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WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
Due to the Government purdah on EU-related news items the next 2 newsletters will be published bi-weekly on 13 & 27 June.
| Why is their (apparently) no ‘cure’ for this perennial NHS problem? |
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A new report reveals (yet again) that too many people who complain to the NHS are not getting the answers they deserve when things go wrong. This latest shapshot of investigations by the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman shows the devastating consequences families suffer when complaints are not resolved locally. The PHSO investigates approximately 4,000 complaints a year and upholds around 37%. When it upholds complaints it makes recommendations for the organisation to put things right if they have not done so already. Most of the summaries published are of complaints upheld or partly upheld. The 133 cases in the report were investigated between July and September 2015 and include 93 complaints about the NHS. Incidents of avoidable death, delayed cancer diagnosis, mistreatment of patients with mental health problems and poor end of life care are among the upheld NHS complaints in the report. These are the cases which provide clear & valuable lessons for public services by showing what needs to change to help avoid the same mistake happening again. |
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NHS Confed: Response to patient complaints published by Ombudsman |
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| Perhaps they figure the ‘departed’ won’t be able to complain to the PHSO! |
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Hospice UK has published a new report - A low priority? How local health and care plans overlook the needs of dying people. The report is based on the results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and health & wellbeing boards (HWBs) about whether or not end of life & palliative care was included in their needs assessments and local strategies. The report explores how local statutory structures address the palliative & end of life care needs of adults & children within their planning & decision-making. It found that:
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Patients Association: Reaction to new End of Life report on needs of dying people A death without sympathy or proper care Patient Care, not just treatment After decades of practice the NHS should be getting it right by now! |
| Trying to ‘do better’ |
| The Care Quality Commission have published their strategy for 2016 – 2021, developed following a year-long consultation period when thousands of people, providers, staff & partners shared their views about the future of regulation. The new strategy is intended to help encourage services to innovate & collaborate to drive improvement, and ensure people receive good, safe care. See Information on our strategy for the 4 priorities CQC have set out for the next 5 years and to view the documents. |
| Simple things are sometimes the most (cost) effective |
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A GP surgery is leading the way in the fight against antibiotic resistance with simple tests that dramatically reduce unnecessary prescribing. Attenborough Surgery in Bushey, Hertfordshire, was awarded £10,000 “acorn” funding in the 2015/16 NHS Innovation Challenge Prizes to further develop its system of point-of-care fingerprick blood tests which help clinicians decide whether antibiotics are really necessary for patients who visit with respiratory infections. Spearheaded by Advanced Nurse Practitioner Liz Cross, all patients visiting the surgery with chesty coughs in winter 2015/16 were given the quick blood test, which shows levels of C-reactive Protein (CRP), a biomedical marker of bacterial infections. This allowed nurse practitioners to reduce antibiotics prescribed by 23%. |
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NHS England: Challenge Prize cash supporting GP surgery to fight antibiotic resistance Hospitals are not ‘doing their bit’ to reduce need to use antibiotics Helping guard against a return to pre-antibiotic medical care |
| SME Supplier Locator update... |
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UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. |
| Good concept let down by poor implementation? |
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The NAO reported on the Cabinet Office’s Next Generation Shared Services strategy in 2014, which included the creation of 2 independent shared service centres to provide back-office functions for up to 14 departments & their arm’s-length bodies. The report found that while the 2 centres have led to some cost savings, the programme is not progressing as planned. Most departments which planned to outsource functions to 1 of the 2 centres have successfully done so. The centres have delivered overall savings of £90m to customers in the first two & a half years of operation with costs of £94m. These savings are less than the £128m a year originally forecast because some departments have not outsourced and transformed their back-office functions as planned. The Cabinet Office currently estimates that the 2 contracts will generate savings of £484m in total by 2023-24 at a cost of £159m. The report found that due to delays in designing, building & testing the systems, only 2 of the 26 planned customers have joined a single operating platform. On one of the centres, 4 customers have exited their contracts. The report has found that weaknesses in the programme design undermined its success. The Cabinet Office did not secure sufficient buy-in from departments at an early stage of the programme. |
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Update on the Next Generation Shared Services Strategy New initiative to drive down costs in government back offices First Independent Shared Service Centre to deliver government back office savings Committee publishes report on shared service centres in Government NAO: Efficiency & reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres |
| Why add to the risks they face? |
| Lariam, the anti-malarial drug sometimes prescribed to British troops, should be considered only as a drug of last resort, says the Defence Committee, in its report on the MoD’s use of the drug. |
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PC&PE: Lariam should be 'drug of last resort' for troops End of the road for Lariam? The malaria drug soldiers claim increases psychosis Lariam: Indications, Side Effects, Warnings - Drugs.com £3bn pledge to help end Malaria deaths The Ross Fund - Combatting the world's most serious diseases Release potential of GM insects to fight disease & pests |
