Private companies will help financially challenged health economies to put together five year plans, plus the rest of today’s news and comment
4.00pm In our second technology guide the focus is on how to combine clinical engagement and finance using IT.
This guide, the second in a series of three, turns to the role that directors of finance can play to support the delivery of higher quality care at lower cost.
3.28pm The Department of Health’s draft fundamental standards for health and social care providers lack clarity and focus, which is why the consultation is so important writes Joanna Dirmikis in our comment section.
2.03pm The Foundation Trust Network has commented on the story that children are being treated on adult mental health wards.
Saffron Cordery, director of policy and strategy said: “Treating children with mental health problems in adult settings or treating them many miles from home is unacceptable. However, our members tell us they are put in an invidious position where these are the only choices. There are insufficient in-patient beds for children and young people, which are funded by those commissioning services nationally.
“Also services commissioned to provide support in the community for young people do not meet demand, undermining early intervention and prevention, and creating even greater pressure on in-patient services.
“The Government’s Mental Health Action Plan, as well as its mental health crisis care concordat are welcome steps forward in highlighting the importance of effective and adequate mental health provision, but only the right level of funding will achieve parity of esteem between mental and physical health.
“We welcome the announcement of NHS England’s rapid review into the provision of in patient services. We trust that those providing services will be effectively involved, as the challenge requires a whole system response. Meaningful change can only happen when commissioning and provision align to understand need and meet it more effectively.”
On Monday over 130,000 of 38 Degrees supporters voted to opt out of care.data because of concerns about privacy and data being used by private companies.
The trust decided to move this surgery to Kent and Canterbury Hospital on an interim basis from May because a shortage of gastro-intestinal surgeons meant a “serious clinical risk” could arise.
It has previously been provided at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate but the trust concluded that it had too few surgeons to provide emergency cover 24 hours a day seven days at two sites.
12.07pm Also in The Guardian, there were nearly 300 incidents in which girls aged 15 to 19 were admitted to NHS hospitals for stress the year to November 2013, according to figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Sam Challis, information manager at the mental health charity Mind, said the findings underline “the concerning scale of severe mental health problems amongst young girls. Hospitalisation in itself should be a last resort when it comes to mental health treatment. It is an indication that a patient has reached crisis point, that they have nowhere else to turn and need urgent help.”
12.04pmThe Guardian reports that alcohol-related deaths have reached their highest ever levels among the elderly.
11.49am HSJ is hosting a Twitter chat on 28 February, in association with Marie Curie Cancer Care, to discuss how best to tackle the issues of access and inequality when commissioning end of life care.
Join in using the hashtag #HSJEOLC, as well as following @hsjnews and @mariecurieeolc, to ask questions and participate in the discussion.
11.40am The BBC reports that a new drug allows blind eyes to sense light.
A study conducted on mice and published in the journal Neuron used a specially designed chemical called Denaq that changes shape in response to light. The shape-shift alters the chemistry of the cell and results in an electrical signal being sent to the brain.
Tests showed that injecting Denaq into the eyes of blind mice restored a degree of vision. Although this wore off the mice could still detect light a week later.
11.17am Commissioning support units have a potentially valuable role to play in delivering large scale service change with CCGs, write Derek Felton and John Farenden in our comment section.
“No trust is going to simply grow their way out of the problem and many face the prospect of significant cost reductions in many areas of healthcare delivery.”
11.08am NHS Clinical Commissioners has responded to advice issued by Monitor yesterday for comissioners when deciding the future of walk-in centres.
NHSCC agrees that proposals to close or change the provision of walk-in centres should take account of service provisions as a whole. NHSCC will be publishing The Future of Primary Care Commissioning on the 24th February.
Dr Steve Kell, co-chair of the NHSCC leadership group said: “Monitor’s proposal to involve patients, clinical commissioners and all the relevant local stakeholders in critical decisions like the review of walk in centres sits well with our members’ view. It makes little or no sense to exclude key stakeholders from issues that relate to primary care. CCGs are tasked with the responsibility of driving up quality standards in each locality and there are steps that can be taken to ensure openness and equity whilst all still remaining joined up. The key when reviewing any service is the ability to consider provision as a whole.”
HSJ understands that there was a gap between the savings Serco outlined in its final proposal and those it predicted earlier in the process.
