HSJ Live 08.07.2013

3.44pm Monitor has announced it is launching an investigation into governance at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation Trust due to persistent failure to meet waiting time targets. Latest figures show that in April this year just 77.3 per cent of patients were treated within 18 weeks against a target of 92 per cent.

3.41pm Doctors are more likely to raise patient safety concerns today than five years ago, according to the results of a survey by the Medical Defence Union published this afternoon.

Of 470 doctors polled by the MDU, 259 (55 per cent) thought that doctors were more willing to raise concerns nowadays, while over half of respondents (53 per cent) had raised concerns, such as about the conduct of a colleague or inadequate resources.

2.02pm The governing body of Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning group was unable to take a decision on its contract for GP out-of-hours services because too many of its GP members had to leave the meeting due to conflicts of interest, HSJ’s Crispin Dowler reports. Read the full story here.

The board of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has appointed Julian Hartley as its new chief executive. Currently, managing director of NHS Improving Quality, Mr Hartley was previously chief executive at University Hospital of South Manchester. He will take up the post in October. Chris Reed will continue as interim in the meantime.

Julian Hartley said: “I am delighted to have been appointed as the Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It will be a privilege to serve the patients and staff of the Trust and I relish the opportunity to return to my roots in West Yorkshire. I have seen first-hand the talent of the clinical teams in Leeds Teaching Hospitals and will do my utmost to work with patients, staff and the trust board to realise its potential as one of the finest healthcare organisations in the UK.”

12.17pm The governing body of Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning group was unable to take a decision on its contract for GP out-of-hours services because too many of its GP members had to leave the meeting due to conflicts of interest, HSJ’s Crispin Dowler reports. Read the full story here.

12.14pm The government is likely to have to legislate if it wants to change the regulation of NHS provider mergers, HSJ’s Dave West reports. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted last week he had concerns about the roles of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission in checking mergers. Now former Cooperation and Competition Panel director Andrew Taylor, now an independent consultant, has told HSJ the government could not change the test the OFT and commission use for NHS mergers without primary legislation.

11.35am Conservatives have called on the Scottish government to make sure the country is prepared for an “intensifying” dementia crisis. Jackson Carlaw, deputy leader and health spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, spoke out after obtaining figures from NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division, ISD Scotland, showing a rapid increase in the number of people suffering with the condition.

10.52am Health data analytics firm CHKS has produced research showing a relationship between higher temperatures and an increase in hospital admissions for children with accidental injuries.

CHKS looked at hospital data covering accidental injuries amongst children since January 2010 and found a strong correlation between the temperature and emergency admissions.

In a press release the company said in July 2011 there were 5,304 emergency admissions for children with accidental injury, compared with 2,439 in December 2011.

10.50am Two foundation trusts in Essex which face their pathology laboratories becoming financially unviable after a regional reconfiguration are looking for partners to form a commercial pathology venture, HSJ’s James Illman reports. Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals and Southend University Hospital trusts have published a tender document inviting a third party partner to pitch business cases to set up a potentially wide-ranging pathology business. The move follows an ongoing reconfiguration of pathology services across the East of England which has seen the trusts lose out on community pathology work.

10.39am Publishing mortality rates for individual surgeons will not spot poor performers in certain fields because too few operations take place, according to a study published in the Lancet.

The paper said “public reporting of individual surgeons’ outcomes could lead to false complacency.

“We recommend use of outcomes that are fairly frequent, considering the hospital as the unit of reporting when numbers are low, and avoiding interpretation of no evidence of poor performance as evidence of acceptable performance.”

10.12am The Telegraph reports this morning that genetic screening could be offered to “all couples undergoing IVF in the future”, leading to an increase in success rates for the treatment.

The paper states: “Scientists have announced the birth of the first baby using a new, cheaper genome sequencing technique which could, they say, ‘revolutionise’ fertility treatment.”

It adds: “The findings, presented today at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual meeting in London, were described by independent experts as crossing ‘an exciting frontier’ in the science of IVF.”

10.11am The Telegraph is reporting online that a private hospital in Hertfordshire is to be closed down following the deaths of three patients after routine operations. The Care Quality Commission ordered the Surgicentre to suspend services in May and is still investigating whether the deaths could have been avoided. However, the story says discussions between the CQC, legal advisors and the Department of Health are expected to result in the unit having its licence to practice removed. Patients would then revert to the nearby NHS hospital, the Lister in Stevenage, the story says.

8:15am: Good morning, a year ago, Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, had set up a health commission to challenge the city’s whole health economy to reduce duplication and to strengthen the relationship across acute and community services.

Today on HSJ’s innovation and efficiency channel, Roz Gladden and Bernie Cuthel explain why in Liverpool, an area where residents die earlier than in any other part of England, there is a need for seamless and integrated service to improve life expectancy and wellbeing outcomes.