4.37pm: HSJ is seeking to celebrate the healthcare leaders of tomorrow -and influencers of today. As this year draws to a close, we will be identifying healthcare’s rising stars and want your nominations. We are looking for people who are making brave decisions to improve healthcare and shape its future. Full story here.
4.33pm: HSJ is the home of analysis and comment for NHS management and healthcare leaders - and today we take our commitment to debate a step further with the launch of an expanded, improved comment section.
Our Comment hub features exclusive contributions from expert commentators and health service figures of all levels. Ensure you never miss an article by signing up for our weekly Comment email, and if you would like to contribute email HSJComment@emap.com.
We launch in typically provocative style with a piece by David Oliver, in which he refutes the recent claim by Monitor chair David Prior that clinicians have been silent for too long on the subject of variable care quality.
2.34pm: A lively comments section on our story saying that publication of the government’s mandate to NHS England has been delayed. Brief sample:
Is anybody else struggling with the myriad policy documents and dictats that are trying to solve the future of the NHS? We are drowning in often muddled strategy and confusing policy that seems to have little regard for the financial envelope.
I thought the National Commissioning Board’s main purpose was to be an arms length body in order to stop ministers meddling in the NHS.
The National Commissing Board, now NHS England, has little courage and little appetite for a fight with this government - pathetic. It is spending all its time fiddling internally.
Hunt et al, please leave the NHS alone. You do not know what you are doing and it would work better without you.
2.12pm: Following news that NHS England is heading for a £600m year end surplus, the Foundation Trust Network has called for further investment in the NHS frontline rather than see money handed back to the Treasury. FTN chief executive Chris Hopson said: “All NHS foundation trusts and trusts have stepped up their preparations for the coming winter and the vast majority have invested in extra staff and facilities - it would be great to see the government matching that commitment across all local systems, not just a minority”.
2pm: Last week HSJ celebrated the huge amount of innovation in the NHS. As part of that event you can now see a gallery on Pinterest, where we have included photos and biographies of some of the historical - and modern-day - figures who have played an important role in shaping medicine and the healthcare and social sector. HSJ Innovators has its own tag on Twitter; follow it here.
1.06pm: The health sector regulator has suggested primary care payment mechanisms and commissioning responsibilities should be reorganised, to improve contracting of walk-in centres. Monitor today published the preliminary findings of its review of closures of primary care walk in centres.
12.55pm: The chief executive of a leading London specialist trust is stepping down ahead of a major capital project. Jan Filochowski is retiring from his post leading Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children Foundation Trust at the end of December
12pm: On bbc.co.uk: A scheme to encourage nursery children to brush their teeth has saved more than £6m in dental costs, according to a new study. Childsmile involves staff at all Scottish nurseries offering free supervised toothbrushing every day.
11.52am: The Mail reports that women with breast cancer could soon be offered ‘one-stop’ radiotherapy - sparing them six weeks of exhausting treatment. Thousands could benefit from the radiation technique, which can be carried out at the same time as the cancerous lump is removed, it says.
11.50am: Despite huge popularity, nearly a quarter of NHS walk-in clinics offering seven-day care and evening opening have closed in the past three years, according to research by Monitor, the health service regulator. Guardian story here.
11.44am: In the newspapers today, the Express has a story on a test developed by Scottish experts which can tell when “ticking time bomb” patients are on the brink of a heart attack. The breakthrough new scan uses equipment already available in many NHS hospitals and has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives every year, says the paper.
11.35am: Directors of nursing who fail to ensure their hospitals have adequate numbers of nurses could find themselves facing fitness to practise panels, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has warned.
11.10am: A leading academic health and science network figure has urged NHS England to give the new innovation networks 18 months to prove themselves and outlined the rationale behind them being set up as limited companies, writes James Illman. Follow him on Twitter here.
10.26am: The British Geriatrics Society (BGS), the professional body of specialists in the healthcare of older people in the UK, has announced that it has appointed Colin Nee as its chief executive. He will take up his post in January.
10.12am: Monitor today published the preliminary findings of its review of closures of primary care walk in centres. It followed concerns being expressed by independent providers which have been running the centres. The health sector regulator has suggested primary care payment mechanisms and commissioning responsibilities should be reorganised, to improve contracting of walk-in centres.
10.08am: How weather forecasting science is being used to predict the most effective ways to fight cancer in a ground-breaking new development - with the help of a databse containing 1.7 billion experimental results.
10am: A new website which will help people examine how their local social services department is performing goes live today. Developed jointly by the Health and Social Care Information Centre and the Department of Health, the website allows users to see how local councils score against criteria set for social service delivery by the DH in its adult social care outcomes framework.
9.53am: Commissioners have been told they will gain easier access to the latest drugs approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence after the Department of Health reached a deal on pricing with the pharmaceutical industry. Nick Renaud-Komiya analyses what this will mean at ground level and how it will work.
9.49am: New in our Resource Centre, Andrew Harvey writes that the any qualified provider scheme gives patients more choice, and outlines some simple steps to follow for providers to secure AQP status and ensure their offering is the best it can be.
9.14am: Good morning and welcome to a fresh week of HSJ Live. Today on the site, in our Opinion section David Oliver takes issue with comments made by Care Quality Commission chair David Prior, who accused clinicians of ‘deafening silence’ over variations in quality of care. Read David’s article here and the original piece here.
Also in Opinion, Robert Royce argues that The path to a robust NHS starts with making it ‘anti-fragile’. Read his thoughts on accident and emergency.
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