This conference was organised in conjunction with the North West Regional Association of Community Health Councils to discuss the proper role of the accident and emergency (A & E) service. Areas under discussion included the centralisation of A & E services in district general hospitals and the role of the ...
Over the past two or three years, a rapid increase in the number of emergency medical admissions to acute hospitals has been widely reported and a number of studies in different parts of the country have been carried out aimed at explaining why these increases have occurred. In early 1995, ...
In 1992 the King's Fund Commission published a report `London health care 2010 : changing the future of services in the capital'. This report was unable to describe in any detail the actual delivery of acute medical care in London. This required a more indepth study of care based on ...
This report examines the nature of emergency admissions in London, pointing out that the main peaks in demand appear to be due to respiratory disease during the Christmas period. Chronic disease in the elderly is a major factor, and residents of the East End of London seem to be affected ...
The Long Term Care Team at the King's Fund Centre was concerned that there were difficulties facing some disabled people coming into contact with staff of health authorities. This meeting was set up to bring together multi-disciplinary professional trainers to look at the issue of health authority staff's attitudes to ...
This book describes a visit to a number of hospitals and other institutions in the Eastern States of America by a delegation from Charing Cross Hospital. The delegation held the view that the management of health is a problem which should know no national boundaries and which must be a ...
This report describes a visit made by staff of the Charing Cross Hospital to a number of recently built hospitals in Europe in May 1947. The visit was financed by a grant from the King's Fund. The purpose of the visit was to study methods of hospital design and planning. ...
Recommendations by the Medical Subcommittee to the Joint Committee about the functions and methods of staffing the teaching hospitals and special hospitals are printed in this pamphlet.
This enquiry was initiated at a time when it was realised that a number of hospital authorities were beginning to think that the addition of recovery homes might assist in the solution of the problem of providing a better hospital service. A recovery home provides accommodation for patients in whom ...
As highlighted by the report of the Royal Commission on the NHS, nurses are the largest staff group in the NHS and account for over one quarter of the total current expenditure in the NHS. Compared to doctors, their manpower and training needs have received relatively little attention until the ...
Between 1980 and the end of the century it is estimated there will be a 30 per cent increase in people suffering from dementia, but no equivalent budget growth to maintain current per capita levels of service provision. This project explores the limits of community or domiciliary care for dementia-sufferers, ...
This report analyses the impact of employment on health in Britain and reviews the disparate elements of Government policy which affect worker's health. At national level, the report argues for a comprehensive approach to occupational health, requiring the co-ordination of strategies across government departments. Drawing on international experiences, the report ...
There is widespread acceptance of the need for health care professionals to obtain the views of service users but there is confusion over the best way of accomplishing this task. What is offered here is a practical guide to enable health care professionals to decide from whom they want to ...
This report is derived from a memorandum submitted to the Griffiths review of community care. It endorses the Audit Commission's diagnosis of the problems besetting community care while expressing reservations over its proposed solutions. The report recommends the adoption of a set of measures designed to build upon what is ...
This is the first in the annual series of volumes on medical law and ethics based on lectures given at King's College London. The contributors, who came from a wide a range of disciplines and represent diverse interests, review important issues in the forefront of recent controversy, relating particularly to ...
The workshop was part of the 'Ordinary Life' initiative, which had so far overlooked those people with learning difficulties who are held in secure units. The contributions in this report are picked up four themes - values underlying the 'Ordinary Life' initiative; the concept of security; the concept of dangerousness; ...
This book provides the results of a confidential enquiry into perioperative deaths conducted with the collaboration of both the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Association of Anaesthetists. The overall findings are reassuring, although several less than satisfactory practices are revealed. The conduct and outcome of ...
This book describes the first appointment of the Medical Officer of Health, and sets out the development of the office and its increasing responsibilities and achievements. An epilogue outlines the influences which led to the abolition of the post in 1974. This collection provides a timely opportunity to reconsider the ...
