Department of Health and Social Care’s Post

Yesterday, Executive leaders and Board members from Fusion member organisations (Solent NHS Trust, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Isle of Wight NHS Trust) signed the Full Business Case for the new organisation. Ron Shields said “As individual Trusts, we have worked diligently to provide great care to our communities, but we see the potential to reduce health inequalities and truly deliver to a higher standard, with greater effectiveness, by combining our workforce, our strengths and expertise. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will be significant voice in health and care, raising the profile of the importance of mental health, learning disability and community services to the life outcomes of our population.” Learn more 👉 https://buff.ly/46dufsr Pictured: Andrew Strevens, CEO of Solent NHS Trust. Penny Emerit, CEO of PHU and Isle of Wight NHS Trust. Ron Shields, CEO of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Chief Executive Officer Designate for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

An insightful article from ACCA UK Health Sector Panel member Dawn Scrafield on her approach to dealing with eliminating deficits within her Trust. My takeaway messages from the article were that the simple equation of ‘more income = no deficit’ does not apply. Long-term planning, the use of technology in using management information to make decisions and a strong culture of working with business partners to ensure that the awareness and understanding around the skills needed to manage resources are improved are all part of what is needed in combined approach to good financial management. Other ACCA members working in the #nhs, what are your thoughts and views on the topic? Let us know in the comments below so we can share the learning. #acca #nhs #financeprofessionals #learning #networking #community

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken. This government will be honest about the challenges facing the health service, and serious about tackling them. This investigation will uncover hard truths and I’ve asked for nothing to be held back. I trust Lord Darzi will leave no stone unturned and have told him to speak truth to power.  I want a raw and frank assessment of the state of the NHS. This is the necessary first step on the road to recovery for our National Health Service, so it can be there for us when we need it, once again. Professor Lord Darzi said: As every clinician and every patient knows, the first step to addressing any health problem is a proper diagnosis. My work will analyse the evidence to understand where we are today - and how we got to here - so that the health service can move forward. This is an important step to reestablishing quality of care as the organising principle of the NHS. Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive said: Frontline NHS staff are doing an incredible job, despite the huge pressures they face, to deliver care to over a million people every day, but we know that they face huge struggles and patients are not always getting the timely, high quality care they need.  We will work closely with the government, independent experts and NHS staff to take a detailed look at the scale of the challenges and set out plans to address them – this comprehensive analysis will be an important step in helping us to build an NHS fit for the future. #nhs #diagnosis #futureplans #fitforthefuture #roadtorecovery

In light of recent findings, the government is taking swift action to rebuild public trust in our health and social care system. The Health and Social Care Secretary, yesterday introduced four immediate measures to enhance the transparency and reliability of care quality assessments. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eGJSqva4 #HealthInnovation #CareQuality #PublicTrust

The recently announced inquiry into how nurse Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies will no doubt offer lessons not just for the Countess of Chester Hospital but also for the wider NHS to act on. Our CEO Louise Ansari outlined in the Health Service Journal the steps the NHS should take to ensure that the concerns of staff and patients are at the heart of improving the culture, quality and safety of care. 1. Leadership teams need to look at how the mechanisms to provide complaints or feedback that are already in place are working and how they can be used to best effect. Do staff and patients know where they can go to raise concerns? There is an argument that we do not need more mechanisms to capture the views of staff and patients, but rather, there needs to be better communication between both groups about where to go with different kinds of complaints, concerns or queries. 2. NHS leaders need to do everything they can to develop a culture of listening to concerns and acting upon them in a timely manner. We need a culture where any frontline member of staff or patient is confident that they can raise a concern and that leadership teams will listen and consider whether they are an early warning sign about a systemic issue. 3. Small steps within organisations can significantly impact individuals’ willingness to come forward with feedback – positive or negative. Telling patients that their feedback is welcome is something that every clinician can do. https://lnkd.in/eiZqksT3 #Letbycase #patientsafety

The Government has published a consultation paper on the use of section 75 of the NHS Act 2006 - which enables NHS and local authorities to enter into partnership arrangements. Specifically it is considering whether the scope of section 75 should be widened to include: * additional health-related functions of local authorities and NHS bodies * additional public health functions delegated to local authorities and NHS bodies by the Secretary of State * a wider range of organisations that can enter into arrangements under section 75 The consultation is also looking at any perceived barriers to pooling of budgets and whether the regulations could be simplified to facilitate easier use and reduce the administrative burden on NHS bodies and local authorities, as well as how to strengthen and/or simplify the governance of section 75 arrangement. Consultation ends 31 October.

This would be a welcomed step forwards, especially when applied to Personal Health Budgets that require integrated funding between Health, Social & Education, supporting the future of integrated working and commissioning with the individuals and families being the central focus.

Despite successive governments repeating a vision of health and care services focused on communities rather than hospitals, that vision is very far from being achieved. The failure to grow and invest in primary and community health and care services ranks as one of the most significant and long-running failures of policy and implementation in the NHS and social care for more than 30 years. This is partly been due to a ‘cycle of invisibility’ for primary and community health and care services, where they are hard to quantify and easy to overlook, and hierarchies of care, with urgent problems taking priority over longer-term issues. This report from The King's Fund describes why it is not sufficient to selectively implement a few changes; the shift that is required is wholesale, including greater alignment between policy and vision, so that funding, regulation, workforce and performance policies match the intention of changing the focus of the health and care system towards primary and community health and care services. Department of Health and Social Care NHS England NHS Providers NHS Confederation British Medical Association Royal College of General Practitioners Local Government Association #nhs #primarycare #communitycare #policy #vision #careclosertohome #performance #workforce #regulation

Health care is always at the forefront of politics, it is the same in every country! The question is: Is our current system fit for purpose and if not how do we change it...? But not only from the political/funding point of view, but from the individual point of view - are we ready, as a society to play our individual part on a daily basis? We have enough evidence that smoking and drinking - kills, eating unhealthy - leads to various conditions, not exercising - contributes to poor health... So, are you ready to play your part? And once you do concurrently for 1 year - let's ask this questing 😉