What does the public think about the NHS?

What does the public think about the NHS? This report, based on polling data carried out by Ipsos MORI, explores public attitudes towards the health service. It finds that despite the significant challenges it faces, the NHS still holds strong support amongst the majority of the general public with 66 per cent of respondents stating that they would be willing to pay more taxes in order to fund the NHS. The King's Fund

See also:

• Two-thirds support higher taxes to maintain NHS funding The Guardian

Getting into shape: delivering a workforce for integrated care

Getting into shape: delivering a workforce for integrated care The Government is rightly committed to a radical reshaping of NHS delivery, based on a shift to new care models and treatment in the community. Its management of the NHS workforce, however, has not delivered with nearly three times more doctors, and four times more nurses in the acute sector than in the community. Since 2009, the number of consultants has risen by nearly a third, whilst the number of GPs has fallen. Freedom of Information requests made for this report found that, across 61 acute trusts, only 6 per cent of consultants work in the community for at least one session per week.

As the Government and the NHS leadership have repeatedly said, the priority for the NHS is to increase its speed of innovation. To do this, the NHS is rightly seeking to devolve decision-making and to deregulate. For the workforce, however, policy remains highly centralised and tightly regulated. This paper shows how to bring the same reform ideas to the workforce as the NHS is applying to other areas. Reform

See also:

• Local NHS bosses should take control of staffing The Guardian

Guidance: Health matters: preventing drug misuse deaths

Guidance: Health matters: preventing drug misuse deaths This updated professional resource outlines how providers and commissioners can prevent deaths from drug abuse. Public Health England

Have you got the wrong impression about schizophrenia?

Have you got the wrong impression about schizophrenia? Schizophrenia does not mean you have a split personality or automatically become violent, a mental health charity has warned.

Rethink Mental Illness said a survey of 1,500 people showed that the condition is widely misunderstood.

Schizophrenia commonly causes hallucinations, such as hearing voices, or delusions and can make people lose interest in life.

But it should not be "a dirty word or a term of abuse", the charity said.

The organisation warned such myths are dangerous.

One in 100 people has schizophrenia, but 45% of those surveyed thought the illness was much more common. BBC News

See also:

• Rethink Schizophrenia: Challenging attitudes and changing lives Rethink Mental Illness

'Golden goodbyes' for NHS managers now costing £39 million as redundancies soar

'Golden goodbyes' for NHS managers now costing £39 million as redundancies soar Spending on so-called “golden goodbyes” and voluntary redundancy deals has shot up to £39 million a year at the Department of Health (DoH) - an eightfold increase on the previous year - official figures reveal.

A written parliamentary answer shows that more than 500 staff who left the DoH in 2016-17 because of restructuring and cost-cutting programmes received exit packages. In 2015-16, only nine people who were laid off from the department were given such settlements.

The figure of £39 million covers the whole of the department and its agencies and compares with a spend of £5 million for the previous year. The Independent

Unions call for 3.9% pay rise plus £800 for a million NHS staff

Unions call for 3.9% pay rise plus £800 for a million NHS staff Demand is based on inflation and seven years’ back pay, after lifting of prison and police officers’ pay cap

Unions have ramped up the pressure on Theresa May over public sector pay by demanding a 3.9% rise for 1 million NHS staff plus an extra £800 to make up for lost earning power during austerity.

Health service personnel from nurses and midwives to paramedics and therapists across the UK are urging Philip Hammond to ensure they receive a salary boost that would add an extra £3bn to the NHS pay bill. Continue reading... The Guardian

‘I was the first baby delivered by the NHS. It has saved my life eight times’

‘I was the first baby delivered by the NHS. It has saved my life eight times’ Aneira Thomas was named by her mother after the architect of the health service

It was coming up to midnight on Sunday 4 July 1948 and my mother, who had been in labour for 18 hours, was just about ready to give birth to me. She wanted to start pushing. But the doctors and midwives looked up at the clock on the wall and said, “Stop. Hold on, Edna, hold on.” They knew they were moments away from the start of the National Health Service and wanted me to be the first baby born into this new service. So my mother took a deep breath and held on. That’s how I was born at one minute past midnight on Monday 5 July 1948 – the first NHS baby.

That was in a cottage hospital in a little corner of west Wales called Glanamman. It was the staff there who told my mother, “You must call her Aneira,” the female form of Aneurin, after Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS. They knew it was significant that Bevan’s dream of a health service that was free for everyone to use had come to fruition that day.

I never knew any of my grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. My mother lived until she was 95 Continue reading... The Guardian

‘Cut-price’ medics lured to the NHS from the US with promises of long holidays touring Europe

‘Cut-price’ medics lured to the NHS from the US with promises of long holidays touring Europe ‘Cut-price’ medics are being lured to the UK from the United States with promises of long holidays touring Europe, in a bid to plug widespread staffing shortages.

The NHS is attempting to train or recruit up to 3,200 “physician associates” who can carry out minor operations and carry out ward rounds, after just two years' training.

Medical leaders have issued new guidance in order to expand the programme, amid shortages of medics.

The new role is not supposed to substitute for a doctor, though the associates can carry out some of the tasks they normally do. The Daily Telegraph

Two junior doctors left to care for 436 patients amid dangerous staff shortages, NHS report warns

Two junior doctors left to care for 436 patients amid dangerous staff shortages, NHS report warns Just two junior doctors have been left to look after 436 patients amid a staffing crisis in the NHS, a report warns.

Medics said patients had been left at risk during a “very unsafe shift” at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

A safety report given to the trust’s board says one of the two doctors was pulled away from a day shift in breast surgery because otherwise there would have been just one medic left to cover the night shift.

Doctors said they were left angry that patients were let down, while one said they were left feeling ill with no breaks, and just “a couple of biscuits from the patient trolley” during a whole weekend. The Daily Telegraph