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DH News
A round-up of current Department of Health news and information
Record growth in NHS workforce
There has been a record increase in the number of nurses, GPs and consultants working in the NHS, according to the latest annual NHS workforce census.
Figures show that in 2003 the NHS had 18,800 more nurses, 5,600 more doctors and 2,500 allied health professionals than in 2002.
There are now 1,282,900 people in England working in the NHS - of them 386,400 are nurses, 109,000 doctors and 122,100 scientists and therapists.
More information at:
Primary care progress
Patients are being seen quicker and receiving more treatment locally under improvements to primary care services, according to a progress report by the Department of Health.
The majority of patients - 97 per cent - now see a GP within two working days compared to 75 per cent two years ago.
Every year more than 700,000 procedures are performed in doctors' surgeries and health centres rather than in hospital.
More information at:
Fewer delayed discharges
A three-year drive to cut delayed discharges from NHS hospitals has freed up 4,000 beds - the equivalent of eight extra hospitals, the Government has announced.
Last December, the number of patients in hospital because there was no suitable care for them in the community was 3,220 - down from 7,065 in September 2001 when the Cash for Change programme was launched.
Provisional figures for March showed the number of delayed discharges had fallen further to 2,895.
More information at:
Improving care for older people
A US form of community care, being piloted in Britain for the first time, is helping to cut hospital admissions among older people and maintain their independence at home.
Interim results from the trials being run in nine primary care trusts show that monitoring and treating at-risk older patients often helps them avoid hospitalisation.
The pilots are based on the US Evercare scheme which has reduced hospital admissions by half.
More information at:
Mental health improvements
Real successes in promoting and supporting mental health have been achieved in the past year.
Local teams implementing the National Service Framework for Mental Health indicate progress in many areas.
Treated as People: An overview of mental health services from a social care perspective, 2002-2004, was published by the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI).
More information at:
Choice and equity
The NHS is leading the world in supplying choice and fairness of access to patients, an international organisation has found.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that UK access to care by doctors is among the most equitable of any OECD country.
View Towards High Performing Health Systems at:
Rewarding top performers
Accident and emergency departments seeing and treating patients within four hours have won £100,000 bonuses.
Nearly 90 NHS trusts across the country saw at least 94 per cent of patients in and out of A&E in four hours or less. The awards are part of an incentive scheme designed to reward successful A&E departments with up to £500,000 up to next March.
The final Government target is for trusts to achieve a 98 per cent minimum standard by December.
More information at:
Working Time Directive guide
A new guide has been produced to assist NHS trusts in complying with the Working Time Directive (WTD) by 1 August.
A Compendium of Solutions to implementing the Working Time Directive for Doctors in Training from August 2004 is supported by the British Medical Association, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, NHS Confederation and Department of Health.
More information at:
More power to prescribe
Physiotherapists, radiographers, chiropodists and optometrists will be able to prescribe medicines under plans announced by the Department of Health.
Among the conditions they will help treat and manage are glaucoma, chronic back pain and the effects of multiple sclerosis, as well as providing pain relief for patients attending radiography sessions.
The plans are currently out for consultation, which ends 9 August.
More information at:
IT support for staff
Frontline NHS staff will be taught to use new technology from the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) after the launch of a 'support academy'.
The academy took its first students in mid-May, using realistic mock-ups of hospital wards and GP surgeries, and utilising actors as patients to introduce the new systems to clinicians.
The NHS Leadership Centre is also carrying out research among senior NHS stakeholders to find out the leadership development needs of senior staff involved in the implementation of the national programme.
National Reporting and Learning System
The National Patient Safety Agency has now launched a National Reporting and Learning System.
The system will gather patient safety incident reports from across the NHS and collect them into a national database. This will give the agency an unprecedented overview of patient safety incidents, allowing it to identify trends and develop practical solutions to improve patient care.
More information at:
Reducing unnecessary suspensions
New guidance to improve the management of NHS staff facing suspension has been produced by the National Patient Safety Agency.
The electronic Incident Decision Tree has been designed for NHS managers dealing with any staff involved in an incident or accident and aims to reduce unnecessary suspensions.
Access the guide at:
Home loans for NHS workers
NHS clinical staff and other public sector workers are to receive home loans of up to £50,000 to help them buy property in high-cost areas.
The Government's Key Worker Living programme is designed to retain the skills needed in key frontline public services like health, education and the police.
Over the next two years £690 million will be made available for workers in the hotspots of London, south east England and eastern England.
More information at:
Online recruitment goes national
A national database of NHS vacancies is now available.
