Thursday 23 April 2015

Calls for investment in town hospital

Calls for investment in town hospital

Election candidates in Northampton call for more investment in the town's hospital. BBC News - Northampton

Facts, figures and views on health and social care

Facts, figures and views on health and social care


Nuffield Trust has published facts and figures about health and social care in the run up to the general election.

It covers NHS finances, the NHS workforce, A&E performance, quality of care and social care. NHS Networks

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Uses and abuses of performance data in healthcare

Uses and abuses of performance data in healthcare


This report describes how efforts to improve standards of patient care in the NHS are being undermined by performance measures that encourage ‘gaming’ and sap professional motivation. It makes a series of recommendations to tackle practices that distort the reliability of the information used to manage the standards of care delivered to patients. It outlines how better healthcare data from English hospitals has, overall, led to greater transparency. NHS Evidence
Report
Dr Foster - news

Scientific peer reviews are a 'sacred cow' ready to be slaughtered, says former editor of BMJ

Scientific peer reviews are a 'sacred cow' ready to be slaughtered, says former editor of BMJ

The peer review process – long considered the gold standard of quality scientific research – is a “sacred cow” that should be slaughtered, the former editor of one of the country’s leading medical journals has said. Independent

Asthma cure could be in reach as scientists make 'incredibly exciting' breakthrough

Asthma cure could be in reach as scientists make 'incredibly exciting' breakthrough

An outright cure for asthma could be possible in five years if researchers establish that existing drugs for people with brittle bones can be safely used to treat sufferers’ lungs. Independent

Election 2015: five questions on NHS funding that campaigns are avoiding

Election 2015: five questions on NHS funding that campaigns are avoiding

Political parties need to be honest about the money required for their health service proposals and the Five Year Forward View

Related: Election 2015: what do party pledges mean for NHS staff?

NHS funding matters because you get what you pay for. The level of funding has a key role in defining how well we can care for patients, how many staff we can employ, the drugs we can afford and the innovations we can adopt. So it’s no wonder that the debate on future NHS funding has been one of the main features of the general election. But there remain five vital questions that none of the campaigns have answered. Guardian

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NHS 'will miss £22bn efficiency savings target', says thinktank

NHS 'will miss £22bn efficiency savings target', says thinktank


King’s Fund warns that NHS will need even more than the £8bn extra a year it has asked for

The NHS is highly unlikely to make the £22bn of efficiency savings it has agreed and so is likely to need the next government to give it even more than the £8bn extra a year it has already asked for from the Treasury, the King’s Fund warned on Thursday. The thinktank’s gloomy prognosis is based on a survey of the views of finance directors of hospital trusts and other NHS organisations, amajority of whom voiced deep pessimism about the target.

Last October Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, committed the service to plugging £22bn of the expected £30bn gap in its finances by 2020 through productivity gains of 2% or 3% a year between now and 2020. Since then the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have promised to provide the other £8bn by 2020 from government funds, though Labour has refused to do the same. Guardian

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Exercise 'not key to obesity fight'

Exercise 'not key to obesity fight'

Physical activity has little role in tackling obesity - and instead public health messages should squarely focus on unhealthy eating, doctors say. BBC News

Exclusive: Fifth of GP practices drop extended opening hours amid rising pressure

Exclusive: Fifth of GP practices drop extended opening hours amid rising pressure

A fifth of GPs have dropped an extended hours service in the past year as workload and funding pressures take their toll on primary care services, a GPonline poll has revealed. GP Online

Updated guidance for professionals who provide care after death

Updated guidance for professionals who provide care after death

It aims to help ensure that a person who has died is cared for and that there is well co-ordinated support which respects the wishes of the deceased and their families.

Care After Death is aimed at the different professionals involved in care and support for people just before and after death, including: nurses, doctors, mortuary staff, ambulance staff, pathologists and funeral directors.

Ebola drug cures infected monkeys

Ebola drug cures infected monkeys

An experimental drug has cured monkeys infected with the strain of the Ebola virus present in West Africa, US-based scientists say. BBC News