PA Health Newsletter- June 2013

HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS &

MARKET ACCESS

June 2013

uk health monitor Policy & NHS Developments People will see Health and Social Care fully joined-up by 2018 The Government has announced plans to stop people being passed around the health and social care system due to uncoordinated services. It is hoped the proposals, which come in the form of a shared commitment, will improve care and support and see fewer people falling through the cracks, along with creating a drop in the number of patients who find themselves needlessly stuck in hospital wards due to needing interim care provision.

The proposals, which will be delivered by national leaders and local areas working closely together, include: • An ambition to make joined-up and coordinated health and care the norm by 2018 – with projects in every part of the country by 2015; • The first ever agreed definition of what people say good integrated care and support looks and feels like – which builds on work previously conducted by National Voices;

• New “pioneer” areas around the country appointed

by September 2013 – the areas will be selected by a panel of experts, both national and international, who will be looking for the innovative, practical approaches needed to achieve change as quickly as possible; and • New measures of people’s experience of joined up care and support by the end of this year so people can start to see whether people are feeling the benefits of the change.

NHS support plan launched to help hospital and A&E departments keep waiting times in check NHS England has published plans to strengthen A&E departments and help them tackle increased demand and rising waiting time pressures. In response to the growing A&E crisis, which is receiving a great deal of negative media coverage, NHS England has announced that it will be forming Urgent Care Boards. The Boards will be made up of healthcare leaders from different parts of the NHS. These boards will ensure local recovery and improvement plans are in place for each A&E. Simultaneously NHS England has already announced a review of the model of urgent and emergency services, led by Sir Bruce Keogh, in order to understand the root causes of the problems, which are thought to differ across the country. The review will consider the current state of play and then develop a new national framework for urgent and emergency care that can help the NHS deliver improvements to patient care in the emergency setting moving forwards.

EDELMAN HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS & MARKET ACCESS | JUNE 2013

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HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS &

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Four million pounds of funding to improve diagnosis of diseases The Department of Health has announced four million pounds to improve the way diseases are diagnosed. The money will fund research that looks at how a number of different diseases are currently diagnosed, so patients can access the best available treatments more quickly.

The funding will be shared across four NHS organisations in London, Leeds, Newcastle and Oxford, which will become national centres of expertise called National Institute for Health Research Diagnostic Evidence Cooperatives. Each centre has been allocated with specific areas of remit:

• The Co-operatives will bring together a wide range of experts and specialists from across the NHS and industry, including clinicians and other healthcare professionals, patients, NHS commissioners and researchers. Faster and better diagnosis can be lifesaving for patients and the use of clinical research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients is a priority for the government.

• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London will be looking at cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory and infectious diseases, and metabolic medicine • Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be exploring liver, musculoskeletal and renal diseases • Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust will be testing the effectiveness of new diagnostics tests for cancer, cardiovascular, liver, musculoskeletal and respiratory diseases, stroke, genetics, infections, and transplantation • Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust will be identifying and evaluating diagnostic tests which will bring the newest medical technology across a range of common diseases like diabetes, into primary care, including GP services.

Political Developments DH tight-lipped on GP out-of-hours shake-up but pledges to ‘negotiate’ contract changes The Department of Health has refused to release any details about how Jeremy Hunt plans to give back outof-hours responsibility to GPs. Hunt has promised that changes to the GP contract will be made in ‘negotiation’ with the profession but the Department has said it “is too early to go into detail about what proposals might be”. This has not however stopped the Health Secretary giving a series of speeches in recent weeks, whereby he claimed the 2004 GP Contract had a ‘devastating impact’ on out-ofhours care.

GPs are currently against resuming responsibility with the more vocal among them strongly criticising the Government, saying that current proposals are completely unworkable and unrealistic considering existing workloads.

EDELMAN HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS & MARKET ACCESS | JUNE 2013

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Health in Parliament MPs to investigate practice boundary pilots The Health Select Committee is set to examine the ‘GP Choice Pilot’, the Government’s flagship scheme for outof-area patients, to see whether it has increased patient choice. The investigation is part of the Committee’s ongoing review of the Government’s health reforms.

