Current Awareness Bulletin - LondonLinks

~ Productivity of the NHS'Productivity of the English National Health Service 2003-4 to 2009-10', has been published by he Centre forHealth Economics, University of York. The report demonstrates that NHS productivity has grown constantly overthis period of time, by an average of 0.1% per year, but the amount does vary widely across England.http://www.york.ac.uk/media/che/documents/papers/researchpapers/RP76%20press%20release.pdf~ Reducing emergency hospital admissionsThe Kings Fund has published 'Data briefing: Emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care-sensitiveconditions: Identifying the potential for reductions'. Ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are conditionsfor which effective management and treatment should limit emergency admission to hospital. Nevertheless,ACSCs currently account for more than one in six emergency hospital admissions in England. This indicatespoor co-ordination between the different elements of the health care system, in particular between primary andsecondary care. This briefing considers patterns of admissions for ACSCs in terms of age, sex, condition,socioeconomic group and local authority area.http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/data_briefing.html~ Role of the health workforce in tackling health inequalitiesThis draft report explores actions the health workforce can take to positively influence the social determinants ofhealth and tackle health inequalities.https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/Content/FileManager/role-of-health-workforce-paper-ihe-consultationversion-and-questions-march-april-2012.pdf~ Chief Scientific Officer’s Bulletin: April 2012Contains information about the 10 cluster Scientific Directors and the projects they are working on to tacklecurrent issues in healthcare science. Also, you can also find out more about the IQIPS accreditation initiative forphysiology diagnostic services and the National Laboratory Medicine Cataloguehttp://www.dh.gov.uk/health/files/2012/04/CSO-Bulletin-April-2012.pdf~ Reducing prescribing errorsThe Health Foundation has published an evidence scan entitled 'Reducing prescribing errors'. This provides arapid collation of empirical research about initiatives to reduce prescribing errors. It examines what approacheshave been used to reduce errors and whether any approaches related to human factors have been researched.It finds that most studies about reducing prescribing errors have been undertaken in hospital. The three mostcommonly researched approaches are: computerised tools, training to improve prescribing and expandingprofessional roles to identify errors.http://www.health.org.uk/publications/reducing-prescribing-errors/~ Changes to the professional use of controlled drugs by pharmacists and nursesThe Royal Pharmaceutical Society announces its approval of legislation which introduces a number of changesto the professional use of controlled drugs by pharmacists and nurses was laid before parliament on the 30March 2012 and will be coming into force on 23 April 2012http://www.networks.nhs.uk/news/changes-to-the-professional-use-of-controlled-drugs-by-pharmacists-and-nurses~ New Maternity Services Pathway Payment System Guide'Maternity Services Pathway Payment System: A Simple Guide 2012-13', from the DoH provides a summary ofthe proposed 2013/14 Payment by Results (PbR) pathway funding system for maternity services. Under the newsystem, a commissioner will pay a provider for all the pregnancy-related care a woman may need for theduration of her pregnancy, birth and postnatal care. In general there will be no further payments for individualelements of activity, apart from a few clearly identified exceptions. This approach contrasts with the current PbRmechanism, where each intervention or hospital attendance triggers additional payments.http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_1334662