This briefing paper critically reviews the proposals, assesses financial implication and highlights major omissions in the White Paper 'Promoting Better Health' : the Government's review of primary care services. It concludes that, despite welcome attention to issues of accountability and value for money, some basic questions remain unanswered : which ...
This report is of a study started in 1976 which was planned to seek the views of patients about their treatment in hospital. The objectives were: to identify deficiencies in communication between patients and the medical and nursing staff and where possible to remedy these; to seek ways of improving ...
This book is based on the first research study to look at the impact on women of a positive cervical smear and subsequent investigation and treatment. It follows their experiences from the initial discovery through to outpatient treatment or inpatient surgery. The authors describe the thoughts and feelings women have ...
Case management means a number of different ways of managing care, ranging from client advocacy on one hand, to managing services and resources on the other. These, and other issues, are explored in the context of three experimental projects supported by KEHFL. The book reviews a number of dimensions of ...
On 22 June 1988 the DHSS hosted a conference on women's health. This volume contains the papers given by the speakers. The purpose of the day was to provide a forum for dispelling the myths and correcting some of the misunderstandings surrounding women's health. Papers presented included breast cancer, cervical ...
Despite forty years of the NHS, there are continuing geographical variations in the provision, use and outcome of health services. These variations are manifested in the greater availability of doctors and hospital beds in some areas than others; differences in the use made of these doctor and beds; and variations ...
The purpose of this survey was to undertake an exploratory enquiry on the views of both staff and patients about psychiatric departments in general hospitals, mainly in London and southern England. It does not attempt to be a comprehensive attitude survey. Fourteen departments were included in the survey; at the ...
The aim of this report was to devise a method by which psychiatric hospitals could discover the views of their patients. Three methods were tried out in wards similar to each other in each of three hospitals. A simple, written questionnaire, answered anonymously, was found to be satisfactory except for ...
This document gives instructions as to how patient satisfaction surveys may be undertaken, particularly in the psychiatric hospital setting. The aim of the study is to : assist psychiatric hospitals to gain information on the views of their patients, both favourable and on priorities for change, and thus enable the ...
National policies promoting a shift from institutional to more community based patterns of care for people with mental health problems, have not evolved in a single, coherent way, nor have they been implemented uniformly. In devising strategies appropriate to developing psychiatric services in the next decade, lessons should be learned ...
Helen House, a hospice for children, is a philosophy, not a facility, which aims to enable families to care for their sick child at home in specific ways: by ensuring that extra community support is mobilised; by offering respite care; by telephone contact and home visits. While there is undoubtedly ...
A service for the elderly mentally ill was started at St Francis' Hospital, Haywards Heath, in 1967. This collection of papers has been published following a grant from the King's Fund. The report gives some account of what has happened since the establishment of the service, the type of services ...
Three surveys in this book follow up the first study which Professor Brocklehurst undertook for the King's Fund and illustrates ten years of progress by the N.H.S. in the provision of day care for elderly patients. The first provides general data on geriatric day hospitals in the UK: buildings, facilities ...
This report is the first result of a study concerned with the organisation and effectiveness of industrial therapy in psychiatric hospitals. It reflects the significant changes in the traditional views first, of the psychiatric patient and his relation to the community, and second, of the hospital itself as a social ...
This document reports the work of the Hospital Personal Aid Service during 1960. The Service undertakes to visit, on behalf of hospitals, elderly people awaiting admission to hospital whose medical condition does not warrant immediate admission to an acute ward although no patient is visited and no action is taken ...
In recent years considerable advances have taken place in understanding the processes by which people learn, and this has lead to the development of new techniques in learning. The underlying purpose of this survey is: to discover areas of knowledge that cause nurses, especially pupil nurses, particular difficulty; to indicate ...
After 19 years it is clear that the foundations of the NHS are sound, but there is still much readjustment to be achieved within the general plan. It has become increasingly clear that somehow much better cooperation must be achieved if the main divisions of the NHS, hospitals, public health ...
This hospital description seeks to establish a method of describing a new hospital and its planning which could be applied to any new hospital project. It is hoped that the description presents the project in a concise and readable form giving essential information about the hospital under the headings development, ...
