New resources to support nursing education

New resources to support nursing education:

The guide signposts employers to our pre-registration information and guidance, bringing the resources together in one place.

Additionally, the new briefing, Changes to Nursing Education: Sharing Local Experiences, is informed by interviews with employers that introduced the new standards in 2011. It details their experiences around key points of implementation and provides tips and advice for organisations currently in the planning phase. NHS Networks

DH rejects MPs' warning on effect of public health reform

DH rejects MPs' warning on effect of public health reform: Health select committee hits out at potential negative impact of plans to tackle health inequality. GP Online

Health gap widens as experts warn over DH plans

Health gap widens as experts warn over DH plans: Health divides in England have continued to widen as experts warn that paying local authorities to reduce inequalities may backfire. GP Online

NHS spending millions on FoI instead of patients

NHS spending millions on FoI instead of patients: NHS staff are being taken away from their patient focussed duties, warns Foundation Trust Network Public Service

CQC registration and the RCGP quality programme

CQC registration and the RCGP quality programme:
Practice accreditation helps GP practices enhance their organisational systems and procedures, such as risk assessment and processes for notifying patients of staff changes. Following a consultation, the Department of Health agreed to postpone the registration of most primary medical services with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), most of which are GP practices. This joint statement, produced in conjunction with CQC, provides further information on the RCGP quality programme.

• Joint statement
• RCGP - news

The NHS must accelerate its reforms on treating learning disabled patients

The NHS must accelerate its reforms on treating learning disabled patients:

Five years on from our shocking report into the discriminatory treatment of learning disabled people, little is different

When Mencap published its Death by Indifference report in 2007 it sent shockwaves through the health sector. The study contained damning evidence that people with a learning disability were dying unnecessarily due to institutional discrimination in the NHS. Such was the strength of the report it triggered an independent inquiry and an investigation by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman.

Despite these welcome initiatives, five years on from the publication we continue to hear heartbreaking stories of unnecessary pain and death. These cases form the basis of our report published on Wednesday , Death by Indifference – 74 Cases and Counting, which looks at progress that has been made in the NHS. Sadly, it finds that the NHS has still not got to grips with treating people with a learning disability and is putting the lives of patients at risk.

Prejudice, ignorance and indifference as well as failure to abide by disability discrimination laws still feature too frequently in the treatment of patients with a learning disability. This is illustrated by the case of Alan MacDonald, who died suddenly in Lister hospital, Hertfordshire, in 2009 after being admitted with stomach cramps. From the time MacDonald was admitted, his family felt that they had "to beg" staff to treat him, only to be met with what they described as "hostility". In a society that prides itself on its universal healthcare system, such treatment is incomprehensible.

We know that regular health checks for people with a learning disability, training for healthcare staff and the appointment of specialist nurses greatly improve health outcomes. Indeed, successive governments have accepted the recommendations of the independent inquiry, which called for these measures. But, as our report shows, efforts to implement them have been slow and in some cases non-existent. Policy may have been changed but practice must follow.

For the most part, health professionals do an incredible job and want the best for each patient – we take heart that more than 200 healthcare organisations have signed up to Mencap's Getting it Right charter – but where progress has been made, it has been patchy or has come about as the result of the avoidable death of a learning disabled patient.

How many people must die before the service takes this issue seriously? At a time when the NHS is going through changes there's a risk that the progress made will be lost, and the health needs and human rights of people with a learning disability left unheeded.

• Mark Goldring is chief executive of Mencap The Guardian

NHS patients 'will pay under health bill'

NHS patients 'will pay under health bill': Patients will have to pay for treatment that is currently free on the NHS under the Government's health bill, a leading adademic has claimed. The Daily Telegraph

TripAdvisor-style reviews by patients 'predict worst hospitals'

TripAdvisor-style reviews by patients 'predict worst hospitals': Patients are accurately predicting which hospitals have high death rates and super-bug infections when they rate their treatment on a TripAdvisor-style website, according to new research. The Daily Telegraph

74 deaths in NHS 'were avoidable'

74 deaths of people with Learning Disablities in NHS 'were avoidable':

The deaths in NHS care of 74 people with learning disabilities could have been avoided and were a result of institutional discrimination, a charity claims in a report. The Independent

NHS reform may put patients at risk, say reports

NHS reform may put patients at risk, say reports:

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has suffered another major setback in his struggle to get his highly controversial plans for NHS reform on the statute book. The Independent