Jeremy Hunt 'hugely disappointed' to learn about concerns amid volunteer service calling time at Northampton General Hospital

Jeremy Hunt 'hugely disappointed' to learn about concerns amid volunteer service calling time at Northampton General Hospital The secretary of state for health has called disruption to 'vital' hospital volunteers 'highly regrettable' following a parking dispute with a charity group and Northampton General Hospital.

The Friends of Northampton General Hospital (NGH) - a service who man three reception desks and assist outpatients - are winding up their 28-year-strong volunteer group on August 31 after the group had their free parking privileges withdrawn by the hospital in a recent review. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Northampton hospital hit by delays in diagnosing cancer inside 'crucial' 62-day target

Northampton hospital hit by delays in diagnosing cancer inside 'crucial' 62-day target Recruitment problems at Northampton General Hospital is delaying "critical" treatment for cancer patients, a report shows.

In June, the hospital missed all-but-one of their targets set by NHS guidelines for diagnosing or referring cancer patients within a 62-day standard. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Corby Urgent Care Centre action group launches judicial review

Corby Urgent Care Centre action group launches judicial review An action group set up by people hoping to save the Corby Urgent Care Centre has begun a judicial review over the CCG’s lack of consultation.

The review, made by the Save Our Urgent Care Action Group, says residents have not been lawfully involved in any planned changes to healthcare or the potential closure of the Urgent Care Centre, run by Lakeside+. Northamptonshire Telegraph

New scheme launched to help NHS whistleblowers

New scheme launched to help NHS whistleblowers A nationwide pilot to help NHS whistleblowers back into work is being launched by NHS England. The Whistleblowers Support Scheme will offer a range of services including career coaching, financial advice and mediation for primary care staff who have suffered as a result of raising concerns about NHS practice.

Expansion of the GP international recruitment programme

Expansion of the GP international recruitment programme This guidance describes how NHS England is working with partner organisations to expand the GP international recruitment programme. In order to meet targets for GP recruitment set out in the General practice forward view, the programme is being brought forward two years and proposals for the recruitment of an extra 601 doctors has been approved. NHS England

See also:

• RCGP welcomes international recruitment boost to ease GP shortages Royal College of General Practitioners
• Revealed: Health chiefs plan to make it easier for failing trainees and foreign medics to become GPs The Daily Telegraph
• NHS England plans to recruit 600 overseas GPs by April GPonline
• GP workforce rises by less than 1% from March to June this year GPonline
• Renewed drive to recruit overseas GPs to UK OnMedica

Language tests

Language tests Polina Ralutin was an experienced nurse in the Philippines and keen to take up a post in the NHS, at the Lister hospital, in Stevenage.

First, she had to pass an exam testing her knowledge of the English language. But she was surprised to find she had to analyse a text on jam-making for the exam.

She told the BBC's World Tonight programme: "I had to look at a diagram of the process and describe how to make it - there was a time limit, and it was very difficult to achieve in almost perfect English - how to make jam."

Polina passed the exam and took up her post in April 2016. But she knows several other nurses who failed, and she believes the test is too difficult.

"I have good friends who had to take it three times," she says. "I know plenty of others who struggled so much with it." BBC News

Prison healthcare so bad it would be shut down on outside, say doctors

Prison healthcare so bad it would be shut down on outside, say doctors Doctors tell of understaffed services, with patients missing hospital appointments due to clerical errors or lack of escort

NHS doctors working in prisons have warned that the conditions in which they operate are so unsafe that the services would be closed down had they been outside the prison system, the Guardian has learned.

The warnings have been issued in emails from an internal prison doctors’ email group seen by the Guardian. The fears about failures in prison healthcare come at a time when prisons are under huge pressure as a result of violence, overcrowding, drug use and high suicide rates. Continue reading... The Guardian

UK medicines agency seizes HIV home-test kits over false result risk

UK medicines agency seizes HIV home-test kits over false result risk Over 100 Hightop test kits, which have not met EU regulations, seized as agency warns consumers against using them

More than 100 HIV home-testing kits have been seized by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) amid fears over their reliability.

The agency believes it has seized all stock of the Hightop HIV/Aids home-test kit from UK suppliers but is warning consumers against purchasing the product online or using it, if already purchased, because of the potential for false results. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• HIV home-testing kits warning BBC News

Hospital turns down donation from men who wore 'demeaning' nurse costumes

Hospital turns down donation from men who wore 'demeaning' nurse costumes A hospital has turned down a donation from a group of men who raised money by dressing up as nurses, claiming their behaviour was "highly-sexualised" and "demeaning".

The men raised £2,500 in the event in Ludlow, Shropshire, which sees them dress up as female nurses and take to the streets with collection buckets.

The fundraising drive for Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust has been taking place without complaint for 30 years, raising around £90,000 in total.

Jan Ditheridge, chief executive of the trust, said she is not comfortable with how the event portrays medical staff and refused the donation. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Ludlow Hospital refuses 'demeaning' fancy dress donation BBC News
• Health trust turns down ‘demeaning’ fancy dress nurses' donation The Guardian

More dementia patients in A&E over lack of care home beds

More dementia patients in A&E over lack of care home beds A lack of care home beds means more than three in four dying dementia patients end up in A&E, shocking new figures show.

The number of later-stage patients making emergency visits to hospital jumped by 62 per cent in just five years between 2008/09 and 2012/13, research by King’s College London found.

Doctors warned many of the visits were preventable, unnecessary and distressing for patients and their families – as well as putting greater strain on overstretched emergency departments.

They blamed falling numbers of care home beds for the problem as the study found people in care homes were much less likely to go to A&E. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Predictors of emergency department attendance by people with dementia in their last year of life: Retrospective cohort study using linked clinical and administrative data Alzheimer's and Dementia (open access)