Changes to the DHSC group accounting manual 2018 to 2019

This DHSC consultation seeks views on the guidance for financial reporting and preparing annual reports and accounts for the department and related bodies (non-Foundation Trusts). The consultation document outlines the proposed changes for the next financial year and feedback will be accepted until 23 February 2018.

Good clinical practice for clinical trials

How to show MHRA you're meeting good clinical practice (GCP) standards and what to expect from an inspection.  Good clinical practice (GCP) is a set of internationally-recognised ethical and scientific quality requirements that must be followed when designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials that involve people.

The Yellow Card Scheme: guidance for healthcare professionals

Details of the Yellow Card Scheme, which is the system for recording adverse incidents with medicines and medical devices in the UK.

This was updated in November 2017.

CQC reports on radiation incidents

The CQC's annual report on activity relating to our enforcement of The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2000 in England has been published.

The report gives a breakdown of the number and type of notifications we received from healthcare providers when patients received exposures of radiation that were ‘much greater than intended’ during 2016.

Monthly data on patient safety incident reports

Rolling data updated monthly, to show the number of patient safety incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) in the last 12 months.

The data is based on the date each incident report was submitted to the NRLS and not the date the incident was said to have occurred. It represents the current position at the time data was extracted from the NRLS and is subject to change, should any reports be updated as further information becomes available.

The data is broken down by each month reported and degree of harm, and is refreshed and updated on a monthly basis.

• NRLS monthly incident report England: July 2016 to June 2017

Ambulatory emergency care: reimbursement under the national tariff

This HFMA briefing aims to create a better understanding of the current approaches taken to the recording and reimbursement of ambulatory care. HFMA surveyed its members to establish some basic benchmarking information to see how the guidance is currently applied.

Diabetic Eye Screening: Collection Of Demographic Information

This guidance explains how diabetic eye screening (DES) services can record demographic information on people registered with them. DES services can record information on the nine protected characteristics described in the Equality Act 2010.

Gender pay gap reporting - what you need to know

From 31 March 2017 it is mandatory for public sector organisations with over 250 employees to report annually on their Gender Pay Gap.

A guide to writing your first mental health tribunal report

What are social circumstances reports and how should you go about completing one? A mental health social worker offers advice

Data on patient safety incidents reported to the NRLS

• Organisation patient safety incident reports: provides a breakdown of patient safety incidents recorded on the NRLS by NHS providers
• National data on patient safety incident reports: provides a national overview of patterns and trends in the incidents recorded on the NRLS

National Guidance on Learning from Deaths

Guidance from NHS England to help standardise and improve the way acute, mental health and community Trusts identify, report, review, investigate and learn from deaths, and engage with bereaved families and carers.

GMC encourages doctors in training to use exception reports

The GMC's Chief Executive, Charlie Massey says:'Exception reporting is a new mechanism under the 2016 terms and conditions for doctors in approved national training programmes in England that will allow doctors to report concerns with their training – such as educational opportunities that have been missed and breaches in hours worked which may compromise their safety or training. We strongly support the introduction of this new system. It is in everyone’s interests that we develop detailed evidence of where problems are occurring, so that efforts to address them can be targeted.'

Development of the Patient Safety Incident Management System (DPSIMS)

The DPSIMS is the successor to NRLS and with business case being developed in preparation for delivery to the NHS over the next three years.

The NRLS is now almost 10 years old and due for an upgrade, and so the DPSIMS project aims to identify and assess the options for a successor system that will build upon the success of NRLS, but potentially expand its functions to create a Patient Safety Incident Management System (PSIMS) that will better meet the needs of patients and clinicians within current NHS delivery models, with the intention of delivering a new system in 2018.

Annual Governance Statement requirements for NHS trusts

NHS Improvement has written to NHS trusts confirming requirements for Annual Governance Statements for 2016/17. There are no changes compared to the detailed requirements for last year. This letter also provides an update on arrangements for going concern.

Reminder to report all incidents of unsafe care

CQC’s recent Section 29 letter to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust noted that staff had been told that their incident reports, on patients being cared for in areas they considered unsafe, were inappropriate and would be deleted.

A patient safety incident is “any unintended or unexpected event that could have or did harm a patientopens in a new window”. This clearly encompasses situations where staff are concerned they cannot provide safe care. Staff should never be discouraged from making such reports and, even if in other circumstances an incident report is genuinely inappropriate, incident reports should never be deleted.

Mycobacterium chimaera infections: guidance for secondary care

Guidance and advice from Public Health England for health professionals on Mycobacterium chimaera infections associated with cardiopulmonary bypass.

FGM: mandatory reporting in healthcare

Resources published by the Department of Health explaining healthcare professionals' duty to report cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in girls under 18.

FOI National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS): Essure incidents

Incidents reported to NRLS and Strategic Executive Information System (StEIS) on use of Essure in hysteroscopic sterilisation 2009 – 2016.

Standards for integrated reporting in cellular pathology

Standards for integrated reporting in cellular pathology from the Royal College of Pathologists.

Reporting individual surgeon outcomes does not lead to risk aversion in abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery

Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2017 Jan 10:1-5. doi: 10.1308/rcsann.2017.0005. [Epub ahead of print]

Reporting surgeons' outcomes has recently been introduced in the UK. This has the potential to result in surgeons becoming risk averse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether reporting outcomes for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery impacts on the number and risk profile (level of fitness) of patients offered elective treatment.

UHCW Research: Shakespeare J and Imray C