Monday 27 March 2017

Government's health chief called in to discuss waiting woes at under-pressure Northampton GP surgery

Government's health chief called in to discuss waiting woes at under-pressure Northampton GP surgery The health secretary has agreed to hold discussions about lengthy waiting times at a Duston surgery - after a number of complaints from those unable to get an appointment. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Teen pregnancy rates in Northants are half of that in 2005 stats show - but more terminate pregnancy

Teen pregnancy rates in Northants are half of that in 2005 stats show - but more terminate pregnancy Teenage pregnancies in Northamptonshire have halved over the past 10 years, latest figures have revealed, though almost half of those led to an abortion. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Compromise offered in funding row over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre

Compromise offered in funding row over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre A compromise has been put forward in the funding row over the future of Corby Urgent Care Centre.

In response to concerns raised by patients, Lakeside+ has offered a ‘major concession’ to keep the centre open with the existing staff after April 1.

The offer suggests that both parties back away from the March 31 deadline and keep the centre open while the legal process carries on to fix how much the centre will be paid for treating NHS patients.

It comes as Lakeside+ has been inundated with both local and national messages of support since news of the situation broke. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Sending shockwaves through the NHS?

Sending shockwaves through the NHS? Taken at face value, Simon Stevens’ recent remarks to the Public Accounts Committee should be sending shockwaves through the NHS. Six to ten sustainability and transformation plan (STP) areas, to be announced in the forthcoming Forward View delivery plan, are set to become ‘accountable care organisations or systems, which will for the first time since 1990 effectively end the purchaser–provider split, bringing about integrated funding and delivery for a given geographical population’. 

It would be hard to overstate the magnitude of such a shift in policy, if that is what we are witnessing. Since the early 1990s, governments have pinned their hopes on purchaser–provider separation as the basis for health care improvement. Simon Stevens’ comments reflect, in large part, a growing perception that the costs of the purchaser–provider split outweigh the benefits of the market it was supposed to create. Transaction costs are high. Meanwhile, the market has delivered, at best, only modest efficiencies. Demographic and epidemiological changes are driving integration, which makes arm’s-length contracting even harder.  The King's Fund

New measures to target inequality in health and social care

New measures to target inequality in health and social care The Care Quality Commission has published ambitious new equality objectives for 2017 to 19. Despite progress on equality, people from some equality groups are still less likely to receive good quality health and social care.

The new objectives for the next two years focus on CQC regulatory role in improving equality. Through its inspections, CQC will check that providers make person-centred care work for everyone, from all equality groups – for example for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people using adult social care or mental health inpatient services.

CQC has set an objective to look at reducing barriers and improving access to primary care for migrants, asylum seekers, Gypsies and Travellers, to help address their poor health outcomes.

Meeting us where we're at: learning from INTEGRATE's work with excluded young people

Meeting us where we're at: learning from INTEGRATE's work with excluded young people This report discusses the approach taken by London-based charity MAC-UK in offering mental health support to young people involved in gangs or at risk of offending. The INTEGRATE approach is characterised by engaging young people through activities that they set up themselves and getting referrals through peers and friends. The evaluation of the INTEGRATE approach found that it brought notable improvements in many of the participants and helped to support young people in finding work. Centre for Mental Health

Jeremy Hunt 'sorry' NHS 111 call did not spot boy's sepsis

Jeremy Hunt 'sorry' NHS 111 call did not spot boy's sepsis  A boy who died aged one after NHS staff failed to identify he had septicaemia was "let down", Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted.

Mr Hunt spoke at a memorial service for William Mead, from Cornwall.

William, from Penryn, died in 2014, after an NHS 111 call did not lead to him being admitted to hospital.

Speaking at the private service in Truro, Mr Hunt said: "I as health secretary, the government, and the NHS let down William." BBC News

Exclusive: Urgent cancer scans blocked for two in five GPs

Exclusive: Urgent cancer scans blocked for two in five GPs Two in five GPs have had referrals on the two-week cancer pathway bounced back or downgraded as less urgent within the last year - with one in four affected patients later found to have cancer - a GPonline survey suggests.

Experts warn new TB drugs’ effectiveness could be lost

Experts warn new TB drugs’ effectiveness could be lost Experts are warning today that the effectiveness of new drugs in treating tuberculosis (TB) could be lost without real efforts to support their introduction.

A report* published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal to coincide with World TB day today, says that the rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB threatens to derail decades of progress in controlling the disease. OnMedica

Half of £2bn boost for NHS 'spent outside health service'

Half of £2bn boost for NHS 'spent outside health service' Extra £100m spent on external providers in 2015/16 shows NHS cannot cope with rising demand, FT research suggests

Health chiefs spent about half of the £2bn of extra cash allocated in George Osborne’s pre-2015 election autumn statement on buying care from private and other non-NHS providers, an analysis has shown.

The Health Foundation research for the Financial Times showed £901m was spent on buying services from outside the health service in 2015/16 for care provided free at the point of use for NHS patients. It compared with £800m spent on purchasing the same kind of care from NHS trusts. Continue reading... The Guardian

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GPs 'dismissing womb illness as period pain', report says

GPs 'dismissing womb illness as period pain', report says Hundreds of thousands of women with a painful womb condition are left to cope without specialised care and are often dismissed as imagining their symptoms, a report says.

Some 40 per cent of those with endometriosis – a chronic condition suffered by two million in Britain – have to visit their GP ten times before they are referred to a specialist, it reveals.

For 10 per cent of women it takes 15 years of seeking help to receive a diagnosis, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Health. The Daily Mail

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Cabinet ministers warned social care crisis could exacerbate if UK pensioners return from abroad over Brexit

Cabinet ministers warned social care crisis could exacerbate if UK pensioners return from abroad over Brexit Britain’s social care crisis will escalate after Brexit as tens of thousands of pensioners living in the EU return home, cabinet ministers have been warned.

Failure to secure continued access to healthcare for elderly Britons based on the Continent could trigger many to move back to the UK, ministers were told.

Such a change would pile pressure on the NHS and increase demand on care homes that are already under strain from an aging population. The Daily Telegraph