Weekly news
Released on 05/07/2010
Events Diary
3 September
IHM Scotland
Scotland’s Top Healthcare
Manager 2010
Closing date for nominations. See attached flyer for details.
9 September
IHM Scotland
Dealing with Difficult People
Assertively
9.30am-4pm, Millennium Hotel, Glasgow
Interactive workshop presented by Madeleine O’Brien; techniques and strategies that will allow you to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with skill and confidence. See flyer for details.
22 September
IHM Scotland
Doing the right things, doing things right
9.30am-4pm, Atos Origin Alliance, Livingston
How LEAN techniques and tools are being
utilised across health and social care systems. See attached flyer.
5 & 6 October
IHM Scotland
Annual Conference & Exhibition: Leading in Challenging Times
Airth Castle Hotel
24 hours of learning and networking at
Scotland’s leading healthcare management event. See www.ihmscotland.co.uk or
attached programme.
This week in Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is now in recess until the week beginning 6 September 2010.
Committee report identifies ‘weaknesses’ in NHS management
A Scottish Parliament Health Committee report, based on a written survey and oral evidence from NHS boards, has raised the Committee’s concerns that boards have not collected sufficient data to judge whether efficiency savings and staff reductions can be made without damaging the quality of services. The Committee concludes that there are still relatively straightforward savings that can be made “painlessly” - and questions why these have not already happened - but also that it is inevitable that savings will have to move into “more contentious areas.” The report claims that a lack of evidence on quality and outcomes will make it difficult for NHS boards to adequately inform and reassure local populations about the impact on services.
Controversially, the Committee claims that in the past the NHS has taken on staff who have been “seemingly employed in jobs that had no productive value.” It continues: “What criteria are being used to approve new spending, what standard of evidence is expected to support a spending plan, and how are changes monitored to ensure they have the desired effect? The Committee is concerned that these are fundamental weaknesses in NHS management.” The report does not mention the changes to working practices and staffing patterns that have been necessitated by, for example, the European Working Time Directive.
Elsewhere in the report, the Committee accepts that efficiency savings may result in buildings being closed and posts lost and declares support for this, as long as: “change respects national policies such as the presumption against centralisation of services; there is an evidence-base for change that shows clearly that no patient will be put at risk as a result of the change; there is up-front funding for transition, and the need for change is clearly articulated, with robust communication and engagement with the public.”
The full report can be read at www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/hs/reports-10/her10-08.htm#7
Large drop in agency nurse spend
The costs to NHS Scotland of employing agency nurses has dropped by 69 per cent in the past five years, according to new figures from ISD Scotland. £8 million was spent on agency nurses last year,
compared to over £26 million in 2005/06. The use of agency nursing and midwifery staff in 2009/10
decreased by 32 per cent on the previous year, with a corresponding decrease in costs of 21 per cent. Of the 337,193 agency nursing hours used in NHS Scotland last year, by far the biggest proportion - 72.6 per cent- were employed in adult services. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said of the agency nursing statistics, "We are continuing to ensure NHS boards across Scotland scrutinise the quality and efficiency of
absolutely everything they do. These figures show this is paying off.
"The downward trend in the costs of agency nursing is evidence of this, with the money saved retained by NHS boards and ploughed back into frontline patient care.”
www.isdscotland.org/isd/5685.html
The ISD figures released last week also show that NHS Scotland is continuing to meet its target of treating 95 per cent of patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer within 62 days. In the first quarter of this year, 96.5 per cent of patients were treated within the target time, with only three territorial NHS boards (Tayside, Forth Valley and Ayrshire & Arran) falling slightly below the 95 per cent target.
www.isdscotland.org/isd/5013.html
The latest figures on teenage pregnancy show a five per cent drop across Scotland. The national target for teenage pregnancy reduction is to reduce by 20% the pregnancy rate (per 1000 population) in under 16 year olds from 8.5 in 1995 to 6.8 in 2010. The most recent figure, for 2008, is 7.9. NHS Ayrshire & Arran recorded the highest rates of pregnancy in the under-16 age group at 10.8, closely followed by NHS Tayside at 10.7, while NHS Borders has the lowest rate at 4.9. ISD reports a strong and continuing deprivation
gradient which remains fairly consistent over the
entire period. In the most deprived areas in 2008 the rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 16 age group was more than 4 times the rate in the least
deprived areas (14.6 per 1,000 and 3.2 per 1,000 respectively).
www.isdscotland.org/isd/2071.html
Conference poster competition
IHM Scotland is pleased to announce that its 2010 annual conference will, for the first time, feature a competition for posters
highlighting the best in management practice and its impact in patient services. Entries are invited for the competition, sponsored by Pfizer, illustrating earning and success on the theme of ‘The importance of leadership and excellent management practice in delivering better health’. The competition provides an ideal opportunity for managers and teams in all areas of healthcare management to
showcase their achievements.
Further details are available from IHM
Scotland Business Manager Hilary Iannotti at hilary.iannotti@btopenworld.com. If you would like to submit a poster for the
competition, you should inform Hilary of your intention to do so by 3 September at the
latest.
Full details of this year’s conference
programme are attached with the Update and can be downloaded at www.ihmscotland.co.uk. Look our for articles in future editions of the Update, focusing on the highlights of this year’s conference.
NHS staff to help abuse victims
Scotland will become the first country in the UK to tackle domestic abuse through the NHS, with a co-ordinated national strategy to identify and help more victims. 5,000 NHS staff in Scotland will be trained to initiate conversations in a sensitive way that will give people the chance to open up about abuse.
Midwives, mental health workers, substance misuse and sexual health professionals, A&E staff and health visitors will be trained over the next year and a half.
The Scottish Government has put in place national NHS domestic abuse team to support local health boards to implement the initiative by developing specialist training packages for staff, highlighting best practice and issuing national guidance.
