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The digest
Breast screening record
Record numbers of women are attending breast screenings, latest figures show.
The statistics for 2002-2003, compiled by the NHS Cancer Screening Programme, show that the total number of women screened in the year rose by over five per cent to 1,541,794 from 1,461,517.
Coping with cancer
A leading cancer charity has developed a new course to help health information workers better meet the needs of people affected by the disease.
Macmillan Cancer Relief's new course looks at issues including the patient journey, health information resources and managing and organising health-related information.
It is aimed at health information workers and professionals working in any type of organisation who want to know more about the rapidly growing area of health information.
Focus on sexual health
The NHS should make sexual health a greater priority, leading advisers have told the Department of Health.
In its first annual report the Independent Advisory Group for Sexual Health and HIV, appointed by the Government in 2003, said it was time to recognise that good education, services and support would improve people's sexual health.
Shifting signs of discrimination
A five-year initiative has been launched by the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) to tackle stigmas about mental health.
Shift is a new campaign intended to change the way the media covers mental health issues.
The campaign follows an extensive consultation that found that many people were unaware that they were discriminating against people with mental health problems and wanted to stop doing so.
Autism patient's human rights breached
A European court ruling about the human rights of an autistic man detained in hospital will be considered by the Department of Health.
The man - known only as HL - was detained at Bournewood Hospital in Surrey in 1997 after staff at a day centre became concerned at his agitated state, during which he harmed himself.
Depression website
A new website that gives unique resources to patients and health professionals has been created by a partnership between Government and charities.
The National Institute for Mental Health in England, the Department of Health, the Depression Alliance and charity DIPEx have launched the site.
It has been designed as a training tool for health professionals with content that enables doctors, nurses and other staff dealing with patients with depression to understand what it is like to live with the condition.
Emergency care report
Professor Sir George Alberti's report, Transforming Emergency Care in England, was presented to the secretary of state and prime minister and later launched at the Emergency Care Conference on 26 October.
It describes an unprecedented revolution in the delivery of emergency care for people in this country over the last two years and provides an early sight of the future strategic direction of emergency and urgent care.
New out-of-hours quality requirements
Patients will continue to be guaranteed access to home visits from GPs if needed when new changes to out-of-hours (OOH) services take effect.
New national quality requirements have been published that set out the minimum levels of service for GP OOH care.
They include assurances that patients will be treated by the clinician best equipped to meet their needs, in the most appropriate location. If there is a clinical need, patients will be guaranteed a GP consultation, including a home visit.
Managing patient complaints more effectively
A new programme that helps NHS staff to improve the way they handle patient complaints has been developed.
Managing Complaints for Service Improvement, a joint project between NHSU and Middlesex University, will help complaints management staff understand their new, more challenging role.
It will also enable a more consistent approach in investigation and reporting to help resolve the 90,000 written complaints that the NHS receives every year.
New chief nurse targets hospital cleanliness
Chris Beasley has been appointed as the new chief nursing officer (CNO) for England and has made hospital cleanliness and infection control her first priority.
With more than 40 years' nursing experience behind her, Chris has held a variety of hospital and community-based roles and most recently was interim head of the NHS Modernisation Agency. One of her first tasks as CNO was to launch A Matron's Charter: An Action Plan For Cleaner Hospitals.
'I am delighted to take up this post and relish the challenge of ensuring all staff put hospital cleanliness and infection control at the top of their agenda,' said Chris.
Coping with curved spine
A unique study - believed to be the first of its kind in the world - will help improve the lives of people living with scoliosis (a curved spine).
More than 185 people took part in the project that looked at how people living with the condition and their families cope with the stress of everyday life.
It found patients rated employment, health and relationships as the highest stress factors while parents worried most about their children's health, education and employment prospects.
For more information e-mail D.Flynn@tees.ac.uk
Over the wall
Ways in which patients and the public have helped to shape improvements in health care have been captured in a new report.
Getting over the wall: How the NHS is improving the patient's experience follows a report by the former Commission for Health Improvement which found a 'brick wall' between formal patient and public consultations prevented any changes being made to health services.
Health informatics assessment tool launched
To help staff identify gaps in their knowledge of information management, NHSU has just published its Health Informatics Assessment Tool.
As well as assessing their own learning needs, staff can use the tool to relate these needs to their particular profession and identify relevant courses to improve skills.
First contact care programme roll out
NHSU's First Contact Care programme is now being rolled out to 10 new sites across England.
The programme is a masters-level course designed to enable experienced nurses and other health practitioners to assess, diagnose and treat patients. Its launch in the new sites will contribute to reducing the time which patients currently have to wait before being seen by a health professional.
Click here for more information. Alternatively, contact Angela Turner on 0208 528 1472.
Secure NHS email service launched
NHS clinical and administrative staff can now access a secure e-mail service enabling them to transmit patient identifiable information.
The service, known as Contact, went live last month and is available to all staff working in the NHS.
Extending regulation
Operating department practitioners (ODPs) are the latest health professionals to be regulated by the Health Professions Council.
As of 18 October, all existing ODPs whose names appeared on the register of the Association of Operating Department Practitioners were automatically transferred to the new register.
In future, all regulation of the profession will be carried out by the HPC and the association will continue as the professional body for practitioners.
New toolkit supporting Agenda for Change
Organisations and individuals can now participate more effectively in the personal development review process thanks to the introduction of a personal development review toolkit.
Developed by NHSU, it is intended to support staff in their annual personal development reviews, based on their NHS knowledge and skills framework post outline - a requirement laid out by the Agenda for Change initiative.
Criminal checks on staff
Patients will receive greater protection next year once all new NHS recruits undergo criminal record checks.
From early in 2005 the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) will be asked to vet all new staff who will be dealing with patients.
This means that all medical, nursing and other staff will be checked against information held on the police national computer and by the Department for Education and Skills.
Fighting healthcare fraud
Britain is working with five European partners to tackle healthcare fraud and corruption.
More than £600 billion is being spent on health care across the European Union and the first-ever European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Conference was held last month.
A consultation paper Access to Relevant Documents, Records and Data to Counter NHS Fraud has also been launched to gauge views on possible legislation enabling NHS counter fraud security managers to access relevant documents and records. The consultation closes on 10 January.
Improving public sector efficiency
The health service needs to continue devolving powers to frontline staff to remove inequalities, a parliamentary report says.
The Department of Health welcomed the public accounts select committee investigation into Government departments that have received substantial increases in funding.
Specifically, the committee recommended the department to identify why the quality of services provided by agents, such as GP practices, varied so much between individual bodies.
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