Serco did not have to enter a tendering process because it runs Anglia Support Partnership, under which it has a framework agreement to deliver support services to five NHS bodies. Any NHS trust can ask Serco to put together a proposal for services.
11.00am A shortage of defibrillators - which shock the heart - and a lack of public awareness could be costing thousands of lives every year, research suggests.
Experts found that fewer than 2 per cent of heart attack victims in one county in England were treated with the device before an ambulance arrived - a figure described as “disappointingly low”.
The British Heart Foundation estimates that 60,000 heart attacks occur out of hospital every year across the UK.
10.41am Eleven “financially challenged” health economies are going to receive support from private companies to help with their strategic planning, it has been announced.
Monitor, NHS England, and the NHS Trust Development Authority will pay the companies to help groups of commissioners and providers to “work together to develop integrated five-year plans” which deal with the “particular local challenges they face”.
HSJ understands the bodies will between them make about £800,000 available in each area to fund a supplier who will “bring together all partners in the health economy” and act as “critical friend” as plans are drawn up.
10.30am Also in The Telegraph, Tim Kelsey has claimed that the care.data project is “fundamental” to the future of the NHS and the UK’s fight against cancer.
Mr Kelsey, director for patients and information at NHS England, made the comments about the proposed GP patient records database on the same day 10 major health charitieswrote to The Telegraph arguing it would be “unethical and even dangerous” to deprive patients of the benefits of the scheme.
10.28am The Telegraph reports that the NHS has been accused of covering up “worrying and persistently high” death rates in Welsh hospitals and ignoring calls to investigate.
The papers says it has seen emails from NHS England medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh calling for an investigation from three months ago.
10.26am The Health Foundation has awarded £45,000 to the British Geriatric Society to develop its FRAILsafe tool, which aims to reduce harm to frail older people in an acute care setting through an evidence based checklist to improve communication and team working.
Dr Adam Gordon BGS honorary secretary said: “This Health Foundation award brings with it the opportunity to ensure that more older people arriving at acute hospitals will receive consistent, safe, evidence-based care regardless of the time of day or week they are admitted. We hope the improvements supported by the award will deliver considerable benefits to the most frail and vulnerable of NHS patients.”
The tool has already been in development for a couple of years, and was piloted in eight hospitals across England and Scotland in autumn 2013.
Twelve hospitals across the four nations are now being sought for the next phase of the FRAILsafe, beginning autumn 2014. If you are interested please email zoe.wyrko@uhb.nhs.uk.
Although the initial project work is around acute hospital admissions it is likely that in the future the checklist could be used in any setting where a frail person receives medical care.
10.18am Hundreds of children with mental health problems are being treated on adult psychiatric wards, the BBC has reported.
A Freedom of Information request by the broadcaster to NHS mental health trusts in England also found many young people were being placed hundreds of miles away from home for treatment.
Figures from 51 of the 58 trusts showed that 350 under-18s have been admitted so far to adult mental health wards in 2013-2014, compared with 242 two years earlier.
10.16am The Independent reports a downward trend in people reporting flu-like symptoms to their GP.
Figures from Public Health England show that in the first week of February the consultation rate for flu-like illness was 3.1 per 100,000 of the population, which represents a tenth of the normal seasonal flu level.
10.14am NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh has said he would be happy to have his own child treated on the children’s heart ward at a Bristol hospital despite ordering an independent review of the unit over safety concerns, The Independent reports.
In a statement to parents of children receiving treatment on the paediatric cardiac unit at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Sir Bruce said that his concerns about the unit did not extend to “urgent safety issues that require immediate action”.
10.03am The friends and family test is much more than just another target, writes Neil Bacon in our comment section.
9.49am The Times reports that NHS England’s national director for patients and information Tim Kelsey will be questioned by MPs over the care.data project’s six month delay.
Mr Kelsey will be asked by the health select committee why he felt forced to stall the project and why public anxiety was not sufficiently dealt with.
7.00am Welcome to HSJ Live. In Resource Centre this morning, diverting billions of pounds into integrated care could have huge implications for the NHS, not least on CCGs, writes Julie Jordan, an associate at Mills and Reeve.
“We should expect to see a raft of public consultations on proposed service changes in the months leading up to April 2015,” she says.
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