Doing More for Less
A discussion paper (July 2010) prepared by IMPRESS is available here.
Respiratory care has tended not to receive the same attention from policy-makers and commissioners as other long term conditions, but that is beginning to change with the consultation of a national strategy for COPD in England, and other respiratory strategies in the devolved nations. When published, it will be the first clinical strategy to arrive on clinicians' and commissioners' desks since the quality and productivity agenda has taken centre stage. This new experience and evidence-based discussion paper from IMPRESS aims to give local clinical teams some practical options about how to implement the respiratory strategy whilst meeting the quality and productivity agenda.
IMPRESS is a national network of practitioners from primary, secondary and community care, public health, providing and commissioning with input from lay and social care advisers formed by the two leading clinical societies for respiratory care in the UK. It aims to provide clinical leadership for the NHS to improve and integrate respiratory services. Whilst it has a special interest in respiratory care, it believes many of the messages are valid for other long term conditions, and indeed, given how many people have more than one long term condition, it is essential that they are. We advocate the formation of local clinical networks and envisage that this document could be used to stimulate debate about local opportunities and priorities. Some issues, such as misuse of oxygen, cut across primary and secondary care and several disease areas and could have far-reaching impact.
We should be grateful if you would use your networks to ensure this paper reaches the widest possible audience. If people find it helpful, they might like to look at our other resources (see www.impressresp.com), and look out for our guidance that will be issued in the next month on commissioning oxygen services - a step-by-step guide; using information; information on prescribing and medicines use and an introduction to social care.
Dr Tony Davison, Co-chair IMPRESS, British Thoracic Society
Dr Steve Holmes, Co-chair IMPRESS, Primary Care Respiratory Society-UK
Choose and Book (CAB)
Recent information on Choose and Book is available here.
HRG4 and Payment by Results
An update on the recent tariff is available here.
The Payment by Results guide is available here.
18 week wait
Transforming Respiratory and Sleep Diagnostic Services – a Good practice guide, is available from:
http://www.18weeks.nhs.uk/Content.aspx?path=/achieve-and-sustain/Diagnostics/Respiratory-and-sleep-physiology
A Guide to Coding of Respiratory Care
This report, prepared by Dr Steve Connellan on behalf of BTS, provides useful background to the revision of Respiratory Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) as well as practical advice on coding respiratory activity. The document can be downloaded here.
Dr Connellan’s Commentary on Respiratory HRG analysis, which should be read in conjunction with the Guide to Respiratory Coding is available here.
A copy of Chapter DZ (Respiratory) which comprises all the diagnosis (ICD10) and procedure (OPCS) codes which have been grouped to HRGs can be accessed here.
The Third Edition of Specialised Services National Definitions Set for Specialised Respiratory Services (adult) has now been published is available to download from here.
Consultant Physicians Working for Patients
The Society was pleased to contribute to the 2008 Report from the Royal College of Physicians of London “Consultant Physicians Working for Patients”. The appendix relating to Respiratory Medicine which gives recommended ratios and related information about referral patterns, ways of working, and a job plan can be found here.
The full document "Consultant Physicians Working for Patients" can be found here.
Health Committee Inquiry into Health Inequalities
Evidence submitted to this Inquiry by BTS is available here