NICE impact mental health

This report from NICE considers how evidence-based guidance can contribute to improvements in the care of people with mental health conditions. The report reviews how NICE recommendations for cost-effective care are being used in priority areas of the health and care system.  Click here to read further.

New NICE guideline [NG98] Hearing loss in adults: assessment and management

New NICE guideline [NG98] Hearing loss in adults: assessment and management


Published date: June 2018                


This guideline covers some aspects of assessing and managing hearing loss in primary, community and secondary care. It aims to improve the quality of life for adults with hearing loss by advising healthcare staff on assessing hearing difficulties, managing earwax and referring people for audiological or specialist assessment and management.


For full guidance
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng98

NHS met unpredecented patient demand last year

Despite experiencing the worst winter in a decade, frontline NHS staff and managers have risen to the challenge and cared for more patients than ever before. However, this surge in demand has affected the NHS’s performance in key areas, such as waiting times and its reliance on temporary workers. For link to full NHS report click here

Valued care in mental health: Improving for excellence

This document presents a national model for improving mental health services. It draws on the diverse experiences of eight mental health providers and includes challenges and learning as well as successful innovations and improvements. Click here for link

Maintaining momentum: driving improvements in mental health care

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman - This report highlights failings that have occurred in specialist mental health services in England, and the toll this takes on patients and their families.  Click here for access to the full report.

NIHR Signal Quality improvement collaboratives can improve clinical processes and patient outcomes

Quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) were largely effective across a wide range of healthcare problems and settings. Of the 64 studies included in this systematic review, 53 showed improvement in some of the healthcare processes and patient outcomes that they investigated. A small number of studies also showed that collaboratives were cost-effective, and the improvements were sustainable for at least six months.


Collaboratives originated in the US in the late 1980s. They provide opportunities for teams from different sites to learn from each other and jointly develop improvement initiatives around specific topics, often using a standard method and framework. They have become increasingly popular without strong evidence to support their use.


From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

Pancreatic cancer in adults: diagnosis and management [NG85]

New: Nice Guideline


This guideline covers diagnosing and managing pancreatic cancer in adults aged 18 and over. It aims to improve care by ensuring quicker and more accurate diagnosis, and by specifying the most effective treatments for people depending on how advanced their cancer is.

1.1 Diagnosis

1.2 Specialist pancreatic multidisciplinary teams

1.3 Staging

1.4 Psychological support

1.5 Pain management

1.6 Nutritional management

1.7 Relieving biliary and duodenal obstruction

1.8 Managing resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer

1.9 Managing unresectable pancreatic cancer

This quality standard covers the management of Parkinson’s disease in adults. It does not include treatment of parkinsonism not caused by Parkinson’s disease. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.[QS164]

New: Quality standard


This quality standard covers the management of Parkinson’s disease in adults. It does not include treatment of parkinsonism not caused by Parkinson’s disease. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

Recruiting from your community

Three podcasts from NHS Employers on recruitment:

• Recruiting from your community - episode one
• Engaging with and recruiting from your local community - episode two
• Recruiting from your local community episode three

Five safe, sustainable and productive staffing improvement resources

NHS Improvement has published five safe, sustainable and productive staffing improvement resources in the areas of maternity services, adult inpatients in acute care, district nursing services, learning disability services and mental health.

Learning from the vanguards. Briefings from NHS Clinical Commissioners

Supporting people and communities to stay well
This briefing explores how the vanguards have sought to design health and care services around the needs of people who use them, focusing on the outcomes that matter to people and tailoring care to their needs and goals.

Staff at the heart of new care models

This briefing looks at how the vanguards have broken down traditional organisational barriers across whole systems, how they have engaged staff in the programmes, communicated change and supported staff to work differently.

Spreading and scaling up change
This briefing explores the ten key factors that the vanguards have identified are crucial to encourage the spread of initiatives.

Developing People - Improving Care: one year on

One year on from the launch of the Developing People- Improving Care, NHS Improvement highlights how leaders across health and social care have implemented the framework.

