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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...

Health website attracts 56% more visits in October to December 2011 compared to 2010 The Department of Health (DH) has reported a 56% increase in the number of people using NHS Choices in October to December 2011 compared to the same period last year. According to the DH, the health information website had 368,000 visits, 133,000 more visits a day than 2010. During the Christmas period concerns about norovirus drove up visits to pages on the winter vomiting bug by 162% compared to last year. Between 19 and 27 December 2011 there was an 117% increase in traffic to these pages compared to the previous...

A clinical trail is researching whether records can help cancer patients make more informed choices about their treatment "The best thing about having my appointments recorded was the ability to sit down in the aftermath and in the cold light of day listen to what had been said," says Bob Miller, who recently underwent radiotherapy after being told last year he had prostate cancer. Miller's consultations were audio-recorded as part of a study by researchers at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, on how a navigation consultation support system can help cancer patients prepare for their appointments...

The relatively newness of social media means that some NHS employees haven't yet realised what they shouldn't do online Staff having inappropriate conversations on Facebook, staff making unacceptable comments about patients and colleagues online, staff uploading inappropriate pictures. The list goes on, and quite frankly the stupidity of some of the incidents reported by trusts is pretty shocking. Guardian Healthcare sent out Freedom of Information requests to 25 of the biggest NHS trusts in England by number of employees, asking how many members of staff had received warnings or dismissals...

Moodscope, a website that turns a standard mental health test into a card game, is showing promising initial results Over the past decade, the number of patients presenting with anxiety and depression has increased steadily, and the current recession has done little to help. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme aims to improve access to services for patients across England, but there is still a massive gap between the number of patients needing support, and the ability of the NHS to meet demand, says Dr Tracey Lucas, a GP in Washington, Tyne and Wear. "We're...

New TV channel will pilot GP bookings and repeat prescriptions, as well as providing patients in Scotland with health advice NHS 24 has launched a new health information channel on three digital television systems, in a bid to improve access to advice for those without internet connections. The channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin, is being delivered in partnership with Looking Local and gives people access to health advice and information on local services. Apps for iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones also provide access to the digital service. The service offers information from...

Chelsea and Westminster reduces the number of outpatients not attending 16 of its clinics through text message reminders Chelsea and Westminster hospital foundation trust has reduced its did not attend (DNA) rate by 26% since the introduction of a SMS text message reminder system, with falls in almost all of its outpatient clinics. The number of DNAs fell from 14% to 10.4% across 16 outpatient areas between the system being introduced in April 2010 and now. The trust says this is equivalent to 720 fewer missed appointments each month. Significant decreases were seen in physiotherapy, where the...