10th July 2015
- Chancellor pledges £2bn extra NHS funding and local devolution in 2015 budget
- NICE to publish safe staffing guidance despite NHS England request to stop the work
- Report addresses systemic failings in Scottish NHS
- HSJ names Clinical and Patient Leaders
Chancellor pledges £2bn extra NHS funding and local devolution in 2015 budget
In the first all-Conservative budget in almost 20 years, the Chancellor pledged extra NHS funding, investment in research, local devolution, and a mandatory National Living Wage.
Unexpectedly, George Osborne announced that the Government will go further than the Five Year Forward View, committing to a real terms increase of £10bn additional funding by 2020. This is an extra £2bn on top of the minimum £8bn recommended by NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens.
This funding increase may be linked to delivering the Government’s priority to implement seven day care. In addition the Government pledged a ‘major expansion’ of maternal and children’s mental health services. Mr Osborne affirmed that ‘Those who suffer from [mental] illnesses have been forgotten for too long. Not anymore. We stand for opportunity for all’.
In addition he confirmed plans to devolve wide-ranging powers to Manchester, including over health budgets. The Government is in similar discussions with Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds, and is looking into expanding the plans to the Midlands and Cornwall.
Alongside investment in health services, funding will go towards research, including the ‘Health North’ initiative to invest in health research at teaching hospitals and universities in the North of England. Mr Osborne noted that ‘Future economic success depends on future scientific success’, pledging almost £140m to UK research infrastructure. National research institutes will be given new budget freedoms, and there will be additional financial support for PhDs and research-based master’s degrees. Investment will also go towards the information revolution through the so-called ‘Internet of Things’. This has implications for healthcare products, with increasing numbers of medical devices able to transmit patient information to hospital staff.
With potential implications for the NHS workforce, Mr Osborne announced the introduction of a mandatory National Living Wage from April 2016, at £7.20 per hour for over 25s, rising to a target of £9.00 per hour by 2020. In addition there will be a one per cent cap on all public sector wage rises from 2015-19.
NICE to publish safe staffing guidance despite NHS England request to stop the work
According to the Health Service Journal (HSJ), despite being asked to suspend work on safe staffing levels, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has continued this work, and intends to publish guidance for A&E departments, and evidence reviews for other areas, at the end of July.
The Francis Inquiry into the poor patient safety at Mid Staffordshire Hospital recommended that NICE, which is independent from the Government and NHS England, develop evidence-based guidelines to ensure safe staffing numbers on hospital wards. The Department of Health (DH) asked NICE to conduct this work, but in June 2015, after it had produced guidance for two ward settings, NHS England asked NICE to suspend its work on safe staffing. Instead NHS England, which is more closely linked to the Government, would conduct the work itself. During Oral Questions to the Secretary of State on Tuesday, several MPs criticised the Government for this, stressing the need for an independent assessment, based on evidence rather than the associated cost to the Government.
The HSJ reports that NICE has continued with the work nonetheless, and will publish it at the end of this month. While its A&E staffing guidance will not be official NHS guidance, the HSJ suggests that it may pressurise NHS England to take it forward.
Report addresses systemic failings in Scottish NHS
A new report by the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges and Faculties in Scotland finds that the NHS in Scotland has ‘systemic failings’, mainly caused by ‘the failure of clinical staff and NHS management to work together’. The report sets out a series of recommendations to tackle these failings, including the need for more effective team working, a focus on quality rather than targets, and an end to the culture of ‘learned helplessness’ where poor patient care is condoned.
HSJ names Clinical and Patient Leaders
The Health Service Journal (HSJ) has named its Clinical and Patient Leaders for 2015. Top Clinical leaders included Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, Prof Sir Mike Richards of the Care Quality Commission, and Dame Sally Davies, England’s Chief Medical Officer. RCS President Clare Marx also featured in the list. Patient leaders recognised included Julie Bailey, Founder of Cure the NHS, and Adam Bojelian, a 15-year-old poet who died from cerebral palsy earlier this year.