New awards from HSJ seek to recognise and reward outstanding efficiency and improvement by the NHS, plus the rest of today’s news and comment

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4.21pm A new approach to caring for dying people has been launched today.

It takes the form of five new “priorities for care” which succeed the liverpool care pathway as the new basis for caring for someone at the end of their life.

The new Priorities for Care mean that:

The possibility that a person may die within the coming days and hours is recognised and communicated clearly, decisions about care are made in accordance with the person’s needs and wishes, and these are reviewed and revised regularly.

Sensitive communication takes place between staff and the person who is dying and those important to them.

The dying person, and those identified as important to them, are involved in decisions about treatment and care.

The people important to the dying person are listened to and their needs are respected.

Care is tailored to the individual and delivered with compassion – with an individual care plan in place. This priority includes the fact that a person must be supported to eat and drink as long as they wish to do so, and their comfort and dignity prioritised.

The new priorities have been created by a coalition of 21 organisations and respond to an independent review of the Liverpool Care Pathway led by Baroness Neuberger.

Care minister Norman Lamb said: “The new priorities will mean that care is focused on dying people’s wishes – rather than processes. This will make sure that their voices, and those of their families, are heard at all times.

“The poor care given to some people and their families on the Liverpool Care Pathway must never happen again. There are many shining examples in the NHS of excellent end of life care, and I am committed to making sure that care in the last few days and hours of life is tailored to the needs of each individual.”

3.15pm The shortlist has been announced for the 2014 Value in Healthcare Awards.

These new awards from HSJ seek to recognise and reward outstanding efficiency and improvement by the NHS. Find out more here.

2.17pm @JudithWelikala:“@Jeremy_Hunt says CCGs they need to become accountable care organisations and show leadership based on capitation funding #commshow”

2.16pm @JudithWelikala: “.@Jeremy_Hunt said the great hope of clinical commissioning was local innovation that wasn’t possible under SHA structures”

2.15pm Jeremy Hunt is now speaking at the Commissioning Show. Follow @JudithWelikala for live tweets throughout his speech.

1.45pm The British public has voted for antibiotics as the subject of Longitude Prize 2014.

Now the focus of the £10 million prize fund has been set, the challenge is to find a way to prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics within five years.

Over the summer, Nesta and the Longitude committee will develop the challenge criteria that will set out what people would need to do to win the multi-million pound prize. Ideas can be submitted through the Longitude Prize 2014 website from autumn 2014, when the full prize criteria will be announced.

Lord Martin Rees, chair of the Longitude committee and astronomer royal, said: “I hope that Longitude Prize 2014 will speed up progress towards meeting the challenge of resistance to antibiotics by stimulating invention and innovation - especially ‘out of the box’ thinking. Over the summer we will firm up the prize rules and set goals that incentivise as many people as possible to participate.”

The prize commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act where in 1714 the British government threw down the gauntlet to solve one of the great scientific challenges of that century: how to pinpoint a ship’s location at sea by knowing its longitude. The challenge was solved by watchmaker and carpenter John Harrison who designed the chronometer.

You can find out more here.

1.30pm Robert Francis’ whistleblowing inquiry is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Roger Kline and Kim Holt.

1.19pm NHS Confederation chief executive, Rob Webster, has commented on the Savile reports:

“These reports are shocking and deeply saddening. The bravery of patients and victims in relaying their experiences to the inquiry is to their great credit.  We offer our sympathy and support to all those involved. We owe it to them to now ensure that their experiences are used to protect patients in the future.

“There have been significant improvements in safeguarding arrangements in the NHS over the last decade. These provide many of the systems that will protect patients in the future. These arrangements will only be successful where patients are treated in organisations with an open culture, where the patient voice is always heard and where no-one is presumed to be above the appropriate checks or safeguards in the system. Many NHS organisations have such a culture. On receiving these reports, I know that all NHS Boards will want to look again at their own culture, systems and safeguards.

“Sadly, there are people who will seek to abuse vulnerable children and adults. Every NHS staff member knows this through their safeguarding training and must remain vigilant and raise concerns. Through allowing staff to operate in the right culture, with the right support and safeguards, we can and will provide better support for vulnerable patients.” 

1.08pm Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for regulators and trust leaders to review safeguarding procedures after an investigation revealed that “weak systems” in hospitals had allowed celebrity Jimmy Savile to abuse scores of patients over many years.

Twenty-eight hospitals have today published reports into any involvement Savile had with their organisations. Two bigger investigations were carried out at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Broadmoor Hospital, where abuse was found to be widespread.

The investigation teams for Broadmoor and Leeds heard 71 peoples’ accounts of being abused by Savile. Of these, 19 were under the age of 16 at the time, and three people reported being raped.

12.57pm The British Medical Association annual conference has just passed a motion calling for the health secretary to make Sir Robert Francis’ review of whistleblowing announced earlier this week a full public inquiry.

