Waiting time review: potential impact on A&E
The King’s Fund has published What does the NHS England review of waiting times mean for accident and emergency departments?  This ’long read’ weighs up the impact of the four-hour target and outlines seven key issues for the new standards that have been proposed for emergency departments.

Digital health interventions
The World Health Organisation has published Recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening.  The key aim of this guideline is to present recommendations based on a critical evaluation of the evidence on emerging digital health interventions that are contributing to health system improvements, based on an assessment of the benefits, harms, acceptability, feasibility, resource use and equity considerations.

Specialist dementia nurses
The National Institute for Health Research has published Specialist nursing support for unpaid carers of people with dementia: a mixed-methods feasibility study.  This study found specialist nursing support to carers of people with dementia may enable them to continue providing care to the end or very close to the end of the dementia journey. The outcomes for such carers may be no different from, or even slightly better than, those of similar carers without this support, although the costs to health and social care services are the same in each case.

Community services and the long term plan
NHS Providers has published Community services: our time.  This is the fourth edition of Provider Voices, which promotes the views of trust leaders and other parts of the system on some of the key issues facing health and care services today.  This issue explores the opportunities and risk for community services as a result of the NHS long term plan.

Public Health England business plan
Public Health England has published their Annual business plan 2019/20.   The business plan sets out the core purpose of Public Health England, significant achievements in 2018 to 2019 and priority actions for 2019 to 2020 to protect and improve the public’s health and reduce health inequalities.

Child health information
NHS Digital has announced the launch of a new service which enables access to child health information by health professionals and parents at the point of care.  The National Events Management Service has initially launched in North East London and allows parents and health professionals to securely receive information digitally and use it to inform decisions on care and treatment.

NICE indicator process guide: consultation
NICE has launched a consultation on proposed amendments to the processes used to develop NICE indicators from quality standards, guidance and NICE accredited sources.  The consultation closes on 25 July 2019.

Reducing avoidable lengthy stays in hospital
NHS England is rolling out the Capacity Tracker which allows health and social care staff to see how many vacancies there are in local care homes, saving time phoning around to check availability and helping people to get the right care or return home as quickly as possible.  The digital portal allows care homes to upload details of their available beds, helping health and social care staff to find the right services for individual patients, including those with dementia or a learning disability.

NHS England case studies
NHS England has published the following case studies:

• Joined-up working rapidly reaping the rewards for patients – Camden
• Peer Support Workers use lived experience to support mental health service users’ recovery in the community – West Midlands

NICE consultations

• Dacomitinib for untreated EGFR-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (ID1346): appraisal consultation.  Closing date for comments: 9 May 2019.
• Diabetic foot infection: antimicrobial prescribing: draft guidance consultation.  Closing date for comments: 16 May 2019.

Bulletins

• NHS Improvement Provider bulletin – 17 April 2019
• Vaccine update – April 2019
• Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group Patient Safety Update – April 2019

National Institute for Health Research Signals

The following research summaries have been added to the National Institute for Health Research website:

• Getting hospital patients up and moving shortens stay and improves fitness
• Switching to oral antibiotics early for bone and joint infections gave similar results to continuing intravenous therapy
• When is it best to start the Parkinson’s drug, levodopa?
• New insights into how ethnicity and culture affect maternal mental health
• Keyhole surgery may be better than physiotherapy for hip impingement

Statistics

• Direct access audiology waiting times – February 2019
• Learning disability services monthly statistics provisional statistics (AT: March 2019, MHSDS: January 2019 Final)
• Global measles and rubella monthly update – provisional data reported to WHO as at April 2019