This pamphlet is a prospectus for the staff college which existed in the 1960s to educate ward sisters so that they in turn could teach student and pupil nurses.
The intention of this conference was to bring together persons from many countries who would be able to state, explain and comment upon the staffing problems of the health services of their national areas; who would be competent to discuss relevant matters of general interest; and whose individual and joint ...
This second conference was presented with very definite and deliberately chosen terms of reference to form the basis of the papers and discussions. These were: 1) in the changing context of hospital administration what are the most important problems of today?; 2) how are these problems being dealt with and ...
The theme for this conference was the pressure for more medical services, including curative care of all kinds and medical care and for more hospital services of all types, including acute, mixed, long-term and psychiatric services. Each paper provides an objective statement of facts as they exist in each country.
This report is the outcome of an enquiry into the subject of relationships between GPs and hospitals. Its object is to draw attention to the problem of communication between hospitals and general practitioners and make any recommendations which seem indicated.
The purpose of this report is to attempt to define the work of the hospital chaplain which may be regarded as falling into two groups: ministry to patients; ministry to hospital staff.
The aims of the survey were: i) to record and describe the experience of hospitals in relation to the recruitment, training ,remuneration and method of working of voluntary service organisers; ii) to study the achievements of full-time organisers in the use of volunteers within the hospitals and in their relationships ...
This report describes the King's Fund provision of homes for elderly people who do not require continued hospital treatment, but do need somewhere to go before returning to their own homes. Although the day-to-day running of these homes is undertaken by voluntary organisations, the hospital services undertake to accept responsibility ...
This document reports the results of a Committee of which the terms of reference were : to ensure in Lewisham full co-operation between all services for the elderly, to ascertain what gaps existed and how they could be best filled. The Special Committee agreed to look particularly at the application ...
It was suggested that the future of efficient hospital library services could only be assured if fuller knowledge were available of existing services and their cost. This survey of a limited area was undertaken to prepare the way for a conference of all interested bodies in the country. The terms ...
This book studies voluntary service in the field of hospital, and makes some suggestions for future policy. It surveys the administration of the new hospital service, and studies voluntary service against this background. The phrase`voluntary service' covers the following : unpaid service by men and women who form part of ...
On March 24, 1923, the Voluntary Hospitals Commission wrote to the King's Fund, referring to a question and answer given in the House of Commons on Wednesday, March 21, on the subject of hospital accommodation for accident cases, and asking that the King's Fund, as the Voluntary Hospitals Committee for ...
The first paper from the conference discusses the health system of Sweden, considers how the rising costs of hospital care and shortage of medical personnel and especially doctors and nurses have focused the interest of the responsible medical and political bodies on rational hospital planning and organisation. The second paper ...
This conference was convened to consider and discuss the hospital services, their organisation and scope with special reference to methods of administration. From each country was presented a paper written by the representative of that country dealing in fairly general terms with the principal features of its acute hospital service.
This report makes a number of recommendations about the way in which hospital services are organised. These include the pattern of hospital services in areas or `regions'; and the establishment of a central body to be concerned with civilian medical and ancillary health services of the country.
This document presents the minutes of evidence from the Pay Beds Committee which was set up with the following terms of reference: "to inquire and report upon the question of hospital accommodation in London for persons prepared to pay more than ordinary voluntary hospital patients; and to report the conclusions ...
This manual suggests subjects for enquiry and observation when hospital visits are being undertaken to gain first hand knowledge of the hospital and its work. The areas of the hospital covered are : inpatients; casualty patients; outpatients; medical records department; elderly people; operating theatres; x-ray and pathological departments; physiotherapy, occupational ...
This report looks at the existing provision of pay beds in the Voluntary Hospital service in London. Pay beds are for those patients of moderate means who can pay up to seven guineas a week and a limited amount in medical fees. By people contributing to the hospital services which ...