Initial reports suggested the scheme had a poor uptake among patients, with just 500 registering by January 2013. However, the scheme has now been extended to run until September this year. NHS England has said it intends to apply the ‘successes’ of the GP Choice Pilot more widely. The Committee will report on its review into the Health and Social Care Act’s implementation during the third quarter of the year.

Health Select Committee report on Accountability The Health Select Committee has published an account of the ‘2012 Accountability hearing with Monitor: Government and Monitor responses to the Committee’s tenth report of session 2012–13’. The responses cover the role of Monitor, particularly in relation to the Care Quality Commission; Monitor’s role in the integration of care; and the provider failure regime.

Appointments Kingsley Manning confirmed as Health and Social Care Information Centre Chair

Nick Seddon appointed as Downing Street Health and Social Care Policy Adviser

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt has confirmed the appointment of Kingsley Manning as Chair of the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Tasked with providing a focal point for IT infrastructure across the health and care system, the Centre has a key role in delivering the package of reforms contained within the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The Deputy Director of Reform think tank, Nick Seddon, has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s new adviser on Health and Social Care Policy. Before joining Reform, Mr Seddon was head of communications at independent health provider Circle. In his new role, Seddon will act as a Special Adviser rather than as a Civil Servant.

His appointment is one of number of changes to the Downing Street policy teams that have been overhauled in readiness for the 2015 General Election.

Until 2009, Kingsley Manning acted as the Managing Director of Newchurch Limited, a firm of health and information consultants, which he helped to found in 1983. He has subsequently held a number of roles, including Executive Chairman of Tribal Group’s health business and Senior Adviser at McKinsey & Company.

EDELMAN HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS & MARKET ACCESS | JUNE 2013

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David Nicholson Retiring It has been announced that the Chief Executive of NHS England, Sir David Nicholson will step down from his current post in March 2014.

Having worked in the NHS for over 35 years, Sir David faced mounting pressure to stand down following criticism of his tenure as Chief Executive of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority which held oversight for Mid Staffordshire Hospital.

Publications Campden Health Publishes Report on Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) European Healthcare Information provider, Campden Health has published a report into the role of Commissioning Support Units (CSUs).

CSUs represent one of the major structural changes to the NHS introduced as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.Having taken over the administration of primary care services across England in April 2013, CSU’s support clinical commissioning groups by providing business intelligence, health and clinical procurement services.

Drawing on interviews with 18 of the 19 CSU Managing Directors, Campden Health’s report ‘Supporting Structures: a soft intelligence report on CSUs’ brings together information budgets and lists of core CCG customers along with structures and strategies of the CSUs themselves. The report reveals the challenges they face such as the culture shift required of staff to work in a more commercial environment. The report also provides an insight into views on private sector involvement.

Medicines Optimisation Guidance Launched The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has published new good practice guidance for medicines optimisation.

Addressing the way in which patients use medicines over time, medicines optimisation can extend to stopping some treatments as well as introducing new ones, and considers opportunities for lifestyle changes and medical therapies to reduce the need for medicines. In its report the RPS suggests that medicines optimisation has the potential to improve adherence to treatment and reduce waste.

The guidance outlined in the RPS report includes four key principles intended to drive improvements in the use of medicines by healthcare professionals in England. These principles are explained as seeking to understand the patient’s experience, make sure choice of medicine is made on the best available evidence, ensure medicines use is as safe as possible and make medicines optimisation part of routine practice.

EDELMAN HEALTH PUBLIC AFFAIRS & MARKET ACCESS | JUNE 2013

Launching the report, the RPS argued that the optimisation of medicines would require an “multidisciplinary team working to an extent that has not been seen previously” and that “Healthcare professionals will need to work together to individualise care, monitor outcomes more carefully, review medicines more frequently and support patients when needed.” The pharmaceutical industry also has a key role to play in medicines optimisation through transparent and value for money partnerships with the NHS that help secure better outcomes for patients.

NHS Guide to English Healthcare System Published A guide to the Healthcare System in England has been published by the Department of Health.

Providing a comprehensive guide to the statutory bodies making up the new health and care system following the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act, the guide seeks to explain how these bodies will work alongside each other and clarify their roles and responsibilities.

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