NHS funding choices and the 2017 General Election

NHS funding choices and the 2017 General Election The Nuffield Trust set out different scenarios about possible future spending on the NHS in England including an analysis and comparison of the latest pledges from the three main parties' manifestos.

See also:

• NHS funding pledges by major parties would still fall short, experts say The Guardian

Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing

Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing A new report, #StatusOfMind, examines the positive and negative effects of social media on young people’s health.

The report includes a league table of social media platforms according to their impact on young people’s mental health. YouTube tops the table as the most positive with Instagram and Snapchat coming out as the most detrimental to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Royal Society for Public Health and Youth Health Movement

See also:

• Don’t listen to the moral panic, social media is good for young people’s mental health The Independent

Nearly 3.5 million patients at risk of losing their family doctor through Brexit, warns RCGP

Nearly 3.5 million patients at risk of losing their family doctor through Brexit, warns RCGP New analysis from the College, released today, shows that 3,456,481 patients could be left without a family doctor if the 2,137 GPs across the UK, that the RCGP estimates are from the European Union, are forced to leave.

This constitutes 5% of the workforce in England at a time when NHS England’s GP Forward View has pledged 5,000 more full-time equivalent GPs by 2020 – but latest workforce figures actually showed a drop of 445 FTE GPs in the three months from September to December 2016. Royal College of General Practitioners

Mental health deaths probed at Essex NHS trust

Mental health deaths probed at Essex NHS trust Up to 20 deaths at an NHS-run mental health unit are being investigated as part of a police inquiry, the BBC has learned.

It follows fresh investigations into the death of Matthew Leahy, who was found hanged at Linden Centre in 2012.

His mother, Melanie Leahy, said her talks with Essex Police suggested the cases had taken place in the last 17 years.

The Essex NHS Trust said patient safety was a "top priority". BBC News

See also:

• Police investigate deaths at Essex mental health unit The Guardian

Cigarettes sold in plain green packs under new rules

Cigarettes sold in plain green packs under new rules New rules have come into force which mean cigarettes and tobacco must be sold in plain green packets and carry graphic health warnings.

The rules, which also end the sale of packets of 10, are designed to deter young people from taking up the habit.

Health groups have welcomed the measure, as the number of smokers in the UK continues to decline.

But a smokers' group says the changes "infantilise" consumers and will make no difference to public health. BBC News

See also:

• E-cigarette laws to changed this weekend - Here’s how vapers will be affected Northamptonshire Telegraph

NHS performance data 'likely to be delayed until after election'

NHS performance data 'likely to be delayed until after election' The publication of key financial performance data from the NHS in England will be delayed until after the election, the BBC understands.

Regulator NHS Improvement had wanted to publish data on the scale of hospital deficits but was advised against it by the government.

NHS Improvement said it was "disappointing" the results could not be published until after the election.

The Department of Health and the Conservative Party did not comment.

In a statement, NHS Improvement said a date for the publication of the figures had to be agreed with the Department of Health, but this had not been done when the election for 8 June was called. BBC News

See also:

• Reality Check: Why is NHS budget data delayed by purdah? BBC News

GPs to be balloted over 'collective list closure' in GP crisis protest

GPs to be balloted over 'collective list closure' in GP crisis protest LMCs have ordered the GPC to ballot the profession over a possible mass closure of GP lists to highlight the crisis facing general practice. GPonline

NHS chief tells ministers: face up to the pay crisis

NHS chief tells ministers: face up to the pay crisis Chief executive of hospital trusts group issues warning that nursing morale and recruitment will be hit

Ministers should address mounting disquiet among NHS staff about pay and recruitment if the health service is to avoid a full-blown staffing crisis, the head of the official body that represents hospital trusts and mental health services says today.

The stark warning from Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, comes as GP leaders predict that 2,000 European-born doctors could leave the country because of uncertainty about their status caused by Brexit, with disastrous consequences for patient care. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• Bolstering the workforce is the key to the survival of the NHS | Niall Dickson The Guardian

Without action on antibiotics, medicine will return to the dark ages

Without action on antibiotics, medicine will return to the dark ages Continued overprescribing and abuse could lead to more people dying of resistant infections than cancer. Only global cooperation can solve the problem

When Prof Sally Davies published The Drugs Don’t Work in 2013, it wasn’t some allusion to a Verve number from the 1990s, but a sombre warning of the growing threat posed by bacteria evolving resistance to life-saving antibiotics. If this were left unaddressed, she argued, it would lead to the erosion of modern medicine as we know it. Continue reading... The Guardian

Fury over sexist nurse recruitment campaign

Fury over sexist nurse recruitment campaign An NHS trust has been accused of sexualising nurses after a recruitment campaign was accidentally published.

The images, which have sparked outrage on social media, show young female nurses standing besides flirtatious messages.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust intended to use the posters to attract recruits as part of its Remarkable People, Extraordinary Place campaign, however, they were mistakenly published without approval. The Daily Mail

Children will have worse health than their grandparents

Children will have worse health than their grandparents Children will be less healthy than today's over 65 year olds when they reach that age, says the UK's Economist Intelligence Unit. Too much sugar and too little exercise are to blame. The Daily Mail

Doctors 'too reliant' on depression questionnaire designed by Pfizer, campaigners warn

Doctors 'too reliant' on depression questionnaire designed by Pfizer, campaigners warn Depression is being overdiagnosed because GPs are too reliant on a “basic” questionnaire designed by a pharmaceutical company which also manufacturers psychiatric drugs, campaigners have warned.

The easy-to-use nine-question form sets the threshold for the condition “far too low” and results in patients being wrongly diagnosed and medicated, according an expert at the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry.

The PHQ-9 Patient Health Questionnaire was developed by academics funded by Pfizer, which owned the intellectual property and distribution rights. The Daily Telegraph

NHS cyber attack: Everything you need to know about 'biggest ransomware' offensive in history

NHS cyber attack: Everything you need to know about 'biggest ransomware' offensive in history A global cyberattack using hacking tools widely believed by researchers to have been developed by the US National Security Agency crippled the NHS, hit international shipper FedEx and infected computers in 150 countries.

More than 300,000 computers were infected while the countries most affected by WannaCry were Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and India, according to Czech security firm Avast. The Daily Telegraph

NHS to show parents how fat their child will become under 'shock tactics' to fight obesity

NHS to show parents how fat their child will become under 'shock tactics' to fight obesity The NHS is to use shock tactics in an attempt to scare parents into tackling their child’s looming obesity.

Parents will be shown 3D models showing just how overweight their child is set to become by the time they reach adulthood.

Trials involving almost 3,000 children have found that the forecasts terrified families into taking action. In the pilot schemes, parents of children aged five and six were asked to key in their child’s measurements.

They were then asked to watch a series of 3D graphics, showing a child their own age, digitally manipulated to look underweight, normal, overweight or obese. The Daily Telegraph