NIHR Signal A surgical procedure for shoulder pain is less effective than previously thought

An increasingly common surgical procedure for shoulder pain, subacromial decompression, was only slightly more effective than no treatment. In the first trial of this sort, improvements in pain and function following decompression or arthroscopy (a placebo surgery) did not reach a threshold of clinical importance compared with people allocated to no treatment at all.


This NIHR-funded study involved 313 people with shoulder pain that had not responded to physiotherapy and a steroid injection. The main intervention, decompression, involved removing any bony outgrowths that could have been causing the tendons around the shoulder to be “pinched”. This was compared with an arthroscopy used for investigation only; this did not include removing any bone or tissue. Those in the third “no treatment” arm did not receive any physiotherapy or advice.


From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

NIHR Signal National tobacco control policies linked to improvements in children’s health

National smoke-free legislation in advanced economies is linked to reduced rates of preterm birth, asthma hospitalisations and serious throat and chest infections in children. Comprehensive smoke-free policies appear to be more effective than policies with only partial or selective introduction.


Smoking increases health risks for the smoker and others through second-hand exposure. Although the number of people smoking in the UK is falling, eight million UK adults still smoke, and an estimated five million children are exposed to second-hand smoke. Children are vulnerable to smoke due to their small, developing lungs and immune systems.


From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

Golimumab for treating non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis [TA 297]

New: Technology appraisal guidance


Golimumab is recommended, within its marketing authorisation, as an option for treating severe non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis in adults whose disease has responded inadequately to, or who cannot tolerate, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.


If patients and their clinicians consider golimumab to be one of a range of suitable treatments, including adalimumab, etanercept and certolizumab pegol, the least expensive (taking into account administration costs and patient access schemes) should be chosen.




Assess the response to golimumab 12 weeks after the start of treatment. Continue treatment only if there is clear evidence of response, defined as:

• a reduction in the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) score to 50% of the pre-treatment value or by 2 or more units and
• a reduction in the spinal pain visual analogue scale (VAS) score by 2 cm or more.

Revealed: NHS Improvement abandons consultancy turnaround programme

A financial turnaround project where management consultants are sent to work with NHS trusts has been shelved by NHS Improvement, HSJ has learned.

The third wave of the financial improvement programme was due to start in early 2018 but sources involved told HSJ an “in-house” team will now work with the most troubled providers instead.


To obtain this article please copy abd paste the post into an email and send to libraryw@uhcw.nhs.uk

High impact change model: managing transfers of care

This change model, developed by the Local Government Association with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, outlines a practical approach to managing patient flow and hospital discharge. It identifies eight system changes that will have the greatest impact on reducing delayed discharge. The resource supplements the model by bringing together examples of work being undertaken across the country, for each of the eight system changes.

New Health Foundation programme selects 12 projects to improve analytical capability in health and care services

The Health Foundation has selected 12 projects from across the UK to take part in the first round of its new £1.2 million Advancing Applied Analytics programme.

The programme aims to improve analytical capability in support of health and care services. It supports analysts who are working on local innovative and ambitious projects, to help them demonstrate improvements to analytical capability in health and care services and provide lessons for the wider care system.

Six areas Healthwatch wants NHS England to focus on in 2018

Using the views you have shared, find out what six areas Healthwatch has told the Government that NHS England should focus on over the next year to improve health and social care for people.

1. Improving public involvement in changes to local services
2. Using people’s experiences of leaving hospital as a way of measuring how well services are working together
3. Demonstrating how learning from feedback is improving care
4. Increasing focus on the evaluation of mental health services
5. Shifting the focus of NHS targets to take greater account of people's experiences
6. Tackling access issues in NHS dentistry

Service redesign training for finance professionals

NHS Improvement is offering a quality, service and redesign practitioner programme specifically for finance staff in collaboration with Healthcare Financial Management Association and Future Focused Finance.

This five day programme (over five months) is free of charge to NHS finance professionals attending with a clinical or service management colleague with whom they're working on an improvement project.