Thursday 11 May 2017

Fruit and veg stall set up outside KGH

Fruit and veg stall set up outside KGH A fruit and veg stall has been set up outside Kettering General Hospital as part of its plan to promote healthy eating.

The innovative move has been welcomed by local people who have been flocking to the stand, run by experienced greengrocer Penny Benedict. Northamptonshire Telegraph

We should see acute hospitals as places for healing

We should see acute hospitals as places for healing Jocelyn Cornwell is chief executive of The Point of Care Foundation. Here she shares her thoughts on what would change if clinicians, managers and boards shifted their focus and placed priority on making hospital wards places of healing and caring. The King's Fund

HIV life expectancy 'near normal' thanks to new drugs

HIV life expectancy 'near normal' thanks to new drugs Young people on the latest HIV drugs now have near-normal life expectancy because of improvements in treatments, a study in The Lancet suggests.

Twenty-year-olds who started antiretroviral therapy in 2010 are projected to live 10 years longer than those first using it in 1996, it found.

Doctors say that starting treatment early is crucial to achieve a long and healthy life.

Charities say there are still too many people unaware they have the virus. BBC News

New ambulances rolled out for obese patients

New ambulances rolled out for obese patients Ambulance services across England have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds to ensure vehicles can cope with a growing number of obese patients.

Bariatric ambulances are specially-designed and equipped in response to a 10-fold spike in hospital visits linked to obesity in the past decade

The number of admissions has increased from 52,000 in 2006 to 520,000 in 2016.

Figures show the north west had the highest number of obesity-related admissions in 2016, with 78,000.

The North West Ambulance Service has eight bariatric vehicles, used 40,000 times in four years, and has spent £184,000 on specialist equipment since 2015. BBC News

Thousands of patients will contract Lyme disease this year, GPs warned

Thousands of patients will contract Lyme disease this year, GPs warned GPs must consider Lyme disease in patients with bull's-eye rash or if they become unwell following a tick bite, campaigners have warned as modelling suggests the disease is set to reach epidemic levels. GPonline

A hospital with a brain: how big data is changing healthcare

A hospital with a brain: how big data is changing healthcare The NHS holds a wealth of data about how patients are diagnosed and treated. Unlocking its secrets could be key to improving patient care

Iain Hennessey wants to build a hospital with a brain. It sounds like the stuff sci-fi movies are made of but as this affable consultant paedeatric surgeon explains, his desire is to improve care at Alder Hey children’s hospital by making better use of its growing wealth of information.

“It’s all well and good having all of this data, but if you can’t do anything with it then it’s pretty useless – it overwhelms you,” says Hennessey, who balances a role as clinical director of innovation alongside his surgical commitments. Continue reading.. The Guardian

Designed by patients: the mental health centre saving the NHS £300,000 a year

Designed by patients: the mental health centre saving the NHS £300,000 a year The patients who use the Gellinudd Recovery Centre have a say in everything from policy to the decor. Could co-produced innovations be the future for mental health care?

Soft, neatly folded blankets hang invitingly over the backs of the modern but comfy armchairs in the Gellinudd Recovery Centre’s communal living room. In the en suite bedrooms, there are white waffle slippers and dressing gowns embroidered with the centre’s tree symbol.

Staff and guests – those who stay are not termed patients – join forces to cook, clean and tend the fruit and veg they then sit down to eat together at Gellinudd, which is the UK’s first inpatient mental health centre to be designed by service users and their carers. “If you’re a psychiatrist you’ll still be expected to be in the kitchen chopping vegetables alongside everyone else,” says the centre’s director, Alison Guyatt. Continue reading... The Guardian

Gardening, art, sport – 'prescriptions' for mental health that don't involve pills

Gardening, art, sport – 'prescriptions' for mental health that don't involve pills Social prescribing, where patients are referred to non-clinical activities, is producing positive outcomes. But can the voluntary sector keep up with demand?

Group therapeutic work had never appealed to Kerina, who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder in her 30s after suffering from mental health issues all her life. “You sit there reading paperwork and it feels like you’re in a classroom,” she says.

Then two years ago the community mental health team in Mid Ross in the Scottish Highlands gave her a “social prescription” – referring her to Branching Out, a Forestry Commission Scotland programme designed to help people recover from long-term mental health problems. For 12 weeks she spent five hours a week in the woods doing conservation work, bushcraft and environmental art. Continue reading... The Guardian

Fears Britain faces stroke epidemic fuelled by bulging waistlines 

Fears Britain faces stroke epidemic fuelled by bulging waistlines Britain is facing an “shocking” stroke epidemic as bulging waistlines take their toll, a major report by Kings College London has found.

The study of 35 countries warns that within two decades, the number of strokes is set to rise by 44 per cent - far above the average across Europe.

The UK already has the sixth highest number of strokes in Europe, with among the highest cholesterol levels.

Cardiac experts last night warned that soaring obesity levels are fuelling heart problems, and said simple lifestyle changes could greatly reduce the risk of strokes. The Daily Telegraph

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'Shattering stigma starts with simple conversations': tackling the child mental health crisis

'Shattering stigma starts with simple conversations': tackling the child mental health crisis From online counselling to a texting service offered by school nurses and free wellbeing courses, providing support for young people needn’t break councils’ budgets. Sarah Johnson reports on a roundtable discussion

Public concern around child and adolescent mental health is at an all-time high. The prime minister, Theresa May announced in January her intention to better identify and help the growing number of young people in schools who are at risk of developing mental health issues. Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, meanwhile, are using their profiles to convince the public that “shattering stigma on mental health starts with simple conversations”.

And yet, despite growing awareness of the issue, child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) are under an increasing amount of pressure. Healthcare professionals bemoan a lack of resources and staff while the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has described Camhs as the “biggest single area of weakness of NHS provision”. Continue reading... The Guardian

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