Watch out for a further announcement and booking form in May's editions of the Bulletin. Work to develop a National Agency Contract is being brought under the umbrella of NHS Professionals. The purpose of this work is to secure agreements with temporary staffing providers that will ensure quality standards are met, inequities in pay rates and commissions are tackled and providers with whom contracts are established are performance-managed. Back to Top 10. Birmingham The event will focus comprehensively on the key issues facing public service policy-makers and practitioners when incorporating environment and sustainability issues into the procurement process.
All public bodies are under a duty to ensure that expenditure is fully environmentally appraised.
Exercise Referral schemes have grown in popularity in recent years, with around 300 schemes running across the country, often referring patients from the GP's surgery to a nearby leisure facility. The document aims to improve the quality of existing schemes, and help the development of new ones. Under the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease, all NHS bodies, working closely with Local Authorities, need to have agreed and be contributing to local programmes of effective policies on increasing physical activity and reducing overweight and obesity by April 2001. The framework also sets a goal of ensuring that all cardiac patients are offered exercise programmes, supervised by properly trained people as part of cardiac rehabilitation programmes. Referral schemes can form an important element in the delivery of local action plans to increase physical activity participation.