28 October 2015 

King’s Fund Report Measuring the performance of local health systems: a review for the Department of Health.

21 October 2015 

Lord Carter: reducing variation in care could save NHS £5 billion. 137 NHS acute hospital trusts (non-specialist) in England have received detailed plans that show how and where they can improve patient care and become more efficient. The £5 billion worth of savings has been broken down by speciality. The top 12 specialties are:

21 October 2015 

The government’s newly appointed quality tsar will work with Lord Carter’s team to drive out ‘unwanted variation’ in clinical practice across the NHS. Tim Briggs, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Trust, has been appointed as director of clinical quality and efficiency. 

7 August 2015 

DH update concerning Lord Carter’s Procurement and Efficiency Board’s work on the pathology and radiology project. The majority of the data and information describing the demand, activity and costs associated with the provision of Pathology and Radiology for the cohort of 22 Trusts has been received. Considerable variation exists between Trusts – in the relative proportion of direct access income to expenditure, the number of hospitals and Trusts served (requiring the creation of larger Trust ‘constructs’), and in the workforce employed (quantum and mix) - that cannot be explained simply by the ‘category of Trust’ (small, medium, large or teaching). A similar request for data and information has been made to the further 10 Trusts who have recently joined the cohort and visits arranged to some. The remainder of August will mainly focus on informing the Model Hospital, and continuing with analysis and testing of metrics'.

12 October 2015 

King’s fund publication commissioned by DH Measuring the performance of local health systems. Diagram below shows policy performance frameworks. 

14 September 2015 

Heidi Alexander has been appointed shadow health secretary by the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Ms Alexander has been the MP for Lewisham East since 2010. It is her first shadow cabinet position, although she has served as a Labour whip since March 2013.

8 September 2015

Almost 200 organisations from across the life sciences have called on the UK Government to protect the science budget in its forthcoming Spending Review. 

18 August 2015 

King’s Fund take on health and social care: the first 100 days of the new government. 

10 August 2015

Healthcare regulation in the UK is ‘incoherent’, ‘expensive’ and requires a ‘radical overhaul’ according to a review by the body which oversees the work of organisations such as the GMC. The Professional Standards Authority, which presides over the nine professional healthcare regulators, also said there is “little evidence” as to how effective regulation is in improving health and social care standards.

22 October 2015 

The GMC has called for physician associates to be regulated ahead of a major rollout of the new grade across general practice, in opposition to the Government’s position that they should be subject to voluntary registration. 

21 October 2015 

Updated Memorandum of Understanding between the GMC and the Pathology Delivery Board (PDB). The PDB is responsible for maintaining the Home Secretary’s Register. This register includes forensic pathologists personally recommended by the Home Secretary and considered to be of sufficient skill and standing to provide credible expert assistance to police forces, coroners and courts in cases involving violent or suspicious death. The purpose of this MoU is to enhance public safety, and to maintain confidence in the criminal justice system and medical profession by clarifying arrangements for information sharing. 

10 September 2015 

NHS workplace stress could push 80% of senior doctors to early retirement.  Based on a survey of 817 experienced hospital doctors by the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA). 

5 September 2015 

BMJ article Increased mortality associated with weekend hospital admission: a case for expanded seven day services? Nick Freemantle and colleagues discusses the findings of their updated analysis of weekend admissions and the implications for service design. 

Open consultations on role of the responsible officer in medical revalidation associates.  The RO guidance has been produced in collaboration with the Scottish and Welsh governments and NHS England and is aimed at 3 key audiences:

• doctors licensed with the General Medical Council (GMC) to practise medicine
• responsible officers and those taking on the responsible officer role
• organisations designated in the regulations