Funding row leads to fears over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre

Funding row leads to fears over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre Patients are being reassured that an urgent care centre is not closing despite a row over funding.

Bosses at Corby Urgent Care Centre (UCC) have warned that it will close its doors to patients at 8pm on Friday, March 31, as a result of Corby and Nene Clinical Commissioning Groups’ refusing to organise the extension of a contract in line with minimum fees due under the NHS national tariff.

However, the NHS Corby Clinical Commissioning Group has said it is not closing. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Health care funding: is the grass greener on the other side?

Health care funding: is the grass greener on the other side? The financial difficulties facing the NHS have given rise to the suggestion from some quarters that the UK would be better off with a different model for funding health care.

Why, it is argued, aren’t we more like the Germans who use social insurance as the main way of paying for care, or the French who take out private insurance to cover part of the costs of their care. Or why don’t we adopt the system used in Australia where almost half the population receives tax breaks to help pay for private insurance, as well as paying taxes to fund the Medicare system that covers the entire population. The assumption behind these questions is that other methods of paying for care would be preferable to our tax-funded model.

Our briefing describes the three principal methods used to fund health care, drawing on international experience. The Kings Fund

The performance of the NHS in England in transforming children’s mental health services

The performance of the NHS in England in transforming children’s mental health services A new report which examines the progress made by the Government in improving children and young people’s mental health services (CAMHS).

The report analyses NHS England’s new ‘Mental Health Five Year Forward View Dashboard’, which tracks the performance of local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Education Policy Institute

See also:

• Rising number of children with mental health needs left in police cells, report finds iNews
• Three quarters of CCGs miss child mental health target OnMedica

Self-care: everybody's talking about it

Self-care: everybody's talking about it This paper highlights the need to support patients to better manage their own health and the need for greater recognition of the potential for voluntary and community services contribution towards this. The discussion paper outlines the benefits of promoting self-care approaches and the briefing for the voluntary and community sector contains case studies. Regional Voices

Bed-blocking rates unacceptable, government says

Bed-blocking rates unacceptable, government says More than 2,500 hospital beds a day are taken up by patients whose release has been delayed due to problems in the social care system.

Analysis of official so-called "bed-blocking" statistics reveals the areas where the NHS is worst affected.

The Local Government Association said under-funded authorities had placed care providers under "huge pressure".

The government said the difference "of over 20 times between best and worst councils is unacceptable".

Although the NHS is responsible for most delayed transfers, the number attributable to social care has been increasing as well.

Out of 1.87 million delayed days between April 2016 and the end of January 2017, just over 1 million were down to the NHS. There were 635,000 where social care was responsible and 145,000 that were a mixture of both. BBC News

Locum and salaried GPs excluded from NHS planning because of huge data gaps

Locum and salaried GPs excluded from NHS planning because of huge data gaps The lack of data on the sessional GP workforce means they are being excluded from major decisions on future workload and new models of care, the BMA has warned. GP Online

Teenage pregnancy rates hit all-time low after nearly halving in last eight years

Teenage pregnancy rates hit all-time low after nearly halving in last eight years Teenage pregnancy rates in England and Wales have almost halved in the last eight years, plummeting to the lowest level since records began.

In 2015, there were 20,351 conceptions in girls under 18, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – down 10 per cent from the previous year.

There were 21 pregnancies among every 1,000 girls under 18 in 2015, just under half the 2007 rate of 41.6 per 1,000.

Reasons given for the drop include better sex education, improved access to contraception, a shift in aspirations towards education and increased stigma towards teenage mothers.

When comparable records began in 1969 there were 45,495 conceptions in girls under 18, a rate of 47.1 pregnancies per 1,000 girls under 18. The Independent

See also:

• Teenage pregnancies down to record low BBC News

Less than half of women breastfeed after two months, survey finds

Less than half of women breastfeed after two months, survey finds Poll for Public Health England reveals many feel embarrassed to feed their babies in front of strangers and family members

Almost three-quarters of women in England start breastfeeding after giving birth but less than half are still doing so two months later, according to NHS and Public Health England data.

PHE recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, as does the World Health Organisation, because it boosts a baby’s ability to fight illness and infection. But a comparison of initial breastfeeding rates and those after six to eight weeks in the final quarter of 2015 found that they were 40% lower for the latter (44% compared with 73%). Continue reading... The Guardian

Having weekend surgery DOESN’T make you more likely to die

Having weekend surgery DOESN’T make you more likely to die Researchers from Edinburgh University analysed more than 50,000 emergency operations over a three year period, starting in 2005. They were tracked until 2012. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Effect of day of the week on short- and long-term mortality after emergency general surgery British Journal of Surgery