Wednesday 23 April 2014

Fergie, football and the NHS: building a leadership team for the future

Fergie, football and the NHS: building a leadership team for the future Several national reviews have emphasised the need to cultivate future clinical leaders, yet opportunities to do so remain one-dimensional, says Na'eem Ahmed. The Health Foundation

Breast cancer drug price cut urged

Breast cancer drug price cut urged Campaigners urge pharmaceutical giant Roche to lower the cost of a pioneering breast cancer drug as the NHS prepares to rejects its use on price grounds. BBC News

See also:

'A third' can't afford healthy food

'A third' can't afford healthy food High food prices mean a third of UK adults are struggling to afford to eat healthily, a survey by the British Heart Foundation suggests. BBC News

500 GP practices to pilot care.data

500 GP practices to pilot care.data Up to 500 GP practices will trial care.data in a phased roll out beginning this autumn, NHS England has announced. E-Health Insider

DH rolls back GP records access promise

DH rolls back GP records access promise The government's pledge to give patients online access to their GP records by March 2015 has been scaled back again, with practices now only required to have a plan to provide access by the deadline. E-Health Insider

Learning for care homes from alternative residential care settings

Learning for care homes from alternative residential care settings This review explores the learning from delivery of care in residential services for children and young people, residential services and supported housing for people with learning disabilities and hospice care, and considers how this can be applied in care homes for older people. Joseph Rowntree Trust

Cheap holidays 'increased' melanoma rates

Cheap holidays 'increased' melanoma rates “Skin cancer rates ‘surge since 1970s’,” reports the BBC.

The news is based on a press release from Cancer Research UK after the release of new figures for the number of people diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. The statistics show that the number of people being diagnosed with malignant melanoma is five times higher than it was 40 years ago.

The press release argues that the rise can be explained, at least partially, by the growth of cheap package beach holidays since the late 1960s.

The rise in popularity of sunbeds and sunlamps may have also contributed to the increased rates.

Doctors facing more patient complaints online

Doctors facing more patient complaints online Growing trend to raise concerns on social media instead of official channels. OnMedica

Norman Lamb rattled by 'zombie' attack on health and care policy | David Brindle

Norman Lamb rattled by 'zombie' attack on health and care policy | David Brindle The care minister's plan for a £5bn joint NHS and social care fund to be used for personal budgets is doomed unless thinking changes

You never know where you are with zombies. So care and support minister Norman Lamb might have thought twice when it was put to him that doctors were likening his pet policy to an animated corpse. That he didn't, but chose instead to let rip, speaks volumes about the tension surrounding the health and social care interface.

Lamb was speaking at the annual conference of the School for Social Care Research and had said he wanted to see "great chunks" of NHS funds turned over to personal health budgets for people living with long-term conditions. A questioner told him that at another event, packed with health professionals, a show of hands had gone overwhelmingly against the idea of patients using budgets to arrange their own care. One eminent medic at the event had described the policy as an "intellectual zombie", an "ideologically driven dead idea still moving" that needed putting out of its misery.Continue reading... The Guardian

Illegal abortion doctors face no action

Illegal abortion doctors face no action Doctors who illegally signed dozens of abortion consent forms will not be disciplined, as MPs say this is evidence of the UK's 'abortion on demand' culture. The Daily Telegraph