A network of local and regional Quality Surveillance Groups (QSGs) will be created to identify and resolve failings in the quality of NHS and social care.

A consultation document from the National Quality Board (NQB) outlines the new system for safeguarding quality from April 2013.

The QSGs will be supported by the NHS Commissioning Board, but “the system will need to manage itself” without any central authority.

The NQB brings together all national organisations concerned with the quality of healthcare, including the CQC, NICE, Monitor and the Commissioning Board.

According to Quality in the new health system – Maintaining and improving quality from April 2013, quality is a systemic principle that has to be supported at all levels of the NHS.

However, the decentralised nature of the new NHS creates the need for a means to share intelligence about quality – hence the new QSGs, which will act as “a virtual team” across the health and social care system.

Local QSGs will include local commissioners (from CCGs, the Board and local government), local Healthwatch and representatives of Monitor and the CQC.

The NHSCB will provide “a support and facilitation role” for local and regional QSGs, chairing meetings and providing records.

Problems will not be referred to any higher authority: “the system will need to manage itself”. The existing ‘risk summit’ model will be used, but which organisation takes charge of dealing with the problem will depend on the circumstances.

The consultation period ends on 30 September 2012, and the NQB’s final version of the new regulations will take account of the conclusions of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust enquiry.

Circle, the first private healthcare provider to manage an NHS trust, has drawn up proposals which it estimates could make the firm more than £8bn from other failing trusts.

In a presentation given to investors before it took over the management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital, it highlighted a number of other money-making opportunities in the NHS.

The document identified 32 trusts it viewed as “NHS growth opportunities” including Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, NHS Isle of Wight and Barts and the London Trust.

Investors were told how “Circle is well positioned to win new contracts” and how there were “attractive returns on capital invested”.

Delegates at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference in New York were also told that St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals Trust was “publicly acknowledged to be a possible contract.”

A spokesperson for Circle said it was well known there were a number of struggling trusts across England and that its business model “would make us a good strategic partner for many of them”.

“Circle’s partnership model and entrepreneurial drive offers an alternative to cuts and closure for struggling NHS hospitals across the country,” said the spokesperson. “We should be allowed to do more.”

Since the presentation, a number of the 32 trusts outlined in the document have gone on to merge or gain foundation trust status.

When Circle took over Hinchingbrooke it agreed to take on the hospital’s £40m debt and, in return, to take the first £2m profit, 25% of the next £4m and 33% of the next £4m. It has since said it has improved performance in the NHS hospital’s A&E and colorectal departments, as well as making £1.1m cost savings.

NICE has again backed Amgen’s Xgeva (denosumab) as a treatment option for patients with bone metastases from the majority of solid cancer tumours.

The final draft guidance recommends the treatment after NICE produced a review of available evidence and two separate stages of public consultation.

It continues to recommend Xgeva for the prevention of skeletal-related events in:

· people with bone metastases from breast cancer, and

· people with bone metastases from solid tumours who would otherwise be prescribed bisphosphonates.

The guidance also states that Xgeva must only be prescribed under the terms agreed in a Patient Access Scheme between Amgen and the DH.

Bone metastases occur when cancer spreads from its original tumour to the bone. This can lead to bones losing their strength and ultimately lead to skeletal-related events.

Professor Carole Longson, Director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said the condition “can severely affect a person’s quality of life” and stop individuals from completing everyday tasks.

NICE has now given consultees another opportunity to request a factual change to the draft guidance or lodge an appeal against its recommendation. If no appeals are received, final guidance will be issued later this year.

The last year has seen patient experience of cancer treatment improve, according to a national survey.

Overall 88% of patients rated their care as excellent or very good, and 98 trusts have improved on their scores from last year.

Approval of the speed, choice and privacy of treatment all showed slight improvement relative to the first survey in 2011.

Reports have been sent to individual trusts on feedback from patients in their care, enabling them to focus on weaknesses.

The survey, carried out by Quality Health, also found that 95% of cancer patients were keen to participate in cancer research.

Over 70,000 patients were surveyed. Relative to 2010, approval increased for speed of treatment (83% from 81%), choice of treatment (84% from 83%) and privacy of treatment (94% from 93%).

The 10 most improved foundation trusts in the survey were: Portsmouth Hospitals, Guy’s & St Thomas’, Tameside Hospital, The Royal Marsden, Western Sussex Hospitals, East Kent University Hospitals, University Hospital Bristol, South Tyneside, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals and Medway.

“The information from this survey is vital to driving improvements on the ground for patients,” said National Cancer Director Professor Sir Mike Richards (pictured). “By seeing what areas they can improve upon, the local NHS can focus on the areas that matter most to patients.”

Macmillan Cancer Support and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed these findings, but emphasised the need for rarer cancers to be treated as effectively as more common types.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive, noted that the survey “recognises the important contribution that specialist nurses make to patients with cancer”