Monday 1 August 2016

Northamptonshire County Council could remove £650,000 from ‘bed blocking’ service as part of new cuts to public services

Northamptonshire County Council could remove £650,000 from ‘bed blocking’ service as part of new cuts to public services Hefty cuts planned to Northamptonshire County Council this year are about to change - after the authority revealed it will not be able to meet the £65 million target without reducing more services. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

NSPCC figures show there were 45 cases of FGM in Northamptonshire in a one-year period

NSPCC figures show there were 45 cases of FGM in Northamptonshire in a one-year period Northamptonshire families should talk about FGM to end the barbaric practice, a leading child abuse charity has said. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Petition launched to save specialist children’s heart unit at hospital which serves north Northamptonshire families

Petition launched to save specialist children’s heart unit at hospital which serves north Northamptonshire families Parents have been urged to sign a petition to save a specialist children’s heart unit at a hospital which serves many families from the north of the county. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Guidance: Records management code of practice for health and social care

Guidance: Records management code of practice for health and social care The standards also apply to public health functions in local authorities and adult social care where joint care provided within the NHS. Department of Health

Getting To Outcomes: guide for teen pregnancy prevention

Getting To Outcomes: guide for teen pregnancy prevention Getting To Outcomes (GTO) is a ten-step process that guides community organisations through the key tasks needed to make any prevention program a success. This guide offers tools and instructions to help assess the need for and select a teenage pregnancy prevention programme; identify goals and outcomes; use process and outcome evaluation measures; and plan for programme sustainability. The guide is accompanied by an outcome survey and an evaluation data workbook. Rand Corporation

Cancer: Thousands surviving in UK decades after diagnosis

Cancer: Thousands surviving in UK decades after diagnosis More than 170,000 people in the UK who were diagnosed with cancer up to 40 years ago are still alive, although many face lifelong side-effects, a report says. BBC News

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Poverty costs UK £78bn a year, Joseph Rowntree Foundation says

Poverty costs UK £78bn a year, Joseph Rowntree Foundation says The effects of poverty in the UK cost the average taxpayer £1,200 a year, and the UK £78bn in total, with the NHS bearing the brunt, a report suggests. BBC News

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Are commitments for mental health all talk and no action?

Are commitments for mental health all talk and no action? The scale of the mental health challenge is huge – but it’s not clear that promises of more funding and cultural change are being upheld

Promises, platitudes and plans are piling up for mental health, but how much is going to be delivered?

Mental health accounts for roughly £12bn of the NHS budget. In parliamentary terms the current support for mental health is unprecedented – parity of esteem with physical health services is enshrined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012, plus last year’s spending review made explicit reference to improving quality, choice and outcomes in mental health.

The scale of the task is ​becoming clearer, but it is daunting. Continue reading... The Guardian

There needs to be more clarity in transgender healthcare

There needs to be more clarity in transgender healthcare From hormones for under-16s to ‘bridging’ prescriptions, the guidance from both public and private providers lets trans people down. It’s incoherent

Imagine this: you’re the parent of a transgender 14-year-old. When they were born you thought your child was a girl, but it has been very clear for many years that they identify completely as a boy. He’s been known by a male name in your house for years and would be revolted if anyone used a female pronoun for him or referred to him as a girl.

You have been to see your GP, who has referred your son to the Tavistock clinic in London, the gender identity service for under-18s in England and Wales. But because of an unprecedented increase in the number of referrals over the past year, Tavistock has said it will be eight months before your child can be seen. He has just begun female puberty and is starting to panic about growing breasts, changing shape and getting a period. He is desperate not just to be put on hormone-blockers, which will prevent his female puberty, but also to be put on male hormones, so he can start male puberty, which the Tavistock clinic will not prescribe until he is 16 and has spent a year on hormone-blockers.

Trans people shouldn’t have to have some sort of NHS Rosetta Stone to work out what treatment they are entitled to Continue reading... The Guardian

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Patients condemned to die by NHS ban on leukaemia lifeline

Patients condemned to die by NHS ban on leukaemia lifeline UK patients suffering a leukaemia relapse have been ‘handed a death sentence’ by an NHS decision to deny funding for a second lifesaving stem cell transplant if their first one fails. The Daily Mail

Sex change men 'on brink' of having babies following NHS treatment 

Sex change men 'on brink' of having babies following NHS treatment Women having sex changes on the NHS are being given free fertility treatment so they can have children after becoming men.

At least three British men who were born female are “on the brink” of becoming parents using fertility techniques, a leading expert has said.

In most cases, eggs are being frozen at NHS clinics before surgery or hormone therapy, so they can later be implanted into a surrogate mother.

But in rare circumstances the man could become pregnant and give birth, if they kept their female reproductive organs, as happened in 2008, in Honolulu. The Daily Telegraph

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Zika outbreak in Florida prompts travel warning for pregnant women

Zika outbreak in Florida prompts travel warning for pregnant women Pregnant women are being advised to consider postponing non-essential trips to Florida after an outbreak of the Zika virus.

Public Health England issued the warning after authorities in the southern US state confirmed four cases of the disease, thought to have been transmitted by mosquitoes.

More than 1,650 cases of Zika have been diagnosed in the US, but this is understood to be the first time the disease has been spread by local insects, rather than as a result of foreign travel or sexual contact. The Daily Telegraph

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