GP Partnership Review: Final Report

Optional wording for policy briefings ONLY: A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? This report outlines the challenges that GPs are facing with increasing workloads and the rising complexity of patients resulting in clinical risk challenges.

• LKS could support GP partnerships with the evidence base and current awareness services to support complex care.
• LKS could approach local CCGs / GPs to make them aware of the services available or see if they wish to take up the offer where provision doesn’t exist.
• Libraries serving GPs or organisations in partnership with GPs may wish to review resources and collections to offer leadership resources for staff looking to develop leadership skills.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care

Link to main document https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gp-partnership-review-final-report

Date of publication: January 2019

Summary of driver: This review considers the challenges that currently face GP partnerships and makes the following recommendations to revitalise and transform the partnership model:

• There are significant opportunities that should be taken forward to reduce the personal risk and unlimited liability currently associated with GP partnerships.
• The number of General Practitioners who work in practices, and in roles that support the delivery of direct patient care, should be increased and funded.
• The capacity and range of healthcare professionals available to support patients in the community should be increased, through services embedded in partnership with general practice.
• Medical training should be refocused to increase the time spent in general practice, to develop a better understanding of the strengths and opportunities of primary care partnerships and how they fit into the wider health system.
• Primary Care Networks should be established and operate in a way that makes constituent practices more sustainable and enables partners to address workload and safe working capacity, while continuing to support continuity of high quality, personalised, holistic care.
• General practice must have a strong, consistent and fully representative voice at system level.
• There are opportunities that should be taken to enable practices to use resources more efficiently by ensuring access to both essential IT equipment and innovative digital services.

A vision for population health: Towards a healthier future

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

• Monitor where accountability lies and new roles in managing population health so that library services can be directed appropriately.
• Library staff may need to work with various health and care services to provide evidence.
• Capture and share information from other countries e.g. Scotland and Wales who have successfully tackled health inequalities.

Source: The King’s Fund

Link to main document

Date of publication: November 2018

Summary of driver: England lags behind many other countries on key health outcomes, life expectancy improvements have stalled and health inequalities widen. Population health aims to improve physical and mental health outcomes, promote wellbeing and reduce health inequalities across an entire population. This report outlines The King’s Fund’s vision for population health, their reasoning and the steps to achieve it.

Impact of the Care Quality Commission on provider performance. Room for Improvement?

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations. Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? An increased focus on the need for systemic transformation and improvement following CQC inspections  may provide further opportunities to support organisations. Libraries should understand the areas in which their organisations require improvement and develop services to support these.

Source: The King’s Fund

Link to main document 

Date of publication: September 2018

Summary of driver: This report summarises the findings of the first major evaluation of the CQC’s approach to inspecting and rating healthcare providers. The King’s Fund and Alliance Manchester Business School developed framework outlining 8 ways that regulation can affect provider performance, which was used to evaluate the first cycle of CQC inspections in acute, mental health, general practice and adult social care in 6 areas of England.

Budget 2018: What it means for health and social care

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations. Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries?  The budget applies directly to NHS funded services but not education and training tariffs where a large proportion of library funding is derived from. It is useful for library staff to understand the priorities and pressures in order to support the organisations they serve.

Source: The Health Foundation, The King’s Fund, The Nuffield Trust

Link to main document

Date of publication: November 2018

Summary of driver: The budget outlined an increase to the NHS England budget (not capital, public health or education and training) of £20.5bn at estimated 3.4% increase per year by 2023/24. However, higher inflation will mean the increase is less than 3.4%; the real terms increase will be confirmed by the 2019 spending review. A long term plan about how the money will be spent is expected by the end of the year. Funds will be allocated to mental health, social care, disabilities grant and staff salary rises. The document considers where the funds will come from and what this means for NHS funding.

Sustainability and transformation partnerships in London: An independent review

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

• Understanding the challenges for STPs in London may provide opportunities to work collaboratively across the patch and link with senior management to provide evidence to progress STPs.
• Consideration of bigger footprints for specialist services could have implications for library services in London.
• Identifying leaders to promote services such as current awareness and LKS evidence searches and showcase LKS support for innovation and change, through running simple KM events to encourage knowledge sharing, e.g.  randomised coffee trials and knowledge cafes.

