HSJ Live 06.02.2015: Coalition health reforms 'damaging and distracting', says think tank

The Cabinet Office has supplied the funding, which will be given to 29 trusts to fund three-month volunteer schemes.

Charities Age UK, the Royal Voluntary Service and British Red Cross will work with trusts to supply volunteers and set out their roles.

The volunteers’ roles will differ according to the particular needs of an area but examples the help they could provide include making sure patients are comfortable at home after leaving hospital and regularly visiting vulnerable people.

1.46pm The Daily Mail splashes with a story claiming the flu jab will protect just three per cent of patients this winter. According to Public Health England the mutation of the flu virus means that it no longer “matches” the current vaccine.

12.34pm In response to the King’s Fund report this morning, Paul Briddock, director of policy, Healthcare Financial Management Association, said: “Today’s report released by the King’s Fund reinforces the sheer scale of the challenge of implementing change to the NHS.

“This change can only happen through the transformation of services and tackling the status quo in the delivery of healthcare. This is a complex task. It is happening, but not fast enough – as today’s report highlights.

“The overhaul to how services are commissioned has taken time to settle, and has distracted time and effort away from changing the way services are provided to improve them for patients. The most important thing is the quality of the services provided and the care patients receive.

“Therefore, never before has there been such a need for commissioners and providers to work effectively together. It is only through this collaboration and alignment that much needed changes will be realised in frontline healthcare. The sector needs to pick up pace on the transformation of services to provide quality care, serve the needs of the general public better and guarantee a fit-for-future NHS.”

12.22pm The NHS has been in the eye of the media storm as never before in the winter of 2014/15, but new research from YouGov, commissioned by NHS Alliance, the leading voice for provider organisations across primary care, reveals that public trust in our national health service remains stable

Recent polls show that the public view the NHS as the most important issue to be covered in the news ahead of the election – while the British Social Attitudes research shows that before the winter crisis, public satisfaction with the NHS was stable.

Meanwhile the NHS Alliance’s annual Temperature Check shows that the public has faith in the NHS to look after them when ill is even higher - despite the winter A&E crisis and continued negative media coverage of missed targets throughout December and January.

Even with the barrage of negative media coverage the NHS has received this winter, this year’s statistics show that 73 per cent of people trust the NHS to look after them when they are ill. And, when asked if they trust the NHS the same or more than this time last year, 60 per cent of respondents responded positively. This has shown little change since January 2014.

While 74 per cent of people, according to the BBC poll, believe that it is very important that the NHS receives media coverage in the run up to the general election, NHS Alliance’s Temperature Check poll also reveals that the public’s confidence in the media and politicians to convey an accurate portrayal of the NHS is exceptionally low. The results show that only 7 per cent of the public believe politicians portray a balanced picture of the NHS, regardless of political party, and only 13 per cent of the population believe that the media portray a balanced picture of the NHS.

Dr Michael Dixon, chair, NHS Alliance said: “While it is reassuring that the public still trusts the NHS to look after them, and that this hasn’t wavered despite the tsunami of negative media coverage around the NHS and its failure to meet targets, it is important that we act on the challenges the NHS currently faces and do all we can to change the perception of the one in four who lack confidence in the service.

“We believe it is the system, not the service, which requires treatment. It has become unnecessarily complicated, fragmented and bureaucratic. To address this, NHS Alliance has identified three key aims for 2015:

24/7 responsibility for patients is returned to general practice operating within the Multi-speciality Community Providers model, suggested in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. NHS Alliance described this model as a ‘Community of Care’ in its 2014 paper, Think Big, Act Now and is leading the way in helping make communities of care a reality through a new, dedicated support unit. We are convening an expert seminar in June to bring together analysis and case studies from our membership, and wider practitioners and policy makers from across the NHS to support their implementation. We welcome expressions of interest – simply email us at admin@nhsalliance.org.

We commend the RCGP campaign to attract young doctors to general practice and look forward to building on it when we launch our inspiration campaign to attract dynamic, young health professionals across primary care in its entirety next month.  The campaign will be driven by our Tomorrow’s Leaders Network, which brings together some of the brightest minds from primary care. These individuals are passionate about their careers in the community as pharmacists, optometrists, dentists and GPs, and are motivated to play a part in sustaining a national health service, free at the point of need. 

However, none of the above is possible without a model of equitable funding between primary and secondary care providers. It is time to properly review the way healthcare is funded, as the disparity in funding between primary and secondary care is making it almost impossible to treat people where they want to be treated, and where they are most efficiently and safely treated; in the community. Over the coming months, NHS Alliance will be looking at how we change historical imbalances between primary and secondary care, whether it be funding, training, support or profile.

“Finally, as patients, we need to think carefully about our expectations and challenge the ethos that everyone is entitled to everything. To do that we must involve patients more in the management of the NHS, and move their care into the community where possible. Together we can help sustain a healthcare system that remains free at the point of need. We need to help people understand that A & E is not the front door to the NHS – it should be used only as its name suggests, that is, in case of an accident or emergency.

“My hope is that in a year’s time, when we undertake our 2015/16 NHS Temperature Check, we are looking at a service in considerably better health, where patients are increasingly cared for in the community, by the community, wherever possible.”

10.57am Emergency patients at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust who are in need of specialist dermatology treatment could be forced to wait more than a day to be seen, HSJ has learned.