Friday 6 May 2016

Kettering midwife suspended after storing contaminated cotton wool with baby scales

Kettering midwife suspended after storing contaminated cotton wool with baby scales A Kettering midwife who stored sharps and blood-contaminated cotton wool in the same bag as baby scales has been suspended for a year. Northamptonshire Telegraph

NHS targets 1,300 ‘frequent flyer’ patients in Northamptonshire

NHS targets 1,300 ‘frequent flyer’ patients in Northamptonshire Regular A&E attenders who make up two per cent of all NHS treatments are to be assigned their own team of health workers. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Early intervention in psychosis access and waiting time standard

Early intervention in psychosis access and waiting time standard The guidance, a joint publication with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), aims to support ongoing local implementation of the standard by CCG commissioners and mental health providers, working with service users and their families, carers and other partners. There is also a resources pack. NHS England

Axed health champion fears for young

Axed health champion fears for  The former mental health champion for schools in England says the government's decision to axe her role silences young people and teachers. BBC News

Ministers and junior doctors agree to new contract talks

Ministers and junior doctors agree to new contract talks The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has welcomed the agreement from the government and the British Medical Association to return to talks over the new junior doctors' contract in England.

The Academy had appealed for both sides to end the dispute after strikes and thousands of cancelled operations.

Junior doctors have been striking over plans to impose new working conditions.

Talks over the controversial new contract broke down in February. BBC News

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Government facing mounting opposition to plans to scrap NHS bursaries

Government facing mounting opposition to plans to scrap NHS bursaries The government is facing mounting opposition from health unions over its plans to scrap NHS bursaries and replace them with loans from August next year.

This is despite a debate on the issue in the House of Commons yesterday, prompted by shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander, which resulted in defeat for calls to ditch the plans.

Under the proposals, prospective students will have to stump up the fees for courses like nursing, speech and language therapy, healthcare science, pharmacy and midwifery. Around 80,000 healthcare students are supported by a bursary. OnMedica

Fewer people die in hospital at weekends, study finds

Fewer people die in hospital at weekends, study finds Weekend death rate problem, used by Jeremy Hunt to justify imposing new doctors’ contract, ‘does not exist’

Fewer people – not more – die in hospital at weekends than during the week, according to a major study which contradicts evidence cited by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to justify the imposition of new contracts on junior doctors.

Hunt has repeatedly stated that junior doctors must routinely work at weekends because the higher death rate is linked to lower staffing levels. When the Department of Health and the junior doctors’ leaders failed to agree on weekend working, Hunt announced he would impose a new contractContinue reading... The Guardian

Google's NHS deal does not bode well for the future of data-sharing

Google's NHS deal does not bode well for the future of data-sharing Privacy concerns enable companies to avoid the scrutiny that is crucial to reaping public benefits from patient data

Data-sharing has become a new front line in battles over privacy in healthcare, raising crucial questions about the ways in which information about patients is shared within and between the public and private sectors.

Given that this is not “patient data” but “patients’ data”, handling large personal private datasets is a highly delicate issue. The manner in which they are shared should be subject to the scrutiny of those whose data is exchanged, and how this is done should be a matter for open public debate. Continue reading... The Guardian

Personal budgets don't work. So why are we ignoring the evidence?

Personal budgets don't work. So why are we ignoring the evidence? There has never been enough funding for personal budgets – so they can’t possibly meet all service users’ needs.

The recent report on personal budgets (pdf) by the National Audit Office (NAO) has created a stir, not least because it was published as official enthusiasm for the budgets seems to be accelerating. Already available in the NHS for people with long-term conditions, personal maternity care budgets are now being proposed as a route for choice in child birth. Yet if there is one thing the NAO report confirms, it is that the evidence base for personal budgets in both health and social care is uncertain.

David Brindle, public services editor at the Guardian, has already written about how the report suggests that “the Department of Health’s monitoring of the impact of personalisation in social care is so poor that it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions about the way personal budgets are working”. Continue reading... The Guardian

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Why your GP doesn't want to see you any more

Why your GP doesn't want to see you any more A GP’s lot is a lot happier than it used to be. No more ghastly call outs at midnight. Weekend work optional. Handy Apps to link sickly patients directly to their consultants. Plus those healthy contracts we all envy.

Sure the workload is intense, but salaries can reach six figures and given the flexibility of the system – many of those already in practice are going part-time, and only one in 10 trainee GPs plans to work full-time in the future, according to a report by the King’s Fund – clever GPs know they've hit the work-life-balance jackpot. The Daily Telegraph