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Now is the time for everyone involved in health and social care to offer their opinions on how the CQC should work The Care Quality Commission (CQC) plays an important role in health and social care. I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead an organisation that drives improvements to care by regulating and monitoring the services that provide it. There's no question that CQC had a lot to deliver in its first three years, merging three organisations into one. We brought in a new system of regulation and registered 40,000 organisations that provide care. We introduced a new,...

Chief executive of Whittington Health, Dr Yi Mien Koh, explains to Jessica Fuhl that the biggest challenge to integration and efficiency is getting staff on board Whittington Health has ambitions plans for the future. It hopes to achieve foundation trust status by 2014 and its first step to ensure it made sufficient efficiency savings in order to do so was to fully integrate local community services with the hospital last year. In January it had reached 98% of its cost improvement programme (CIP) target for the financial year as a result. The integrated health organisation is a merger of the formerly...

Confidentiality is key when dealing with patients on digital networks and formal training should be required I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook talking with patients and members of the public, both proactively and in response to questions and issues raised. It is important that people remember the need to consider the confidentiality of the networks used to communicate with patients. Most social networks like Google Plus and Facebook potentially share a lot of people's personal details, from photos, messages sent and articles shared to personal biographies that include things like...

British Medical Association urges health secretary to slow down implementation of non-emergency number to allow for proper assessment The British Medical Association (BMA) has written to health secretary Andrew Lansley over concerns about the implementation of the NHS 111 24-hour non-emergency phone service. The letter, written by Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GPs committee, expresses "serious misgivings" about the roll out of the NHS 111 service. "Our key concerns include specific problems in some of the pilot areas, failure to ensure a smooth transition or to address...

Integration and co-ordination can make a huge difference in the service delivered to children – and the impact on their health To some children and their parents it can feel like different parts of the NHS just don't talk to each other. The parents of Craig*, a 10-year-old with learning difficulties and complex additional medical and behavioural problems, experienced just that. There were countless hospital visits to deal with his range of specific conditions and an array of drugs prescribed by different consultants. That was until they were allocated a caseworker, who, according to Craig's...

Tender for seven year image and archiving contract is on behalf of four trusts East Kent hospitals university foundation trust is leading a partnership that will see four trusts buy picture and archiving software from one supplier. The group has published a tender, worth £50m, for picture archiving and communications systems (Pacs), radiology information systems (Ris) and vendor neutral archiving software, including related hardware and managed services. The chosen supplier will also be expected to supply and host domain-based systems required for data sharing. East Kent is procuring the software...

An award-winning social network pilot is delivering NHS innovation The recent publication of the NHS's innovation, health and wealth document signals the start of a new era of concentrated activity for a truly world-class health service. In his foreword, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson wrote: "Our ambition must be for an NHS defined by its commitment to innovation and success in the rapid adoption and diffusion of the best, transformative, most innovative ideas, products, services and clinical practice." NHS East of England has been working to support innovation within the...

Department of Health says trial shows telehealth can provide significant benefits for patients and providers Telehealth technologies can reduce mortality, hospital admissions, the number of bed days spent in hospital and the time spent in A&E, according to the initial findings of a study by the Department of Health (DH). Early indications have shown that, if used properly telehealth – a term for electronic sensors or equipment that monitors vital health signs remotely in a patient's home, or while on the move – can deliver a 15% reduction in A&E visits and, say the DH, a 45% reduction...