Improving patient consultations from the inside out and the rest of today’s news
5.10pm A judicial review is likely if health secretary Jeremy Hunt approves plans to downgrade Lewisham Hospital. HSJ Local Briefing has learnt there are at least two strong grounds for launching legal action if Mr Hunt gives his backing to the trust special administrator Matthew Kershaw’s recommendations on the future of acute provision in south east London later this week.
4.52pm Health minister Lord Howe is launching Healthcare UK at the Arab Health Congress in Dubai today. A joint initiative between the Department of Health, NHS Commissioning Board and UK Trade & Investment, Healthcare UK will help international customers from both the public and private sectors access the UK’s healthcare expertise and aims to boost the value of the UK’s trade in healthcare products and services.
Lord Howe said: “Healthcare UK is good news for the UK economy which will benefit from the extra jobs and revenue created by our highly successful healthcare industries as they trade more across the globe. It also means more money for the NHS across the UK.”
4.45pm Clinical commissioning groups have raised concern about overspending in their first year of operation because they have “lost” large sums of money to the NHS Commissioning Board’s specialised services budget.
The extension of the definition of specialised services means their budget will increase from £8.5bn to £12bn, boosting the budget of the commissioning board – which is responsible for them – at the expense of CCGs.
2.40pm BREAKING NEWS: HSJ reporter @ShaunLintern has tweeted that Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital have announced a plan to explore closer working and possible full merger.
2.11pm HSJ news editor @NickGolding tweets: “Follow @BenClover who’s reporting on the NHS’s greatest double act - David Nicholson and Duncan Selbie performing live.”
12:05 pm HSJ reporter Ben Clover has written a detailed analysis on the fate of Lewisham hospital for our Local Briefing section. Read the entire article here.
10.46am One of the leading opponents of the 2012 Health Act has announced a parliamentary bill to remove some of its most contentious elements. The National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill was registered in Parliament by Lord Owen, the former Labour foreign secretary, on 28 January. The contents of the bill, which removes the autonomy provisions of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, will be published in the House of Lords today.
10.35am Dozens of countries have inquired about setting up NHS organisations abroad after the health service’s starring role in the Olympics opening ceremony, reports suggest. Howard Lyons, managing director of Healthcare UK - the organisation formed to help set up profit-making NHS branches abroad - said the tribute to the health service during the Games generated lots of new business leads.
The initiative could see some of Britain’s best-known hospitals setting up profit-making branches overseas.
10.20am Migrants from Romania and Bulgaria with no medical insurance ‘won’t get NHS care’, immigration minister Mark Harper has told the Daily Mail. He said limiting access to free healthcare is key to preventing the NHS becoming an ‘international health service.’
10.05am As calls for transparency grows, doctors are being urged to disclose payment they receive from drug companies, reports Financial Times.
The Royal College of Physicians, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and other leading medical and industry groups have launched a public consultation amid concern over potential conflict of interest.
7.40am Good morning, when a research conducted by Gill Ereaut and Martin Fischer revealed that patients and clinicians are dissatisfied with their consultations, they decided to start a service improvement project that sets out to understand and improve consultations in healthcare.
The Right Conversation at the Right Time focuses on the consultation and its context, patient experience and volunteering.
Martin Fischer says that what happens before, during and afterwards affects the quality and efficiency of the interaction itself. He writes: “It requires organisational change which is neither top-down nor bottom-up, and which we describe as “inside out.”
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