Integrated care pilots expansion

Following successes in the original 16 integrated care pilots, the programme has been expanded to encourage and facilitate the sharing of knowledge among a wider range of stakeholders and identify further initiatives. The DH is inviting potential participants to submit their completed self-assessment forms. Further guidance on the submission process is available from the DH website.

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Alzheimer's Society and BUPA launch Dementia Champions Programme

The new programme aims to develop in-house leaders to champion good dementia care in their place of work and was successfully piloted in six Bupa care homes before the launch. By changing the culture of the workplace, the Dementia Champions programme aims to further improve quality of care and quality of life for people with dementia. Click here for further information.

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Partners in Care - A Training Package for Involving Families in Dementia Care Homes

Following admission to a care home, family and friends may feel uncertain as to how they now 'fit in' to their loved one's life. This training package, comprising a booklet and DVD, is designed to encourage family participation in the care home and develop a constructive partnership between staff in care homes, families and people with dementia.
The DVD and booklet provide material for four separate training sessions for use by mixed groups of relatives and care home staff. Each session explores a different theme: sharing information, sharing the care, developing supportive relationships and making it work. With a clear and flexible layout, group exercises and notes for the facilitator, this training package will enable professionals and relatives to develop positive and fulfilling ways of working together and improve the level of care for those with dementia. Click here to order your copy.

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E-Learning for Improvement - From the NHS Institute

The NHS Institute has recently completed the development of three short e-learning objects in collaboration with the University of Nottingham. Each piece of learning takes about 20 mins – half an hour and is aimed at developing basic awareness and skills in improvement. The sections are called: Improving care, Improving your practice and Planning for improvement.
You can access the modules via the NLH repository, or visit the Nottingham Univeristy SONET website where you will find a table of all their e-learning.

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Living Longer, LIving Better - Conference 25th June 2009

This one day conference will look at improving physical health and health care for people with mental health problems. It will examine public policy and professional practice and discuss commissioning and service delivery in primary and secondary care services. The afternoon is devoted to a discussion of barriers to service improvement and practical examples of joined up working from Yorkshire and Kent which will help you develop your own local services. Click here for further information and to register!

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NHS Leeds Innovation in Community Care - Transforming Community Services Conference 15th June 2009

The aim of this Conference is to showcase the innovation and exciting service developments that NHS Leeds Community Healthcare colleagues are undertaking as part of our ongoing commitment to quality. It is important that we share those experiences of improving patient experience in line with “Transforming Community Services” policy direction. This conference also provides the opportunity to hear from leaders in the fields of health care including the Chief Nursing Officer, Dame Christine Beasley.
For further information and to book your place click here!

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Web-Based Program from IHI: Strategies for Reducing Expenses Without Compromising Care

Organisations often engage in quality improvement because it is seen as the right thing to do. Any financial benefit that results from these improvement efforts is considered a nice bonus but not an expected goal. Furthermore, the structures of most payment systems employed in the industry have made it difficult for providers to experience significant financial benefits from quality improvement. However, given the continued rise in health care spending, coupled with the current state of the economy, a new way of thinking is necessary. Health care administrators and clinicians need to focus on creating efficiency while simultaneously maintaining or improving quality of patient care.To help organisations achieve this goal, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the Healthcare Financial Management Association are co-sponsoring a three-part executive call series, Strategies for Reducing Expenses Without Compromising Care.This series of three web-based call sessions will help to create a portfolio of work that will systematically identify and eliminate waste, leading to a 1% to 3% savings in operating costs per year.

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Integrated Working in Health and Social Care on 11th & 12th June 2009 in London.

The aim of this conference brought to you by Skiils for Health and Skills for Social Care is to showcase examples of innovative new ways or new types of working and look at where health and social care are making a difference to service users by working in partnership. There will also be opportunities to look at developments in the health or social care sector which have benefited service users from one sector and may provide useful learning for those working in the other sector.
The fee is £175. This includes one night's hotel accommodation and full board, including the conference dinner. If you only wish to attend for one day there is a fee of £100. CHAIN members are entitled to a 10% discount. Click here for further inforamtion.

