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News
Provider bulletin: 13 February 2019
This weekly newsletter is sent to NHS providers’ chairs, chief executives, finance, medical, nursing and HR directors, and board secretaries.
For action
We’ve issued a Patient Safety Alert to prevent the risk of selecting the wrong dynamic compression plates and reconstruction plates used for fixation of fractures. These plates have different designs and properties and are not interchangeable.
To reduce this risk, you are asked to ensure that reconstruction plates are purchased as individually sterilised packs, which are stored separately and only fetched and taken out of sterile packaging when specifically required.
Please identify all patients who had a plate fitted since 1 February 2018 for the treatment of shaft fractures and undertake a retrospective review of patient x-rays to ensure the correct plate was used.
We’ve published the requirements for annual governance statements for NHS trusts in 2018/19, alongside formats for certificates and statements needed for the year end. We’ve also provided the pro-forma elements of the document in Word format to facilitate copying.
NHS trusts — please pass this on to your governance teams.
We’ve published an update to the FT ARM 2018/19. The main change brings an additional requirement where personal information is being included in the annual report and accounts.
NHS foundation trusts — please ensure your governance teams are aware of these updates.
For information
In December we announced a number of appointments to our new NHS Executive Group. Sir David Sloman, the new London Regional Director, has joined us ahead of 1 April and will operate as the Regional Director for London for NHS England and NHS Improvement between now and then. He takes over from Steve Russell, NHS Improvement’s Executive Regional Managing Director for London, and Dr Vin Diwakar, acting NHS England London Regional Director.
Professor Bill McCarthy formally takes up post as the new North West Regional Director for NHS Improvement and NHS England on 1 April. In preparation, Bill is already working closely with members of both regional teams, and is meeting system colleagues around the patch.
Lyn Simpson and Richard Barker remain accountable for the NHS Improvement and NHS England North regional teams respectively until 1 April.
We have launched a consultation on reducing reliance on admin and estates agency staff. The proposals are being introduced to:
- help trusts continue to reduce non-clinical agency expenditure
- provide more assurance on quality for patients by restricting the use of off framework agencies.
We’d like to hear what you think of the draft proposals. Action on this issue could free up to £100 million in the next financial year to invest into the NHS workforce and improve services for patients. The consultation closes on Friday 22 March and a summary of responses will be published in April.
We’d like to hear from you on some of the key workforce issues facing the NHS. Last week we launched five discussion pages on Talk Health and Care asking you:
- How can we better support our clinical workforce?
- How do we ensure the NHS is a great place to work?
- How do we develop compassionate, effective and diverse leaders in the NHS?
- The future medical workforce: How do we get the balance right?
- How can we enable the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan by improving skills and education in using new technology?
Each week we’ll be posting new questions via our new workforce bulletin.
In the consultation for the National Tariff Payment System in 2019/20, we have proposed several policies to investigate ways of encouraging non-face-to-face outpatient attendances. We would also like to test some of the pricing and payment approaches to see how innovation in outpatient services could be incentivised.
We are looking for trusts who are looking to transform their outpatient models to help us pilot new pricing approaches and methods.
Please email jonathan.brown11@nhs.net if you are interested in taking part.
Events
Thursday 7 March — Thursday 25 April, Birmingham, London and Leeds
These one-day training events are an introduction for you to understand and recognise the principles and methodological approaches to demand and capacity.
Whilst the principles of demand and capacity planning are universal, we use examples from elective care throughout the training. Spaces are limited, and are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Tuesday 19 March, 12pm-4pm, Ashridge, Hertfordshire
We’d like to invite trust chief executives and chief operating officers who are looking to recruit a new chief operating officer to the final day of our Aspiring Chief Operating Officer programme.
The participants, most of whom are already deputy chief operating officers, have undertaken a number of modules and learning experiences to enhance their leadership and management skillsets, as well as their ability to work as part of a board whilst also leading operations and innovation.
Please email carolyn.may3@nhs.net if you would like to attend.
Thursday 28 March, 9.30am-4.30pm, Birmingham
This event is an opportunity for workforce leaders in the NHS to look at how to improve organisational culture using a collective leadership approach. Hear from expert speakers including Professor Michael West, the Head of Thought Leadership at The King’s Fund and Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at Lancaster University, and Amanda Oates, the Executive Director of Workforce at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS England
Harnessing the full potential of technology to improve the lives of patients
The Global Digital Exemplars (GDE) will help drive improvement in digital maturity across the NHS more quickly and cost effectively than previously possible, through the creation of blueprints — which you can tailor to suit your local requirements.
Created by trusts, GDE blueprints capture important components needed for sustainable digital transformation, covering a range of digital initiatives such as using software to detect the risk of patients contracting sepsis, having a paperless emergency department or introducing e-prescribing across an organisation.
Find out more and access the blueprints by completing a short registration.
Shared decision making — conversations that matter
A few places are still available on the free ‘train the trainer’ courses for you to develop skills in shared decision making.
A commitment to personalised care is a key area of the NHS Long Term Plan and this bespoke training will encourage thinking about whether different conversations can achieve different outcomes focused on what really matters to patients.
The dates are:
- cohort three: 6/7 March and 30 April, Birmingham
- cohort four: 17/18 April and 16 May, London or south west (tbc)
- cohort five: 8/9 May and 22 May, London
Please email england.shareddecisionmaking@nhs.net for further information.
Royal College of Anaesthetists
A teachable moment: delivering perioperative medicine in integrated care systems
Perioperative medicine is optimising patient care before, during and after surgery. This report sets out the opportunities for delivering perioperative medicine across integrated care systems to support local priorities and the national agenda. Professor Steve Powis, NHS England’s National Medical Director, writes in the foreword that ‘an optimised perioperative approach is good for patients, good for the NHS and good for the wider economy’.