Chief
Executive Bulletin 29 June - 6 July 2001
Issue 73
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Chief
Executive Bulletin 29 June - 6 July 2001 |
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Hard copy versions of these publications can be ordered from the NHS Responseline 08701 555 455. Contents: NHS and Social Care interest 1. Shifting the Balance of Power 2. Amendments to Directions on Section 28A/28BB 3. Circular 2001/02 - arrangements for whole capacity planning NHS interest 6. Expert Advisory Group on Aids: Oral Sex and Transmission of HIV - Statement of Risk 7. Chairman for the National Biological Standards Board: Invitation for applicants 8. New Funding to support initiatives on tackling violence against NHS staff 9. Prospectus for the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (NHS LIFT) Social Care interest 11. Small private children's homes NHS and Social Care interest 1. Shifting the Balance of Power I am writing to confirm that we intend sending out a paper on Shifting the Balance of Power within the next week. In the meantime I thought you would be interested in seeing an outline implementation programme. Outline Project Plan
I also enclose a copy of the speech that Secretary of State gave at the NHS Confederation Conference today You can read it in full on www.doh.gov.uk/speeches/julyspeech.htm Nigel Crisp 2. Amendments to Directions on Section 28A/28BB This amendment provides confirmation of auditing requirements and deadlines for local authorities, health authorities and voluntary organisations which have received money transfers under section 28A or 28BB. All our changes/ details can be found at: 3. Circular 2001/02 - Arrangements for Whole System Capacity Planning HSC2001 014 / LAC(2001)17 2001/2002: Arrangements for Whole System Capacity Planning The 2001/02 circular published yesterday sets out the new unified year round arrangements for capacity planning for health and social care in 2001/02. This recognises that capacity to meet seasonal peaks in demand can only be delivered as part of year round planning of capacity across the whole system. In line with this, the circular sets out how Local Winter Planning Groups should be reconstituted to operate year round and renamed Local Capacity Planning Groups (LCPGs). Circular and and related documents NHS interest 4. Coal Miners Compensation - Courier Service for Ex-Miners Medical Records Over the next two to three years the Department of Trade and Industry will be seeking access to the medical records of some 140,000 miners and ex-miners who are seeking compensation for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease as a consequence of working in mines operated by the British Coal Corporation. An important part of the compensation process is the medical assessment of the claimant by a Respiratory specialist. Healthcall and MPC are acting as agents for the DTI in carrying out this medical assessment. In order that the respiratory specialists can complete an accurate and fair assessment of the claimant they need to have sight of his medical records. MPC is authorised to collect and scan the claimants' medical records, without which a claimant cannot be put forward for assessment by the respiratory specialist. To improve efficiency and alleviate the difficulties accommodating Scanning Teams on site, MPC has set up a central scanning office in Newcastle and will be shortly rolling out new offices in other areas. This means that rather than accommodating a team on your premises MPC can collect records from you, scan them at their regional office and return them to you, usually in 3 to 7 days. Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998 states that "appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data". This has particular implications for data controllers when passing personal information to third parties such as MPC, even where patient consent has been obtained. You can be assured of security of the records as MPC are using an internal courier service to collect and return medical records, this means no third party is involved. Should you require the medical records in an emergency there is a Help Line number you can contact for records to be returned. For every record being collected MPC will provide a signed mandate form of authority from the claimant (or widow or estate). The mandates confirm that the claimants consent to release the records. Details of MPCs registration with the Information Commissioner and of the measures in place to protect patient records in transit and during processing are available on request. MPC meet the security requirements set out in the 1998 Act and we would encourage you to use this service as speedier collection of the medical records is clearly in the claimants' best interest. As you will imagine there are large numbers of records to be scanned, which involves medical record holders allocating resources to retrieve these records, including generating computer records. In recognition of the effort involved in providing medical records a fee of £50 per visit plus £10 per record collected is paid to Health Boards and NHS Trusts. 5. Royal College of Surgeons of England report: Investigation of the Performance of the 3M Capital Hip System The Royal College of Surgeons report on the 3M Capital hip replacement was published on 2 July 2001. This report raises a number of important issues including:
The report was triggered in February 1998 by the Department's Medical Devices Agency (MDA) issuing a Hazard Notice which advised clinicians to stop using the 3M Capital hip replacement, in view of its poor performance. Around 4700 patients received 3M Capital hips between 1991 and 1998, and the Department secured agreement from 3M to fund the review of all affected patients and any revision surgery needed. As part of this agreement, 3M funded the Royal College of Surgeons to review all patients with a view to identifying the cause of the problem. The Department and the British Orthopaedic Association are sending a copy of the Executive Summary of the report to Acute NHS Trust Medical Directors and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons. Chief Executives will wish to ensure that the issues raised by the report are discussed within Orthopaedic, Imaging Services and Medical Records Departments in trusts. Further copies of the report are available from the publications section of the Royal College of Surgeons website, www.rcseng.ac.uk 6. Expert Advisory Group on Aids: Oral Sex and Transmission of HIV - Statement of Risk The full report is available on www.doh.gov.uk/eaga 7. Chairman for the National Biological Standards Board: Invitation for applicants Further details available on www.doh.gov.uk/nibsc 8. New Funding to support initiatives on tackling violence against NHS staff Regional Improving Working Lives Project Managers will shortly be inviting bids for central funding to support new local initiatives to tackle violence against staff. This extension of the NHS zero tolerance zone campaign was announced by Alan Milburn at the HR in the NHS conference last month. This is the first time that funding will have been allocated to the NHS specifically to tackle violence against