Take part in HSJ and the NHS Confederation’s Twitter chat from 1pm today.

Live logo

4.57pm We’re trying to find the most innovative people in healthcare, and we need your help.

Our Top Innovators list will recognise those who have found new ways to tackle challenges in healthcare. We want to identify people who have taken innovative approaches which make a tangible difference to patients, healthcare colleagues, the healthcare system or wider society.

A panel of expert judges will decide on the final list, which will be published at the beginning of November and is supported by Bird & Bird and AbbVie.

In the meantime, we want your nominations. You can suggest names either via Twitter to @hsjnews or by completing the box on this story. The closing date is Tuesday 17 September.

3.42pm Former BMA Chair Hamish Meldrum has commented on our story about Mike Farrar, current NHS Confederation chief, leaving the NHS.

Dr Meldrum wrote this afternoon:

“I don’t particularly like hiding behind anonymity either so, at the risk of heaping a certain amount of opprobrium on my head, here goes.

“I’ve known Mike over many years – first when he was in the DoH, then as one of the GP negotiators on the (in)famous GP contract – where, by the way it was his political masters, not Mike, whose interfering meddling caused many of the problems with, what in many respects, was a very progressive response to the problems facing general practice at the time – and during his time in the NW and at the NHS Confederation.

“I consider Mike to be a friend who I have always found to be one of the most straightforward and honest men to deal with, who, as many others have said, was completely committed to the NHS and whose drive and vision will be difficult to replace. As someone else who tried to “critically engage” with the elected government of the day, I will, no doubt be dumped in the sack with all the other, so-called appeasers but, hey-ho, at least I’m in good company!

“All the best, Mike.”

1.55pm: Twitter chat: placing GPs in acute settings such as ambulance control rooms could help reduce pressure on A&E say NHS confederation.

1.47pm:

1.45pm: More from NHS Confederation and HSJ’s Twitter chat on A&E funding

1.32pm:

1.28pm:

1.21pm:

1.18pm: Tweet from HSJ reporter Shaun Lintern

1.16pm: HSJ and NHS Confederation Twitter chat on urgent care is now underway. Is the money announced by the DH going to the right areas, and which areas would benefit from money?

12.12pm Another plug for our Twitter chat, hosted jointly with the NHS Confederation. It starts at 1pm. Use the hashtags #urgentcare or #HSJchat.

12.09pm The Daily Telegraph reports suggestions from NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh that paramedics could deliver more care to people in their own homes in a bid to reduce pressure on accident and emergency departments.

Sir Bruce’s comments were made at yesterday’s press conference to announce the dishing out of the A&E bailout fund when he was asked for an update on the urgent and emergency care review.

The front page story reports that “one option would be for paramedics to provide heart attack victims with anti-clotting drugs and stabilise them at home, before taking them to a specialist clinic to recover, thereby bypassing accident and emergency”.

10.59am The Daily Mail reports mothers of large ‘troubled’ families should be marched to their GPs for advice on contraception, according to the government’s troubled families tsar.

Louise Casey said in many families would be better if parents got a job and “having a baby might not be the best solution”.

It came as figures showed the troubled families programme which she runs had turned around the lives of 14,000 of England’s most difficult households.

10.45am Here are two comment pieces, new on HSJ this morning.

Michael White writes about the return of the abortion debate, which he says has been reignited by a Telegraph sting in which two medics were invited by undercover reporters to abort foetuses because they were going to be girls.

And, Caroline Clarke writes that the NHS must get better at measuring quality. We are close to agreeing on a common language that benefits everyone, she argues.

10.30am Ciaran Devane, Macmillan chief executive and NHS England non executive director, has tweeted his praise for HSJ’s illustration on his opinion piece that went live yesterday.

He wrote: @HSJnews have excelled themselves with new @NHSEngland logo! Even @MacCreatives envious I bet.

Read his piece, on why the NHS needs to get its branding right, here.

10.16am HSJ and the NHS Confederation are jointly hosting a Twitter chat today about the state of urgent care.

Surveys by the NHS Confederation have revealed the concerns of patients, nurses and health service leaders that patients have been put at risk by the strain on emergency departments. And the incoming chair of the Royal College of GPs has condemned the prime minister’s £500m bailout as “voodoo med-economics”.

NHS Confederation associate director Karen Castille and experts from HSJ will be leading the debate on the latest turn in events. Is the NHS flying blind on emergency care, can community care ease the pressure, and is the government’s response enough?

To have your say, simply log into Twitter from 1pm today using the hashtags #urgentcare or #HSJchat.

10.03am New comment on HSJ: Mike Birtwistle writes that bad plans - not competition rules - are the obstacle to improvement.

“Anything that would prevent hospitals genuinely working together in the interests of patients would be alarming,” Mike says. “The fact that so many people think the NHS’s new competition regime could result in this shows the scale of the task in terms of persuading people to play by the actual rules and not the imaginary, much tougher, ones.”

8:45am: Recommendation 1 of Robert Francis’ Mid Staffordshire public inquiry report includes a call to action for all organisations working within healthcare to consider his report and decide how to apply its findings. Though Salford Royal has statistically better than expected risk-adjusted mortality, even “good” trusts can learn from the Francis report.

Today on HSJ’s leadership channel, Jenna Tsai, Chris Brookes and colleagues explain how the main themes of the Francis report, namely recognising warning signs and promoting openness, leadership, transparency and candour can be applied by the trusts.