The NHS Jobs website was successfully piloted by nearly 50 NHS organisations and is now being extended throughout the rest of England.
The service complements the existing online NHS Careers initiative, which provides advice and guidance to people considering joining or rejoining the health service.
NHS Careers is at:
The jobs website is at:
NHS Direct guides
Households around the country have received self-help guides in the back of every Thomson local directory.
The guides provide step-by-step health care advice, pointing readers towards the most appropriate NHS service for different conditions and result from a partnership between the publisher, the Department of Health and NHS Direct.
More information at:
Better experience - by design
Hospitals across the NHS are using creative ways to improve patient visits to accident and emergency (A&E).
An NHS Estates progress report published by A&E patient experience champion Jonathan Asbridge highlights some of the inventive ways in which hospitals are improving the patient experience.
More information at:
Standardise crash call number to 2222
The National Patient Safety Agency has issued a patient safety alert advising all acute trusts to standardise the crash call telephone number to 2222.
Twenty-seven different crash call numbers are used in NHS hospitals in England, causing delay for staff summoning the resuscitation team in an emergency.
More information at:
Charging overseas visitors for primary care
A consultation document setting out proposals to introduce charges for overseas visitors who use primary medical services has been launched.
The aim is to have a clear set of rules which everyone can understand and which can be operated and enforced sensibly, with the least possible bureaucracy. The consultation runs until 13 August.
You can see the consultation paper at:
PCTs lead prison health care
Frontline responsibility for health care in 34 prisons transferred to 18 PCTs on 1 April. The next wave of transfers will take place in April 2005. By April 2006, health care in all English prisons will be led by local PCTs.
More information at:
Guidance on cardiac networks
Cardiac networks in the NHS have been given control of their own budgets as an added incentive to develop their services.
The Department of Health and NHS Modernisation Agency has now agreed that the bulk of the £17 million held centrally for the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Collaborative will be devolved to each network when they have demonstrated real improvements in services to patients.
More information at:
Over-the-counter statins
A cholesterol-reducing drug which cuts the risk of heart attacks will be available without prescription.
The statin simvastatin should be available over the counter in a 10 milligram dose from this summer.
More information at:
Cardiac arrhythmia
A new consultative group has been set up by the national clinical director for heart disease Dr Roger Boyle to deal with cardiac arrhythmia.
Its main objective will be to create a new chapter in the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease.
Proposals are out for consultation until 4 August.
More information at:
More NHS operations planned
Eight independent treatment centres will have the capacity to perform thousands of additional NHS operations next year.
The Department of Health has signed contracts with Capio Healthcare UK for centres in Cornwall, Lincolnshire, Southampton and Milton Keynes.
From March 2005, the centres will perform more than 19,000 extra operations, a mixture of general surgery, trauma and orthopaedic procedures.
More information at:
Speeding up diagnosis
New technology, enabling images such as x-rays and scans to be stored and mailed electronically, will speed up diagnosis for millions of patients.
PACS - Picture Archiving and Communications Systems - is being established under the Department of Health's £6 billion IT programme.
Health professionals across the NHS will be able to access the information at the touch of a button. The system will be rolled out this summer.
More information at:
Medical research
An extra £100 million will be used to fund research into Alzheimer's, stroke, diabetes and mental health.
The boost in funding will bring combined Government spending on medical research to £1.2 billion. The largest ever sustained increase in research funding will be used to fund specialist research into these diseases, develop new medicines for children and expand the research network within the National Institute of Mental Health.
More information at:
Chief nursing officer to leave
Sarah Mullally, the chief nursing officer for England, is leaving the Department of Health after almost five years to become a curate in the Church of England.
She will leave at the end of September to become curate of the parish of Battersea Fields in the diocese of Southwark.
More information at:
National director for social care appointed
Kathryn Hudson has been appointed as the new national director for social care to strengthen relationships between the Department of Health and social care services locally and nationally. She will take up her post on 2 August.
More information at:
National ambulance adviser role
A national ambulance adviser has been appointed to drive forward service improvements.
Peter Bradley will lead a six-month strategic review of ambulance services, looking at their future role, the education and training needs of staff, and new measures to test the quality of care.
More information at:
Pathology adviser recruited
The first national pathology adviser has been appointed to promote the modernisation of pathology services.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust head of pathology Dr Ian Barnes will be responsible with the National Pathology Modernisation Group for advising the department on the use and allocation of future funding, helping with the redesign of pathology services and supporting the introduction of new technology.
More information at:
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