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Active Medicine - A case study

Active Medicine was designed to educate and support patients, inform healthcare professionals
and act as a shared care resource during consultations.
The technology behind the project was developed by Dr Howard Last and Dr Stewart Manning after GPs at Oakley Medical practice noticed poor asthma technique in the local area. Many patients failed to turn up for appointments and communication between different healthcare professionals was in need of improvement.The software provides inhaler videos and information about asthma for the patient, while the healthcare professional has access to guidelines and the patient’s previous notes and actions. This helps generate a personalised action plan for the patient who can then access this again, online.
Click here for more information. *
Acitve Medicine & Oakley Medical Practice has been shortlisted for the Health & Social Care Awards and a short film will be produced for the ceremony taking place on 28th May 2009 at Sheffield City Hall.

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The first Leeds Health Stars Awards are now open!

Leeds Health Stars 2009 are your chance to receive well deserved recognition for your achievements and an opportunity to share your experiences with others. The awards, which are open to all staff, teams and organisations involved in the provision and commissioning of NHS health care in Leeds, will share and celebrate excellence in innovation and improvement across the city.
The awards will be short listed by panels of health care professionals. The three short listed entries in each category will then be judged by a second panel of service users, patients and carers who will choose the overall winner.
Short listed entries will showcase their entry with a display at the NHS Leeds AGM in September. A sharing and learning event will also take place with each short listed entry presenting their project to colleagues from across Leeds and beyond. The evening awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 15 October 2009.
The closing date for entries is 19 June 2009. Application support workshops to help you submit a winning entry are taking place throughout May and June, so book you place now.
This is your chance to shine – good luck!
Click here to enter and for further information on the awards.

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Health Service Journal and Nursing Times - Survey on nutritional care and management in the NHS

Sister magazines Health Service Journal and Nursing Times are carrying out a survey on nutritional care and management in the NHS.
They are researching the progress made since the first national plan for improving nutritional care was launched by the Department of Health in October 2007 and would really appreciate it if you could take five minutes to answer a few, short questions. The survey will close this Monday at 5.30pm and the results will be published in the magazines and websites.
If you haven't already entered the survey, please click here to have your say

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Releasing Time to Care - Live Webinar Thursday 28 May 2009

Join a distinguished panel of experts in a discussion on how technology can help increase NHS productivity. In particular, explore how information and communication technologies can release time to care and enable a productive ward using technologies such as wireless networks, asset tracking and unified communications. Click here for further information.
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Discussion: ‘Homeless health care: a blight on this house’ - 21st April 2009 House of Commons

Shocking research by the homeless charity St. Mungo’s has shown that around 80 per cent of those living rough have at least one health problem; and a third of those with a health problem are receiving no treatment at all. On average, clients in St. Mungo’s hostels are just 41 years old when they die.
Innovative projects are emerging, and in some cases have existed for some time, to take the lead in providing specialist services for the homeless. However, as they build momentum, they are surfacing an enormous number of issues that haven’t been addressed and remain a miscarriage of health within a health system that prides itself on being universal.
What is the future for such worthy initiatives? Can a coherent, holistic, strategy be developed to provide healthcare for the homeless? What are the obstacles to such coordinated action? Are there opportunities for self-help? And what needs to change to enable this to happen?
This discussion 'Homeless Health Care: a Blight on this House' is being chaired by Professor Aidan Halligan with, Sir David Varney, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Public Service Transformation, Dr Jim O’Connell, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Programme (USA), Dr Philip Reid, Great Chapel Centre, Soho, Charles Fraser, CEO, St. Mungo’s and will be hosted by Hilary Armstrong, MP. It will take place on Tuesday 21 April, 6.30-8.30pm at the House of Commons in the Grand Committee Room (please use St. Stephen’s entrance). There is space for an audience of around 100 people, drawn from senior health professionals (all sectors), regulators, the medical institutions, Department of Health, journalists, policy-makers and academics.
If you wish to attend please email James Gubb or phone: 020 7799 6677.

