NEW on the Library website – The Deteriorating Patient Information Resource Portal

Links to the latest guidance and pathways, research articles, video clips and evidence based resources. http://www.sonhslks.com/the-deteriorating-patient.html

Trusts must apply and pay for new turnaround process – HSJ
Trusts which receive turnaround support from consultancies will have to apply to Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority for it and pay for it themselves.
A letter sent to providers by NHS Improvement boss Jim Mackey on Thursday night said chief executives have until Tuesday to apply for the support, which is expected to more than cover its own costs by delivering savings.

As HSJ has previously reported, the “financial improvement programme” will be given to 20-25 trusts and cost up to £25m.

Trusts’ applications will still have to be approved by Monitor’s committee that signs off every piece of consultancy work ordered by trusts costing more than £50,000.

Revalidation feedback shows process is simple and straightforward – NMC
Nurses and midwives have been sharing their positive revalidation experiences

Thousands of nurses and midwives due to revalidate in April have already submitted their applications and praised the new process as simple and straightforward.

Before the launch of revalidation, some nurses and midwives voiced concern about how long it would take to go through the new process but feedback shows that these worries have now been replaced with positive comments and experiences.

• Visit our Revalidation Resources page:http://www.sonhslks.com/revalidation.html

NHS to introduce new financial incentive to improve staff health – NHS England
The NHS in England is step up its efforts to improve the health of its 1.3 million staff by offering financial incentives to support their heath and provide them with healthy food options.

Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England, said he hoped that more employers from public and private sectors would follow the health service example.

From April, hospitals and other providers of NHS care will for the first time be funded to improve the support they offer to frontline health staff to stay healthy. They will be able to earn their share of a national incentive fund worth £450m in 2016/17 if they:

• offer frontline nurses, therapists, doctors, care assistants and other staff access to workplace physio, mental health support, and healthy workplace options. The annual NHS staff survey will track the increase in NHS staff saying that their trust is taking positive action to support their health and wellbeing, and reduce work related stress and back injuries.
• take action on junk food and obesity by ensuring that healthy food options are available for their staff and visitors, including those working night shifts. To qualify for the scheme, trusts will need to remove adverts, price promotions and checkout displays of sugary drinks and high fat sugar and salt food from their NHS premises. They will also be required to submit information on their current fast food franchises, vending machines and retail outlets in preparation for the NHS ‘sugar tax’.
• increase the uptake of the winter flu vaccine for their staff so as to reduce sickness absence and protect vulnerable patients from infection. The aim is to increase staff vaccination rates from around 50% to nearer to 75%.

The structure of the NHS in England –  House of Commons Library
Major reforms to the structure of the health service in England were introduced by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, with a large number of new organisations established on 1 April 2013. This briefing provides an overview of the funding and accountability relationships under the new system, and an introduction to the roles of key organisations. It also highlights some of the key health policy issues for the current Parliament, including patient safety, funding, and the integration of health and social care.

NHS England announces £55 million cash boost to end hospital referrals by second class post – NHS England
NHS England has set aside £55 million to reward GPs and hospitals to switching to making referrals digitally by 2018, calling time on the practice of referring patients to hospital by second class post. At the moment around 50% of patients are referred for hospital appointments electronically.  It is intended this will increase rapidly to 60% by September 2016, 80% by 2017 and 100% by 2018. NHS England and NHS Improvement also plan to consult on a proposal that by 2018 NHS commissioners and providers will no longer be paid for referrals made by paper.

Spotlight on friends and family test – NHS England
The spotlight will be turned on the Friends and Family Test next week (14 to 18 March) in an initiative aimed at boosting the number of people giving feedback on their NHS care and treatment. There will be a five-day mini-campaign across England with a range of promotional activities in the community – such as information stands in local supermarkets and posters in libraries, local media advertising, a one-day national conference and an announcement about the winners of the first FFT Awards. As well as NHS England, many healthcare providers are getting involved, along with some local Healthwatch volunteers, hospital radio stations and patient groups to spread the word about how patients can improve services by having their say.

National reporting and learning system: research & development – NIHR
This report presents the findings of the NRLS Research and Development Programme conducted by the Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) and the Centre for Health Policy (CHP) at Imperial College London.

It sets out the current state of affairs regarding patient safety incident reporting in the NHS, and specifies where the most pressing areas of concerns are, including thorough descriptions of the various incident reporting systems used in the NHS today. Furthermore it identifies areas for improvement in the overall landscape of incident reporting, and suggests how systems like the NRLS can capitalise on developments in technology.

The main body of the report is then devoted to explaining the findings from the research programme. The research was divided into four domains, and the report details the new findings discovered about each of them:

1. Purpose of incident reporting in healthcare

2. User experience with reporting systems

3. Data quality and analysis

4. Effective feedback for learning

Building on these findings, the report moves on to describe how they can be applied to the next generation of incident reporting. Specifically, it focuses on a prototype for a new incident reporting system that incorporates the improvement ideas generated by the research. Finally, the report concludes with a description of an evidence-based framework for evaluating incident reporting systems and an ‘Achievement Toolkit’ of ten recommendations for improvements to incident reporting systems.

Supporting boards in improving NHS culture – NHS Confederation
A new slide pack designed for NHS Confederation members to use with their boards, looks at ways of fostering an open reporting culture in the NHS.

The behaviour of the board and chief executive is vital in setting the right tone for encouraging openness and transparency and addressing a culture of blame.

Based on a session at our annual conference in June, the pack includes views from local leaders and identifies key themes essential for developing a working environment which allow us to move away from a culture of blame.

These include:

• An open reporting culture
• Effective leadership at all levels
• Involvement of staff and patients
• Shared values underpinning everything the organisation and its staff do.