News in brief
Merge NHS and social care, says Labour: Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham has said the NHS and social care budgets in England should be combined to create a super pot to meet the needs of the ageing population, reported the BBC. The money – worth £119bn this year – could be used to provide more joined-up care across hospital, mental health and care sectors, the Labour party believes. The proposal could see councils get much more involved in making decisions about the NHS, while the biggest hospitals may end up expanding into the community, perhaps even running care homes.
Sixty-seven new CCGs given green light to take control of NHS budgets: The NHS Commissioning Board (CB) has announced local clinicians have now been given the green light to take control of the NHS budget in almost half of England’s local health communities reported Binley’s. The NHS CB said it had authorised 67 further clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – to commission healthcare services for their communities. The first 34 CCGs were authorised in December 2012. A total of 211 CCGs will, from 1st April 2013, be responsible for £65 billion of the £95 billion NHS commissioning budget. The remaining 110 CCGs are set for authorisation over the next two months.
Hospitals to have e-records by 2014: NHS hospitals will need to have operational electronic patient records working by April 2014 to meet the data flow requirements set by the NHS CB and as a milestone towards making the NHS paperless by 2018. Tim Kelsey, the NHS CB’s director of patients and information, told eHealth Insider: “We’ve said that by April 2014 we are expecting a flow of data out of hospital electronic records, and this clearly implies trusts must have electronic records in place.” Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced last week that he wanted electronic records and communications in place across health and social care by 2018 in a speech to the Policy Exchange think-tank.
Government remote care telehealth policy ‘could fail’: The complex relationship between health, social care services, the NHS and local authorities could jeopardise the implementation of telehealth services, a new report has warned. Ministers plan to roll-out telehealth and telecare systems to three million NHS patients in coming years so that patients can be remotely monitored from their home by doctors. The move is also designed to save billions for the cash strapped NHS, but researchers at Imperial College Business School said that without a more radical approach to encourage the adoption of remote care, the government could see a failure of its current policies, reported Public Service.
Social media benefits outweigh risks: NHS Employers, the support and advisory service for employers in the NHS, have issued guidance calling for the health service to realise the benefits of social media and for a more permissive approach to staff use of social media platforms, reported eHealth Insider. NHS Employers director, Dean Royles, said he believed 2013 will be the year when the NHS significantly changes its view of social media. He added: “A tipping point has been reached and people throughout the NHS are recognising that the positive benefits of social media far outweigh its risks”.
Trust leaders admit ‘pockets’ of poor care found across the NHS: In an open letter ahead of the publication of the Francis report, trust leaders have “formally and publicly” acknowledged that “pockets” of poor care are likely to exist in most NHS organisations. The Foundation Trust Network, which shared its letter with HSJ (subscription required), said it constituted an attempt to “say publicly and collectively what individual trusts might want to say but are unable to”. The letter says there is “deeply disturbing evidence” that in “parts of a very small number of trusts” patients have suffered care failures which can be described as “a form of abuse”. However, while failures on this scale are extremely rare there are “pockets of practice at ward level” across the NHS where the quality of care is “unacceptable”.
GPs can refuse data extract: GPs will decide whether a massive new dataset can be regularly extracted from their practices. They will also be able to check the data quality of the extract before it is sent outside the practice, reported eHealth Insider. NHS CB’s first planning guidance, issued in December, said a new GP dataset will be “requested” from practices for submission to the Health and Social Care Information Centre. GPs are expected to provide the data on a monthly basis using the General Practice Extraction Service.
NHS staff shortages ‘costing lives’: New NHS figures show that “higher than expected” death rates have continued for two years at the hospitals, which serve millions of people. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered the boards of NHS hospital trusts to take action to remedy the situation, reported the Telegraph. The figures were published ahead of the official inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, where an estimated 1,200 patients died because of “appalling” care and neglect between 2005 and 2009. All five trusts have been ordered to improve matters in the last two years by the Care Quality Commission.
Cambridge ‘considers’ April signing: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust is “considering” signing with Epic for its hospital system in April, one year on from confirming the company as its preferred supplier, reported eHealth Insider. The US supplier won the Cambridge and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts’ joint electronic patient record procurement in April 2012. Hewlett Packard won the hardware and infrastructure part of the tender. A Cambridge spokesman told eHealth Insider: “We are working with suppliers to finalise contracts and are considering moving to contract signature at the beginning of the next financial year.”
NHS chief: Hospitals are bad for old people’s health: In his first newspaper interview since being appointed head of NHS CB, Sir David Nicholson told The Independent that a revolution was needed in the way the health service cared for Britain’s ageing population. Sir David warned hospitals are “very bad places” to care for frail, elderly patients and new ways must be found to treat them in the community. He likened the current plight of elderly patients in hospitals to the “national scandals” resulting from the treatment of mental health patients in large asylums in the 1960s and 1970s, and committed the NHS to massive expansion of community care.
‘Blacklist’ of failed NHS managers planned: NHS managers who are deemed as having presided over failure in the NHS could be blacklisted, reported Healthcare Today. Government ministers are considering the option of placing senior health officials who significantly under-perform on such a list in a move that would effectively see them prevented from working in the health service in the future. The option is one of a range of suggestions being considered with the pending publication of Robert Francis QC’s report into failure at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust. With suggestions that he could recommend strengthening the regulation of managers in the NHS, the names of individuals judged unfit to practice, based on previous performance, could be added to the blacklist.
Feds plan to address eHealth record complaints: The agency responsible for administering the federal program for electronic health records (EHRs) in the US said it plans to address the complaints healthcare providers are making about the implementation process, reported Computerworld. Additionally, an important deadline for eligible healthcare providers participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program is approaching. Medicare eligible professionals must complete attestation for the 2012 program year by February 28th.
