Health landscape report: 20 January -24 January

This report is a flexible summary, with the aim of sharing and highlighting a wide range of data and policy information relating to London general practice published in a given week. Where we view information to be of significant interest it is reproduced directly below the links to make the key points quicker to digest.  

Please feel free to share any useful stats/links you think we could include in future reports.  

Official bodies    

NHS Digital 

• All recent data releases can be seen here. 
• Guidance: Research toolkit for matrons and other health and care leaders [22/1]. 
• Guidance:Integrated operational pressures escalation levels (OPEL) framework 2024 to 2026 [22/1]. 
• Guidance: NHS oversight framework segmentation [23/1]. 

Department of Health and Social Care 

• Press release: Government to deliver all schemes in New Hospital Programme [20/1]. 

 UK Health Security Agency 

• Guidance:A visual guide to vaccines [20/1]. 
• Guidance: Communicable disease outbreak management guidance [21/1]. 
• Guidance: Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers: outbreaks and case locations [22/1]. 
• Guidance: Safe water supplies: information for organisations [22/1]. 
• News:Young people urged to catch-up on missed HPV vaccines [23/1]. 

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 

• Guidance: Medicines: get scientific advice from MHRA [21/1]. 

Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies  

The Health Foundation 

• Unravelling the rise in mental health-related inactivity [22/1] 
• Dr Annie Irvine, Lecturer in Social Policy and Public Management at the University of York School for Business and Society, argues that we need to take a much more holistic approach to understanding capacity for work if we want to tackle mental health-related inactivity. 
• “We need to understand mental distress in context and not simply as a catch-all category or isolated cause of non-employment. We also urgently need to remove the harmful and counterproductive conditionality imposed on people who do not meet health-related criteria. And we need to step away from the stalemate of defining and categorising ‘real’ mental illness and take a much more holistic approach to understanding capacity for work.” 

YouGov 

• How do MPs’ views on drugs policy compare to the British public’s? [20/1].  
• In the past few years, several countries have legalised the possession and use of cannabis. Here in the UK, the Liberal Democrats pledged to legalise the purchase and consumption of cannabis in their 2024 election manifesto, the only main party to do so. 
  • The results show that 50% of MPs are opposed to cannabis legalisation when asked in a support/oppose format, compared to 39% who would be in support. 
  • Most MPs do believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical use (83%). Only 7% are opposed. 

Nuffield Trust 

• What can we learn from international examples of contracting for general practice services? [24/1].  
  • Looking beyond the experience in England, this article describes a set of international examples of how contract and payment innovation and the use of incentives have been used to change and improve general practice services. It describes the context and explains the case study’s relevance to contract developments in this country. 
• A short history of the GP contract and its evolution in England [24/1]. 
  • This brief history of the GP contract shows that current criticisms of the contract have endured for decades and describes how four fundamental revisions of the national contract have tried to address perceived problems with previous versions. It also summarises evaluations that have assessed the extent to which different contracts have achieved their objectives. 
• Designing a new GP contract: considerations for policy-makers and the profession [24/1].  
  • The final article in the series on GP contracting draws on an analysis of problems with the current GP contract, some lessons from history from past GP contracts in England, and learning from four international examples of GP contracts to highlight issues for consideration in the development of a new contract – or contracts – for general practice in England. 
• The context for developing a new GP contract [24/1].  
  • As work on the 2025/26 GP contract progresses, this introductory article sets out some context for the contracting process, explaining what contracts of this kind aim to achieve, the different functions of GP contracts, and what the perceived issues with current and previous contracts are. 

• What does the plan for reforming elective care mean for patient-initiated follow-up? [20/1].  

• • Among the new year headlines about cutting waiting lists using same-day diagnostics and surgical hubs, the latest plan for reforming elective care revived a key target: to expand the uptake of patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU). 
  • PIFU allows people to request a follow-up appointment when they need one, rather than following a fixed schedule (like every three months). Many fixed follow-up appointments – the traditional approach in outpatient care – have been described as unnecessary, perceived as providing little clinical benefit to either patients or staff.    

 The King’s Fund 

• Why we need to signpost patients to credible health information [23/1].  
• Credible health information supports people to make decisions about everything from vaccination to surgery. People who use trustworthy health information report feeling more able to manage their health, more prepared for appointments and more confident engaging in shared decision-making. 
• How do we activate the right to credible health information? Knowledge is Power makes five recommendations, aligned with the three shifts proposed in the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. In summary these are: 
  • A right to health information – health information is provided as a core part of patient care. 
  • Tackle misinformation – through robust content standards and effective signposting of credible health information via health professionals and the NHS apps. 
  • Tackle inequality – health information must be accessible and appropriate for all. 
  • Lived experience as a metric – embedding patient experience as a measure of NHS performance using the NHS apps and single patient record. 
  • Dedicated leadership – a mandate for the effective delivery of health information with a named lead in all NHS organisations. 

 London Trusts    

Barts Health NHS Trust 

• Article: In July 2024, the government announced that as part of the wider audit of public spending a review of the national New Hospital Programme would take place. That review has now concluded with an announcement today (20 January) by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [20/1]. 

 Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 

• Article: People living in Lambeth can join a free weight loss and exercise programme that can help them shed the pounds and maintain a consistently healthy weight. [21/1]. 

 Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust 

• Article: Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting MP, made an announcement in the House of Commons on 20 January 2025 outlining the outcome of the review of the New Hospital Programme, including an updated timeline for existing schemes. St Mary’s, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals have been included in the third wave, which would see building starting between 2035 and 2039 [22/1].