6.33pm Ahead of the Keogh review tomorrow, here HSJ’s brief guide to mortality rates (free)
6.31pm Government plans to “refresh” its mandate to NHS England will impose an unfunded “additional burden” on the health service, NHS England’s policy director has warned.
Bill McCarthy added that in “a number of areas” the government’s proposed changes went beyond the goal of describing what outcomes the NHS should achieve and “into the territory of ‘how’ the NHS should deliver”.
6.29pm Heather Williams, the founder of ScienceGrrl, talks to HSJ how she got into medical physics and about what can be done to encourage more women to join the profession
2.49pm Tomorrow HSJ will be providing unrivaled in-depth coverage and analysis of the mortality review carried out by NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.
Coverage will be free for registered users. It’s free to become a registered user. Go to www.hsj.uk/register to find out how to sign up.
12.22pm Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust is encouraging administrative staff to volunteer for work as care assistants on its wards.
In a move criticised by unions, the trust said it is piloting a scheme allowing non-clinical staff to work a “small” part of their weekly hours on elderly care wards.
12.19pm As part of HSJ Women’s Week special, Ruth Carnall explains what she learnt after becoming a trust chief executive overnight, working in the civil service and serving as chief executive for NHS London.
11.35am Hospitals are braced for tough criticism over thousands of needless deaths in a key report on Tuesday.
NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh is set to detail failings at 14 trusts in England thought to have had ‘excess’ death rates going back years.
He is expected to describe poor care, medical errors and management blunders, suggesting that the Stafford hospital scandal was not a one-off. Read more here
11.31am A funding gap between 2013 and 2021 could lead to a shortfall of 16,000 family doctors in England, a Royal College of General Practitioners has said.
NHS England has reported that there would be a £30bn gap over the next eight years if health services in England continue to deliver care in the way they do.
11.30am The Royal College of Nursing has reiterated its opposition to splitting its union and professional roles, report HSJ’s Shaun Lintern.
The college has published its detailed response to Robert Francis QC’s public inquiry report into failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.
11.16am The Liverpool Care Pathway will be replaced as part of the government’s response to the findings of an independent review, care and support minister Norman Lamb has announced.
The Review, headed by Baroness Julia Neuberger, was established by Mr Lamb after concerns were raised by patients, families, carers and a number of clinicians that the system for providing care in the last days and hours of people’s lives was flawed.
Further details and the full review document are available here
10:44am The Daily Telegraph also carries a report trailing Sir Bruce Keogh’s mortality rates reviews.
It says: “The figures make grim reading, but on Tuesday Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, will concentrate not on the figures, but on the failure of the health service to solve the problems that they made clear.
“His report, an overarching one on the state of the NHS as well as a detailed examination of each of the 14 trusts, will show that the rot could have been stopped long ago.”
10.40am According to a story in the Daily Mail today, “Labour ministers ‘suppressed’ warnings about hospitals blamed for causing thousands of needless deaths, a senior government adviser said yesterday.”
The paper quotes Sir Brian Jarman, the GP and academic who led development of the hospital standardised mortality ratio, as saying: “The Department of Health seems to have been, until recently, a denial machine. There has been a denial of the death rate data.”
Elsewhere the paper reports the government will “scrap the Liverpool Care Pathway”. An announcement is expected today, following the independent review of the palliative care pathway. It is unclear what practical changes will be proposed.
10.23am NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of 14 trusts with high mortality rates, which will be published on Tuesday, received attention from the weekend papers.
The Guardian report the story under the headline “NHS officials fear new attack by Hunt when report into 14 trusts is released”,
The lead story said: “There are concerns among some of the experts who undertook the investigation that Hunt will exaggerate the seriousness of some of the findings as part of his tough stance on the NHS’s failure to provide adequate care at all times”.
It quotes “sources close to Hunt” saying “There may well be departures but there won’t be a blanket approach to departures”.
The second story reports the results of a Foundation Trust Network survey warning that almost a third of “urgent care boards” set up in response to the problems in A&E had produced a “local recovery plan”, raising fears of a repeat of the problems over winter.
10.22am The week HSJ is celebrating women in healthcare, focusing on female leaders and featuring a list of the 50 most inspirational women in the sector.
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