Snow warning for Northamptonshire

Snow warning for Northamptonshire: The Met Office warns there could be significant snowfall in Northamptonshire and advises people to prepare for disruption. BBC Northamptonshire

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Ambulance service misses callout targets

Ambulance service misses callout targets: New figures show that ambulances fail to reach a third of the most serious emergencies within the target time. Evening Telegraph

Boss of Northampton hospital questions mental health spending

Boss of Northampton hospital questions mental health spending: The chief executive of St Andrew’s Healthcare, which runs St Andrew’s Hospital in Northampton has questioned MPs about broken pledges on Government spending. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Will 2013 be the year of meaningful public engagement with service change?

Will 2013 be the year of meaningful public engagement with service change?: The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) is the latest to join the growing chorus of medical colleges calling for change in hospital services with RCS President Professor Williams’s statement launching their new report: ‘2013 needs to be the year patients, politicians, clinicians and managers come together to support historic change in the NHS and create a lasting legacy for all of our population.’

Communicating efficiently or safely?

Communicating efficiently or safely?: Cultures of high-reliability are built from the deep assumptions and default positions we collectively bring to our work. We need to get better at noticing and circulating the small moments and striking stories that help us improve our most basic assumptions as well as our basic practices, says Carl Macrae. The Health Foundation

Phone apps 'delay skin diagnosis'

Phone apps 'delay skin diagnosis': People relying on smartphone applications to decide whether their moles are cancer could be putting themselves at risk of misdiagnosis. BBC News

Exclusive: CCGs can save £750m on tests

Exclusive: CCGs can save £750m on tests: Huge variation in the cost of pathology tests in England is wasting millions of pounds in NHS funding and could put unfair pressure on GPs, official figures suggest. GP Online

Hunt?s plan for austerITy

Hunt?s plan for austerITy: The right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange holds events in what it calls an 'ideas space'. The name conjures up the plush, free-wheeling, bare-foot wonk-ing that was so mercilessly pilloried by the last series of 'The Thick of It.' E-Health Insider

Nearly half of the young people who present to hospital with self-harm are not given essential psychosocial evaluations

Nearly half of the young people who present to hospital with self-harm are not given essential psychosocial evaluations: Last September I blogged about a cohort study in the Lancet that highlighted the links between self-harm and poor physical health. This same dataset (drawn from over 30,000 patients from 6 hospitals in Oxford, Manchester and Derby from 2000-7) has now spawned a longitudinal study published in the European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry journal. This [read the full story...] The Mental Elf

Is it possible for children to 'grow out' of autism?

Is it possible for children to 'grow out' of autism?: "Children can 'grow out of' autism, psychologists say, challenging the established view that autism is a permanent, incurable condition," The Independent has reported.

Trainee nurses should be selected on compassion to avoid repeat of Mid-Staffs scandal: expert

Trainee nurses should be selected on compassion to avoid repeat of Mid-Staffs scandal: expert: Trainee nurses should be assessed for compassion and kindness before being taken on to courses, expert says. The Daily Telegraph

NHS opens door on widespread A&E closures

NHS opens door on widespread A&E closures: The medical director of the NHS is to open the door on a nationwide programme of A&E closures, by launching a review of the "fragmented" service the network provides. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• NHS blueprint to shake up emergency care provisions, says director The Guardian