staff. The Secretary of State has said that he expects the new funding to be matched by employers. Funds will be made available to support a wide range of initiatives ranging from the purchase of personal alarms for staff or installing panic alarms in treatment rooms to providing staff with violence awareness or personal safety training. Funding will also be available to support employers in obtaining 'expert' advice on risk assessment and prevention strategies and for support to staff following a violent incident. For further information please contact your Regional Improving Working Lives Project Manager or Meena Paterson, Department of Health, e-mail meena.paterson@doh.gsi.gov.uk 9. Prospectus for the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (NHS LIFT) NHS LIFT is a major new initiative for the Department of Health, which aims to stimulate investment in modern integrated primary and other community based services. The Department is entering a national joint venture with Partnerships UK plc to develop and encourage a new market for investment in primary care facilities services. Modernising Primary Care in the NHS - NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (NHS LIFT) is a document which explains how a LIFT could be structured and explains the key benefits we believe the approach will deliver. Hard copies have been sent today to all NHS Trust Directors of Finance, Health Authority Directors of Finance, Chief Executives of Primary Care Groups and Primary Care Trusts and the main private sector construction, Facilities Management and legal and financial companies involved in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the health sector. A series of Regional Workshops are being held on 10, 17, 24 and 26 July in Bristol, Leeds, London and Manchester to explain in more detail how NHS LIFT will work in practice and how the Department of Health intends to select further tranches of schemes. To book a place at one of these workshops please contact: Richard Tybinski e-mail: rtybinski@nhsestates.gov.uk Further hard copies of the document can be obtained form Department of Health stores. It is also available from 5 July on the Department of Health website at www.doh.gov.uk/pfi and the NHS Estates website at www.nhsestates.gov.uk. 10. NHS Direct Healthcare Guide The new edition NHS Direct Healthcare Guide is still available -free of charge. Designed to encourage selfcare and thereby reduce dependency on GPs and the NHS, a second edition of the Guide is being produced for distribution in autumn 2001. The NHS Direct Healthcare Guide, which is highly acclaimed by members of the public and healthcare professionals alike, contains advice on the most common symptoms or problems about which people day and night are contacting NHS Direct for help. Involving GPs in the qualified hand-over of the Guide will certainly endorse its value as a useful and relevant health information resource, whilst also reinforcing the self care message - emphasising when it is more appropriate for patients to telephone NHS Direct or self treat, possibly consulting their local pharmacist. To help kick start the distribution process of the Guide in your area, we can offer you 500 copies of the second edition free of charge. Subsequent copies will be available at cost price (55p per Guide including delivery) for wider distribution to your priority audiences. To order your copies, please call Michelle Whitehead or Peta Wolstencroft at the Department of Health Communications Directorate on 0113 254 5167. Social Care Interest 11. Small private children's homes LAC(2000)21 set out the arrangements for introducing the regulation of small private children's homes accommodating fewer than four children. The purpose of this note is to check that local authority Social Services Registration and Inspection Units have implemented the new arrangements as required and to ask for feedback about any problems. All existing small private children's homes were required to apply for registration with their local Registration and Inspection Unit by 31 December 2000, if they were to continue to operate beyond that date. The Secretary of State made Directions which required local authorities to make a registration decision by 30 June 2001. Where local authorities have not been able to meet this deadline the Secretary of State would consider each case on its merits before considering enforcement action against the authority. Enforcement action would be unlikely to be taken where the local authority appeared to have done its best to comply and there were good reasons for not doing so. The position of the home is unaffected and it may continue to operate provided its application was made by 31 December 2000. We are interested to know about any problems that have occurred in the registration process and to have feedback generally about the introduction of a requirement for small homes to register. For any local authorities that have not previously fed back to us Please could they email: Mike.Pattrick@doh.gsi.gov.uk or write to Mike Pattrick, Room 126 Wellington House, 133 - 155 Waterloo Road. London SE1 8UG. 12. Care Homes for Younger Adults and Adult Placements and Children's Homes: Consultation on national minimum standards and regulations The Department of Health is committed to consulting as widely as possible on draft versions of the national minimum standards and regulations to be used by NCSC. The Department is also committed to publishing the final versions of both as far in advance of the Care Standards Act being implemented as possible. There will be a 12-week consultation period for each set of national minimum standards and regulation. Consultation on the regulations will take place alongside the relevant national minimum standards for each service to be regulated by the NSCS. You can find the following documentation on www.doh.gov.uk/ncsc/consult.htm
13. Preserved Rights: Amendment to Regulations Governing Circumstances in which Councils can provide Financial Support As announced in paragraph 2.32 of The NHS Plan: The Government's response to the Royal Commission on Long Term Care, councils now have new powers to help some people with preserved rights to pay their care home fees. Statutory Instrument 2001 No.1859, which was laid before Parliament on 11 May and which came into force on 1 June, amends Regulations 7 and 9 of the Residential Accommodation (Relevant Premises, Ordinary Residence and Exemptions) Regulations 1993. In doing so, it allows councils to support in their existing residential care or nursing home those people with preserved rights who face eviction but who could, before the amendment to the regulations, be supported only in a different care home. Further guidance on this is set out in Circular LAC (2001)19, which was published on 27 June.
The documents in this bulletin are Crown copyright but may be reproduced by NHS and Local Authority staff without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use - ©2001 The documents in this bulletin are Crown copyright but may be reproduced by NHS and Local Authority staff without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use - ©2001 |
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