Thursday 2 March 2017

NHS finances facing 'nasty hangover' after bid to avert winter crisis

NHS finances facing 'nasty hangover' after bid to avert winter crisis Outsourcing work to private sector has dealt big blow to NHS trusts’ efforts to balance books, King’s Fund says.
The NHS’s already precarious finances are facing a “nasty hangover” after hospitals cancelled tens of thousands of operations recently in a bid to avert a full-blown winter crisis, experts have said.
Handing large numbers of operations over to private providers and hiring extra staff to cope with extra demand during December and January has also dealt a big blow to NHS trusts’ efforts to balance their books, the King’s Fund said. Continue reading... The Guardian

Shifting the balance of care: Great expectations

Shifting the balance of care: Great expectations This research draws on an extensive literature review to assess the realism of the narrative that moving care out of hospital will save money. It explores five key areas: elective care, urgent and emergency care, admission avoidance and easier discharge, at risk populations, and self-care. Nuffield Trust

Young people 'fear stigma' if they ask for mental-health help

Young people 'fear stigma' if they ask for mental-health help Over three-quarters of young people say there is a stigma to mental illness and a quarter would not ask for help if they were suffering, a survey suggests.

Almost half of 2,215 16- to 25-year-olds polled by YouGov for the Prince's Trust said they had themselves experienced a mental health problem.

And a third of these felt admitting to problems could harm their job chances.

Fear of stigma was a "major obstacle" to finding help, said Prof Louise Arseneault, of Kings College London.

A third of the young people sampled also said they would worry about appearing weak if they sought help, and most said they would not want to confide in anyone at all. BBC News

See also:

Women warned about private Down's syndrome tests

Women warned about private Down's syndrome tests Pregnant women are being urged to ask questions of private providers offering a new test for Down's syndrome.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics while many clinics provide a good service, some give too little advice and support.

It says some fail to make it clear that non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) can offer only an estimate of Down's risk and is not diagnostic.

One private clinic said counselling was a vital part of the test. BBC News

Osteoporosis drugs may make bones weaker

Osteoporosis drugs may make bones weaker Drugs used to treat weak bones in elderly patients suffering from osteoporosis may actually make them weaker, research suggests.

Scientists at Imperial College London examined the bone structure of hip-fracture patients who had been treated with bisphosphonates.

They found evidence the drugs were linked to microscopic cracks, making bones more fragile and prone to break.

Osteoporosis affects three million people in the UK. BBC News

Hepatitis C charity took drug industry funding

Hepatitis C charity took drug industry funding The Hepatitis C Trust tried to force the NHS to buy more of an expensive drug treatment last year. BBC News

Two out of three people back ‘soft’ opt-out organ donation

Two out of three people back ‘soft’ opt-out organ donation Two thirds of people support a ‘soft’ opt-out organ donation system, such as the one already adopted in Wales, reveal the findings of a new poll carried out by the BMA.

The survey, which questioned 2,011 members of the public in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, found that while two out of three people (66%) want to donate their organs at death only just over a third (39%) are signed up to the organ donation register. OnMedica

Oxford University college accused of 'lending credibility to quackery' by hosting homeopathy conference

Oxford University college accused of 'lending credibility to quackery' by hosting homeopathy conference An Oxford University college has been accused of inadvertently “lending credibility to quackery” by agreeing to host a conference on the “alternative therapy” of homeopathy.

The Good Thinking Society, a charity which claims to promote rational thinking and battle “pseudoscience”, has said Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, will be “adding gloss to a pseudoscientific event” by hosting the annual general meeting of the Society of Homeopaths on 18 March. The Independent

Why are there so few male nurses?

Why are there so few male nurses? Last year just 11.4% of registered nurses in the UK were male. Continued stereotyping is partly to blame

Efforts to promote gender equality in workplaces of all kinds may be widespread, but the number of men in nursing remains stubbornly low. Last year just 11.4% of registered nurses in the UK were male, according to figures from the Nursing & Midwifery Council – only a marginal increase from five years earlier, when they made up 11% of the workforce.

And the proportion of nursing students in the UK who are men hasn’t shifted either, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency: in 2016 it stood at 11.6%, compared with 11.5% a decade earlier. Continue reading... The Guardian


'Nursing makes all the difference in healthcare': how the job has changed

'Nursing makes all the difference in healthcare': how the job has changed The profession’s agenda has extended but staffing levels, pay, Brexit and compassion fatigue are significant issues

It’s 30 years since Trevor Clay challenged his fellow nurses to rise up and make their voices heard. The profession had been “remarkably insular”, he wrote, and to its lasting cost had taken little heed of the social, political and economic forces that shaped its practice.

Clay, the charismatic leader of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) during its period of explosive growth in the 1980s, argued that nursing’s great strength – its overriding focus on the needs of the patient – was at the same time its great weakness. “Too many nurses take that suppression of their individual feelings on a daily basis into political life,” he said. “Nursing is perhaps the most unassertive profession in the UK.”

Nurses are certainly not the handmaidens of any other profession Continue reading... The Guardian

75 per cent of Brits fail to eat five-a-day

75 per cent of Brits fail to eat five-a-day The majority of Brits fail to eat their recommended five-a-day - and many struggle to identify what constitutes fruit and vegetables, new study from California reveals. The Daily Mail

Britain's e-cigarette boom is over, data suggests 

Britain's e-cigarette boom is over, data suggests The number of smokers using e-cigarettes to kick the habit is declining amid fears that they are may be just as unhealthy as tobacco, data shows.

Consumer analyst Mintel has found that for the first time since their launch fewer people are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking, with usage among quitters dropping from 69pc to 62pc last year. The Daily Telegraph