HealthWatch

An excellent and free resource has been produced by the Midlands and East Quality Observatory that allows anyone to look at the performance of a particular hospital and compare it nationally and regionally. There are a wide range of comparisons possible acrossPreventing people from dying prematurely Enhancing quality of life for people with long term conditions Helping people to recover from episodes of ill health or following injury Ensuring that people have a positive experience of care Treating and caring for people in a safe environment and protect them from avoidable harm.
For more information go to the East Midlands Quality Observatory web site

Latest survey by Care Quality Commission which asked people about their experiences of accident and emergency (A&E) departments in 2012.

Nearly a quarter of patients who arrived by ambulance had to wait more than 15 minutes before they were transferred to staff (one in 20 people had to wait for more than an hour).

33 per cent of respondents said they spent more than four hours in A&E – up from 27 per cent in 2008 and 23 per cent in 2004.

The majority of participants were also not told how long they would wait for their examination.

Carer Watch is campaign group for carers across the UK run by independent, unpaid carers with experience of the care system as it operates in the UK today. They consider it to be desperately under funded and not fit for purpose and aim to provide a non-party-political campaign platform to change the way that opinion-formers, politicians and journalists think about carers.
Find out more at their web site http://www.carerwatch.com/

This short report by the Social Care Centre for Excellence provides evidence that the two main challenges for implementing personal budgets and direct payments for older people, including those with dementia, are „a lack of information about personal budgets and direct payments and a concern about taking on the burdens that direct payments can bring‟.

The End of Life Care Primary Care Trust (PCT) Profiles present over 40 indicators relating to
•population •deaths •place of death •cause of death
•deaths in hospital •care homes •end of life care spend
for each PCT in England.
Also see the End of Life Care Facilitator Competency Framework at :

 End of Life Care Profiles

http://www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk

Right Care have produced an Atlas which highlights variation in care for people with respiratory disease.after adjusting for population differences.The introduction states : "if all the PCTs in England were to achieve the COPD mortality rates of the best-performing PCTs, around 7,800 lives would be saved each year.”