Source: Kings Fund

Link to main document 

Date of publication: October 2018

Summary of driver: This report was commissioned by the Mayor of London to report on the progress of the 5 STPs in London. It identifies key developments, highlights examples of integrated working and barriers to progress and makes practical suggestions for dealing with these challenges.

Gosport War Memorial Hospital: The Report of the Gosport Independent Panel

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

Whilst this report has no direct impact on LKS, this is an important document to be aware of and to circulate within organisations.

Source: The Gosport Independent Panel

Link to main document 

Date of publication: June 2018

Summary of driver:

This Report is an in-depth analysis of the Gosport Independent Panel’s findings into the concerns raised by families over a number of years about the initial care of their relatives in Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

How is the NHS performing? June 2018

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? With services under great pressure, there is a greater need for library and knowledge services to support effective and efficient healthcare. As well as making health care provision safer, K4H impact case studies demonstrate that LKS can help make cost savings, and can support health service transformation.

Source: King’s Fund

Link to main document

Date of publication: July 2018

Summary of driver:

This is the 26^th quarterly report by the King’s Fund, and as well as looking back at what has happened over the past three months, considers the recently announced funding offer for the NHS.

• Services remain under substantial pressure – there are 4.2m waiting for consultant-led care
• There is little optimism that current A&E performance targets can be met
• Some NHS organisations are spiralling further into deficit while others are seeing their surpluses bolstered by centrally-released funding
• There are some positive signs of increased joint working between local providers and commissioners of care
• The recent announcement of a five-year funding offer for the NHS provides an opportunity to make good on previous attempts to deliver out-of-hospital services, including social care
• By March 2018 2,755 people had been waiting more than a year for treatment – the highest number since 2012/13
• The time by which 92% of patients are seen after a referral is now 22 weeks; the highest since March 2009
• GP referrals are growing at a slower rate than before but are still increasing
• Hospital-bed occupancy is at its highest level for eight years
• Emergency admissions in May 2018 were 5.6% higher than the year before
• 44% of CCG finance leads are considering extending waiting lists or reducing activity for certain elective specialties
• In March 2018 only 9 of 137 Trusts with major A&E departments me the 95% standard
• The overall 95% standard has not been achieved since July 2015
• By the end of the 2017/18 financial year the provider sector had a deficit of £960m
• The commissioning sector had an underspend of £955m due to underspending in central NHS England budgets
• Nearly two-fifths of CCGs are expecting to overspend their budgets next year
• 80% of CCGs are considering extending the number of low-value treatments and prescriptions that will no longer be funded
• 42% of Trust finance directors are expecting to end 2018/19 in deficit
• 51% of finance directors and 21% of CCG finance leads feel patient care has worsened in their area over the past year
• However, closer working through STPs and ICSs is starting to pay some dividends
• Acute Trusts account for 87% of Trusts in deficit
• The long-term NHS funding settlement, a Green Paper on social-care reform and a 10-year health and care workforce strategy – taken together – might provide the best opportunity in a decade for health and social-care services to both find some stability and use that stability as a base for more fundamental transformation and improvement.

Leadership in today’s NHS: delivering the impossible

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

Opportunity to support the increasing demand for knowledge resources related to sustainable leadership.

Source: King’s Fund

Link to main document 

Date of publication: July 2018

Summary of driver:

This report is based on a survey of NHS trusts and foundation trusts carried out by NHS Providers in 2017. Consisting of qualitative interviews and a roundtable event with frontline leaders and national stakeholders, the survey showed that leadership vacancies are widespread and that a culture of blaming individuals for failure is making leadership roles less attractive. The report also highlights the widespread challenges in meeting financial and performance targets as demands on services continue to increase. The challenges facing leaders of NHS trusts have changed and there is now a greater emphasis placed on working collaboratively as part of more integrated health and care systems.

 

The NHS 10-year plan: how should the extra funding be spent?