| Shouldn’t everyone be ‘equal’ under the (same) laws in this country? |
| An independent review into the application of Sharia Law in England & Wales has been launched by Home Secretary Theresa May. The Home Secretary committed to an independent review of the application of Sharia Law as part of the government’s Counter-Extremism Strategy. |
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Home Office: Independent review into Sharia Law launched |
| Can ethics ‘win-out’ over self-interest? |
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The CPSL is undertaking a review of ‘Ethics for Regulators’ to explore how regulators live up to the 7 principles of public life. The Committee will undertake a ‘health-check’ of the way in which regulators manage ethical issues in their own organisations and the extent to which the unique characteristics of regulators create or demand any specifically tailored ethical solutions. To a starting point the Committee is asking a wide range of regulatory bodies about their ethical standards, in order to gather evidence for the next steps of the review. The Committee will publish an overview of the issues raised in the Autumn. |
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CSPL: Richard Thomas discusses the current review on Ethics for Regulators Standards Matter – A Review Of Best Practice In Promoting Good Behaviour in Public Life Fertility & tissue regulators to be reviewed following consultation techUK welcomes Government support for creation of a Data Ethics Council TUC calls on retailers to answer to MPs over Rana Plaza compensation Clinical trials & medical research - Ethics committees - NHS Choices MRC: Regulation, ethics, governance & working with decision-makers |
| Olympic Pause for Thought |
| Public Health England (PHE) and the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) have published their advice for travellers planning to visit Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games (5 - 21 August) and the 2016 Paralympic Games (7 - 18 September). The advice covers a variety of health & safety topics for travellers, including information about the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil. They currently recommend that pregnant women postpone non-essential travel to areas where there is active Zika virus transmission, until after pregnancy. |
| Will the sun shine on your bid? |
| Creative coastal entrepreneurs can now bid for a share of £90m government funding available UK-wide over the next 4 years to support their plans to reel in jobs and revitalise our much-loved seaside areas. Since 2012, the government has invested over £120m in seaside areas through a dedicated Coastal Communities Fund. Grants of between £50,000 and £4m are available. Bids for the latest round in England will close on 30 June 2016. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland applicants should prepare bids now for when their applications will open in early July. |
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DCMS: £90m boost for the Great British Coast Scenic sight restorations set to boost Great British Coast staycations 8 seaside communities receive extra funding to create jobs Iconic coastal heritage sites set for £3 million makeover Coastal Communities Fund promotes over 10,000 jobs, training places and apprenticeships New coastal teams to create jobs, bring business and help local economies thrive |
| A ‘counter-balance’ to recent HM Treasury ‘Project Fear rants’ |
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The share of UK exports going to fellow Single Market countries has plummeted in the past decade and is now lower than it was when Britain joined the EEC in 1973, a new Civitas analysis shows. Since 2007, the share of the UK’s world exports going to the other 11 founder members of the Single Market has fallen from 68% to just 36% in 2015 – back to the level it was at in 1971. Overall, the real value of British goods exports to the 11 other founder members has grown by a mere 2.5% over the 23 years of the Single Market – a compound annual growth rate of just 0.11%. This analysis of the latest OECD trade figures demonstrates that British exports to the rest of the world have grown faster and are increasingly more important to the UK economy than those to the Single Market. It is featured in the latest Civitas publication, The Eurosceptic’s Handbook, which is designed to arm voters with the facts they need – and which government & big business are failing to promote – to make a balanced judgement in the EU referendum. The preceding decades ironically were ones of growth to the same nations, with the proportion of the UK goods exports going to the nations that would later form the Single Market hitting 48% in 1973. This share continued to increase rapidly over the years of Common Market membership, increasing to 64% in 1989. The years of Single Market membership saw this proportion peak at 68% in 2004, a percentage matched again in 2007. Since then this proportion has slumped and stood at just 36% in 2015 – the same percentage as in 1971. |
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Civitas: EU share of UK exports is in dramatic decline, new analysis shows Civitas - British trade has much to gain outside the EU Civitas - No benefit for UK trade from EU ‘collective clout’ CIVITAS - Costs of EU membership should be fully audited prior to UK renegotiation CIVITAS - Economic benefits of large-scale immigration outweighed by strains of population growth CIVITAS - Trade advantages of the EU are "imaginary" CIVITAS - Devalue the pound for growth and jobs Not every ‘expert’ thinks Brexit will be all ‘Doom & Gloom’ ASI: Why the only way is EEA for a post Brexit Britain IEA - New report debunks the EU jobs myth The EU's dwindling importance to UK trade in three charts - Telegraph |
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More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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Vote Leave - the campaign for a Leave vote in the EU referendum FIS: Brexit could add two years to austerity NIESR: Lower output & higher taxes - the impact of reducing immigration PC&PE: EU law making needs greater transparency Civitas: EU share of UK exports is in dramatic decline, new analysis shows ONS: Migration Statistics Quarterly Report Migration Watch: NS sub-national population projections for England PC&PE: Northern Ireland and the EU referendum key issues RUSI - Northern Ireland’s Delicate Peace Process at Risk Should the UK Leave the EU Editor’s Note: We suggest readers monitor the ‘News’ sections of the 2 campaign sites for the 2 differing views. The WGPlus newsletter will mainly limit itself to highlighting ‘normal’ EU-related news, plus Think Tank items, PC&PE reports, etc. |
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