Following the listening exercise carried out by the NHS Future Forum, the government has pledged that the economic regulator, Monitor, will additionally now be required to support the delivery of integrated patient services, rather than solely promoting competition between providers.1 During the listening exercise, a large number of organisations reportedly …
We are all at risk of adverse events when we use healthcare service and we all stand to benefit from preventing them. ‘Never events’ are “serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if the available preventative measures have been implemented by healthcare providers”.1 Eight ‘never events’ were …
Busy roads, lack of open space and where we shop for food are just a few examples of how the built environment influences our physical and mental health. Planning can positively affect the health of residents by managing development and securing investment for the public realm. For example, planning policies …
Supporting People is a programme to deliver housing-related support to vulnerable people, including: • older people with support needs • single homeless people • people with mental health problems • women at risk of domestic violence • young people at risk It is administered through 152 top-tier local authorities and …
I am a nurse who works in an outpatients department and we have experienced recent cuts to our frontline services. We are a small team of five nurses with responsibility for delivering a range of care to patients. There is currently a vacant Band 7 post due to a nurse being off …
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLP) aim to support young children and families in disadvantaged areas through integrated early years education, healthcare, child care, and other support services tailored to local needs. Sure Start was developed because investment in the early years of childhood is likely to be more effective in …
Behavioural insight, also known as ‘Nudge’, after the book by Thaler and Sunstein,1 is based on behavioural science and economics. ‘Nudge’ is sometimes called libertarian paternalism. The use of nudge in health is rooted in the idea of influencing our behaviour without compulsion e.g. by using subconscious cues to ‘nudge’ …
To improve healthcare quality, performance targets are to be replaced by outcome measures, as detailed in recent government consultations.1,2 Quality of healthcare can be measured in terms of structure, process and outcomes.3 In recent years the NHS has largely relied on setting targets for structural and process measures. Examples of …
Maternal and child benefits are important because poverty has a direct impact on health. Poorer women are more likely to have poorer health and psychological problems when pregnant.1 Babies from manual backgrounds have a 50% higher rate of infant death, lower birth weights and higher incidence of morbidity and mortality …