Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust: cervical screening programme – HM Government
This document sets out observations and recommendations from the quality assurance (QA) visit to Southport and Ormskirk earlier this year.

Revalidation – free online resources for specialist nurses
Apollo is a free website resource for specialist nurses. The resources are available to all, you don’t need to register on the website, just click on this link and it will take you directly to the resources. You can read the reflections from the specialist nurses who piloted the process and tools and work through the step by step guide.

Conversations with NHS chief executives: an insight – The King’s Fund
Nicholas Timmins, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, interviewed a number of NHS chief executives for The chief executive’s tale: views from the front line of the NHS, published by The King’s Fund in association with NHS Providers.

Delayed discharges and hospital type: evidence from the English NHS – Centre for Health Economics
Delayed discharges of patients from hospital, commonly known as bed-blocking, is a long standing policy concern. Delays can increase the overall cost of treatment and may worsen patient outcomes. We investigate how delayed discharges vary by hospital type (Acute, Specialist, Mental Health, Teaching), and the extent to which such differences can be explained by demography, casemix, the availability of long-term care and hospital governance as reflected in whether the hospital has Foundation Trust status, which gives greater financial autonomy and flexibility in staffing and pay.

Local government public health budgets: a time for turning? – King’s Fund Blog
In her first month as Prime Minister, Theresa May has signalled that she will focus on inequalities and life chances. Unlike the first woman to occupy Number 10, she may even be one for turning, as evidenced by the Hinckley Point reappraisal. Given this fresh thinking, I wonder whether the Prime Minister will be interested in the current situation with public health budgets.

GPs slam STP proposal to shift ‘massive amounts’ of work into general practice – GP Online
GP leaders have slammed plans to transfer ‘massive amounts’ of secondary care work into general practice without proper support to resolve the ‘catastrophic crisis’ facing the profession.

Improvement directory – NHS Improvement
A list of websites that provide online improvement tools, resources or networks on health and social care.

The Commissioning Simulation Model – what’s it all about? – NHS England
The Commissioning Simulation Model is a powerful tool developed by the Long Term Conditions Improvement Programme in partnership with Simul8.

Understanding Health Research tool
Understanding Health Research is a tool designed to help people understand and review published health research to decide how dependable and relevant a piece of research is. The tool guides users through a series of questions to ask about specific types of health research, and helps users to understand what the answers to those questions say about the quality of the research they are reading.

Consultation opens on gender pay gap reporting – NHS Employers
The government has released its consultation on proposed mandatory gender pay gap (GPG) reporting for public sector employers with 250 employees or more.

Medical Training Initiative: relocation guide –  Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
This guide has been produced to give international doctors participating in the Medical Training Initiative (MTI) scheme general advice about moving to the UK. It isn’t exhaustive but it does cover some of the key things that MTI doctors will need to arrange and may find useful to know when moving to the UK.

New regional chief nurses appointed to support frontline NHS staff – NHSI
NHS Improvement and NHS England have come together to appoint the first two joint regional chief nurses.

Trusts can access £450m fund to cut MSK staff sickness – NHS England
New guidance from NHS England could help trusts access a £450 million fund designed to provide staff with health and wellbeing services.

CQC launches inquiry into trusts failing to improve – Health Service Journal
The Care Quality Commission has set up an internal inquiry to look at the “underlying reasons” why providers are failing to improve between inspections.

Talks under way for more mental healthcare model pilots – Health Service Journal
Talks are already under way to create more pilot sites to take on new commissioning powers and develop models of care for tertiary mental health services, HSJ can reveal.

New £5m pot for perinatal mental health services – Health Service Journal
Commissioners and providers must show how they can reach more new and expecting mothers with serious mental health problems if they are to get a slice of a new £5m investment fund.

Virgin Care preferred bidder for £69m community services contract – Health Service Journal
Virgin Care has been selected as preferred bidder to provide community services in Bath and north east Somerset covering a current annual expenditure of £69.2m.

Statistics

• NHS Outcomes Framework indicators – August 2016 release
• Diagnostic imaging dataset – April 2016
• Direct access audiology waiting times – June 2016
• Mixed sex accommodation breaches – July 2016
• Bed availability and occupancy – Q1 2016-17
• Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England – April 2015 to March 2016

Bulletins

• Vaccine update – August 2016
• Provider Bulletin – 17 August 2018