12th June 2016
Contents
- GMC consults on new guidance for cosmetic procedures
- Carter Review finds NHS providers could save £5bn
- Lord Prior calls for greater innovation in the NHS
- Monitor and NHS Trust Development Authority to work together under single leader
GMC consults on new guidance for cosmetic procedures
Following concerns highlighted by the Keogh review about the risks associated with cosmetic interventions the GMC has released a consultation on new draft guidance for doctors providing cosmetic procedures. The guidance sets the standards for doctors offering both surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures, to ensure patient safety and inform patients of what to expect from doctors.
The guidance encourages doctors to give patients sufficient time and information before they commit to having a procedure, and for the doctor performing the procedure to be the one who seeks the patient’s consent. It also urges doctors to take care when considering requests from children for cosmetic procedures, and take into account psychological impacts of procedures on patients.
Commenting on the guidelines, RCS Vice President Mr David Ward said, “We welcome this draft guidance from the GMC because it is explicit that doctors should work within the limits of their competence when carrying out any type of cosmetic procedure. It also covers important ethical issues around patient consent, continuity of care and responsible marketing.”
The consultation closes on 1st September. Alongside this work the RCS is developing new guidance, standards of training and a certification system for cosmetic surgeons, to promote high standards and patient safety in cosmetic surgery. The College has also issued a position statement on the use of non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Carter Review finds NHS providers could save £5bn
An interim review by Lord Carter has concluded that the NHS could save £5bn by 2019/20 if hospitals became more productive by comparing their spending with that of other hospitals.
The Carter Review was commissioned by the Department of Health after NHS England and others concluded that the NHS had to find £22bn in efficiency savings in order to sustain a high-quality service. It found wide variation in spending on items, from latex gloves to medical devices. Lord Carter developed a metric, the Adjusted Treatment Index (ATI), to compare hospitals’ productivity. Using this he calculated that nationally savings of up to £2bn could be made by containing workforce costs, and £3bn by adopting best practices in hospital pharmacy and medicines optimisation, estates, and procurement management (£1bn from each).
The review identified significant variations in spending on and selection of medical devices, which impacts on clinical costs, infection and readmission rates, as verified by Professor Tim Briggs in his ‘Getting it Right First Time’ report published in March 2015. Variation in practice and outcomes was particularly high in orthopaedics, with significant room for savings to be made.
Medical companies’ sales representatives influence clinicians’ choice of products, which can lead to excess spending. The review therefore recommended exploration of new business models, the use of decision-making groups and a standardised electronic catalogue for NHS products. A further suggestion was the possible introduction of a ‘Sunshine Act’ to increase financial transparency between providers and manufacturers.
Lord Prior calls for greater innovation in the NHS
In a debate in the House of Lords, recently appointed NHS Productivity Minister Lord Prior (former Chair of the Care Quality Commission (CQC)) urged the ‘full engagement and alignment of clinicians, staff and managers alike’ to deliver innovation in the NHS.
NHS England has ‘committed to driving improvements in health through developing, testing and spreading innovation across the health system’ and progress has been made, he said, citing the 100,000 Genomes Project, the Test Beds Initiative, Academic Health Science Networks, and Accelerated Access Review. He also mentioned the ‘highly innovative’ new care models programme, for which over 260 NHS organisations have applied to become vanguard sites. When deciding which models to support, he assured that the Government ‘will back what works’.
Lord Prior said the NHS recognises the importance of the ‘collection, dissemination and analysis of [patient] data’, and this is why it set up the National Information Board, which aims to ‘drive the digital transformation of the health and care system’. He also acknowledged that ‘restoring public confidence and trust in care.data is an imperative and is very important’.
Lord Prior said his time at the CQC taught him that ‘great organisations require great leadership’ and said that staff engagement was ‘probably the best predictor of care quality and overall performance of hospitals and, indeed, of primary care and social care’.
Monitor and NHS Trust Development Authority to work together under single leader
The Government has announced that health sector regulator Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) are soon to be under the direction of a single leader. Monitor oversees NHS foundation trusts, and the TDA provides support and governance for all NHS trusts, so the move means that all NHS providers will be overseen by one chief executive.
Following the findings of the Francis Inquiry, Monitor and TDA will focus on ensuring patient safety in hospitals in their joint work. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt called this an “exciting opportunity for the people at Monitor and TDA to combine their respective skills to create a world class capability to support NHS providers”. The two current chief executives will work together to bring the two organisations together, until a new chief executive is appointed by the end of the summer.