Booze problems getting worse - Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

Booze problems getting worse - Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph:

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

Booze problems getting worse Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph The Evening Telegraph can reveal that between 2007 and 2011 a total of 7157 patients were seen at Northampton General Hospital and a further 5649 treated at Kettering General Hospital. Across the county's medical services, alcohol-related admissions ...

A&E patients at ‘urged to complain’ by staff at Northampton General Hospital

A&E patients at ‘urged to complain’ by staff at Northampton General Hospital:

NURSES encouraged emergency patients at Northampton General Hospital to complain in order to escalate the issue of overcrowding in A&E, a patient has claimed. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Estimating the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in adults

Estimating the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in adults:

Adults with a more severe learning disability also have a greater likelihood of having autism according to a report published on 31st January 2012 by the NHS Information Centre.

The report combines data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2007 with findings from a new study based on a sample of people with learning disabilities living in private households and communal care establishments.

The report aims to

• Estimate the prevalence of autism in England, furthering previous research that suggests people with learning disabilities are more likely to have autism


• Address the fact that the APMS did not include people with severe learning disabilities.

Department of Health

Call for 'joined-up' elderly care

Call for 'joined-up' elderly care: Older people needing social care are being let down and "passed like parcels" between fragmented services, a group of MPs says. BBC News

NHS directors seek Lords backing

NHS directors seek Lords backing: Peers are urged to support a move to let hospitals do more private sector work as plans to overhaul the NHS in England return to the Lords. BBC News

Baseline spending estimates for the new NHS and Public Health commissioning architecture

Baseline spending estimates for the new NHS and Public Health commissioning architecture:

This document contains estimates of how 2010-11 spend by PCTs would be deployed under the new commissioning arrangements proposed in the Health and Social Care Bill. The main data sources are two major collections of financial information from PCTs which have been brought together with information from other sources to provide these estimates of baseline spend.The baseline estimates, which have been uplifted to 2012-13 values, aim to provide emerging clinical commissioning groups and local authorities with the information they need to support initial planning for the commissioning responsibilities they will take on in the future.

• Spending estimates


• PCT spend by future commissioning route


• Department of Health - publications

Guidance for commissioners

Guidance for commissioners:

The Royal College of Psychiatrists have published four guides to help current and future commissioners plan and deliver high quality mental health services. The guides focus on primary mental health care services, child and adolescent mental health service transitions, dementia services and acute liaison services, and have been produced by the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health. The guides describe what good quality, modern mental health services should look like and bring together scientific evidence, patient and carer experience and viewpoints, and examples of best practice.

• Guidance for commissioners of primary mental health care services


• Guidance for commissioners of liaison mental health services to acute hospitals


• Guidance for commissioners of dementia services


• Guidance for commissioners of mental health services for young people making the transition from child and adolescent to adult services


• The Royal College of Psychiatrists - news

NHS N3 network to be replaced by successor N4 in 2014

NHS N3 network to be replaced by successor N4 in 2014:

Cabinet Office transition plans reveal N3 extension and potential tie-up between N4 and PSN

The NHS's N3 network could be set to run for another year, according to documents released by the Cabinet Office, with plans to establish a successor already under way.

N3, one of the largest VPNs in Europe with more than 40,000 connections, is managed by BT. The seven-year contract with the telco, signed in 2004, was extended in 2010, enabling it to run until March 2013.

The deal now looks likely to be extended for a further year, with the NHS set to build a case for the contract extension and seek approval for the plan in the first quarter of this year.

The probable extension is highlighted in a document setting out the roadmap for the public sector's transition to the PSN.

The roadmap also shows that the NHS is planning to begin laying the foundations for the successor to the N3, known as N4, from the middle of this year. The extension of the N3 contract until March 2014 will "enable orderly transition, exit, migration" to N4, the document says.

Plans for N4, and its potential tie-up with the PSN, are still in the early stages, according to a Department of Health spokeswoman.

"As a member of the PSN board, we are working closely with the PSN programme to determine what will be suitable, for not only health and social care, but also wider aspirations of public service networking and telecommunications. Planning for the future transition of the N3 network to N4 is just beginning and still at an early stage, however, we are committed to aligning our future direction with PSN.

"As we develop our PSN transition plan jointly with the programme we will share it with interested parties. We are currently evaluating options for making the current N3 network PSN compliant and intend to publish our plans at the start of next financial year," she said.

The business case for the move to N4 will be outlined in the first quarter of this year, according to the Cabinet Office document.

Procurement could take place under PSN frameworks where there is a demonstrable value for money, it adds.

Guardian Professional.

Surgeons should inform women if they have PIP breast implants: regulator

Surgeons should inform women if they have PIP breast implants: regulator: Health regulators had to rely on plastic surgeons and clinics to inform women they were given faulty PIP breast implants as no central register exists, it has emerged. The Daily Telegraph

Why Health Bill's biggest critic has a lot to lose from reforms

Why Health Bill's biggest critic has a lot to lose from reforms:

One of the most vociferous critics of the Government's health reforms has a financial interest in a partnership of GPs that could lose out if private providers are given greater freedom to compete with doctors offering NHS services. The Independent

Fragmented care system is failing elderly, MPs warn

Fragmented care system is failing elderly, MPs warn:

Elderly patients are suffering a "diminished quality of life" because the enormous pressures on the social-care system mean they are not receiving the help they need, a committee of MPs warns today. The Independent

Roundtable summary - primary care

Roundtable summary - primary care: Monitor held a roundtable discussion in December to explore what the proposals in the Health and Social Care Bill will mean for primary care providers and clinical commissioners. Our roundtable, held under the Chatham House Rule, brought together a number of leading primary care leaders, practitioners and policy experts.