Quality and safety news - 29 November 2012

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

News highlights are:

Age UK: The cost of cold. Cold homes are costing the NHS in England £1.36 billion every year in hospital and primary care due to their devastating impact on older people’s health, according to new analysis by Age UK. In its report the charity warns of a hidden public health scandal as thousands of older people continue to die prematurely from cold-related illnesses because their homes are too cold.
BBC Health: Cold homes cost NHS more than a billion, Age UK study says.

Care Quality Commission (CQC): State of Care report 2011/12 (PDF 2.3MB). The report highlights that issues around staffing and ensuring staff have the right skills to care for people with complex conditions are beginning to affect the quality of care that services deliver. "This is especially having an impact on respecting people who use services and nutrition. The report notes many examples of organisations that meet these challenges and deliver an excellent quality of care, but our inspectors have seen examples of services that have not been able to cope with these changes." 
News: pressures on health and care services are increasing the risks of poor care.
RCN: CQC report echoes RCN concerns.

Chief Medical Officer: Chief Medical Officer publishes her first annual report. This first of 2 volumes of the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies’s annual report provides a comprehensive picture of England’s health. It brings together a number of data sources in one place for the first time and is designed to be used by local authorities and local health professionals as they work together to improve the health of local populations.
RCN: Action needed to tackle public health concerns.

DH: 28 November 2012, Jeremy Hunt, Kings Fund – Quality of Care.
Jeremy Hunt gave a speech to the King’s Fund yesterday in which he said the decline in standards of care may be the biggest problem facing the NHS. Hunt said that while most parts of the NHS cared for patients well, in other parts there has been “a kind of normalisation of cruelty”, and called for an ‘Ofsted’ style rating system. He also called for accountability to reach to the top, with managers losing their jobs if care was not acceptable. The RCN responded to the speech with a comment from Dr Peter Carter, saying: “The cases highlighted by the Health Secretary are clearly unacceptable and patients were not treated with the respect and dignity they deserved. We know there are some problems in the health service which need addressing, however it is important to put these problems in context and identify solutions to them".

DH: Health Secretary orders review into new rating system for NHS and social care. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review of the way that information on NHS and social care services is given to patients and the public. The study will assess the merits of an ‘Ofsted-style’ system of ratings for hospitals and care homes. It will look at the way in which a new ratings system could help improve standards of care across the health and social care system. In particular, it will look at how information about services can be communicated to the public and how this information can be used to drive up standards across the system.
BBC Health: 'Ofsted-style' rating plan for hospitals and care homes.
RCN: RCN welcomes plans for more robust ratings system.

DH: Chief Nursing Officer Bulletin, November 2012. This issue includes interviews with the seven nursing finalists in this year’s NHS Leadership Recognition Awards, channelling the spirit of the Olympics in the run up to the CNO Conference and how effective local partnerships are vital to raising the quality of health visiting.

DH: The mandate: a mandate from the government to the NHS Commissioning Board - April 2013 to March 2015. This mandate is the first between the government and the NHS Commissioning Board. It sets out the ambitions for the health service for the next two years. It will be used to measure the NHS on key objectives, including: better standards of care for elderly patients; better diagnosis, treatment and care for people with dementia; more personalised care for women throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period; gathering of patient feedback through the friends and family test; online booking and other GP services by 2015; and greater transparency around the performance of local NHS services.
RCN: RCN comments on new NHS mandate.
NHS Commissioning Board welcomes its mandate from the Government.

DH: The NHS Outcomes Framework 2013/14. This framework sets out the outcomes and corresponding indicators that will be used to identify improvements in health outcomes. This version builds on the previous two versions and contains measures to help the health and care system to focus on measuring outcomes. It describes how the NHS Outcomes framework will work in the wider system, and highlights the indicator changes since the December 2011 edition.

DH health Site Map: The Department of Health is creating a range of subsites in the dh.gov.uk  family – eg Transparency, Mandate, Maps and Apps.

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS): Have your say on the future of your health and social care system. Leaflets are being distributed to every household in Northern Ireland about the Transforming Your Care: Vision to Action consultation. Health Minister Edwin Poots will also be attending public meetings in November and December.
Patients and clients can help to shape our health service. The Minister met with the Patient and Client Council (PCC) to discuss the implementation of Transforming Your Care, particularly, where major service changes are anticipated.

DHSSPS: Minister Poots reassures the public on nursing workforce planning. The Health Minister said “As part of my reassurance to you, the nursing and midwifery professions and to the public I have put in place a programme of work to be led by the Public Health Agency to develop a process which will support commissioners and providers to deliver assurance to the public in relation to nursing and midwifery workforce planning.” 

Home Office: Alcohol pricing. This consultation will explore the case for a ban on multi-buy alcohol promotions in supermarkets and off-licences. The proposed ban would remove the incentive for individuals to buy more than they actually want. A ban would prevent alcohol retailers from applying discounts to multi-packs of alcohol and would prevent multi-buy offers such as 'buy-one-get-one-free', '3-for-the-price-of-2' and 'buy-6-get-20%-off'. See also: Alcohol strategy.
RCN: RCN welcomes minimum alcohol unit price consultation.

King’s Fund: Health policy under the coalition government. A mid-term assessment. This report that shows ‘the quality of patient care could suffer if the NHS continues to struggle with its finances. The report, which analyses the state of the health service halfway through the government’s time in office, said the financial pressures on the NHS could begin to impact patient care as early as next year. The report also showed that waiting times in casualty departments were rising.
Guardian: NHS 'in a precarious position', warns thinktank.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland: Our scrutiny priorities for healthcare in Scotland (2013-2015). Healthcare Improvement Scotland is asking for views on their proposed scrutiny priorities document for 2013-2015. The document highlights why these are the priorities, how they will be progressed and how they link to NHSScotland Quality Strategy. Views and comments required by 24 December 2012.

NHS Commissioning Board: Building health partnerships: Call for expressions of interest. The NHS Commissioning Board, together with NAVCA (National Association of Voluntary and Community Action) and Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), are looking for up to 12 CCGs who are committed to delivering improved health outcomes for their communities by building effective community involvement in commissioning to express an interest in becoming a learning site.  These will form a network across England to develop, highlight and support best practice; enable local partners to innovate local solutions and to spread best practice amongst other CCGs.

NHS Commissioning Board: New national model to tackle variation in specialist healthcare services. The NHS Commissioning Board has published the new Operating Model for commissioning specialised services setting out how a single, national system will ensure patients are offered consistent, high quality services across the country. For the first time patients requiring specialised treatment can look forward to the same level and standards of care.
Frequently asked questions (PDF 140KB).

NHS Commissioning Board: CNO Conference channels Olympic spirit. The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Conference 2012 will establish the volunteering role of ‘Care Maker’ as a demonstrable legacy of the Olympics and Paralympics and the spirit of London 2012, learning from and building upon the lessons learned from those who volunteered as Gamesmakers. Around 250 student and newly qualified nurses and midwives applied to be care makers. A group of care makers will support the CNO 2012 conference to make every person feel welcome and to inspire, support and energise the participants throughout the conference. The care maker role will extend beyond this CNO conference in a range of different ways and will help shape the local face of the 6Cs and the vision for nurses and midwives in the NHS in England as presented in . “Our Culture of Compassionate Care.” 

Scottish Government: NHSScotland Chief Executive’s Annual Report 2011/12. The Annual Report provides an assessment of the performance of NHSScotland alongside an explanation of the financial and policy context faced by the NHS in Scotland during the year.  
News: Improvements in healthcare.