By Professor Sir Bruce Keogh KBE (July 2013)
Sir Bruce Keogh’s review into 14 hospital trusts in England is the result of a series of ‘deep-dive’ reviews into other hospitals with mortality rates which have been consistently high for two years or more. It found that all 14 trusts will have to undertake strict improvement plans and 11 will be placed into special measures to ensure that Sir Bruce’s recommendations are fully implemented and patient care improves.
By Royal Pharmaceutical Society (May 2013)
This guidance calls on all care professionals to provide more help for patients with their medicines to improve outcomes and avoid medicines waste. It provides four guiding principles to help front-line professionals in England support patients to improve their quality of life and outcomes from better use of medicines.
By Participation Works (November 2012)
This report is the result of a three-year long project in which a group of 16 young disabled researchers examined disabled children and young people’s participation and involvement in decision-making and the barriers that prevent them from having a say. The findings provide new evidence that disabled young people are being denied the right to have a say in how local services, such as education, health and leisure are being developed and delivered, and there is still a long way to go to make sure disabled young people can participate meaningfully in strategic and operational decisions about service development.
By Department of Health (2012)
The final report into the events at Winterbourne View Hospital states that staff routinely mistreated and abused patients, and management allowed a culture of abuse to flourish. The warning signs were not picked up, and concerns raised by a whistleblower went unheeded. The report also reveals weaknesses in the system’s ability to hold the leaders of care organisations to account. In addition, it finds that many people are in hospital who don’t need to be. People with learning disabilities or autism, who also have mental health conditions or challenging behaviour can be, and have a right to be, given the support and care they need in the community, near to family and friends.
By The King’s Fund (2012)
Using data from more than 8,000 general practices in England, this paper examines the association between patients’ perceptions about the non-clinical aspects of care and practice performance on measures of clinical quality. It identifies clinical effectiveness and patient experience as key domains of health care quality; that there is a correlation between positive patient experiences and higher QOF outcome scores; and that patients’ experience of using their GP services can affect their use and interaction with those services.
By the Patients Association (September 2012)
Patients want to be more involved in their care but feel GPs are currently not delivering good communication or shared decision making, according to a snapshot of opinion published by The Patients Association today.
Click here to view this report
By East and South East England Specialist Pharmacy Services (September 2012)
Optimising medicines use in care pathways using pharmacy support and the Medicines in Commissioning Toolkit are two key interlinked resources that have been revised and updated to support commissioners to help ensure care pathways which involve medicines deliver improved patient outcomes, are safe, use clinical and cost effective treatment options, offer patient choice and the best patient experience
The resources emphasise the delivery of QIPP and the NHS Outcomes Framework, and, above all, demonstrate how to maximise patient outcomes through medicines optimisation.
Both will also be useful to service providers, helping them to identify and address medicines-related issues in service specifications and comply with Care Quality Commission (CQC) Outcome 9 (Medicines Management).
In the current, rapidly changing, NHS environment these documents will provide a valuable starting point for local discussions between pharmacists and commissioners about the benefits and practicalities of commissioning medicines management support and appropriate pharmaceutical care for patients prescribed.
By 2020Health (September 2012)
The findings of this report are the result of a roundtable which brought together health policy-makers, GPs, politicians and senior academics. One in seventeen people will be affected by a rare condition in their lifetime, a number that is projected to mushroom in the coming years. This report demonstrates how wrong or late diagnosis wastes vital NHS funds, and costs considerably more than early diagnosis, requiring expensive and invasive medical treatment.
By Care Quality Commission (2012)
This survey of over 15,000 people on their experiences of community mental health services found that they are treated with dignity and respect by the health or social care worker they had seen most recently. However, some would have liked more support in getting help with aspects of day-to-day living.
Click here to view the brefing note
By Department of Health (August 2012)
This publication highlights the data sources available to help NHS organisations assess patient experience of integrated care locally, as no single bespoke measure is currently available. This comes in response to the NHS Future Forum’s recommendations that new patient experience measures should be developed to evaluate patients’ experiences across whole journeys of care.