Sheffield CCG and council hope to become ‘vanguard site’ for the new models of care outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View plus the rest of today’s news

5.10pm In case you missed them, here are the main stories and analysis from HSJ today:

3.47pm Nurse whistleblower Helene Donnelly has called for “rapid” action to ensure the introduction of the new “guardian” role recommended by Sir Robert Francis is not “used and abused”, in an interview with HSJ’s sister title Nursing Times.

Ms Donnelly said she wanted to see a checklist of qualities and standards drawn up swiftly for the new “freedom to speak up guardians” to avoid the “wrong people” being selected for the job.

The role was a key recommendation of Sir Robert’s independent review of whistleblowing – Freedom to Speak Up – which looked at the treatment of  staff who speak out and what measures should be introduced to create a more open reporting culture within the NHS.

3.30pm The Telegraph reports that a British NHS worker is being evacuated back to the UK amid fears she may have contracted Ebola while treating sufferers of the deadly virus at clinic in Sierra Leone.

3.07pm The procurement of a new dermatology service in Brighton has been delayed because the preferred bidder has pulled out after it was unable to reach agreement with organisations it wanted to subcontract work from.

The £6m prime provider contract was awarded to social enterprise Brighton and Hove Integrated Care Service, which had been providing the service since 2010.

However, the social enterprise pulled out when it could not come to an agreement with the local organisations it wanted to subcontract work from.

2.48pm Five accident and emergency consultants have resigned from a troubled West Midlands acute trust across two hospitals, including all four consultants from one department.

The resignations come amid a long running debate over the future of acute and urgent care services in Worcestershire, where the trust is struggling to achieve financial and clinical sustainability.

2.30pm Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has declared a significant incident.

A statement released by the trust said: “Royal Cornwall Hospitals are extremely busy right now with difficulties admitting and discharging patients.

“To ensure that we can continue to provide high quality and safe care, the health and social care partners in Cornwall have declared a significant incident to respond to pressure on services.

“To help doctors and nurses focus on the sickest patients please only use the emergency department in Truro if you are in urgent need of care and attention. Alternative support and services are available by calling NHS 111.”

2.13pm EXCLUSIVE: A majority of provider sector finance chiefs believe that their organisations will not be able to sign contracts before the start of the coming financial year, according to a snap survey shared with HSJ.

The 53 finance and commercial leaders surveyed by NHS Providers largely thought neither the financial values of the contracts, nor activity levels could be agreed by the end of March.

NHS England and Monitor revealed last month that their proposed 2015-16 tariff had received objections from providers responsible for three-quarters of all tariff funded services.

Under the Health Act 2012, this means the national bodies must either refer their proposals to the Competition and Markets Authority for review or consult again on revised prices.

1.30pm In The Daily Telegraph (newspaper only), the head of a troubled accident and emergency department was found hanged weeks after a local MP was left to endure a 13-hour wait on a trolley in his department, an inquest was told.

Mark Channell was joint head of the casualty unit at North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton, north London, which struggled to cope with an influx of patients following the closure of a nearby unit, the hearing at North London Coroner’s court was told.

1.13pm The Guardian reports that the onset of Alzheimer’s disease could be delayed by a molecule that occurs naturally in humans, research suggests.

The study in mice showed the “house-keeping” molecule put the brakes on a runaway process in the brain that leads to the most common form of dementia.

The substance works by slowing the accumulation of sticky clump of protein in the brain, which typically appear years before symptoms such as memory loss become apparent in patients.

1.03pm In The Guardian, urgent strategies are needed to stop girls and young women becoming obese because of the damaging long-term consequences for them and their babies, say scientists in a large European research project.

The children of obese mothers may be more likely to develop heart disease, have a stroke or get type 2 diabetes, say researchers presenting some of the first results from the DORIAN consortium, funded by the European commission and running so far for three years.

12.48pm The Independent reports that a university in Scotland has promised to review the use of prosthetic masks for training nurses, amid accusations they stigmatise people with mental health problems.

The lifelike masks have been worn by tutors at Robert Gordon University playing the role of patients with complex mental health problems as well as histories of abuse, alcoholism and drug misuse.

However they have caused a backlash, with the charity See Me, which campaigns against discrimination, claiming the appearance of the masks could reinforce stigma.

12.10pm The Financial Times reports on its front page that a one of Britain’s most senior businessmen has delivered a highly critical assessment of how the NHS is run, but it has yet to be published, two months after it was submitted to ministers.

Stuart Rose has concluded that mediocre managers are allowed to move from job to job without being held to account and that success is insufficiently rewarded, people familiar with the report’s contents told the newspaper.

One person who has seen the report said the retail chief, who is also a Conservative peer, had found the overall standard of much NHS management to be “totally shocking”.

11.49am The Daily Mail reports on accusations that Labour have mislead after the party sent out letters marked important information about the future of local NHS services”, which it is claimed appear like they came from from local NHS organisations.

A spokesman for Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “The letter makes clear it’s from the Labour Party. The future of our NHS is incredibly important.”

11.36am Flicking through today’s papers, The Daily Mail leads with news that young people under the legal age of sexual consent are able to obtain condoms on the NHS.

Individuals as young as 13 are able to sign up for the ‘C-Card’ scheme, which entitles them to pack of six contraceptives, without seeing a GP or nurse. The card can be used up to six times before requring renewal.

11.22am Some public health workers in local government are stuck in pay ‘limbo’ after being denied the increases awarded to both council and NHS colleagues following their transfer out of the health service.

11.00am Long waits deteriorated across the board in December, especially in the longer waiting services. Even so, there is a decent chance of the English NHS delivering its 18 week targets right up to the general election, writes waiting times expert Rob Findlay.

10.41am HSJ’s latest pre-election poll also found that the NHS looks likely to be a defining issue in this year’s general election, with undecided voters in marginal seats ranking it as important to their choice.

The joint HSJ/FTI Consulting survey suggested that in marginal constituencies the health service is a more salient issue among undecided voters than for those who had made up their minds.

10.39am In case you missed it yesterday, the public increasingly trust Labour to manage the NHS, and support the policies unveiled last month in the party’s 10 year vision for the service, the latest of HSJ/FTI Consulting pre-election poll has found.

The growth in support for Labour comes after a month of well publicised performance challenges for the service, and concentrated campaigning on the NHS by the party. Labour was also accused by the coalition government of trying to “weaponise” the issue for political gain.

10.35am A GP ‘super-practice’ is also seeking to trial new models of care outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View to ‘break down commissioning barriers’ and ‘innovate at a faster pace’.

Whitstable Medical Practice in Kent, which has over 34,600 registered patients, submitted an application with two other local practices to become one NHS England’s “vanguard” sites. The practices together employ 35 GPs and have a list of over 53,000 patients.

Senior and executive partner John Ribchester told HSJ the practice had “accidently been the forerunner of the forward view” in that it “developed a model of community integrated healthcare with everything but beds”.

He said moving towards multispecialty community provider model outlined in the document “seemed the natural next step”.

7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live. We start with news that health and care organisations in Sheffield have agreed to pool £260m to redesign and commission services together in their application to become a “vanguard site” for the new models of care outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View.

The city’s clinical commissioning group and council aim to redesign services around “increasing the availability and access to a wider range of integrated primary and community services”, the CCG’s director of business planning and partnerships Tim Furness told HSJ.

This would be “supported by increasingly integrated health and care commissioning” and further integrating services.