Quality of general hospital care through the liaison psychiatry lens?

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Kirsten Lawson explores a recent study of liaison psychiatry professionals’ views of general hospital care for patients with mental illness.

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Can competition improve management quality in the NHS?

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Chris Sampson reports on a discussion paper produced by the Centre for Economic Performance, which looks at the impact of competition on management quality in hospitals.

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Build upon successful local collaborations for effective communication in community health services, says review

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The aim of this literature review from the Policy Research Unit in Commissioning at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is to help decision-makers support acute care, by moving some services out of the hospital, and into the community.

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Adult Protection research suggests there is still much to do in response to events at Winterbourne View

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The events at Winterbourne View assessment and treatment service, where the BBC Panorama programme uncovered systematic abuse of people with learning disabilities, has led to a serious case review written by Margaret Flynn and Vic Citarella. The review concluded that the services provided at Winterbourne View were not based on an understanding of the needs of the [read the full story…]

Emergency bed use: data briefing from the King’s Fund. What the numbers tell us

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This briefing aims to provide commissioners and providers with information on trends and activity to help them decide where to focus attention. Background The NHS faces the tightest financial settlement in its history. It is charged to find £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015 Bed use for elective admissions accounts for 55% of admissions [read the full story…]

Quality of life measures show improvements for people with complex needs leaving hospital

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National policy in England has seen people with learning disabilities who were once residents of long stay hospitals move into community services. There have been many evaluations of these moves, locally and nationally. The authors of this study were interested in measurable factors such as quality of life and mortality. They looked at 521 adults with [read the full story…]