Today Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England, has written to NHS leaders introducing the new system for assessing the quality of the hospital environment from April 2013.  Patient-led assessments of the care environment (PLACE) is the new system for assessing the quality of the hospital environment, which replaces Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspections […]

The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has today published a document setting out how the management of IT systems will be organised for offender health care from April 2013. Securing Excellence in IT Services Operating model for offender health care provides a system which ensures the safe transfer of offender health IT from primary care […]

The Local Authority (Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny) Regulations 2013 have now been published. The publication of these regulations provide a step forward in enabling local authorities to finalise local preparations for health and wellbeing boards and health scrutiny arrangements. You will wish to be aware that the Local Government Association […]

The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has today published Securing Excellence in Commissioning NHS Dental Services. From April 2013, the NHS CB will take commissioning responsibility from primary care trusts for all NHS dental services: primary, community and secondary, including dental out of hours and urgent care. This will include commissioning dental services provided in high […]

On 6 February, in response to a request from the Prime Minister, Sir Bruce Keogh (the Medical Director) announced an investigation into hospitals that are persistent outliers on mortality indicators. Sir Bruce identified an initial list of five organisations that had been outliers for two years on the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI), and said that […]

The publication of the Francis report into the failures at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust is an important moment for the NHS. The only acceptable legacy is that the NHS learns and changes. In this video NHS Commissioning Board Chief Executive David Nicholson talks about how we must develop our own detailed response to the Francis […]

As announced in today’s Prime Ministerial statement on the Francis Report, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is to lead an investigation into hospitals that are persistent outliers in hospital performance and provide practical support. Full terms of reference for the investigation, including which measures will identify the hospitals to be covered, will be published at the […]

This is a day for the NHS to reflect fully on the harrowing experiences of those personally affected by the failures at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.  The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) takes on a key leadership role in the NHS in England from April and is absolutely committed, together with all other organisations […]

The 2013/14 NHS Standard Contract has been published today by the NHS Commissioning Board. The contract is for use by commissioners when commissioning healthcare services (other than those commissioned under primary care contracts) and is adaptable for use for a broad range of services and delivery models. It reflects the requirements set out in Everyone […]

The NHS Commissioning Board today announces the forthcoming departure of its Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, Ian Dalton CBE.  Ian will be moving to BT Global Services to take up the position of President of Global Health. Ian has held a number of very senior roles within the NHS including Chief Executive of […]