These days in healthcare: Thursday 23 January

Great morning and welcome to the day-to-day weblog from the Guardian’s local community for healthcare specialists, providing a roundup of the crucial information stories across the sector.

If there’s a story, report or occasion you’d like to highlight – or you would like to share your ideas on any of the healthcare problems in the information right now – you can get in touch by leaving a comment beneath the line or tweeting us at @GdnHealthcare.

The Guardian reviews that a National Audit Office report reveals hospitals are failing to accurately record how lengthy a lot more than half of all patients wait prior to getting planned remedy, casting doubt on official NHS waiting time statistics. An inquiry by Whitehall’s spending watchdog identified there are errors in recording the wait seasoned by one particular in 4 patients, and underestimation of waiting times in nearly as several cases.

There is also news that Jeremy Hunt is to announce that sufferers in hospital should be put below the charge of a single consultant accountable for all the care they obtain, whose identify will have to be prominently displayed to make sure sick folks have an “advocate” even though getting treated. Social affairs editor Randeep Ramesh writes:

Jeremy Hunt will call for a culture adjust in NHS hospitalswhich doctors have told him now supply patient care in “a series of brief encounters”.

Hunt will say that he has been contacted by sufferers who told him of a series of medical mistakes brought on “by poor continuity of care, by a method in which no 1 took responsibility for sorting out the difficulty or hunting following the person rather than just a element of the body exactly where issues had gone wrong”.

The well being secretary’s biggest change will be the creation of US-type “hospitalist” physicians in the NHS. These are physicians, whom Hunt calls “entire-remain doctors”, who will not practise classic medication but instead are obtainable most of the day in the hospital to meet household members and are able to comply with up tests, reply nurses’ concerns, and assure that care is going in accordance to prepare.

In other news:

• BBC: Doubts cast on United kingdom heart-attack care

• HSJ: Workforce system tender could be well worth £1bn

• Guardian: Shorter lifespans between poor costing Europe trillions

• Pulse: Stroll-in centre linked with 26% reduction in daytime A&ampE visits

• GP on-line: Integrated urgent care needs funding overhaul, NHS leaders tell MPs

• eHealth Insider: Sufferers to add to health care record on the web

On the network nowadays, Robert Meadowcroft, chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, calls for proposals for ‘complex care’ GP practices to take into account the needs of individuals with added or rarer problems. Choosing up on feedback by senior NHS official Dr Martin McShane on how to improve and sustain main care for the developing amount of individuals with a single or more complex, prolonged-term health circumstances in the Uk, Meadowcroft says any significant investment and remodelling of care should take into account the needs of the 3.5 million people in the Uk living with uncommon diseases. He writes:

Serious respiratory infections, falls and cardiac issues all accompany types of muscular dystrophy. Sadly, regular and traumatic health emergencies are a fact of life for many families living with the problems. Well being pros primarily based locally, with complete knowledge of health-related background, a thorough understanding of a specific situation and a direct line to regional specialists, can each avert crises and be accessible to advise emergency teams need to one particular take place.

NHS information indicates that about forty% of emergency admissions to hospital for this patient group could have been averted by means of preventative care – monitoring, early intervention and physiotherapy. This amounts to possible financial savings of up to £32m a yr on emergency care. It appears unlikely that ‘complex care’ practices have a component to play right here.

Elsewhere, Robin Miller, senior fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Health Support Management Centre, writes for the Social Care Network about efficient preventative solutions for older folks.

And Tim Stanley writes for the Telegraph about patient safety incidents, arguing it’s time to dump the ‘wonder of the world’ myths about the NHS.

That is all for right now, we’ll be back tomorrow with our digest of the day’s healthcare news.

These days in healthcare: Thursday 23 January