Tensions run high at meeting over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre

Tensions run high at meeting over future of Corby Urgent Care CentreThere were outbursts aplenty at a tense meeting over the future of the Corby Urgent Care Centre Thursday night.

More than 100 people crammed into the White Hart in Corby Old Village to share their concerns after it was revealed there are no takers for a new contract due to start on October 1. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Guidance: Dementia in older age: barriers to primary prevention and factors

Guidance: Dementia in older age: barriers to primary prevention and factors These documents help commissioners and researchers make decisions about prioritisation of primary prevention measures relevant to dementia.

This review, by the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2016), shows that there is evidence that the risk of dementia is increased by:

• physical inactivity
• current smoking
• diabetes
• hypertension in mid-life
• obesity in mid-life and depression

It also shows that mental activity can reduce the risk of dementia.

To promote primary prevention of dementia, it is important to understand both the barriers to primary prevention and factors which facilitate primary prevention. Public Health England

GP Forward View falling short on workforce but still the lifeline general practice needs

GP Forward View falling short on workforce but still the lifeline general practice needs The College’s Annual Assessment of the plan, that was launched in April 2016, recognises that NHS England is making progress in delivering many of its approximately 100 pledges – and that the commitment to spend an additional £2.4 billion each year on general practice by 2020/21 is on track.

But the College’s analysis, based on the most up to date statistical and member feedback, raises concerns that the GP Forward View is not having the positive impact on frontline general practice and patient care to the extent and with the speed that is needed.

Today’s report follows an interim assessment by the College, published in January, that found whilst progress is being made, national ambition was not being matched by local delivery and many GPs had yet to see significant change. The College is now calling for a ‘re-think’ on aspects the GP Forward View in order to turn things around – specifically around workforce pledges, but also on other key issues for GPs, such as spiralling costs of indemnity. Royal College of General Practitioners

See also:

• Annual assessment of GP Forward View (download) Royal College of General Practitioners
• Two in five GPs to quit inside five years as Forward View flounders, warns RCGP GPonline
• Royal College of GPs warn profession could reach 'breaking point' The Guardian

Member briefing: Brexit

Member briefing: Brexit National Voices is a member of the Brexit Health Alliance, a group of organisations convened by the NHS Confederation and including industry, professional bodies and patient organisations. This briefing explains the priority areas of concern for the health and care sector as Britain leaves the European Union, and explains the role the Brexit Health Alliance is seeking to play.

Mental health staff recruitment plan for England

Mental health staff recruitment plan for England Thousands more mental health workers are to be recruited by the NHS in England, the health secretary has said.

Jeremy Hunt said it was time to end the "historic imbalance" between mental and physical health services.

The aim is to recruit enough nurses, therapists and consultants to treat an extra one million patients by 2020-21.

But the Royal College of Nursing said the plans did not add up, and more "hard cash" would be needed if the new staff were to be trained in time.

The government said an extra £1bn already promised for mental health services in England would fund the scheme - part of a pot of £1.3bn committed in 2016 to transform provision. BBC News

See also:

• Government promises an extra 21,000 NHS mental health staff The Daily Telegraph
• Mental health sector gives mixed response to £1.3bn plan to improve NHS services The Guardian
• Jeremy Hunt to 'create 21,000 new NHS posts' as part of mental health expansion The Independent

HIV tests for new GP patients 'can aid early diagnosis'

HIV tests for new GP patients 'can aid early diagnosis' Offering HIV testing when people register with a new GP in areas of high prevalence is cost-effective and could prolong lives, a new study says.

Patients at 40 GP surgeries in the London borough of Hackney were given finger-prick HIV testing when registering.

The study, in the Lancet, found this raised the rate of diagnosis four-fold.

The Terrence Higgins Trust welcomed the findings and called on healthcare commissioners to act on them.

Public Health England already recommends that all GPs in areas where HIV prevalence is high, or extremely high, should offer testing to everyone who registers with the practice and has not previously been diagnosed with the virus. BBC News

See also:

• NHS study: HIV test should be given to all registered The Daily Mail

Mixed-sex wards endanger and humiliate women

Mixed-sex wards endanger and humiliate women Even as gender-neutral spaces grow, hospitals show that in some areas men and women are best kept apart

Courtesy of some artful timing, the latest of Theresa May’s difficulties – on mixed-sex hospital wards – caused less of a stir than her choice of the Alps, also disclosed as Westminster shut down, for her and Philip’s next walking holiday. Confirmation of a 50% rise, in May’s one year in office, in the number of patients treated in same-sex wards, a subject of consuming Tory interest until she dropped it from their manifesto, must now take second place to a £26 shirt dress.

Accusations of shiftiness are more quickly forgotten, after all, than are reversals on this scale. The unacceptability of mixed-sex wards has been a cherished theme for every opposition since Tony Blair alighted, in 1996, on what is still, universally, agreed to be a valid cause of public upset. Continue reading... The Guardian

NHS bosses are secretly planning to slash prescriptions

NHS bosses are secretly planning to slash prescriptions NHS bosses are secretly planning to extend waiting times, slash prescriptions and heavily ration hip and knee operations, doctors’ leaders warn.

They have launched a major cost-cutting drive across 13 regions in England which all massively blew their budgets last year.

Managers in these areas which include Bristol, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire and North and Central London have been ordered to make collective savings of £500 million over the next 12 months.

But they have not published any details of how they will meet this target or set out exactly which treatments and services will be cut. The Daily Mail

Negligent hospitals to get free pass at inquests under costs cap - warning

Negligent hospitals to get free pass at inquests under costs cap - warning NHS hospitals responsible for patient deaths will get a free pass at inquests under Government proposals to cap legal costs, the lawyer for victims of the Bristol heart scandal has warned.

Coroners’ hearings to establish what went wrong will become “truncated” and chances to learn lessons lost, said Laurence Vick, who represented multiple families in the wake of the 1990s fatalities.

Loved-ones with limited means are often represented for free at inquests by lawyers who gamble on getting paid after winning a subsequent compensation battle in court. The Daily Telegraph