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Welfare Reform on the Web (April 2005): National Health Service - Primary and Community Care

BREATHE EASY

A. Dix

Health Service Journal, vol.115, Mar.24th 2005, p.30-32

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) causes many emergency hospital admissions and 80,000 deaths annually. These statistics could be improved by better management of COPD in primary care, including better self-care, the case management of people with complex needs, and improving the interface between primary and secondary care.

CHILD HEALTH ASSESSMENT AT SCHOOL ENTRY (CHASE) PROJECT: EVALUATION IN 10 LONDON PRIMARY SCHOOLS

S. Edmunds and others

Child, vol. 31, 2005, p.143-154

Study aimed to assess the feasibility of implementing the Child Health Assessment at school entry (CHASE) questionnaire, developed to capture information about the health of children in their first year at school, and to evaluate data quality, reliability and validity. Found CHASE questionnaires to be satisfactory for parents and school nurses, and feasible to implement in schools within existing resources. The data have the potential to inform interventions at school and borough level and to reveal health trends over time.

COMMUNITY NURSES: PROFESSIONAL GUIDELINES FOR NURSERY NURSES WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY AND PRIMARY CARE.

Anon.

Community Practitioner, Mar. 2005: vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 86-87

Complementing the Community Practitioners' & Health Visitors' Association's 2004 voluntary code of professional conduct for Community Nursery Nurses, the professional guidelines set out here are designed to inform practitioners and their employers about:

  • good practice;
  • responsibilities and limitations of CNNs;
  • educational criteria for employment and professional development;
  • delegation and accountability;

and more.

CONFRONTING AN ILL SOCIETY: DAVID WIDGERY, GENERAL PRACTICE, IDEALISM AND THE CHASE FOR CHANGE

P. Hutt

Oxford: Radcliffe, 2005

David Widgery was a socialist GP who worked in the East End of London. For him medicine was as much about the social causes of illness as it was biological. He believed that if wealth were more evenly distributed, society and its members would be healthier. This book tackles the difficult issues surrounding doctors' roles, including whether they should ignore or embrace the social causes of illness. It uses the perspective of David Widgery's life to explore these issues, and also considers why medicine at times can be disheartening.

CONSULTATION ON OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT PRESCRIBING BY EXTENDED FORMULARY NURSE PRESCRIBERS

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

2005

Nurses will be able to prescribe independently for patients with long term conditions such as asthma and diabetes, enabling patients to get faster access to medicines.

DOCTORS ON WARPATH TO SAVE SMALL SURGERIES

S. Lister

The Independent, Mar. 30th 2005, p.4

Doctors' leaders accused the Health Secretary, John Reid, of failing to understand the damage he was inflicting on the NHS after he insisted that no small GP's surgeries would be forced to close under Labour. What the Health Secretary said appeared to contradict one of his senior policy advisers this month when he outlined a model of general practice based on GPs grouping together in practices of ten or more doctors.

(See also The Daily Telegraph, Mar. 30th 2005, p.1)

LOOKING AFTER CHILDREN IN PRIMARY CARE: A COMPANION TO THE CHILDREN'S NATIONAL SERVICE FRAMEWORK

R. Chambers and K. Licence

Abingdon: Radcliffe, 2005

The Children's national service framework sets standards for children's and young people's services, outlining what support should be available to children and their parents in managing and preventing a wide range of conditions and problems. This book is a companion to the children's NSF, enabling those who work within the NHS, social care and education to put the NSF into practice in primary care.

MAKING SENSE IN PRIMARY CARE: LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR PEOPLE WITH COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES.

J.Law and others.

Disability and Society, vol. 20, 2005, p.169- 184

Exploring the critical role of effective communication between doctors and their patients, this paper focuses on the experiences of people with communication difficulties as an indicator of practitioners' sensitivity to the importance of their communication skills.

Focuses on:

  • social inclusion especially in access to health care;
  • communication: raising and addressing health issues;
  • and user-provider relationships over time.

ON THE MEND?

A. Nolan

Health Service Journal, vol.115, Mar.10th 2005, p.26-28

Alternative providers' medical services (APMS) contracts allow primary care trusts to use the voluntary sector to provide primary care services. APMS can be used to provide out-of-hours services, enhanced services, replacement additional services or a combination of any of these.

SELF CARE SUPPORT: A COMPENDIUM OF PRACTICAL EXAMPLES ACROSS THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

Department of Health

London: 2005

Sets out to draw together evidence on how self-care support models might be more widely transferred and used in a range of settings, including in the home, in community-based services, in the workplace, in community pharmacies, in minor injury centres, in intermediate care, in podiatry and in residential and nursing homes.

SELF-MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASE DOESN'T WORK

M. Bury and D. Pink

Health Service Journal, vol.115, Mar. 17th 2005, p.18-19

Self-management of chronic conditions in the community through the expert patient programme is a key part of New Labour's health policy agenda. Bury argues that there is no objective evidence from randomised controlled trials of the long-term effectiveness of the approach, while Pink claims that this scepticism is ill-deserved.

SEXUAL FRUSTRATION

R. Coombes

Health Service Journal, vol.115, Mar,10th 2005, p.30-32

There are moves to devolve routine sexual health services to primary care, where they can be delivered by multidisciplinary teams including nurses and pharmacists. Article discusses barriers to progress.

SISTERS OF MERCY

J. Rix

Society Guardian, Mar. 9th 2005, p.8-9

Community matrons aim to keep sick or disabled elderly people out of hospital by providing care in their own homes and improving the quality of life. The article does the rounds with a 'CM'.

SUPPORTING PEOPLE WITH LONG TERM CONDITIONS: LIBERATING THE TALENTS OF NURSES WHO CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH LONG TERM CONDITIONS

Department of Health

London: 2005

Guidance gives a "blueprint" for developing the role of community matrons. This is a new role which will enable nurses to give one-to-one support to the most vulnerable patients with long term conditions. It sets out how community matrons will develop a personal care plan with the patient and his/her carers, monitor his/her condition regularly through home visits or telephone calls, and work in partnership with his/her GP.

A WEIGHT ON PCTS' MINDS: HOW TO GET LDPS INTO SHAPE ON TIME

H. Mooney and M. Gould

Health Service Journal, vol.115, Mar.17th 2005, p.14-16

The newly published public health delivery paper sets out a plan of action for the NHS to achieve the goals set out in the 2004 White Paper. Primary care trusts now face the challenge of updating their local delivery plans (LDPs) to slot in the public health agenda. The Department of Health wants PCTs to focus initially on five key areas:

  • reducing the number of people who smoke;
  • reducing alcohol dependency;
  • modernising sexual health services;
  • workforce development;
  • public education using "health trainers".
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