Consultant's Catch-up
There are a couple of themes I'd like to touch on this month. I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the National Obesity Forum's annual conference in October. This was part of a series of events and announcements focussed on drawing people's and politicians' attention to the sharp rise in obesity.
The NICE clinical guideline on obesity, published last December, was the focus of my speech. Having heard calls at the conference for clear advice on what people and agencies from all sectors could do to encourage people to be active and eat healthily, it was really good to be able to describe our guidance and the messages it conveys to local authorities, schools, the voluntary sector and, of course, healthcare. It also made me think that maybe people aren't very aware of the guidance and the implementation support tools that are available to help people put the guidance into action. The obesity guideline and the guide to all the resources available from NICE and other sources to help you put the guidance into practice can also be downloaded from the NICE website.
Secondly as I'm sure you are aware the Healthcare Commission published the latest performance against the Standards for Better Health in October. We were really pleased to see improved performance against the standard for implementing interventional procedures with an increase of 1.2% in those declaring compliance and an even more impressive increase in the implementation of technology appraisals, which was up 4.7%. When we are out talking to people in PCTs and Trusts about compliance against these standards we are often asked what the Healthcare Commission's expectations are. Naturally we have to refer people to the HCC as they are responsible for assessing compliance. However, this year one PCT had its declaration against the technology appraisal standard adjusted following investigation by the HCC. The report detailing the HCC's findings will make interesting reading for anyone involved in compiling self assessment declarations. The report can be found on the HCC website.
This is the last Consultant's Catch Up before our Annual Conference in Manchester on 5 and 6 December. If you haven't booked your place yet there is still time - visit www.nice2007.co.uk for more details. If you're going to be there, please drop by the NICE stand and say hello. The Implementation Consultants will be there during most of the breaks and it's always great to catch up with people and hear how things are going in your patch.
Steve Sparks
