Diabetes care in the NHS is poor, with low achievement of treatment standards, high numbers of avoidable deaths and annual spending reaching an estimated £3.9 billion.
Progress has been made to reduce the additional risk of death for people with diabetes. However, 22,000 are still estimated to be dying each year from diabetes related causes.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that NHS Acute Trusts in England held medical equipment with an estimated replacement value of some £3 billion. In 1996-97 they spent some £220 million on acquiring medical equipment annually and a further £120 million on maintenance. Figures for 1997-98 are similar. Medical … Read more
“The Prison Service has made good progress in tightening up its procedures for recording sickness absence and now has a better grip on the performance of establishments. The average sickness rate remains high, however. Any reduction in working days lost would free resources which could be used, for instance, to improve regimes for reducing re-offending rates or to deal with the increased number of prisoners being held in custody.
“Further reductions in the average rate of sickness absence among Prison Service staff depend on governors working more closely with staff to improve morale and to overcome a culture of absenteeism prevalent in some prisons.”
“Today’s report paints a mixed picture of sickness absence in the Department for Transport and its agencies. While some parts of the Department compare favourably against other public and private sector organisations and all parts of the Department appear to be proactive in managing sickness absence, the high rates in the customer-facing agencies of DVLA and DSA are worrying.
“The central department appears to have a good record of sickness absence but that does not absolve it from the responsibility to hold those agencies with high levels of sickness absence to account.”
The report makes recommendations on how the Department should better manage sickness absence. These include making line managers more aware of responsibilities when it comes to sick leave, making earlier use of occupational health services and ensuring better quality standards for recording sickness absence. Specific recommendations to agencies include the DVLA bringing long term sickness absence to a swifter resolution.
“Managing sickness absence more effectively will lead to better value for money in the Probation Service. Reducing current sickness absence rates of 12.3 days per person to the Service’s target of 9 days would save £11 million, equivalent to 66,420 working days or some 300 full time employees. Tackling the problem will require investment in better information, robust and proactive management, and consistent application locally of policies that have been agreed nationally, particularly to tackle stress and improve work/life balance. “
“We have found good practice and good value being obtained in many sales of surplus NHS trust property and this needs to be built on. There needs to be better management of NHS surplus estate, better working with planning authorities, and better handling of some sales to speed things up to release resources for NHS developments to benefit patients. My recommendations and examples of good practice show how improvements can be achieved.”
“Where patient safety is considered to be at risk or there are allegations of misconduct, it is vitally important for NHS trusts to be able to exclude clinical staff from work or restrict their activities so that the situation can be thoroughly and promptly investigated. At present, however, there is evidence of many cases of exclusion being allowed to drift on without resolution or proper management. This represents a serious waste of resources for the NHS and can harm the career and even personal well-being of the accused clinicians themselves.
“The Department of Health should now take further steps to achieve a system for managing the exclusion of clinical staff in which both staff and patients can have confidence.”
This report examines the effectiveness of HM Treasury’s and HMRC’s use of their resources in the management of tax expenditures.
“The Maritime and Coastguard Agency coped with the recent sharp increase in the size of the UK-flagged merchant fleet by using its staff more efficiently and by delegating more of its survey work. But with fewer surveyors, the Agency is now struggling to inspect the increased fleet, which could put at risk the quality advantage of the UK flag. Better recruitment and succession planning will be needed, along with more strategic delegation to the classification societies.”
