Waiting time standards toughened up under contract proposals – Health Service Journal 
Tougher financial penalties will be imposed on trusts that fail to meet waiting time standards and commissioners’ freedom to waive penalties will be curbed under NHS England’s draft standard contract for 2015-16, which was published this week.

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Emergency care fines strengthened to encourage ‘radical transformation’ – Health Service Journal 
The financial penalty imposed on accident and emergency departments that fail to meet the 95 per cent four hour target has been strengthened to encourage ‘radical transformation’ from struggling NHS providers.

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NHS England to trial employing pharmacists in A&E – Health Service Journal
The urgent and emergency care review being led by NHS England will conduct a national pilot in the spring to trial employing pharmacists in an emergency department setting.

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How crowdsourcing engaged NHS staff in Leeds – Health Service Journal
Learn how Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust gathered ideas and opinions from thousands of staff quickly by harnessing the power of crowdsourcing, plus the rest of today’s news and comment

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Staff shortage fuels recruitment of nearly 6,000 overseas nurses – Health Service Journal 
A shortage of registered nurses to fill an increasing number of posts has driven nearly three-quarters of hospital trusts to recruit overseas, an HSJ investigation has revealed.

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Astonishing over-reliance on overseas nurses – Royal College of Nursing 
Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, responds to latest figures from the Health Service Journal showing the number of overseas nurses being recruited in the UK.

More training places needed to cope with pressures – Royal College of Nursing 
RCN CEO Dr Peter Carter responds to Health Education England’s 4% overall increase in 2015/16 nursing training places.

Selecting For Excellence – Final Report – Medical Schools Council  
The Selecting for Excellence project was established to address the fact that half of UK secondary schools and colleges did not provide a single applicant to medicine in recent years. This report highlights the need for an expansion of outreach activity to ensure that there is coverage across the whole of the UK. It makes a series of recommendations as to how medical schools, organisations such as Health Education England, and Government, can work together to address them. The report also calls on the NHS to expand the provision of work experience for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

NICE Guidance
NICE has published the following guidance:

• Aixplorer ShearWave Elastography for ultrasound imaging and assessing suspicious breast lesions (MIB15).  Medtech  innovation briefings.
• The Oncentra Prostate v4.x for ultrasound‑guided real‑time HDR brachytherapy in men with localised prostate cancer (MIB16) Medtech innovation briefings.
• The Space Glucose Control System for managing blood glucose in critically ill patients in intensive care(MIB17). Medtech innovation briefings.

Statistics

• NHS Continuing Healthcare Activity Statistics for England, – 2014-15 quarters 1 and 2, Experimental statistics.
• Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF), Recorded dementia diagnoses, – April-November 2014
• Statistics on women’s smoking status at time of delivery, England – Quarter 2, 2014-15
• National Bowel Cancer audit report – 2014