The Health service journal
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Integrated working between primary and secondary care has enabled one acute and community trust to reduce its emergency admissions by 8 per cent over three years. This has enabled the closure of 18 medical beds in this year's contracting round, with savings of over 400,000 Pounds. GPs and consultants have undertaken a process of peer review to identify doctors with high admission rates or inappropriate use of admissions.
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Devolution will bring health policy under the democratic control of the directly elected Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly. Some fear that members of these bodies may wish to interfere in service delivery, rather than concentrating on strategy. Devolution could highlight anomalies in health spending. Many professionals fear that devolution will fragment UK-wide policy networks.
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Achieving the government's waiting list targets relies heavily on the willingness of theatre staff to do overtime. A survey of acute trusts in England found that more than three-quarters were having difficulty recruiting staff. A third were using local pay incentives, including double time for waiting list initiative work and bonus schemes. Theatre management needs a more strategic approach.