Investigation into clinical correspondence handling in the NHS

This National Audit Office report outlines the findings of an investigation into the backlog of unprocessed clinical correspondence discovered by NHS England in October 2017. 

It sets out the responsibilities for redirecting clinical correspondence; the build-up of the backlog of clinical correspondence within Capita; and discusses the action taken by NHS England and Capita to investigate, understand and rectify the problem.

Lung cancer patients living for longer than ever

A new report published by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) finds that more lung cancer patients are living for longer than ever, with 37% of patients alive at least 1 year after diagnosis compared to a rate of 31% in 2010.

The National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) 2017 annual report finds more cancers are being diagnosed at an earlier stage, with one in eight lung cancers found at the very earliest stage.

There has been a rise in diagnosis in patients aged over 70, the age group in which most lung cancer is present. There has been a rise of 5% more diagnoses in this age group since 2007.

National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation Annual Statistical Report 2017

A national audit of cardiac rehabilitation shows that about 68,000 people who had heart attacks missed out on cardiac rehabilitation in 2015/16, nearly half (49 per cent) of those who were eligible.

4th SSNAP Annual Report for 2016/2017 “Rising to the Challenge”

The fourth annual SSNAP report states that patients are getting much quicker access to the vital tests and treatment they need when they have a stroke, greatly improving their chances of recovery.

On the key indicators for stroke care, significant quality improvements have been made including on waiting times and specialist care. Improvements highlighted in the report since the first report four years ago include:

• Brain scanning times have improved with the numbers of patients scanned within 12 hours with more than 9 out of 10 (93.5 per cent) scanned within 12 hours, up from 84.6 per cent.
• Four out of five patients are assessed by a stroke specialised consultant physician within 24 hours.
• Almost nine out of 10 of eligible patients are receiving a clot busting drug thrombolysis, up from around seven in 10 two years ago. The numbers treated within one hour have risen from 53.2 per cent to 62.3 per cent.
• Nine out of 10 patients received a joint health and social care plan on discharge in 2016/17, compared to only seven out of 10 in 2013/14.

National audit of intermediate care 2017

The national audit of intermediate care (NAIC) provides benchmarked information on service models, spend, activity, workforce and outcomes with data sharing arrangements in place so that commissioners’ positions will be shared between areas and with providers.

National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) Annual Report 2017

Only 8% of men with low-risk prostate cancer received potentially unnecessary radical treatment aimed at curing the disease[1] in 2015-16 according to the fourth Annual Report of the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) published by the Royal College of Surgeons. This is an improvement on 2014-15 figures, when 12% of men treated by the NHS in England may have received unnecessary treatment for low risk disease. This reflects the international trend in this area of prostate cancer therapy.

National Maternity and Perinatal Audit Clinical report 2017

The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA) has published a major clinical report that identifies areas of good practice and opportunities for improvement in the care of women and babies in maternity services across Britain.

While the vast majority of women have a safe birth, and despite on-going improvements in the safety of maternity services, findings show that variation exists in a number of clinical processes and outcomes in maternity care. Some of the variation found will be due to differences in data quality, completeness and the risk profile of women being seen in different units.

NHS told to 'get serious' as full impact of cyberattack revealed

NAO investigation finds at least 139 urgent cancer referrals cancelled after WannaCry cyberattack

Investigation criticises NHS England and DH response, and “absence of timely central direction”

Central bodies were ignorant of NHS’s cybersecurity arrangements and had not rehearsed national response

Nearly 600 GP practices shut down after infection

An investigation into the unprecedented WannaCry cyberattack on the NHS has revealed more than 130 urgent cancer referrals were cancelled and more than 1,000 medical devices were infected.
To obtain this article please contact libraryw@uhcw.nhs.uk

Care Quality Commission regulating health and social care

This report from the National Audit Office concludes that the Care Quality Commission has improved as an organisation, but now needs to overcome some persistent issues with the timeliness of some of its regulation activities if it is to sustain further improvement.

Exclusive: Variation in surgery standards depending on time of day flagged

National Emergency Laparotomy Audit reveals widespread variation in standards of care for thousands of patients

Patients operated on at night and after midnight had higher chance of death than those treated during the day

Almost a quarter of hospitals missing key targets to get patients to operating theatres within two hours.

To obtain this article please copy and paste the post into an email and send it to library@uhcw.nhs.uk with the subject line reading, Please obtain this article.

NJR 14th Annual Report: significant increase in joint replacement procedures with “very impressive” outcomes

The orthopaedic joint replacement register for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man has published a new report which highlights a record number of procedures being performed.

