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The
NHS Atlas of Variation
The Department of
Health has published a tool to help identify variation in
healthcare services across England. The NHS Atlas of Variation
highlights the amount each PCT spends on clinical services and
links this with patients’ health outcomes. The Atlas will help
commissioners learn from one another, consider the appropriateness
of a service, and investigate when clinical health outcomes are not
reflecting the financial investment that has been made.
GP consortia
pathfinders
The first 52 GP
consortia have been announced. These are groups of GP practices
who have decided to work together to gradually take on
responsibility for commissioning local health services. The
programme will enable as many consortia as possible to proceed to
'shadow' running in 2011/12.
Plans
in place to transform community services
From April 2011, all PCTs
should have separated the commissioning
of community services from
their provision. Provider staff and services will be
transferred to a range of new organisations, such as aspirant
Community Foundation Trusts and Social Enterprises, or will
integrate with existing providers. The new organisations aim to
provide more choice for patients and to play a role in the transfer
of care and treatment from hospital to community settings
Recognised,
valued and supported: next steps for the Carers
Strategy
Care Services Minister
Paul Burstow has launched
a cross-Government strategy that sets out how the Government
will prioritise actions to ensure the best possible outcomes for
carers and those they support. It identifies the actions that the
Government will take over the next four years to support these
priorities.
New report:
Social care and hospital use at the end of life
The Nuffield Trust has published
this report
which examines the care given to people in the last months of their
lives.
Reducing the use of antipsychotic drugs
NHS South West and the
Alzheimer’s Society have recently written to SHAs to invite their
participation in work to accelerate improvements in local practice
in
prescribing antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia.
Vision for Adult
Social Care and supporting documents
Migration Advisory Committee Limits on Migration: NHS
Employers responds
The Migration Advisory
Committee’s report provides options to reduce the number of visas
available for migrant workers by up to 12,000 next year. In
response,
NHS Employers expressed concern at the reduction in the number
of visas which could make it more difficult for the NHS to provide
key services to patients.
Lenders must ensure borrowers have mental capacity
The
Office of Fair Trading is running a consultation on the steps
lenders must take to ensure a customer is in a position to
understand what they are doing, and to assess whether they can
afford the repayments on any debt they take on. The guidance aims
to protect vulnerable consumers from taking on unsustainable debt,
at the same time as ensuring they were not denied credit.
Attacks on NHS workers rise to 57,000
Across England, there
were
56,718 assaults in 2009/10, up from 54,758 in the previous
year. 38,959 were in the mental health and learning disability
sector. Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of
Nursing said: "These figures are a real cause for concern when we
know that pressures in the health service are on the rise.”
Need
for screening of young people with learning disabilities in
prison
Children with learning
disabilities and other impairments in England and Wales are more
likely to go to prison than other young people because there is a
lack of routine screening and assessment to identify children's
support needs in the youth justice system.
New
Position Statement: Recovery is for All
Consultants from the
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and South West
London and St Georges NHS Mental Health Trust have launched
Recovery is for All: Hope, Agency and Opportunity in
Psychiatry which outlines the importance of supporting the
needs and wishes of mental health service users to live a more
fulfilling life, and to give greater emphasis to the social
outcomes of people with mental health problems. Mental health
services, and those who work in them, must begin to work in
partnership with patients to facilitate their Recovery
journeys.
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