Acute care toolkit for handover

This toolkit aims to provide a framework for standardisation of clinical handover practice, audit and monitoring of the process, and defining accountability and responsibilities in the process

RCN guidance on theatre transfers for children

Royal College of Nursing publishes briefing on assessment and management of children transferred between hospital departments.

Commissioning pathway for long-term conditions

Developed with the help of various experts and supported by NAPC, NHS Alliance, NICE and the DH, this pathway supports health and social care teams participating on the QIPP LTC workstream to implement a generic LTC care model and tackle the increasing demand in care needs. You will need to register for NHS Networks to view this document.

National strategy to transform respiratory disease care

A new strategy from the DoH sets out six shared objectives to improve outcomes for COPD and asthma through high-quality prevention, detection and treatment and care services.

New COPD quality standard published

NICE quality standard defines clinical best practice for specific topic areas. This standard for COPD includes 13 statements that aim to define high quality care for patients.

Drug therapy should come before surgery for people with stable angina

NICE in its new clinical guideline on the management of stable angina sets out recommendations on what treatment and care the NHS should offer to people with a diagnosis of stable angina, including the use of anti-anginal drug treatment and surgery

New quality standards for dermatology

The standards are intended for use in any service that provides care for people with skin conditions. They bring together best practice and existing guidance, and aim to meet the needs of commissioners.

More choice for NHS patients across the country

NHS patients will have more freedom to choose where they go for their healthcare from April 2012. Following advice from patient groups, clinicians and voluntary organisations, there are eight services that have been recommended as the most suitable, including: Services for back and neck pain; Continence services (adults and children); Wheelchair services (children); Podiatry (feet) services; Leg ulcer and wound healing;

Doctors demand radical shake-up of women’s health services promoting prevention rather than intervention

High Quality Women’s Health Care: A Proposal for Change by RCOG concludes that the combined force of the NHS reforms, workforce and financial pressures against a backdrop of rising demand, increasing complexity and changes in demographics means that the delivery of women’s health care in the current configuration cannot be sustained

Doctors demand radical shake-up of women’s health services promoting prevention rather than intervention

High Quality Women’s Health Care: A Proposal for Change by RCOG concludes that the combined force of the NHS reforms, workforce and financial pressures against a backdrop of rising demand, increasing complexity and changes in demographics means that the delivery of women’s health care in the current configuration cannot be sustained

Clinical commissioning and integrated care

In the wake of the NHS Future Forum report, Reform held two lunches to discuss how clinical commissioning will deliver integrated care. This is a transcript of those discussions between key individuals, including GPs, NHS leaders, patient representatives, policy makers and journalists.

Getting our of hospital?

This Health Foundation report says that community-based services have the potential to reduce NHS costs by promoting early discharge from hospital for patients who no longer need intensive acute care, but are not yet ready to fend for themselves at home. However, for significant cost savings to be realised moving care into the community needs to be associated with active reductions or decommissioning of hospital-based services.