This document brings up to date the particulars of pay bed accommodation in London shown in appendix II of the report on pay bed accommodation. The original terms of reference for this report were "to inquire and report upon the question of hospital accommodation in London for persons prepared to ...
This document is a report of the Pay Beds Committee which was set up with the following terms of reference: "to inquire and report upon the question of hospital accommodation in london for persons prepared to pay more than ordinary voluntary hospital patients; and to report the conclusions at which ...
This detailed survey of convalescence as it affects London patients arose as a development of the work of the King's Fund in the upgrading of convalescent homes which had been severely affected by the Second World War. It became clear during the survey that very little information was available about ...
The idea of finding out which particular noises in hospitals were most worrying to patients was considered by the King's Fund in 1956 and it was decided that the hospital visitors should make special enquiries during the course of their visits to London hospitals. The resulting comments, which were made ...
In 1957/58, the King's Fund conducted an enquiry into the problem of noise control in hospitals, and the results of this enquiry were published in a report in November 1958. In 1960 it was felt that some useful information might be obtained by inviting the fifteen hospitals of the initial ...
St Mark's colo-rectal hospital celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1985. It is the only colo-rectal hospital to survive in Britain and thus is unique. It is also a particularly distinguished example from a class of hospitals that developed in the nineteenth century in London and elsewhere to combat specific diseases, ...
This document is a learning package aimed at improving the support given to carers by health, social service and voluntary sector agencies. It is based on a pilot project in Croydon. The package describes ways in which more effective collaboration between agencies can be achieved and the impact this can ...
This paper describes innovatory schemes and progress in bringing children with learning difficulties out of hospital. At the conference, Barnardo's N.W. Division presented information about their professional fostering scheme, followed by Portsmouth and S.E. Hampshire Health Authority's provision of alternative accommodation in the community for mentally handicapped children. A dehospitalisation ...
The conference reported here was jointly sponsored by the King's Fund Centre and the D.H.S.S. to further explore established themes around the move of children from mental handicap hospitals. The specific aims were: to share experiences between those involved in moving children and young people out of hospital: to explore ...
The aim of this project was to devise a profile which defines some aspects of agreed good practice. It is a tool of management devised by physiotherapy managers within the NHS for their own use. It is a yardstick for the managers to evaluate their own performance. It is a ...
The discussion in this paper is based on the findings of a study supported by the King's Fund and conducted under the auspices of the Royal College of Radiologists Working Party on the Effective Use of Diagnostic Radiology in which four strategies were evaluated for implementing guidelines on the use ...
It is impossible to give an accurate account of the numbers of domestics from overseas at present employed in British hospitals, but the percentage is certainly high. Hospitals have great difficulties in recruiting locally, and have to look elsewhere, often drawing people directly from overseas, for example from Southern Europe, ...
Many hospital laundries employ workers from overseas and for them the most crucial element in their general ability to work well and to live happily in Britain is their knowledge of the English language. This course aims: to teach the English the learner needs for his immediate job, and to ...
This publication gives guidance on teaching English to catering staff in hospitals. It details reasons why alternative forms of language education are unsuitable, and gives ideas on teaching the different aspects of English the staff will need to know. [SMD}
A number of hospitals now send information booklets or leaflets to their patients before they are admitted to the wards, and early in 1962 the King's Fund decided to conduct a survey to find out the extent to which such patients' booklets are in fact being issued by hospitals and ...
This report presents the recommendations of a working party set up in December 1973 to study the subject of orientation for overseas recruits to nurse training.
Since 1980 a group of workers organising family-based relief care schemes has met on a regular basis, to look at particular aspects of respite care, and to organise occasional workshops. Although the schemes represented by the group vary widely, features of respite care offered by families have emerged, with workers ...
This research project is the result of collaboration by the following organisations:- The King's Fund; London Boroughs Training Committee; London Voluntary Services Council; National Institute of Social Work; Age Concern Greater London. It was financed by the King's Fund. The limits of altruism explores the social and psychological processes which ...
This publication contains proposals formulated by members of two workshops held in March 1982 about the management arrangements required for collecting valid clinical data and providing a district information service.