Here’s the text of the motion:

“This meeting welcomes the announcement of The ‘freedom and responsibility to speak up’ review to be chaired by Sir Robert Francis QC, and:
1 - calls upon the secretary of state to make this is a full public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005;
2 - calls upon [the BMA] council to set up a working party to look at this issue of doctors raising serious concerns and determine how the association can better support doctors and medical students who raise concerns to ensure patient safety is prioritised”.

Both the public inquiry and the working party were voted for.

11.53am Jeremy Hunt says a further report later this year will draw together overarching lessons from all of the Savile reports.

11.44am Andy Burnham says appointment of Jimmy Savile to lead Broadmoor Hospital task force indicated a “complete lack of due process” in the Department of Health at the time.

11.39am Andy Burnham welcomes the health secretary’s statement. Very consensual tone in the Commons.

11.35am The health secretary says we “must not let history to repeat itself” and commends his statement to the house.

11.34am The health secretary says volunteers who contribute to the NHS are “the opposite of Savile” and their involvement must be “sustained”.

11.33am Jeremy Hunt says he is writing to all system leaders in the NHS today to ask them to ensure providers review their safeguarding processes.

11.31am Jeremy Hunt apologises on behalf of the government and the health service to all those abused by Jimmy Savile in the NHS.

11.28am Jeremy Hunt is now speaking in the House of Commons on the Savile reports. You can watch it here.

11.12am One in three hospitals recorded nursing shift ‘fill rates’ of more than 100 per cent in May, according to figures released as part of the government’s patient safety drive.

This data on nursing staff fill rates - the proportion of planned nursing hours which have been covered - is one of three new indicators published on the NHS Choices website as part of minister’s Sign up to Safety campaign.

10.49am A clinical commissioning group leader has called for commissioners to have more control over “winter pressures” funding, rather than having to pass it directly to providers.

Sheffield CCG chair Tim Moorhead was speaking at the Commissioning Show in London yesterday.

He suggested the funding should be included in national allocations, rather than announced and provided during the financial year.

10.36am A decision on which hospitals will provide three cutting edge interventional cardiology treatments will not be made until September, 18 months after the NHS stopped funding them.

In March, hospitals interested in providing the procedures were invited to submit bids to deliver them as part of NHS England’s commissioning through evaluation programme. This requires patients undergoing the procedure to take part in a clinical trial. Between eight and 12 centres are due to be selected for each procedure.

10.22am The Department of Health is publishing a number of reports today in relation to Jimmy Savile’s activities within the NHS. The report on his involvement at Broadmoor Hospital and an “assurance report” have just gone online. More to follow.

10.14am Bringing down barriers faced by new GP providers wanting to enter the market in underdoctored areas could help cut health inequalities, the chief executive of NHS England has said.

In a letter sent to then Commons health committee chair Stephen Dorrell last month, Simon Stevens said he recognised the “longstanding problem with geographical inequalities in the availability of high quality NHS primary care.

9.50am There will no doubt be a lot of reaction throughout the day to the Morecambe Bay news, which we will of course keep you abreast of on HSJ Live. Here’s what local Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron had to say:

“As we suspected UHMBT has been deemed inadequate by the CQC. I don’t think that is a fair reflection of the staff, nurses and doctors who I meet when I go round the wards.  These people go above and beyond, day after day for local people and I want to pay tribute to their service. This report does not do justice to them, but it should be a massive wake up call for the trust’s management. I want the trust’s managers to act on this damning report and turn round our trust – local residents deserve much better than this.”

“Westmorland General is the only hospital which has been rated as good. It would therefore be lunacy to take away any services and indeed lunacy not to move some services from failing hospitals to the one good one in the trust.

9.47am University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust has been put into special measures after it was rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission.

The care regulator’s chief inspector of hospitals, Sir Mike Richards, recommended to Monitor that the trust should enter special measures following an inspection in February, the reports of which are published today.

The CQC rated the trust’s safety and leadership as “inadequate”.

9.36am An exclusive from HSJ’s senior correspondent Sarah Calkin: doctors’ desire for “kudos” is leading to new treatments being introduced without good evidence of their effectiveness or adequate challenge from NHS England.

This was just one of the warnings issued by senior health leaders who were asked by the commissioning body last year for advice on how to cut the what was at that point predicted to be £900m deficit in its 2014-15 specialised commissioning budget.

Although NHS England now expects to break even on this year’s £13.5bn budget, the responses to last year’s appeal for ideas offers a worrying insight into senior healthcare leaders’ views of the sector.

7.00am Good morning. Monitor has this month sent out a questionnaire to every CCG to scope the current state of the market in a bid to gather intelligence about how commissioners plan to improve community services.

Most of the services are provided on contracts established under the transforming community service programme in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Many of these agreements expired at the end of 2013-14, but had an option to extend for a further two years and so are yet to be retendered.