Call 111 for free medical help: The Scottish Government has announced that the existing number for NHS 24 will be replaced by 111 in April 2014, meaning people in Scotland will no longer be charged when calling the advice service from a landline or mobile. NHS 24 will continue to deliver the same high quality service for anyone seeking advice and support during the out of hours period when their GP surgery is closed. Scottish Health Secretary, Alex Neil, said: “I strongly believe that our NHS should be free at the point of contact and this new number is about ensuring that this applies to those who seek support and advice from NHS 24. By introducing this memorable and free number we are removing any barrier for the public to access the health advice when their GP surgery is closed.”
Monday mornings are A&E ‘rush hour’: Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that the busiest time in accident and emergency departments in England is Monday morning, reported the BBC. There are 4,000 cases every hour between 10am and noon on Monday – twice the average. Late morning was the busiest time of day throughout the week but Monday came out on top. The chief executive of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, Tim Straughan, said: “It is well-known of course that accident and emergency departments are very busy places.” There were 17.6 million A&E visits in 2011-12, up from 16.2 million in the previous year.
NHS CB appoints director of data: The NHS CB has appointed Ming Tang as director of data and information management systems, reported eHealth Insider. A statement from the board said Tang will put a programme of work in place to ensure the 22 NHS commissioning support units become successful independent organisations. CSUs will be operational from April, providing IT support for the new clinical commissioning groups including business intelligence and IM&T services.
Opinion
Is it harder to be an honest senior manager in today’s NHS?
In the face of planned cuts, Blair Mcpherson questions the ability for senior managers to act with integrity towards both staff and politicians, highlighting a difficult balance between meeting performance targets and maintaining trustworthy working relationships. Mcpherson writes in HSJ (subscription required):
“Staff often say they don’t trust senior managers, claiming they are not open and honest about plans to withdraw services and make staff redundant. Some senior managers believe telling the politicians what they want to hear is all part the game. These managers are enthusiastic supporters of the governing party’s policies and equally enthusiastic supporters of the opposition’s policies when it gets into power.”
Indeed, the paradox between incompetent management and a focus on cost at the expense of care is not a new one. “These are not new dilemmas for people working in the public sector but in the past health and social care services have had some protection from budget cuts due to the vulnerability of their patients and service users.”
“The size of planned cuts and their impact will create many more situations where a senior manager’s commitment to openness, honesty and integrity will be tested.”
Health and social care budgets will be moved from CCGs under Labour
In a speech to the King’s Fund this week, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham made a promise that “NHS and social care budgets will be combined and responsibility for controlling funds will rest with local health and wellbeing boards if Labour takes power”. He also warned that “fragmentation of services meant that our health and social care systems were not achieving the World Health Organisation’s definition of health as a state of ‘complete physical mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.”
“The gaps in physical, mental and social care services are ‘getting dangerous’ and that the NHS remained a ‘treatment’ service rather than breaking out and embracing prevention. Currently there is no appetite for investing in prevention because the NHS can pick up the slack for ‘whittled down’ care services, which suits hospitals who get paid per patient. If the NHS was commissioned to provide Whole-Person Care in all settings – physical, mental, social from home to hospital – a decisive shift can be made towards prevention.”
Burnham also re-iterated previous promises that a Labour Government would work with the NHS institutions they inherit, rather than inflict another top-down re-organisation of the health service.
Responding to the speech, Chris Ham, chief executive of The King’s Fund agreed that Burnham’s diagnosis of why the NHS and social care needs to change is the right one.
‘Dragons’ Den’ event promotes innovation in healthcare
In this week’s Guardian Claire Burke takes a look at Nina Nashif’s, founder and chief executive of Healthbox, views on innovation in the health sector. Claire writes:
“Earlier this month it (Healthbox) held a Dragons’ Den-style event in Canary Wharf, London, where seven healthcare technology startups pitched their products before an audience of around 300 people including investors, healthcare businesses, clinicians, NHS trust chief executives and staff from the Department of Health. The innovations ranged from video games that help patients do physiotherapy exercises correctly, to software measuring wellbeing.”
Nina Nashif said: “The difficulty with innovation in the health sector is that the NHS isn’t always aware of what’s happening outside the organisation. Many health entrepreneurs remain “under the radar”. If a chief executive of a foundation trust googles ‘innovation’, they don’t hear about the companies we work with.
“It can be difficult for health technology companies to get a foot in the door. The health sector is traditionally a closed industry. There’s lots of bureaucracy and it’s more insular. It takes longer to get the first sale. It’s a hard industry to get a meeting.”
Information overload: tackling bureaucracy in the NHS
This week the NHS Confederation published a report that said insufficient progress has been made to reduce bureaucracy in the NHS over the last three years. The report Information overload: tackling bureaucracy in the NHS said that unless the bureaucratic burden on NHS organisations is reduced, there is a risk that frontline staff’s time will be diverted from patient care to form filling and box ticking.
The report adds that lack of progress might be down to lack of cooperation between the various agencies that require information from NHS organisations, particularly agencies working at a local level.
It says: “The problem is compounded by the fact that providers still lack the right to formally challenge agencies which ask for the same or similar information that has been requested by others.
“There is a risk that the complex structure of the new NHS and the increased number of organisations will add to the administrative burden. Despite the number of NHS administrative staff falling by 10% and managers by 18 per cent, Information overload suggests that requests to organisations to provide information may have not decreased in line with this”.
The NHS Confederation is urging the Department of Health to support the implementation of the recommendations outlined in the report, to free up staff resources and money for frontline services.
Highland Marketing Blog
In this week’s blog Chris Marsom asks – Is social media taking over our lives?
If you missed last week’s blog your chance again to read why Susan Venables believes that liars and cheats should not be given airtime.
