Key areas of progress highlighted in the report include:

* the allocation of a £40 million capital grant for hospices to allow them to improve the environment in which they provide care;

* the launch of e-learning on end of life care for health and social care staff;

* the launch of the Dying Matters Coalition to raise public awareness of issues around death, dying and bereavement;

* the establishment of end of life care locality register pilots to improve co-ordination of care;

* the pilot project to inform a national survey of bereaved relatives (VOICES) which will be launched this summer; and

* the launch of the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network.

Further action in the coming year will include:

* The National End of Life Care Programme will do more work on when the end of life pathway should start for people with progressive disease, focussing on individuals with COPD/respiratory disease and neurological conditions. The Cancer Survivorship programme will address the same question for cancer patients.

* The Department will continue work on 'locality registers' - information portals about the end of life care being provided to patients in a given area, so that essential information can be shared more easily between agencies.

* The Department will complete the three foundation projects on e-learning, core competences and communication skills training to develop and support staff.

* The National End of Life Care Intelligence Network will identify and share valuable evidence and information to assist in the improvement of services.

* The National Programme will also implement its communications strategy on end of life care.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.

NICE are encouraging anyone with an interest in health, including health professionals, patients, community groups and voluntary organisations to contribute to the development of the 2013/14 framework via the NICE website.

The form for submitting comments is here.

Further information is available on the NICE website here.

The consultation closes on 10 November 2010.  The full consultation document is available on the Department of Health website and can be accessed by clicking here.

Health minister Paul Burstow and the Liberal Democrat parliamentary committee on health and social care are inviting comments on the consultation paper about how the party's values, principles and policies are translated into government. The paper does not represent agreed party policy, but is intended to stimulate debate amongst Liberal Democrats about how to develop their policy platform. The consultation considers personal responsibility and the role of the state in relation to public health, and the integration of health and social care - including the role played by local government. It also addresses NHS commissioning, health outcomes and personalisation.

The consultation closes on October 31 2010.

The full consultation can be viewed on the Liberal Democrat website by clicking here.

NICE Quality Standards are markers of excellent care. They are produced collaboratively with the NHS and social care professionals, along with their partners and service users. They are derived from the best available evidence, usually NICE guidance or other sources that have been accredited by NHS Evidence. Quality standards set out the structures and processes of care, as well as the best outcomes for patients that the standard is likely to bring about.

Further information about Quality Standards is available on the NICE website or by clicking here.

The call for evidence includes:

• The merits of placing responsibility for different aspects of medical research regulation within a ‘single research regulator’.
• The future of the National Research Ethics Service and reorganisation of the research regulatory activities of the Human Tissue Authority and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

 The AMS’s review will:

• Review the regulatory and governance environment for medical research in the UK, with a particular focus on clinical trials.
• Identify key problems and their causes, including unnecessary process steps, delays, barriers, costs, complexity, reporting requirements and data collection.
• Make recommendations with respect to the regulatory and governance framework that will: increase the speed of decision-making; reduce complexity; and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and costs.

The first deadline for responses is 31 August. Respondents unable to meet this deadline are asked to notify the Academy by 31 August of their intention to submit evidence and to highlight substantive issues that will form the basis of their submission. The final deadline for submissions is 5pm on Tuesday 14 September.

The call for evidence from the AMS is available here.

• The recent announcement of extra funding for cancer drugs could benefit 2,400 patients. Although this will be sufficient for the initial months of the Cancer Drugs Fund, it will not be sufficient for the longer term
• If the Treasury fails to increase resourcing levels from £100 million per year to the promised £200 million per year, then 3,600 patients will be denied life-extending treatment due to a lack of funding
• The additional costs associated with making available every cancer treatment which clinicians wish to prescribe range from £175 million to £330 million per year.  The lower figure is believed to be the most realistic estimate

 In total, the report makes 25 recommendations.  Key points include: 

• The Government should honour its commitment to provide £200 million of funding per year to the Cancer Drugs Fund
• The Fund should cover treatments licensed since 1 January 2005 and treatments which clinicians wish to use in a near-label setting
• The Cancer Drugs Fund should be used to pilot approaches to value based pricing
• Manufacturers should be encouraged to negotiate a commercially confidential cost cap with the NHS, thereby ensuring that the £200 million is not exceeded. The negotiations on the cap calculation should be based on:
  • The potential size of the eligible patient population, adjusted for the impact of  patient  preference, contraindications and the availability of any clinical alternatives.
  • The listed unit price of the treatment.
  • Clinical effectiveness (based on feedback provided by expert advisory groups of cancer clinicians).
  • The extent to which the treatment addresses an unmet need (again, based on feedback provided by expert advisory groups of clinicians.
• Clinical audit should play a fundamental role in the Cancer Drugs Fund, ensuring that the NHS gathers new evidence on the scale of demand for treatment and the benefits that it brings.  Audit will also be important in ensuring the scheme is not abused, for example through parallel exporting.

The report is available here.

Invitation to submit written evidence
 
Commissioning
 
The last substantive report of the Health Committee in the last Parliament, published on 30th March 2010, reviewed the progress of commissioning in the NHS. Among its conclusions were the following:

• "Weaknesses remain 20 years after the introduction of the purchaser/provider split".
• "Weaknesses are due in large part to PCTs' lack of skills, notably poor analysis of data, lack of clinical knowledge and the poor quality of much PCT management. The situation has been made worse by the constant re-organisations and high turnover of staff".

The Coalition has made it clear that, like its predecessor, it regards more empowered and more effective commissioning as the key to successful delivery of its objectives for the NHS.

The new Health Committee has therefore decided to follow up the work of its predecessor by holding an inquiry into how the new government intends to resolve the issues which have undermined the effectiveness of commissioning in the NHS.

The Committee is launching this inquiry in the belief that its work can contribute to the debate about the implementation of the policies for commissioning outlined in government's White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.

Full details of the consultation questions can be viewed here.

The Committee invites short written submissions from interested organisations and individuals. The deadline for submitting written evidence is noon on Wednesday 6 October 2010.  Submissions should be no more than 3,000 words and should sent to healthcommem@parliament.uk.

This will make treatments without a final NICE decision, those with a negative NICE appraisal and treatments prescribed in 'near-label' circumstances available for clinicians to prescribe when they and the patient believe that there could be a clinical benefit from the treatment. 

The Government will be consulting on their plans for the final Cancer Drugs Fund later this year. They plan to introduce value based medicines pricing from 2014.

The report looked at international variations in drug usage for a range of conditions and diseases, across 14 countries, including the United Kingdom. It found that there are wide international variations in usage of most of the drugs included in the study, though few countries emerge as generally high or low users.

The report showed the UK’s usage of new cancer drugs to lag behind that of most of the countries studied. Plans to introduce value-based medicines pricing in 2014, on expiry of the current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, are intended to allow the Government to take the initiative on access to new medicines. In the meantime, the Government plans to introduce a Cancer Drugs Fund to give patients access to cancer treatments that are not already routinely available within the NHS.

The full report is available here.