New strategy to boost health and fitness in East Northants

New strategy to boost health and fitness in East Northants A new strategy has been drawn up to improve healthy and active lifestyles in East Northants.

It is aimed at building a healthier and more active community through increased participation in sport, physical activity and active recreation.

Aims include getting ‘more people, more active, more often in East Northamptonshire’ as well as improved leisure facilities, developing sustainable plans for future leisure provision, an increase in the proportion of adults and children with a healthy weight and working with other groups to ensure greater access to activities. Northamptonshire Telegraph

News story: A&E departments to get more funding

News story: A&E departments to get more funding The Department of Health has announced the allocation of £55.98 million of the £100 million A&E capital funding, outlined in the spring Budget by the Chancellor, to ease pressure on emergency departments in time for next winter. The funding awarded at this stage is being allocated to 70 NHS hospitals.

The funding will be used by hospitals to meet the 95% standard of admitting, transferring, or discharging patients within 4 hours by ensuring patients are treated in the most appropriate setting.

The plans outlined by trusts include primary care streaming and co-locating GP practices within A&E departments to ensure patients are treated in the most appropriate setting.

This investment is one part of the A&E plan being implemented across the NHS this year to get performance to 95% during 2018.

Consultant job planning: a best practice guide

Consultant job planning: a best practice guide This guidance provides advice for trusts to ensure that their approach to consultant job planning is consistent with best practice. It recommends that annual job planning meetings for all consultants are used to review consultants' time and that there are adequate electronic data systems in place to record consultant job plans. NHS Improvement

Almost 3% of GP practices have closed or merged in past 15 months

Almost 3% of GP practices have closed or merged in past 15 months Nearly 3% of GP practices in England have closed or merged in the past 15 months, official NHS data suggest. GPonline

Almost untreatable superbug CPE poses serious threat to patients, doctors warn

Almost untreatable superbug CPE poses serious threat to patients, doctors warn Immune to some of the last-line antibiotics available to hospitals, cases of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae are on the rise, NHS data reveals

• Read the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s report on the rise of CPE

Doctors are warning that the rise of an almost untreatable superbug, immune to some of the last-line antibiotics available to hospitals, poses a serious threat to patients. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• Will 2017 be the year we take drug-resistant superbugs seriously? The Guardian
• Resistance isn’t futile – how to tackle drug-resistant superbugs The Guardian

Rise in hospital admissions for infants triggers call for NHS overhaul

Rise in hospital admissions for infants triggers call for NHS overhaul Report by thinktanks raises concerns about number of weaknesses in NHS care of children and young people

The number of infants admitted to hospital for emergency care for conditions such as asthma, bronchitis and jaundice has risen sharply in the past decade.

More young children are also ending up spending time in hospital being treated for tonsillitis, breathing problems, drug poisonings and infections, new NHS figures show. Continue reading... The Guardian

Are we ready for a grown-up election debate on the NHS and social care? | Niall Dickson

Are we ready for a grown-up election debate on the NHS and social care? | Niall Dickson Reform, funding, management – these are the issues NHS leaders want to see discussed in election campaigns

In an age when experts are no longer de rigeur, it may be asking too much for the political debate about the future of health and social care to be nuanced, balanced and informed. Were it to be so, it would surely be the first time we had achieved such dizzy heights in the bare knuckled fight of an election campaign.

So what would be good to hear? First, an acknowledgement that all the main parties are culpable for severe underfunding of social care – arguably both at national and local level. The additional sums announced in the budget are welcome but not sufficient. The government has promised fundamental reform but again all parties, including the Conservatives, have made such promises before and then failed to deliver. Continue reading... The Guardian

NHS obesity operations up 500% in a decade

NHS obesity operations up 500% in a decade There were 6,438 gastric band procedures last year, up 520 per cent in a decade. Telford and Wrekin in the West Midlands perform the most gastric bypass procedures in England. The Daily Mail

Surrey hospital ignored warnings about a rogue consultant

Surrey hospital ignored warnings about a rogue consultant Bosses at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill took five years to act, only suspending the consultant in late 2013, by which time at least 27 men had suffered ‘serious significant harm’. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Shrewsbury trust warned over baby heart monitoring in 2007 BBC News
• 'Hopeless': how senior doctor described NHS maternity unit's testing regime The Guardian

NHS tried to dodge vaginal mesh implant backlash

NHS tried to dodge vaginal mesh implant backlash A meeting between the MHRA and NHS England officials show an agreement to 'take the press element out of' a campaign for women reporting complications from the devices. The Daily Mail

See also:

• NHS and medical devices regulator tried to limit scandal over vaginal mesh implants The Guardian

Medical marijuana prescribed to 11-year-old boy on the NHS in first case of its kind

Medical marijuana prescribed to 11-year-old boy on the NHS in first case of its kind Medicinal marijuana has been prescribed on the NHS to an 11-year-old boy in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.

Billy Caldwell had been travelling to the USA to get the medication for help to treat his epilepsy which at its worst saw him suffer up to 100 life-threatening fits a day.

But when his supply of cannabis oil was about to run out and he was unable to make the return trip to Los Angeles, his mother Charlotte took him to see his local GP in desperation.

Dr Brendan O’Hare, realising the “unique and unusual” situation, opted to prescribe him the CBD oil - a derivative of cannabis containing the component cannabidiol which under MHRA guidelines doctors are allowed to prescribe. The Daily Telegraph

Hundreds of lives lost after delays in hip operations, study finds

Hundreds of lives lost after delays in hip operations, study finds Almost 700 people may have died after their hip surgery was wrongly delayed, a study has found.

Researchers in Bristol found the lives of hundreds of patients with hipfractures could be saved if they were operated on in under 24 hours.

The number of patients who died after 30 days was eight per cent higher for those who received surgery between 24 and 36 hours after admission to hospital, the study found.

The delay is thought to have caused more than 670 deaths in four years. If patients were operated on more than 48 hours after admission, the risk of death increases to 20 per cent, according to the research. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Early hip fracture surgery will save hundreds of lives BBC News