Leeds Institue of Health Scieneces Open Day

The Open Day on 22nd May 2009 at the Leeds Institue of Health Sciences will showcase the research, consultancy, taught Masters programme and continuing professional development courses of the Institute, for people working in the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary sector and academia with an interest in, Public Health, Health Informatics, Primary Care, Mental Health, Commissioning Effective and Efficient Healthcare, Health Service Research, Public Policy and International Health.
Professor Simon Wessely from the Institute of Psychiatry King’s College London will also lead a session on occupational exposures and health among combat forces at the open day.

Implementing the National Dementia Strategy - Conference 18th May 2009, London

This conference brings together expert practitioners from local authorities, housing, health and third sector providers of dementia support services, this timely event highlights new strategy and assesses the principal challenges ahead. Important issues to be examined in-depth include:
Providing workforce-wide support for implementing the National Dementia Strategy, ensuring flexible care services to meet different support needs and Ways to improve dementia support in care homes. Click here for further information and to book your place!

Author in the Room on March 18

Why not join the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, from 2:00 - 3:00 PM for “Author in the Room,” an interactive conference call aimed at closing the gap between knowledge – what is published in an article - and action – how much of this knowledge is put into practice to improve care. The interactive call will help readers consider the implications of the study results for improving their practice.On March 18th, "Author in the Room" features Steven A. Schroeder, MD, author of an article discussing smoking cessation in patients with psyciatric illness. Additionally, Doug Ziedonis, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts, will be joining as a guest speaker. Click here to register or to read more and access the article, click here.

Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee - A book review by Sarah Fraser

The subtitle of this book is "Why too much medicine is making us sicker and poorer". This book was quite shocking. I know there is a lot of what goes on in healthcare that is unnecessary yet to find a huge amount of detail and information in one place really put the issue into perspective. It is focused mainly on the USA though there are many parallels with other health systems.
This book is a must for every health care improver who believes their own project is making a difference... The strategic and tactical issues raised in it really provide a new perspective.
Throughout the book, the author provides stories and examples to illustrate the data and statistics that without the stories would appear cold and less shocking. Click here for further information and to read the full book review by Sarah Fraser.

Launch of heart failure document to improve quality of care

The latest 'Focus on' document outlining the features of high quality heart failure care has been published by the Delivering Quality and Value team. ‘Focus on: heart failure’ highlights the ideal pathway and key characteristics that optimise quality of care and efficiency for heart failure patients. The prevalence of heart failure is increasing with the majority of cases due to coronary heart disease and hypertensive heart disease at a cost to the NHS of £625 million a year.
Download a copy now!

Podcasts from the Dignity Matters Conference

At the Dignity Matters conference in November Sir Michael Parkinson chatted with Barbara Pointon, Barbara Dearnley and Amanda Waring - this was filmed and is now available as a podcast. Phil Hope the minister for care services also filmed an introduction talking about his commitment to the dignity campaign. At the end of last year 3 podcasts were filmed in Leeds with the 2008 winners of the Health and Social Care award for Dignity, the topics for these are commitment from top to bottom and explains the role of the councils scrutiny committee in ensuring dignity is a priority social marketing - how innovative approaches are reaching the people of Leeds dignity audits - including audits in care homes
Look out for these on the dignity website, they are expected to be published in the next week or two.

Learning to Manage Health Information: a conference for clinical educators

Learning to Manage Health Information is a FREE conference open for all educators and others interested in enabling students to utilise health information and technology effectively to enhance the quality of patient care and patient safety. The conference will provide you with the tools and ideas for bringing informatics competency into your programmes of learning.
The conference is a unique chance to meet others interested in this area, both educators and clinicians across all professions. You will find examples of good practice and be able to talk with people who can help support the embedding of informatics into clinical education programmes. It is an opportunity to become better informed and get involved in the ideas being discussed. Book your place now!