This page shows items from the NHS Confederation’s NHS Voices Blog.
Are organisations ready to take the necessary steps to deliver safer staffing, asks Paul Scandrett
12 May 2014, 9:26 am
A tidal wave is crossing the NHS in England as trusts come to terms with meeting the expectations of NHS England’s safe staffing reporting requirements for inpatient wards. For many organisations, this means producing information that was previously unavailable, and already some voices are echoing a claim that this is “increasing the administration burden to … Continue reading →
The NHS is under-utilising its army of physiotherapists at a time when it needs to deploy them most, warns Karen Middleton
5 May 2014, 10:30 am
Patients can’t self-refer to physiotherapy where I live. Not far down the road, they can. This postcode lottery is symptomatic of the inconsistent approach across primary care to providing access to physiotherapy, one that is damaging for patient care and expensive for the NHS. For patients with common musculoskeletal complaints, sports injuries and many long-term … Continue reading →
Clinical leadership at the heart of local commissioning is a ‘must have’, not ‘nice to have’, says Dr Steve Kell
28 April 2014, 8:20 am
Later this week, over 200 clinical commissioning group (CCG) leaders and I will be descending on the Congress Centre in London for NHS Clinical Commissioners’ annual event. It can be a lonely existence leading a CCG, but this event is a fantastic chance meet and hear about others’ experiences. After a year in the new … Continue reading →
The NHS has to work hard to remain relevant, respected and loved – CSUs can help in many ways, says Andrew Ridley
31 March 2014, 8:10 am
With more of a whimper than a bang, the new NHS commissioning system came into being a year ago this week. Three years of intense political debate, transition and significant headcount reduction meant a range of geographically-based, integrated commissioners were finally replaced by a host of new organisations – 212 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local … Continue reading →
Is proactive error reporting in pathology services the shortcut to quality-oriented governance, asks Dr Ian Barnes
17 March 2014, 8:35 am
Providers who want to stand out – or even get by – in the new quality regime will need new tools and approaches to clinical quality. The new acute hospital inspection model makes use of a mixture of intelligent monitoring and announced/unannounced inspections to get to the heart of service quality. The Care Quality Commission … Continue reading →
We can’t go on like this – innovate or die, says Jonathon Fagge
10 March 2014, 8:22 am
Innovation is messy, expensive, and disruptive, and many of the attempts to innovate result in failure. It is an exercise in risk-taking; an investment of time, energy, credibility and money, for an uncertain outcome. For the architect that conceives, the organisation that sponsors, and the people that must adapt, it is an uncomfortable and sometimes … Continue reading →
Are people really reaping the rewards of recovery-oriented services, asks Prof Geoff Shepherd
6 March 2014, 1:52 pm
The Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change (ImROC) programme has been running in mental health services in this country since 2010.The programme has been delivered by a partnership between the Centre for Mental Health and the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network. It was initially set up with funding from the Department of Health as part of … Continue reading →
Time to level the playing field for sickle cell and thalassemia sufferers, says John James
3 March 2014, 8:34 am
The recent peer review of NHS services for people with haemoglobin disorders (inherited blood diseases that affect how oxygen is carried in the body) highlighted what we always knew about these services: they are far behind the standards of other patient services within the NHS. But what really needs to be done to change this? … Continue reading →
Can health and wellbeing boards help fight violence in your community, asks Nicola Rosenberg
24 February 2014, 8:24 am
Violence is something that affects us all. For the immediate (although often not visible) victims of violence the negative, potentially devastating, impact is obvious. But even if not directly affected in this way, we all hear about violence in the news and discuss it at work or over mealtimes, and this impacts on how safe … Continue reading →
As NHS Sustainability Day approaches, what can we learn from the trusts who are doing it right, asks Matthew Abbott
17 February 2014, 8:45 am
An important fixture in any healthcare professional’s diary, NHS Sustainability Day falls on 27 March. In the three years the campaign has been running it has managed to increase the amount of debate on sustainable healthcare practices to new levels, inspiring hundreds of NHS Trusts and healthcare providers to examine their own practices. Such has … Continue reading →