Men dominate the top jobs in Northamptonshire - Chron investigation reveals - with one NHS body paying women £14k less on average

Men dominate the top jobs in Northamptonshire -  Chron investigation reveals - with one NHS body paying women £14k less on average An investigation by the Chronicle & Echo has revealed that the average pay for women on a number of local authorities in Northamptonshire is up to £14,800 less than for men.

The figures was compiled using a number of Freedom of Information requests.

Our investigation looked at the differences in average pay of male and female employees – it was not the case that women were paid less than men for doing the same job. What it did show, however, was that the top roles, and therefore the highest paid, were largely dominated by men. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

New £12 million unit to ease pressure on Northampton A&E set to open by summer 2018

New £12 million unit to ease pressure on Northampton A&E set to open by summer 2018 Construction work on a new £12 million emergency assessment centre at Northampton General Hospital is due to start in the summer. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

General Election 2017: What lies ahead for health and social care?

General Election 2017: What lies ahead for health and social care? A review of the election and how the NHS might feature from the The Health Foundation

Integrating health and social care

Integrating health and social care This report investigates the Better Care Fund and concludes that it has missed targets for reducing emergency admissions and delayed transfers of care. Public Accounts Select Committee

NHS ambulance services

NHS ambulance services This report finds that funding increases for the urgent and emergency services provided by ambulance trusts have not kept up with increasing demand; ambulance trusts increasingly struggle to meet response-time targets; and significant variations between trusts persist or have got worse as insufficient work has been done to understand and reduce variation. Public Accounts Select Committee

State of child health - short report series: the paediatric workforce

State of child health - short report series: the paediatric workforce This report sets out key findings from the biennial paediatric workforce census. It reveals that in the year to September 2015, shortages of nurses and/or doctors led to periods of closure to new admissions by 31 per cent of paediatric inpatient units and 41 per cent of neonatal units across the UK. It also highlights vacancies at both consultant and trainee levels, the low number of academic consultants and the fact that GPs and Practice Nurses have limited training in child health. It makes recommendations for immediate action on a number of fronts to address workforce pressures. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Cancer Drugs Fund 'huge waste of money'

Cancer Drugs Fund 'huge waste of money' The fund ran from 2010 to 2016, costing £1.27bn, following an election promise made by the Conservatives to pay for cancer drugs the NHS was not funding.


The researchers found only one in five of the treatments was of benefit.

But the Tories said the fund gave patients "precious extra time".

Nearly 100,000 patients received drugs under the scheme. It was run separately to the normal NHS process for assessing the effectiveness and affordability of new drugs, which is administered by a body called NICE. BBC News

See also:

• Do patient access schemes for high-cost cancer drugs deliver value to society?—lessons from the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (open access) Annals of Oncology
• Are NHS patients getting the best medicines? BBC News
• £1.3bn NHS cancer drug fund 'doesn't help patient' The Daily Mail
• £1.27 billion Cancer Drugs Fund a political 'quick-fix' that harmed some patients, review finds The Daily Telegraph
• Cancer Drugs Fund condemned as expensive and ineffective The Guardian

Underfunding threatens to reverse progress on sexual health, GPs warn

Underfunding threatens to reverse progress on sexual health, GPs warn Years of progress in sexual and reproductive health that has seen teenage pregnancy rates halve over the last decade could be undone by bureaucratic and financial barriers, GPs have warned. GPonline

Fear of talking about dying 'leading to thousands of traumatic hospital deaths'

Fear of talking about dying 'leading to thousands of traumatic hospital deaths' Thousands of cancer patients would prefer to die at home but are forced to suffer “traumatic” deaths in hospital, according to Macmillan.

Taboos around talking about death are fuelling a “crisis of communication” in the UK that prevents people from planning their final days, warned the organisation in a new report.

Research by the charity found that while 38 per cent of people who die from cancer die in hospital, just one per cent would choose to do so, with 64 per cent saying they wanted to die at home. The Independent

Fallen at home? Firefighter service eases pressure on ambulances

Fallen at home? Firefighter service eases pressure on ambulances Telecare scheme in Wolverhampton sees the fire brigade respond to calls from older people who have fallen at home

It’s 9.30am on a sunny spring day in Wolverhampton. Three firefighters are in the mess at one of the city’s fire stations when a screeching alarm pierces the air. The team jumps up and leaps into a kitted-out 4x4. Instead of speeding down roads with blaring sirens and lights, however, they travel to their destination without breaking the speed limit. And when they arrive at the house, there’s no fire to put out.

Inside, they find a woman in her 90s who has fallen out of bed and can’t get up. She is scared and distraught. She pleads with them not to take her to hospital. One of them reassures her while the others assess her surroundings and whether they need to call an ambulance. They help her up, make sure she’s OK and leave. Continue reading... The Guardian

NHS needs £25bn in emergency cash, Theresa May told

NHS needs £25bn in emergency cash, Theresa May told Group representing NHS trusts demands end to austerity funding, warning quality of care will suffer without extra funding

NHS leaders are urging Theresa May to give the health service an emergency cash injection of £25bn before 2020 or risk a decline in the quality of care for patients and lengthening delays for treatment.

An influential group representing NHS trusts says that the care provided by hospitals and GP surgeries will suffer over the next few years unless the prime minister provides an £5bn a year for the next three years – and a further £10bn of capital for modernising equipment and buildings. Continue reading... The Guardian

Drug 100 times stronger than heroin arrives in Britain and causes six deaths

Drug 100 times stronger than heroin arrives in Britain and causes six deaths A synthetic opioid that is 100 times more powerful than heroin is being added to batches of the street drug and is thought to have claimed the lives of at least six addicts in recent weeks.

Fentanyl - which was blamed for the death of the pop star Prince year - and carfentanyl has been detected in heroin that is being sold in the north of England. The Daily Telegraph