NHS England consultation on data requirements launched, a new push on NHS health checks and the service’s former chief exec Nigel Crisp speaks out on patient power; plus the rest of today’s news

5.02pm The King’s Fund has published its latest bulletin for those on or interested in Health and Wellbeing Boards

4.27pm NHS Employers has welcomed the BMA’s agreement today to enter into negotiations on new contractual arrangements for junior docs.

Employers chief exec Dean Royles said this afternoon: “Employers in the NHS believe that the current contract is no longer fit for purpose.

“Given the recent Francis and Keogh reports highlighting issues around weekend staffing, we now need to press on with pace and purpose to ensure high quality care is increased at weekends.”

Employers must now await the decision of the four UK governments on a mandate to proceed to negotiations in the autumn.

4pm Slightly late in the day, but the Observer was reporting yesterday that NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh had apologised to Andy Burnham for a Tory “smear” campaign over last week’s report on 14 trusts with higher than expected mortality rates.

The paper said a source at Sir Bruce’s offices overheard him say to the former Labour health secretary: “Andy, I’m so sorry”, and appeared to show his disgust at a “political operation”.

Mr Burnham was then apparently overheard insisting Sir Bruce had “nothing to apologise for”, adding: “It’s a good report.”

3.45pm “Don’t call me crazy, call me mad”: interesting video blog from Mental Health Foundation on the language used around mental health, particularly schizophreniahttp://ow.ly/nbM6R

3.40pm Royal College of Midwives has so far seemingly refused the “open goal” of discussing the royal baby and related topics.

2.40pm Former Mid Staffs nursing director Jan Harry admits handing incident forms related to A&E shortstaffing back to a member of staff without reading them. Follow @ShaunLintern on Twitter for live updates from today’s NMC hearing #MidStaffs #harrynmc

2.28pm Hot news arives from Edge Hill University that it has given RCN chief exec Peter Carter an honorary doctorate for his dedication to the nursing profession.

2.27pm Former Mid Staffs nursing director distances herself from staff shortages A former chief nurse at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, Jan Harry, has blamed frontline staff for chronic shortages of nurses. Shaun Lintern reports from the NMC hearing.

2.25pm Right-wing thinktank 2020health has announced its schedule for the party conferences in the autumn. Its event titles include: Does the EU benefit our health?, Are we failing fat children? and Candour: the solution to improving quality in the NHS?

2.20pm The very ambitious/optimistic Chiltern CCG wants to cut social care use by 25 per cent by 2017, according to its July board papers.

HSJ’s David Williams likens the CCG’s target to Canute and holding back the tide.

2.09pm Many junior doctors are still working excessive hours, due to increasing pressures and staff shortages, according to the British Medical Association, based on feedback from over 1,600 junior doctors and final years medical students.

It said that, despite the EWTD, some junior doctors are working up to 100 hours a week to meet demand, with many worrying for their own and their patients’ safety as tiredness impacts on their ability to work and make decisions safely.

The info was revealed as the BMA acknowledged it was prepared to negotiate with NHS Employers on a new contract for doctors and dentists in training.

Dr Ben Molyneux, chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said: “We will now work towards negotiating with NHS Employers for terms and conditions that address junior doctors’ concerns and recognise the vital role they play in the NHS.”

1.48pm CQC has published contact details for anyone interested in joining Sir Mike Richards’ hospital “inspection army”.

1.30pm Two nurses have been found to have inaccurately recorded patient waiting times in Mid Staffs A&E unit, according to BBC coverage of NMC hearing today.

1pm Doncaster and Bassetlaw’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has appointed David Purdue as its new chief operating officer. He has been acting chief operating officer since the departure of the previous postholder last month and has worked at the FT since 2008.

12.50pm The North of England NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative has introduced a new framework agreement with P&MM Employee Benefits which will offer a “one-stop shop” for salary sacrifice benefits schemes.

12.45pm The Chartered Quality Institute has published its response to the Francis report. The CQI’s six-age doc “Ensuring quality in the NHS” identifies six key areas to improve quality of patient care.

12.41pm A consultation has been launched on using hospital data to raise standards and improve patient safety.

NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre have today published NHS Hospitals Data and Dataset: A Consultation to explore how better extraction of information from hospital data systems could help raise standards, improve safety, and reduce inequalities in patient care. 

12.29pm The Daily Mail is reporting that receptionists, porters and cleaners are being recruited to feed older patients at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust because there are not enough nurses. RCN says it has “huge reservations” about the move.

Managers are asking non-medical staff to spend two hours of their working week assisting nurses with basic duties on wards, according to the paper, which says the trust has cut 60 nursing posts to save £20m.

12.28pm The Guardian says it has obtained a leaked document showing that the lobbying firm founded by the Tories’ election strategist Lynton Crosby advised private healthcare providers how to exploit perceived NHS “failings”.

The paper says the presentation by the firm Crosby Textor to the H5 Private Healthcare Alliance was made towards the end of 2010.

12.25pm The pharmaceutical industry has “mobilised” an army of patient groups to lobby against plans to force companies to publish secret documents on drugs trials, reports the Guardian.

12.09pm £3.8bn integration fund could be run by CCGs. A £3.8bn fund for health and social care integration could be handed to NHS groups rather than local authorities, the finance director of NHS England, Paul Baumann, has said.