The conference aimed to bring together practitioners in housing, social services and psychiatry; to explore the links and gaps, the successes and the failings; and to point out some signposts for future development of service to meet needs. In particular, the conference explored three themes: 1) the varying definitions of ...
This meeting was called to bring together various professionals in the field, and to discuss good practice, the gaps and what might be done. The conference identified some of the ways in which improvement might be effected: 1) exchanging information on good and interesting practices which have been developed around ...
The aim of this project was to discover whether the needs of people whose relatives die in hospital are being met within that setting. Surveys were undertaken to gain the views of both sides, by seeking both the experiences of bereaved relatives, and by ascertaining the procedures and practices of ...
The aims of this conference were to identify the problems that are particular to those working in terminal care, to find ways of solving them, and to look at the future development of the specialty. Terminal care is distinguished from other medical care by the need to relieve pain that ...
This report attempts to correlate therapeutic principles of the treatment of alcoholism with the planning and design of new facilities. Two existing treatment facilities are looked at in depth, Warlingham Park Hospital, Surrey and Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Scotland.
The Drug Dependency Discussion Group was founded in 1968 to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas for those working in the drug dependency treatment clinics. Its work quickly extended beyond those confines to include social workers in the community, teachers and a variety of other groups. In 1974 ...
Prison medicine is a unique branch of medical practice undertaken by a number of doctors who have chosen to work in penal establishments either full-time or part-time. It comprises the provision of a comprehensive medical service within certain legal constraints. The four papers in this document were given at a ...
This study day provided an opportunity for social workers to discuss some of the many variations in adoption practices, policies and procedures. Discussion centred on the main themes of the role of the local authority as parent; authorities assuming parental rights with parents agreements; agency records and child history, and ...
This item provides information and advice for members of steering groups responsible for implementing organisational audit. From joining the programme to assessing the surveyors' recommendations, this booklet clarifies the whole process and explains how it's done.
The appropriate and safe use of drugs by the elderly requires special knowledge and skills if the benefits of treatment are to outweigh the risks. This review of published reports covers the use and misuse of drugs by the elderly, drug therapy in elderly patients and prescribing for the elderly. ...
This book describes the experiences of twenty families who have, living at home, a teenager or young adult with severe learning difficulties who has been classified by professionals as 'severely' or 'profoundly' mentally handicapped, and who also has 'serious behavioural problems'. It documents the lives of these families, and the ...
In recent years, the concept of the expanded role of the nurse has aroused much discussion; some hostile, some favourable, amongst the medical, nursing and administrative professions. This paper explores and documents the vast body of literature covering this area and includes an invaluable bibliography of American and British sources. ...
Planning for people is a series of pamphlets designed to share information gained from the experience of setting up and running a comprehensive community service for adults with mental handicap in South Bristol, using ordinary housing. They are intended to give an account of the Bristol development, and some discussion ...
This is the fourth paper published by the King's Fund and NAHA on the need to change the way in which pay is determined in the NHS. This paper outlines a proposed structure for determining pay, based on principles described in the earlier documents. The system has three elements: a ...
The project was undertaken with the intention of clarifying and updating the original concept of the community hospital. In defining what community hospitals are, emphasis has been placed on their philosophy and on ensuring that their role is clearly understood.
In March 1986 the NHS Training Authority commissioned the King's Fund College to conduct a project to investigate the training and development needs of Family Practitioner Committees (FPCs) with particular reference to their management development needs. The aims of the project were twofold: 1) to identify the current and probable ...
In response to the DHSS circular `Patients dying in hospital' (DA(84)17) the Bloomsbury District Management Team asked for an examination of the way that dying patients and their relatives are cared for in Bloomsbury hospitals. This paper arises out of that examination and also out of discussions with nurses, doctors ...
Arthur Andersen and Co. Management Consultants has been involved with a number of research projects designed to measure value for money in health and local authority services. This booklet describes the components which they believe make up a successful joint planning exercise. Its purpose is to present some lessons and ...