Improving whole system flow
The Health Foundation and the Advancing Quality Alliance have published The challenge and potential of whole system flow: improving the flow of people, information and resources across whole health and social care economies. This report outlines an organising framework and tested methods that local health and social care leaders can use to improve whole system flow. It draws on case studies and other examples of work from across the UK and internationally and describes steps that policymakers and regulators at a national level should take to create an environment that is conducive to change at this scale.

Medical professionalism matters: report and recommendations – General Medical Council
This report is the culmination of 18 months of events and conversations with the medical profession, from GPs, consultants and trainees who work on the ground, to royal colleges, training providers and employers. Among the most frequently raised issues were the lack of time and support to make a reality of reflective practice – at every stage of a doctor’s career. Doctors also cited problems around professional isolation, fragmentation of care for patients and poor communication.

Lessons in leadership from women clinical commissioners: practical guidance to support the next generation of women clinical leaders – NHS Clinical Commissioners
This publication aims to provide practical advice based on the experience of women CCG leaders at the top of their careers. It contains examples from women clinical commissioning leaders on the skills, values, and behaviours that helped them to succeed in their own roles. It also includes advice on supporting future women clinical commissioning leaders, including actively encouraging women colleagues to apply for leadership roles and making sure that wording in job adverts attracts rather than discourages female applicants.

Medicines optimisation dashboard
The NHS Prescription Service has relaunched the Medicines Optimisation Dashboard. The November 2016 dashboard is now available via a new platform based on NHS RightCare’s InstantAtlas.  The dashboard helps support NHS organisations in highlighting variation and facilitates discussion on how they compare with others across a range of comparators.

Morale of the medical workforce
The Royal College of Physicians has published Keeping medicine brilliant: improving working conditions in the acute setting. This report focuses on developing the evidence base to support new ways of assessing and improving doctors’ morale.  The report also explores the issue of recruitment to the rank of medical registrar, and highlights that the perception of on-call roles as being extremely stressful and a significant deterrent to recruitment.

End of life care for infants, children and young people with life-limiting conditions: planning and management – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
This guideline covers the planning and management of end of life and palliative care in for infants, children and young people (aged 0–17 years) with life-limiting conditions. It aims to involve children, young people and their families in decisions about their care, and improve the support that is available to them throughout their lives.

Temporarily suspending patient registration commissioner guidance
NHS England has published Commissioner guidelines for responding to requests from practices to temporarily suspend patient registration (pdf). These guidelines have been published to assist commissioners in responding to general practices wanting to suspend patient registration on a temporary basis. It recognises the duty on commissioners to secure services for patients as well as the pressure on practices in providing services.

NICE shared learning

• Hydration Matters – a Quality Improvement Project for Improving Intravenous fluid prescribing practices and documentation in line with NICE guidance (CG174)
• Adoption of UroLift procedure – an ambulatory pathway for patients suffering from Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
• Improving and maintaining medicines reconciliation on admission – a project designed to ensure medicines reconciliation was carried out within 24 hours of admission, to help optimise prescribing and reduce medication errors

Current systems missing new hospital infections, APPG report warns – NHE 
New healthcare-acquired infections (HCAIs) are being missed by current surveillance systems, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Patient Safety warned in its final report. According to the report, “a number of increasingly concerning” HCAIs, including CPE, fall outside the scope of routine surveillance and monitoring…

Ambitions for palliative and end of life care hub
NHS England has established the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care website which is a national Knowledge Hub for providing health professionals with a ‘one stop shop’ of palliative and EoLC information. It provides anyone involved in the commissioning or provision of palliative and end of life care with a quick and easy way to source information.  It includes helpful tools and resources to drive delivery of the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care.

Increasing patient safety through structured conversations – NHE  
Sign up to Safety’s national campaign director, Dr Suzette Woodward, explains how structured conversations and helping people talk to each other can be vital key in improving patient safety. Conversation is a powerful thing. Done right, it can lay the foundations for a safety culture – helping people to connect, learn and…

CMA fines drug firms £90m for over-charging NHS – NHE  
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has fined the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn Pharma almost £90m for hiking up the price to the NHS for an anti-epilepsy drug by almost 2,600%, in a conclusion to an investigation begun last year. The CMA imposed a record £84m fine on the manufacturer Pfizer and a…

CQC to rate NHS trusts on ‘value for money’ in the future – NHE  
The CQC and NHS Improvement are discussing introducing a framework for assessing the value for money of NHS services, the regulator’s chief executive told the Health Select Committee yesterday. David Behan said that a consultation on the proposals would be published after it was approved by the CQC board later in…

Sir Bruce Keogh honours NHS Trusts for healthy workforce efforts – NHS England
Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England Medical Director, has honoured 21 NHS trusts for their work in helping staff get and keep healthy by employing a host of innovative techniques such as using walking meetings, a range of new technologies and extra support for shift workers.

National Paediatric Asthma Audit
The British Thoracic Society has published the BTS National Paediatric Asthma Audit. This audit examined the demographic profile, severity at presentation, processes of care and outcomes of children over 1 year of age admitted to hospital in the UK with an acute attack of wheezing/asthma during the month of November 2015.

RPS standards for reporting and learning for incidents
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published Professional standards for the reporting, learning,  sharing, taking action and review of incidents. These standards describe good practice and good systems of care for reporting, learning sharing, taking action and review of incidents as part of a patient safety culture. Their implementation will improve patient safety and the quality of pharmaceutical services.

HSJ roundup: (contact the library for further details on any of these HSJ articles)

• Mackey warns of action against ‘unacceptable’ interim manager pay 
  NHS Improvement chief executive Jim Mackey has told trust leaders he is prepared to step up regulation to prevent “unacceptable” pay rates for interim senior managers.
• Simon Stevens on: general management, social care and contracting 
  NHS England chief executive Simon Steven’s take on whether introducing general management in the NHS was an “historic mistake”; progress on the 2017-19 contracting timetable; and the latest prospects for social care service reform.
• Some STPs are becoming ‘integrated organisations’, says Stevens 
  A small number of the most advanced STPs will soon become “integrated organisations” combining providers and commissioners, while others will be able to take control of staff working across their region.
• ‘Huge appetite’ for primary care at scale, says NHS England chief 
  Simon Stevens has signalled a major extension of the “primary care home” model for general practice, acknowledging that few places will be running full multispecialty community providers “any time soon”.
• First consultation begins on STP proposals
  The first formal consultation has begun on major service changes proposals put forward in a sustainability and transformation plan.
• Frimley STP proposes radical upgrade of primary care 
  The Frimley Health sustainability and transformation plan has set out plans to establish a new model of large-scale general practice, but has stopped short of proposing the full formal integration of acute and primary care.