People in Northamptonshire urged to take up bowel cancer screening invitation

People in Northamptonshire urged to take up bowel cancer screening invitation People in Northamptonshire are being urged to take up invitations to take part in screening for bowel cancer. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Eight in 10 staff at ambulance service covering Northamptonshire have considered quitting due to stress

Eight in 10 staff at ambulance service covering Northamptonshire have considered quitting due to stress More than half of staff at the ambulance service covering Northamptonshire say stress levels are so high it affects how they do their job, a survey suggests. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Northampton takes SynApps VNA

Northampton takes SynApps VNA Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust has bought a vendor neutral archive from SynApps Solutions, on a five-year contract. E-Health Insider

How have waiting times fared under the coalition?

How have waiting times fared under the coalition? With election tour buses clocking up the miles and manifestos soon to go to print, the last data on NHS performance measures before the election, released this week, shows us what the incoming government will be inheriting. So what does it tell us?

In brief, in May 2010 the coalition government inherited a waiting list for elective treatment of around 2.6 million patients, with performance standards for both admitted (inpatients) and non-admitted patients (outpatients) being met (the target for those still waiting was yet to be introduced).

By June 2014, however, the total waiting list for elective treatment had increased to 3.14 million, the performance standard for inpatients had been missed for four months out of the previous five, and the proportion of outpatients and patients still waiting for treatment for more than 18 weeks showed an increasing trend.

Concerns over deteriorating performance and rising long waits led the Secretary of State for Health to inject £250 million into the system – and suspend penalties for hospitals who had breached the waiting times target – to help treat some of the longest waiting patients before the year was out.

Better access to talking therapies: what are the options?

Better access to talking therapies: what are the options? If talking therapies make therapeutic and financial sense, and are popular with people who use services, why aren’t they happening in our clinically led commissioning system? asks Felicity Dorman. The Health Foundation

Frontline First: The fragile frontline

Frontline First: The fragile frontline The RCN's final report before the General Election, Frontline First: The fragile frontline, finds that there are fewer nurses than in 2010 and that an already over-stretched workforce is being forced to carry out even more work. Royal College of Nursing

See also:

• 'Action needed' to boost nurse numbers BBC News
• Lack of nurses ‘is causing crisis in community care’ The Guardian

Health: how will the NHS fare in a cold climate?

Health: how will the NHS fare in a cold climate? This briefing argues that an NHS protected from budget cuts is only going to be viable through further efficiency savings of some kind - and even then it is not clear how resource levels will be maintained. It highlights future reforms to the system, rather than privatisation, as the key threat to the NHS. Centre for Economic Performance

Patients to be asked about UK status

Patients to be asked about UK status Patients could be made to show their passports when they use hospital care in England under new rules introduced by the Department of Health. BBC News

See also:

• NHS services to require a passport to stop migrants and tourists abusing it The Daily Mail
• 'Show your passport to use the NHS', patients will be told under new guidelines The Daily Telegraph

A silence that kills men

A silence that kills men Why do so many fortysomething men kill themselves? BBC News

Middle-age spread 'seems to reduce dementia risk'

Middle-age spread 'seems to reduce dementia risk' "Being overweight 'reduces dementia risk'," BBC News reports. The story comes from a cohort study of nearly 2 million UK adults aged over 40. It showed that being overweight or obese was linked to a lower risk of dementia up to 20 years later, compared with people who were a healthy weight. Underweight people were at a higher risk of dementia.

This result is surprising as it contradicts the current consensus of opinion, including the advice on this website, that obesity may be a risk factor for some types of dementia.

In the best scientific tradition, this study raises more questions than it answers. But it is important not to overlook the many serious health risks associated with obesity, such as heart disease anddiabetes.

As one of the key authors, Dr Qizilbash, rightly says, the findings are "not an excuse to pile on the pounds or binge on Easter eggs … You can't walk away and think it's OK to be overweight or obese. Even if there is a protective effect, you may not live long enough to get the benefits".

Jeremy Hunt interview: Some dementia patients still suffer 'horrific conditions'

Jeremy Hunt interview: Some dementia patients still suffer 'horrific conditions' Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the Health Secretary says there are care homes "where people with dementia are left sitting on their own, often in a semi-circle, ignored, day in day out in frankly horrific conditions". The Daily Telegraph

A million elderly people lack basic social care as unprecedented funding cuts leave struggling NHS to pick up the pieces

A million elderly people lack basic social care as unprecedented funding cuts leave struggling NHS to pick up the pieces The number of elderly people who need help with basic tasks, but have been left to struggle by an unprecedented withdrawal of state-funded social care, has hit one million, experts believe. The Independent

See also:

• The Guardian view on elderly care: a frail helping hand | Editorial The Guardian

General Election 2015: Parties lose their bedside manner as they clash over NHS

General Election 2015: Parties lose their bedside manner as they clash over NHS Labour and the Tories have gone to war over the NHS, after David Cameron’s pledge of £8bn extra for the health service by 2020 was undermined by footage of him warning that “unfunded spending commitments” would “wreck the NHS”. The Independent

See also:

• The £8bn NHS political row BBC News
• Election 2015: Tories 'confident' about £8bn NHS pledge BBC News
• Election 2015: Labour offers one-to-one midwife care BBC News
• Tories: Over-75s to be guaranteed same-day access to GPs The Daily Telegraph
• Conservative party pledges extra £8bn a year for NHS The Guardian
• Women in Labour: Miliband to promise midwife for every mother giving birth The Guardian
• Ed Miliband: 'The NHS cannot be funded from an IOU' - video The Guardian
• The week the gloves came off in the 2015 election as parties try to break deadlock The Guardian
• General election 2015: George Osborne pledges £8bn a year for NHS from Conservative party The Independent
• RCGP response to Conservative Party's pledge of future NHS funding Royal College of General Practitioners