological age, under new plans to “scare” people into adopting healthier lifestyles.
The new system of screning, devised by Public Health England means patients will be told how their brain is ageing, compared to those with healthier routines.
The computer-based test will be piloted by GPs in the next few months, and if successful, will be introduced across England.
7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live.
The true potential of rehabilitation has yet to be tapped, but it could be an integral element of a patient’s care pathway, says Liz Hindmarsh, improvement manager at NHS Improving Quality.
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