He told the organisation’s board meeting last week that its “simplistic assumption” that councils would hold the budgets may not be accurate, adding that there was a “shared determination” that the funding should instead be distributed through CCGs. Crispin Dowler has the story.

12pm New blog posted on Confed’s NHS Voices site. Steven Michael, chief exec of South West Yorkshire Partnership FT, explains how “effective partnership is key to improving services for local people” http://bit.ly/1dP4L3q 

11.58am Former Mid Staffs DoN Jan Harry said issues of record keeping infection control and hygiene was elementary activity and she was a non-operational manager, reports @ShaunLintern

11.50am Former Care Minister Paul Burstow is giving a speech to Demos today where he will launch a new Commission on Residential Care.

The commission, hosted by Demos, will gather a collection of care providers, policymakers and industry experts over a 12-month period to try and solve some of the systematic, cultural and financial problems that are blighting the reputation and sustainability of residential care.

11.35am I did not line manage ward nurses, former Mid Staffs DoN tells NMC… Issues of staffing and skill mix were for the clinical directorates. HSJ reporter @ShaunLintern providing live updates on Twitter via #MidStaffs or #harrynmc

11.29 Most popular item on hsj.co.uk remains HSJ Inspirational Women 2013 - HSJ’s first ever celebration of healthcare’s most inspirational female leaders.

11.26 Small and compassionate leadership teams of doctors, nurses and managers are needed to meet the huge challenges the NHS faces, according to a new book by Warwick Business School boffins.

Making Wicked Problems Governable? The Case of Managed Networks in Healthcare is based on the experiences of eight networks providing cancer, genetics, sexual health and elderly care services.

11.22am Congratulations to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire for becoming the latest trust to try and cash in on today’s Royal baby news bonanza.

In a press release titled: “The wait is over… local hospital’s Birth Centre’s name is revealed”, the trust announced that its Birth Centre, which is set to open on September 1, will be named after the Roman Goddess for childbirth, Lucina.

11.20am Every NHS board should have a director under 30 says@PollyannaJones in the current issue of HSJ.

A younger generation of leaders is at the forefront of a digital revolution in the NHS, she says, and they can drive change without using old fashioned working groups and committees.

11.15am Chief medical officer Sally Davies will be on @BBCWomansHour at 10am tomorrow, speaking about her career, public health and antibiotic resistance - naturally

11.08am Don’t miss the latest edition of End Game which is out today and enticingly titled “Summer Perils”.

11am Former Mid Staffs nursing director Jan Harry tells NMC hearing that the trust had an open door policy for visitors which included local MP David Kindey. @ShaunLintern

10.50am Former Mid Staffs nursing director Jan Harry denies that the 48 bed Emergency Assessment Unit was about hiding patients from A&E 4 hour target. @ShaunLintern

10.45am Healthcare Improvement Scotland has published a report on NHS Orkney’s management of adverse events.

10.38am “NHS hospital to give private patients alcohol”, the Daily Telegraph reports this morning.

Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust will open a new diagnostic and treatment centre next month, the story says, and has applied to the local council for a licence to service alcohol to patients in the private ward.

The Telegraph points out that the trust “carries numerous warnings on its website of the dangers of alcohol”.

10:37am NHS England told to lead general practice ‘scale up’. NHS England has been advised to encourage GP practices to “scale up” by creating a new type of contract and delegating more primary care budgets.

10.35am NHS checks ‘could save 650 lives’. More than 650 lives a year could be saved if there was full take-up of NHS health checks, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.

Thinking about personal health at an early stage is vital to living a long and prosperous life, he said. Mr Hunt’s words accompany Public Health England stepping up efforts to improve provision and take-up of the checks.

10.32am Call to give patients ‘more power’, according to Lord Crisp, who was NHS chief executive between 2000 and 2006.

Patients should be given greater power over their care, including the ability to own their medical records and representation at every level of NHS management, Sir David Nicholson’s predecessor has said.

10.18am Although the HSJ Live blog isn’t the place to discuss anything about the birth of the royal baby, we will be keeping an eye open for health policy people seeking to promote themselves through tenuous links to today’s unfolding events.

Quick off the mark this morning is Frank Soodeen from the Nuffield Trust, who has tweeted: “What will NHS be like when #RoyalBaby is 25? Read http://t.co/4Ylr23j4pi for some well informed, and contrasting predictions”.

10.10am Mid Staffs cases set to resume at the Nursing and Midwifery Council today. Janice Harry, who worked at the trust between 1998 and 2006, faces a number of allegations relating to failures in her management.

The NMC is also set to re-open the cases against former Mid Staffs accident and emergency department sisters Tracy White and Sharon Turner. Follow @ShaunLintern for live updates.

10am Some trusts face bill ‘of tens of millions’ to meet data demands The vast majority of acute trusts face substantial bills to comply with new data requirements which are expected to be introduced, experts have warned.

James Illman reports that NHS England will today launch a consultation into which new areas hospitals should be mandated to collect data on.

9am Overstretched NHS hospitals have just one consultant to look after 120 patients at weekends in some areas, according to weekend coverage in the Daily Mail.

The figures, put together by Dr Foster Intelligence, meant more unwelcome attention for North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, which apparently had just four consultants on duty to look after 485 beds and two A&E departments on a Sunday.