An early detection of cancer community project in Lincolnshire has been awarded a £50,000 NHS Innovation Challenge Prize by the Department of Health.

Julie Grimmer, in partnership with NHS North East Lincolnshire, was awarded the accolade after her Community Engagement Project led to a substantial increase in two week wait referrals.

The project involves the use of 50 volunteers who act as agents in helping people understand, discuss and seek help for the early symptoms of cancer.

The community-led model combines social marketing, community involvement and action and has seen the uptake of bowel screening increase 57% against the national average of 30% and cervical screening up by 12% in the last three years compared to a 7.4% regional increase.

Dr Dean Harmse from Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust was also awarded £50,000 after his project reduced histopathology laboratory turnaround times.

This was achieved by changes in workflow and other systems which saw the backlog of cases reduced from 500 to zero over three months, whilst increasing seven day turnaround times from 38% to 87%. Ten day turnaround times also increased from 48% to 94%.

Finally, Dr David Swann – in partnership with NHS East Riding of Yorkshire – was awarded a highly commended status for designing a new 21^st century nurse’s bag to help control infection.

The applicant designed a new type of bag which includes integrated treatment space, is easy to clean and is highly functional. It also improves patient safety, productivity and the patient’s experience.

The innovation prizes are part of the DH’s wider innovation strategy designed to support the creation of innovation within the NHS. Up to £1m of prize money can be awarded for each of the challenges.

Primary care services will be commissioned under a ‘single operating model’ from April next year, a new report from the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) outlines.

The new approach aims to introduce consistency across the commissioning of primary care services and improve fairness, better health outcomes and efficiency.

Dame Barbara Hakin (pictured), National Director for Commissioning Development, said a consistent approach will help tackle “unwarranted variation and take positive steps towards raising the overall standard of primary care provision”.

Until now the commissioning of primary care services has been done differently by individual PCTs across the country.

The report, Securing Excellence in Primary Care Commissioning, describes how the new model will use the £12.6bn the NHS spends in this area each year to secure the best possible outcomes.

From April next year, local, regional and national teams will work in one single system. The majority of commissioning will therefore take place locally, close to “contractors and close to patients”, the report said.

A flow of “standardised information” will also be available to ensure core intelligence is available to help make the best commissioning decisions.

CCGs, the report says, will not be responsible for contract compliance, allowing them to “focus on local priorities and supporting continuous development”.

The “most significant task”, the report adds, is to “standardise the performance management frameworks and processes at practice, provider and individual levels”.

CCG governing boards may not include local councillors and must include one secondary care nurse, the NHS Commissioning Board has said.

The new policy tightens the previous ruling that CCG boards had to include one nurse – many CCGs had planned to give the place to a practice nurse.

The nurse must not work for a major provider contracted by the CCG – which has raised concerns about finding suitable people.

Councillors are also excluded by the new governance regulations for CCG boards, to be published in July.

Both decisions reflect tensions between the need to avoid conflicts of interest and the need to bring together the most relevant stakeholders.

The statement on nurse members follows concerns raised by the RCN and others that a practice nurse might be inexperienced and, at worst, a ‘token’ appointment.

Dame Barbara Hakin, National Director of Commissioning Development, said it was important for a nurse to bring a “different perspective” from that of primary care.

As the number of people on a CCG board is unlimited, practice nurses could also be appointed.

The prescribed nurse and acute care medic on the board must not be employed by major local service providers to the CCG.

According to Nursing Times, this means many CCGs may struggle to find suitable people.

Similarly, the exclusion of local councillors will weaken engagement between the NHS and social care.

However, the BMA has confirmed that CCG boards will include GPs: a proposed GP boycott of CCGs was rejected by its Annual Representatives Meeting.

South London Healthcare may become the first NHS hospital trust to be declared bankrupt after accumulating debts of £69m.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has warned the trust that an administrator may be brought in to sort out its finances. The trust could also be dissolved and certain services closed as a result.

Mr Lansley said in a letter that he realises not all of the debts are the trust’s fault. However, he added that problems must be “tackled” and that “we are almost at this point”.

The trust merged three London hospitals in 2009: Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

When the three joined to form one organisation, the trust inherited a large debt through a private finance initiative (PFI) that had been used for the buildings at Orpington and Woolwich.

If the Health Secretary decides to disband the trust, it would not necessarily mean that all services would close as another NHS organisation or a private provider could take over responsibilities.

Government ministers are thought to be considering a deal which would see taxpayers taking over responsibility for the £2.5bn PFI contract.

But the option of emergency funding to reduce the deficit is not being considered in a move which ministers believe would allow other trusts to assume similar bailouts.

Mike Farrar, Chief Executive at the NHS Confederation, welcomed the move by the Health Secretary. “The NHS can’t go on with short-term fixes to financial problems,” he said. “That might mean some tough decisions, but hopefully will deliver financial sustainability in the long term.”

Chris Streather, Chief Executive of South London Healthcare, said talks were now ongoing with the Department of Health and NHS London to decide the “best future” for the trust.

“The most important thing is that the health needs of the local population are sorted out,” he said. “Over the last three and a half years since we have merged we have made an enormous amount of progress on quality of care.

“There is a huge gap in our financial plan in order for us to become viable in the long term and this intervention if it solves that problem which it is designed to do is absolutely welcome and will be helpful.”

A decision is expected on the future of South London Healthcare in the middle of July.

The Care Quality Commission has experienced “serious difficulties” in its first 18 months, according to a National Audit Office report.

The NAO said the regulator had “struggled” to fulfil its role due to NHS instability, making only half of the hospital inspections it had planned.

However the CQC was “now taking action to improve its performance”, the report concluded.

The new inspection body replaced the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission in October 2010.

The NAO noted that the abrupt shift had caused “disruption for providers and confusion for the public”.

By April 2011 the CQC had carried out only 53% of its planned inspections of hospitals and care homes, and had not met its schedule for registering care providers.

The organisation suffered from lack of staff, the review said: after a year, 14% of its positions – including 100 inspector posts – were unfilled due to Government restrictions on recruitment.

Its failure to identify patient mistreatment and neglect at a residential care home near Bristol was also criticised.

Both the DH and the CQC itself were to blame for the regulator’s failings, the NAO concluded.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, commented: “The CQC has had an uphill struggle to carry out its work effectively and has experienced serious difficulties. It is welcome that it is now taking action to improve its performance.

He added: “The commission and the Department of Health should make clear what successful regulation of this critical sector would look like.”

The DH is currently reviewing the CQC; its findings will be published later this year. Margaret Hodge, Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, called the NAO’s report “deeply worrying”.