Wednesday 1 February 2017

NHS Employers welcomes GMC consultation on a single Medical Licensing Assessment

NHS Employers welcomes GMC consultation on a single Medical Licensing Assessment The assessment would help provide employers, and patients, with clearer assurance that all doctors practicing in the UK are working to the same standards of knowledge, skills and preparedness, says Danny Mortimer. NHS Employers

Minister's social care ideas ignore the million childless over-65s | Kirsty Woodard

Minister's social care ideas ignore the million childless over-65s | Kirsty Woodard

The idea that older people may not have family members who are able to help, or may have no family at all, seems not to have occurred to the government

This year, for the first time, more older people need care and support than there is family to provide it. In the UK, there are already 1 million people aged over 65 who do not have adult children. This figure will double by 2030, as one in five people over the age of 50 do not have children.The Guardian

Down and anxious

Down and anxious As a new national commission for loneliness is launched, two women share their experiences. BBC News

Worcestershire hospitals trust ordered to urgently improve patient safety

Worcestershire hospitals trust ordered to urgently improve patient safety

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust given six weeks to improve, after the deaths of two patients forced to endure long waits for care

The NHS watchdog has ordered a troubled hospital trust to urgently overhaul patient safety or face sanctions weeks after two patients died after enduring long waits on trolleys in a corridor.

The Care Quality Commission has given Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust six weeks to make significant improvements at the three hospitals it runs in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster. The Guardian

Progress is being made on GP Forward View - but much more must be done urgently to support frontline GPs and patients

Progress is being made on GP Forward View - but much more must be done urgently to support frontline GPs and patients

That is the verdict of the Royal College of GPs, nine months on from the launch of NHS England’s ‘lifeline’ for general practice.

In its interim assessment of the GP Forward View published today, the College says that on crucial issues such as practice resilience, local implementation has been far too slow.

The 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans – intended to shape the NHS at a local level – also come in for criticism for prioritising NHS hospital trusts over general practice, and in some cases even planning to reduce GP numbers. Royal College of General Practitioners

Sudden death warning over faulty heart gene

Sudden death warning over faulty heart gene A charity estimates 620,000 people carry a faulty gene that affects the heart - and most are unaware. BBC News

Queer in the head: Do LGB people in the UK have poorer mental health? #LGBTHM17

Queer in the head: Do LGB people in the UK have poorer mental health? #LGBTHM17 At the start of LGBT History Month, Sarah Carr presents some recent research into sexual orientation and symptoms of common mental disorder or low wellbeing. National Elf Service: Mental Elf

NHS should charge health tourists 'upfront' instead of chaotic debt chase

NHS should charge health tourists 'upfront' instead of chaotic debt chase

NHS hospitals should charge foreign patients “upfront” unless the case is an emergency, the government has said - as a damning report warns Britain is failing to recoup hundreds of millions of pounds.

MPs said “chaotic” systems and a lack of sanctions for hospitals which failed to recover debts meant legitimate patients were being starved of vital resources. The Telegraph

Device could help people with 'locked-in' syndrome

Device could help people with 'locked-in' syndrome To help people with locked-in syndrome to communicate, researchers at the Wyss Centre for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva created a new brain-computer interface. Daily Mail