Website of the Department of Health

Star ratings show NHS improving against tougher targets

Primary care, mental health and ambulance trusts have all improved their performance in recent years, according to the NHS watchdog.

The Healthcare Commission's annual star ratings of performance for NHS trusts in England show an overall improvement in the performance of the NHS against tougher waiting time targets for outpatient appointments and operations.

The ratings are the last in their current format and will be replaced with a new 'health check' assessment system next year.

• Healthcare Commission - 2005 performance ratings (opens new window)

Senior paramedic awarded professorship

A visiting professorship has been awarded to a practising paramedic in the specialty of pre-hospital care.

Awarded to Malcolm Woollard by the University of Teesside, it is believed to be the first professorship given in this particular field.

A senior lecturer in pre-hospital care and chair of the British Paramedic Association's newly-formed research and audit group, Malcolm is a registered paramedic who still practises to maintain his registration.

He has worked for many years in ambulance services across the UK and works diligently to promote and develop the ambulance profession.

• British Paramedic Association (opens new window)

Consultation to ensure patients are at the heart of Payment by Results

A consultation on a code of conduct for healthcare organisations operating Payment by Results (PbR) has been announced.

The code, which has been drafted by a working party which included NHS organisations, independent providers and the Department of Health, aims to support high quality patient care by promoting positive and collaborative relationships between healthcare organisations.

Under PbR, providers are paid for each patient they treat, according to a national price list.

The new code emphasises the importance of collaboration, efficiency and transparency on the part of healthcare organisations. It also includes specific rules for how PbR should operate in practice.

New guidance on HIV infected healthcare workers

The Department of Health has published new guidance on managing healthcare workers infected with HIV.

The key revision removes the necessity to advise every patient if an exposure-prone procedure involved an HIV-infected worker.

It was altered due to the low risk of transmission and the anxiety caused to the patient and the wider public.

HIV-infected care workers are still unable to complete exposure-prone procedures where an injury to them could result in contamination of the patient's open tissues ('bleed-back').

The decision to notify patients will now be made by directors of public health at primary care trusts on a case-by-case basis using criteria set out in the guidance.

Advice on making such decisions will be available from the UK Advisory Panel for Healthcare Workers Infected with Blood-borne Viruses (UKAP).

• HIV-infected health care workers: Guidance on management and patient notification

Emergency mobile scheme goes global

A paramedic with the East Anglian Ambulance Trust who devised the system of storing an emergency contact in your mobile phone has been invited to New York by the city's emergency services.

Bob Brotchie's In Case of Emergency (ICE) scheme gained huge publicity in the UK following the terrorist attack in London. Now dozens of US states, plus health and police services in Australia, New Zealand and Canada have formally adopted the scheme.

ICE has quickly become almost as recognisable as SOS across the globe and Bob has described the interest in his simple idea as 'phenomenal'.

More on the scheme from:

• the ICE website (opens new window)

Consultation on improving community and health services

A major consultation will give citizens the opportunity to give their views on the future of community health and care.

Responses to Your health, your care, your say: Improving Community Health and Care Services will help shape the Government's White Paper on community health and care services, due out later this year.

It will examine issues such as:

The initiative began with a 'listening' event with stakeholders in London, the aim of which was to examine the proposed consultation process.

• Summary of feedback from the Listening Event on the process for Your Health, Your Care, Your Say

Working Time Directive 2009

The Department of Health is pleased to announce the appointment of National Workforce Projects (NWP), led by Rachael Charlton, as the lead organisation to bring together the work of the NHS on Working Time Directive (WTD) 2009.

NWP will build on its core strengths of effective project management and successful partnership working to support NHS organisations in reducing maximum weekly working hours across the NHS from 56 to 48 by 2009.

More on WTD 2009 from:

• the National Workforce Projects website (opens new window)

Hospital at Night evaluation report published

The Hospital at Night project was piloted in four acute NHS trusts in England. The pilots demonstrated that improving patient care, doctors' working lives and their training is achievable, while complying with the Working Time Directive.

Multi-disciplinary teams provide clinical care across the hospitals at night on the basis of being competent to provide care. The approach includes multi-disciplinary handovers, bleep filtering and night co-ordinator roles.

For more information contact Wendy Reid at:

• wreid@londondeanery.ac.uk (opens new window)
• The implementation and impact of Hospital at Night pilot projects: An evaluation report
• More on the Hospital at Night project (opens new window)