Wednesday 24 February 2016

People in Northamptonshire urged to use right service as pressure mounts

People in Northamptonshire urged to use right service as pressure mounts People across Northamptonshire are being urged to use the right NHS service for their symptoms and to keep the hospital free for the seriously ill or injured.

Health leaders at NHS Nene Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) issue the public message following the sustained high number of attendances and admissions at the county's A&E departments during the busy winter period.

Both hospitals continue to see large numbers of people who are acutely ill and need high priority hospital care. As a result, teams across the counties hospitals are under significant pressure in meeting this demand.

Northampton General Hospital is asking anyone planning to visit the hospital to stay away if they or their family members have flu or flu-like symptoms. Northants Herald and Post

What steps can be taken towards quality improvement in the NHS?

What steps can be taken towards quality improvement in the NHS? The NHS in England faces the immense challenge of bringing about improvements in patient care at a time of growing financial and workload pressures.

In a new report, we argue that the NHS urgently needs to adopt a quality improvement strategy if it is to rise to this challenge. All NHS organisations need to build in-house capacity for quality improvement and to commit time and resources to acquiring the necessary capabilities. They should do so by learning from the experience in trusts such as Salford, Sheffield and Wigan where quality improvement is well established. The King's Fund

2015 NHS Staff Survey results show progress despite pressures

2015 NHS Staff Survey results show progress despite pressures Find out more about the 2015 NHS Staff Survey and access the results. NHS Employers

See also:

The right medicine: improving care in care homes

The right medicine: improving care in care homes This report reviews the current available evidence to investigate what the role of pharmacists should be in care homes. It argues that pharmacists could have a significant role in reducing the use of unnecessary and harmful medicines; improving end of life care; and providing more co-ordinated care. Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Hunt's 6,000 deaths 'were unverified'

Hunt's 6,000 deaths 'were unverified' Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt used unverified and unpublished study data to back his policy plans for a seven-day NHS, the BBC understands. BBC News

Junior doctors set to hold more strikes

Junior doctors set to hold more strikes BMA announces three 48-hour strikes and that it will seek judicial review over junior doctors' contracts. BBC News

See also:

GP trainee recruitment target likely to be missed, NHS officials admit

GP trainee recruitment target likely to be missed, NHS officials admit Health Education England (HEE) is 'likely' to miss its GP trainee recruitment target, board papers reveal, despite assurances to MPs in December that the government's goal of adding 5,000 GPs to the workforce by 2020 would be met. GP Online

How Big Pharma greed is killing tens of thousands around the world: Patients are over-medicated and often given profitable drugs with 'little proven benefits,' leading doctors warn

How Big Pharma greed is killing tens of thousands around the world: Patients are over-medicated and often given profitable drugs with 'little proven benefits,' leading doctors warn The group of eminent UK experts - including the Queen's former doctor - have warned that many medicines - such as statins - are less effective than thought. The Daily Mail

Bursary reform is good for students, nurses and the NHS

Bursary reform is good for students, nurses and the NHS Extending student finance reforms will create up to 10,000 more health degree places, says Ben Gummer, under-secretary of state for health

Ordinarily, it is not possible to hear anything in the chamber of the House of Commons, other than the voices of those present. But back in 2010, the sound of the protest in Parliament Squarecould be heard several times during the debate on reform of student finance. The sound and fury made it all the more clear just how important it was that we got the decision right.

Most politicians want to widen opportunity, even if sometimes we disagree on how to do it. The arguments on either side back then were earnestly made. What we can now see, with the benefit of four years’ data, is that those who proposed reform have been proved comprehensively right. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

Involving the public is crucial for NHS success

Involving the public is crucial for NHS success Engaging with the people who pay for and use healthcare services is vital to improve quality and efficiency.

David Bennett, the outgoing chief executive of healthcare regulator Monitor said in a recent interview that he “would get rid of the idea of foundation trusts having [public] membership”. Instead, he argued that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) should take on an accountability role. Continue reading... The Guardian

The NHS is our national religion – but there’s no miracle funding cure | Frank Field

The NHS is our national religion – but there’s no miracle funding cure | Frank Field It’s time for a Bevan-type reform of health finances – the public would make greater NI contributions into a ringfenced mutual organisation to secure the NHS’s future.

The NHS is the one postwar act to which the public are committed. It has become, in Nigel Lawson’s indicative phrase, Britain’s national religion. That is why politicians invariably play safe, knowing that the gods can most easily be assuaged with offerings of money. Yet the gods are getting more and more demanding and we live in an age of public austerity.

It must be doubted if the government believes its own rhetoric on safeguarding the NHS budget in real terms. NHS inflation is higher than the government calculates, the older we get as a nation the greater our health demands, and modern technology feeds that demand. So is the solution simply more money? The answer is an emphatic “yes”, but in assuaging the gods we need to change fundamentally the politics of health. Continue reading... The Guardian