Nurses teaching CCGs about procurement and the rest of today’s news and comment

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5.44pm: David Buck of the King’s Fund has blogged about NHS England’s announcement last week on funding allocation.

1.56pm: NHS England announces: “Registration is now open for anyone with an interest in the work of the Specialised Services Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs).”

11.51am: The Independent reports today: “Stark regional differences of cancer mortality and incidence rates are revealed for the first time today by a leading charity, resulting in calls for more to be done to address health inequality in Britain. Cancer Research UK has drawn up a comprehensive breakdown of cancer statistics that can be searched geographically by postcode, healthcare area or local authority.”

10.54am: Waiting times expert Rob Findlay has posted two new articles on his hsj.co.uk blog. The first analyses the waiting list for the whole of England in June, which grew to the largest size since April 2008.

His second post looks at the local picture for 18 week waits, and includes interactive maps showing performance by provider or commissioner on one year waits, 18 week waits and total waits.

9.38am: The Financial Times reports: “Doctors in the US who are paid and entertained by drug companies are more than twice as likely to prescribe their products, according to a groundbreaking new study on the influence of industry marketing on medical practices.”

9.38am: The majority of family doctors are concerned that they will not be able to properly care for vulnerable older patients because they are struggling to cope with “spiralling workloads and dwindling resources”, leading doctors said.

9.36am: England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has admitted eating hash cookies at university. A story is here.

8:34am: The boundaries between hospital procurement and healthcare commissioning are being dismantled, leading to increasing opportunities for clinical input into the procurement process.

Today on HSJ’s commissioning channel, Mandie Sunderland says nurses should be involved in procurement as they can save trusts time and money with their frontline experience and knowledge of the clinical products used in patient care.