A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries?

Whilst only suggestions from the King’s Fund, some of the points made are aims that have been stated before, and if implemented would have implications for LKS.

The integration of health and social care may mean new groups of staff to support, especially around social care staff who have not traditionally been served by NHS libraries. Whilst it make take many years to fully integrate health and social care, in some areas, the introduction of Integrated Care Organisations and Accountable Care Organisations may mean this happens much faster.

The suggested expansion of new roles such as physician and nurse associates may mean more staff undertaking courses whilst working, and nurse associates in particular may need more support for their learning locally. A re-balancing of staff towards primary and community care has implications for the way LKS support remote users that may find it difficult to access LKS in person.

The King’s Fund suggests more capacity among local leaders and less reliance on external regulators. LKS already support leadership education and development, but this may become more important in the future.

Various ways of tackling waste are mentioned, such as reducing the use of procedures of limited value, and tackling variations in practice. LKS are ideally placed to ensure that the evidence base of healthcare is used to provide consistent and effective care.

Source: King’s Fund

Link to main document

Date of publication: July 2018

Summary of driver:

The King’s Fund has outlined the priorities it believes should be at the heart of the NHS plan that the Government has asked the NHS to create, to show how it will use the extra funding it recently announced will be spent.

• The centrepiece of the new plan should be a commitment to bring about measurable improvements in population health and to reduce health inequalities
• This depends on making further progress in integrating health and social care
• There should be a focus on: older people with frailty, people with complex needs and children
• Reforming the NHS from within needs much more emphasis, drawing on the intrinsic motivation of staff. This depends on building capability among leaders and staff as less reliance is placed on external interventions from regulators
• The Government must increase funding for the social care and public-health services provided and commissioned by local authorities
• The NHS and Government must work together to produce a comprehensive workforce plan and bring forward proposals to make social-care funding sustainable
• The Government’s new funding translates to an average annual increase of 3.4%
• Productivity in the NHS has grown by around 1.4% a year since 2009 and the Government wants this kept up for the next five years
• The OECD estimates that about a fifth of spending on health care makes no or minimal contribution to health outcomes this includes:
  • Adverse events
  • People who are in hospital because no appropriate alternatives are available
  • Administrative costs
• Ways of tackling waste include:
  • More generic prescribing
  • Tackling variations in practice
  • Reducing overuse of antibiotics and procedures of limited value
  • Reducing the transaction costs of the internal market
  • Reducing the number of national bodes
  • Reduce over-reliance on inspection and regulation
• There should be more use of social prescribing for things such as volunteering, arts activities, cookery, gardening etc
• Alternative solutions to those offered by the public sector are needed – these could come from charities
• The aim should be to work towards a single health and social-care system – a move to free personal care would cost an additional £14bn by 2030/31
• There is a need to train, retain and retrain staff
• Physician and nursing associate roles should be expanded and more use made of apprentices
• The workforce should be re-balanced to more primary and community staff
• Integrated care systems (ICSs) should be established in law as NHS bodies held to account on goals for improving population health
• Peer-to-peer connections should be enabled through learning networks, improvement collaboratives and communities of practice

Reducing Emergency Admissions – House of Commons Public Accounts Committee

Optional wording for policy briefings ONLY: A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

Whilst this document will be implemented at a national level, there are some things libraries can do to support it including, providing evidence and knowledge around the main themes of reducing emergency admissions/data collection.

Link to main document 

Date of publication: May 2018

Summary of driver:

Emergency admissions to hospitals continue to rise, despite the NHS’s efforts to reduce them. Statistics show that nearly 1.5 million people could have avoided emergency admissions in 2016–17 if hospitals, GPs, community services and social care had worked together more effectively.

Although NHS England and partners are making some progress in reducing the impact of emergency admissions for patients and hospitals, work still needs to be done around the impact on reducing the numbers of admissions that could have been avoided. Improved data collection would make  NHS England aware if its efforts to reduce emergency admissions are helping or potentially harming patients.

The document concludes that NHS England needs to deliver on its five-year plan to move care into the community and out of hospitals.