Tuesday 14 June 2016

Public accountability needs to be at the heart of NHS reform

Public accountability needs to be at the heart of NHS reform NHS Improvement has now acknowledged, as many people expected all along, that the plan to clear trust deficits by next year is probably not realistic.

Financial pressure is not going to end any time soon: our analysis shows there will still be at least a £1 billion gap after the promised additional £1.8 billion. A deficit of this size will have implications for services and for patients. The need has never been greater for transparency and community involvement in decisions about how to manage this. The King's Fund

Dawning of the age of self-care

Dawning of the age of self-care In an era where NHS managers’ desks are straining under the weight of invoices from services and where the printers on clinicians’ desks are churning out more requests for pills and potions for a larger and increasingly older population, one area of the country is asking ‘what is the prescription for the future of healthcare’? Primary Care Commissioning 

Looking after infant mental health: a case for change

Looking after infant mental health: a case for change This report argues that our approach to the mental health needs of infants and children in care requires rethinking. The report sets out a number of solutions to increase the range and amount of supportive services for both foster carers and birth parents to make sure babies and young children in care have stable and loving placements, undoing the neural damage caused by abuse and neglect in their early lives. The report is accompanied by a wide range of evidence from research and practice, from the UK and internationally. NSPCC

Medical workforce census report 2015

Medical workforce census report 2015 This report provides comprehensive data on the anaesthetics workforce in the UK. It finds that while there have been increases in the numbers of consultant and specialty and associate specialist doctors since the previous census in 2010, the 2015 report confirms a number of challenges facing the specialty, including an existing unmet need for anaesthetics and intensive care medicine in trusts across the UK. Royal College of Anaesthetists

Obesity boom 'fuelling rise in malnutrition'

Obesity boom 'fuelling rise in malnutrition' Malnutrition is sweeping the world, fuelled by obesity as well as starvation, new research suggests. BBC News

Prostate laser therapy recommended to NHS

Prostate laser therapy recommended to  Some 13,000 men in England could benefit from a laser treatment to manage symptoms from an enlarged prostate, the NHS is being advised. BBC News

See also:

Judicial review over HIV Prep drug

Judicial review over HIV Prep drug A charity has launched a judicial review challenging the NHS' decision not to fund a so called "game-changer" drug treatment that can prevent HIV. BBC News

Exclusive: Supreme court ruling could block wave of costly legal claims against GPs

Exclusive: Supreme court ruling could block wave of costly legal claims against GPs A ruling by the UK's highest court could stop GP practices being forced to pay five-figure 'conciliation payments' to patients and help slow the rise in indemnity costs, medico-legal experts have said. GP Online

How far can the NHS go to support addicts who won't help themselves?

How far can the NHS go to support addicts who won't help themselves I watched as a man killed himself through alcoholism, unable to do more than pick up the pieces. Daily support to addicts is costing the NHS time and money

Henry has taken to his bed. He’s 52, and drinking himself to death. Having been on detox programmes in the past, he’s decided he doesn’t want to go through it all again this time.

He’s been formally judged to have mental capacity, but the core problem – the punishing result of his drinking – remains unaddressed. He’s now been referred twice to the rapid response team (a multidisciplinary, acute healthcare agency whose aim is to cut down on inappropriate hospital admissions). Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

Why are hospital wards so infernally NOISY?

Why are hospital wards so infernally NOISY? Our wards are now on average 10 decibels louder than in the 1960s, according to research by the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. Many patients go without sleep for days on end. The Daily Mail