Key NHS Publications - October 2023

MIAA is a member of the Internal Audit Network (TIAN) which comprises the eight NHS internal audit consortiums and in house teams operating in England. These organisations collaborate across a number of areas to leverage their collective knowledge and expertise and drive efficiency and effectiveness. The monthly insight report highlights key publications and is intended as a useful update and reference tool. This report is produced by TIAN and shared by MIAA.

Adult inpatient survey 2022 (CQC)

People were eligible to take part in the survey if they stayed in hospital for at least one night during November 2022 and were aged 16 years or over at the time of their stay.

What we found
Results show that people’s experiences of inpatient care have deteriorated since 2020. The results for the 2022 survey remain generally consistent with 2021 following significant declines for almost all questions in the 2021 survey compared with 2020.

Most respondents reported a positive experience in their interactions with doctors and nurses, such as being included in conversations and having confidence and trust, generally remaining consistent with the previous year, although those receiving clear answers to questions has decreased slightly.

For questions relating to meeting patients’ individual needs, such as getting help to clean themselves, help to eat their meals, enough to drink and their pain being controlled, results are generally unchanged, remaining consistent compared with 2021 while still down from 2020.

Hospital waiting times remain a challenging part of people’s experiences of care. While elective patients are generally positive about their experience of how long they had to wait before being admitted to hospital, more people felt that had to wait too long. Although half of elective patients reported no change to their health while waiting for admission, around four in 10 felt their health worsened. Read more

For information

HFMA briefing: How finance teams are helping to reduce health inequalities

This HFMA briefing examines the work that finance teams are doing to help reduce health inequalities. There are three main ways finance staff are supporting this important agenda:

• allocating resources differently to support specific population needs
• aligning data sets, tackling variation and reducing inefficiency
• investing in targeted projects which focus on specific groups

HFMA look at eight case studies from across the UK, consider lessons learned and explore and how other organisations and systems can draw on good practice. Finance teams can have a significant impact on patient access, outcomes and experience as well as value by supporting and pushing forward the health inequalities agenda. Read more

For information

NHS IMPACT (Improving Patient Care Together) self-assessment

All NHS organisations and systems are being supported to embed an approach to improvement aligned with NHS IMPACT.

In April 2023, NHS chief executives asked for a jargon free NHS IMPACT self-assessment to help systems, providers and partners understand where they are on their journey to embed each of the five components of NHS IMPACT.

The NHS IMPACT team has co-designed this self-assessment tool and a maturity matrix for the five components. This should allow them to identify their strengths and opportunities for development when applying an organisational/system wide approach to improvement and provide a framework to build a development strategy. Read more

For use by NHS organisations to establish a baseline against NHS IMPACT

 

Reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete (RAAC) in NHS estate

Following an alert issued by The Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) in 2019, the NHS in England put in place a now well-established programme to identify RAAC, support providers to put appropriate mitigations in place, and plan for eradication. NHSE have worked closely with the trusts managing the 27 previously identified sites, including securing funding for investigative, safety/remedial and replacement work, with three of those sites now having eradicated RAAC.

As part of this ongoing work, in May 2023 NHS England sent out additional guidance to organisations including all provider trusts (including mental health, community and ambulance) following updated national guidance from IStructE on RAAC identification, management and remediation and Further Guidance on Investigation and Assessment (April 2023).

This NHSE letter reminds trusts of their responsibilities in relation to RAAC.

For information

 

Waste not, want not: Strategies to improve the supply of clinical staff to the NHS (Nuffield trust report) 

For every five nurse training places, only three full-time nurses join the NHS. The rate of dropouts in the staffing pipeline from student to early-career clinician is worryingly high, with significant numbers opting out before or soon after joining the NHS, contributing to an understaffed health service under ever-greater strain. This analysis sets out the scale of NHS attrition and puts forward a 10-point plan to improve retention, including a policy proposal to gradually write off clinicians' student debt over 10 years. Read more

For information

Adult social care and the NHS: two sides of the same coin (NHS Confederation report)

Understanding how trends in the social care market shape demand for integrated health and care services across the country is a key challenge for emerging integrated care systems. Social care is, and will continue to be, a critical partner in developing sustainable services, therefore understanding the care provider market and trends in provision is essential. This analysis brings together demographic trends with data on workforce, Care Quality Commission-registered services and funding, to provide an overview of total capacity and national trends across the health and care sector, as well as significant variation across the country.
This report indicates that It is important for individual ICSs to understand need and demand for social care and ageing services in the overall context of the health and ageing profile of the populations they serve. ICSs must prioritise engagement with the adult social care sector, including providers in the private and voluntary sectors to develop a shared and deep understanding of their population and tailored solutions to ensure that all systems are equipped to deliver the right care at the right time. Read more

For information

Disclaimer: This briefing paper is intended to highlight recent developments and issues within the NHS that may be of interest to non-executive directors, lay members and NHS managers. It is not exhaustive and TIAN cannot be held responsible for any omission.