Month: November 2018

Should the NHS become more of a lifestyle coach to tackle unhealthy living?

Healthwatch, October 2018
Healthwatch poll of over 2000 UK adults about their confidence in the ability of services to meet their needs today and in 20-30 years’ time.  Positively, 61% of respondents are confident that NHS and social care services are currently able to meet their immediate needs. However, when we asked people if they are confident NHS and social care services will able to meet the needs they are likely to have in the future, only 30% agreed. Respondenst had confidence in the NHS and social care services in meeting the needs of their friends and family. 62% were confident that services could currently meet these needs, falling to 27% when we asked people agree if they were confident in the ability of services to meet the needs of their friends and family in 20-30 years time. The top five factors people think will have the biggest impact on the future health of the nation were:

  1. People’s diets
  2. The level of exercise in people’s daily lives
  3. Air pollution, global warming and climate change
  4. Social isolation and loneliness
  5. The financial outlook for the country

Click here to view the full report.

Supporting organisations engaging with locums and doctors in short-term placements: A practical guide for healthcare providers, locum agencies and revalidation management services

NHS England, October 2018
This guidance is for any individual or organisation engaging with locum and short-term placement doctors, who often do not have easy access to to systems or structures in place to support their CPD, appraisal, revalidation and governance. This guidance highlights ways they may be supported to provide safe provision of healthcare as a valuable part of the workforce.
Click here to view the full report.

Supporting locums and doctors in short-term placements: A practical guide for doctors in these roles

NHS England, October 2018
This guidance is for locum and short-term placement doctors, who often do not have easy access to systems or structures in place to support their CPD, appraisal, revalidation and governance. This guidance highlights ways they may be supported to provide safe provision of healthcare as a valuable part of the workforce.
Click here to view the full report.

Talking About Dying: How To Begin Honest Conversations About What Lies Ahead

Royal College of Physicians, October 2018
Royal College of Physicians  report that highlights and challenges professional reluctance to engage in conversations with patients about uncertainty, treatment ceilings, resuscitation status and death. It offers some ‘mythbusters’ to get physicians thinking and signposts to tools and educational resources to support physicians and other healthcare professionals.
Click here to view the full report.

End of life care: strengthening choice: An inquiry report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children Who Need Palliative Care

All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children Who Need Palliative Care, October 2018
Report that highlights five areas of particular concern, where many children and their families have limited access to:

  • children’s palliative care out of hours and at weekends
  • short breaks for respite
  • age-appropriate palliative care and smooth transitions to adult services
  • specialist children’s palliative care teams led by Level 4 consultants
  • advance care planning

Click here to view the full report.

Interface between health and adult social care: Sixty-Third Report of Session 2017–19: Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report

House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, October 2018
Outlines the widespread consensus that integration and joint working is the right way forward for the health and social care system to deliver the best and most effective outcomes for people and their families. However, it concludes that the Government still lacks an effective overall strategy or plan to achieve its long-held aim to integrate these two sectors.
Click here to view the full report.

Progress of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health: On the road to parity

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, October 2018
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health report of an in depth inquiry into the progress of the government’s mental health strategy, the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The findings can be split into three main themes:

  • investing in core services for adults severely affected by mental illness;
  • increasing the mental health workforce;
  • better oversight and collective responsibility for mental health

Click here to view the full report.