More joint replacements than ever before were carried out in the financial year 2016/17, with just fewer than 243,000 cases submitted to the National Joint Registry (NJR). This sees a significant increase of more than 20,000 joint replacement operations recorded in the registry on the previous period.

OP27.07: Does imaging correlate with clinical findings for morbidly adherent placenta? An audit from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire

Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol, 50: 137. doi:10.1002/uog.17953

The incidence of morbidly adherent placenta is rising secondary to the increasing Caesarean rate and advancing maternal age. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) recommends that women with an anterior low placenta and a Caesarean section scar at 32 completed weeks gestation undergo further imaging with either ultrasonography and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to distinguish if there is likely placenta accreta. The aim of this audit was to determine if imaging correlated with clinical findings in our unit.

UHCW Research: L.J. Ewington, E.A. Swift and P. Parthasarathy

Hip fracture care still improving, but two in five patients still not receiving best practice care

The National Hip Fracture Database's (NHFD's) ninth annual report shows that while more patients are receiving early surgery and surviving a hip fracture, two in five are not receiving all of the recommended elements of a hip fracture programme that represent ‘best practice’.

The NHFD report analyses the process and outcomes of care of nearly 65,000 people who presented with a hip fracture across 177 hospitals. It reports much good practice within inpatient care, with the majority of patients getting prompt surgery, specialist geriatric assessment and consideration of their nutritional status.

National Ophthalmology Database Audit – The first prospective annual report

The first prospective annual report of the National Ophthalmology Database (NOD) Audit was published on 13 July 2017. The report looked at 120,722 cataract operations undertaken between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 by 55 English and 1 Welsh NHS cataract surgical centres.

The report shows that cataract surgery centres are delivering high quality care to their patients. This is one of the most frequently performed surgeries in the UK with approximately 390,000 cataract operations performed in England and 16,000 performed in Wales each year, restoring sight for patients and enabling them to retain independent living.

Radiofrequency treatment for haemorrhoids [IPG589]

Radiofrequency treatment for haemorrhoids Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of radiofrequency treatment for haemorrhoids is inadequate in quantity and quality. Therefore, this procedure should only be used with special arrangements for clinical governance, consent and audit or research.

Clinicians wishing to do radiofrequency treatment for haemorrhoids should: Inform the clinical governance leads in their NHS trusts.

Ensure that patients understand the uncertainty about the procedure's safety and efficacy and provide them with clear written information. In addition, the use of NICE's information for the public is recommended.

Audit and review clinical outcomes of all patients having radiofrequency treatment for haemorrhoids (see section 7.1).

Liposuction for chronic lymphoedema [IPG588]

Liposuction for chronic lymphoedema Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of liposuction for chronic lymphoedema is adequate to support the use of this procedure provided that standard arrangements are in place for clinical governance, consent and audit.

Patient selection should only be done by a multidisciplinary team as part of a lymphoedema service.

National Heart Failure Audit 2015-16 published

Improvements in patient care mean hundreds more people are surviving heart failure, a new independent study has found.

The National Heart Failure Audit 2015-16, published by the British Society of Heart Failure has found that the mortality rate for people admitted to hospital with heart failure has dropped from 9.6 per cent to 8.9 per cent. The reduction in the mortality rate means that in the region of 500 lives have been saved in the past year compared to 2014/15.

Hipsprint reaches 5,000 hip fracture records

Hipsprint, the CSP’s national audit of hip fracture rehabilitation, is designed to provide invaluable insight into the rehabilitation of people after fracturing their hips. It was launched on 1 May and will be running to 31 October. The first phase will remain open for members to enter data on new patients until 31 July.

The research aims to map each patient's rehab journey over a 120-day period. It will now move into the community phase, tracking patients' experiences after leaving hospital.

The National Audit of Breast Cancer in Older Patients: annual report 2017

This report describes the various aspects of the care provided by NHS breast cancer units in England and in Wales, and contains information on: patterns of surgical treatment in England and Wales among women diagnosed with breast cancer; the organisation of breast cancer services in England and Wales, with a particular focus on policies for the management of older patients; and how patient characteristics influence which treatments were considered as options for older patients.

National Paediatric Diabetes Audit Part 2: Hospital Admissions and Complications

This is the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit Report: Hospital Admissions, the second analysis of admissions data published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. For the first time, data submitted by healthcare professionals working in paediatric diabetes units has been combined with Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and data from the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) to provide a robust picture of diabetes-related admissions in England and Wales.