Northampton's A&E is bursting at the seems weeks before winter has set in, health bosses warn

Northampton's A&E is bursting at the seems weeks before winter has set in, health bosses warn Accident and emergency admissions in Northampton are at "winter levels" already, hospital bosses have warned, even though a cold snap is not due to hit the UK for several weeks.

Nene Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has urged would-be patients to consider calling the 111 NHS advice line, to visit their GP or see a pharmacist before presenting at Northampton General Hospital's stretched accident and emergency department.

The CCG says some of those presenting at A and E recently required hospital admission because they had "delayed seeking help" and had become acutely unwell as a result. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

How Kettering’s Cransley Hospice helps hundreds of people every year

How Kettering’s Cransley Hospice helps hundreds of people every year When someone says the word ‘hospice’, many assume it’s a place that people go to just before they die.

For some, that’s true.

But 50 per cent of patients who visit Kettering’s Cransley Hospice inpatient unit, tucked away in the grounds of St Mary’s Hospital in London Road, return home.

With National Hospice Care Week taking place this week (October 9 to 15), staff nurse Kim Rowbotham says it’s a common myth that should be dispelled. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Comprehensive quality improvement: not ‘why should we do it?’ but ‘when will we start?’

Comprehensive quality improvement: not ‘why should we do it?’ but ‘when will we start?’ As a chief executive in the NHS over the past 10 years, I have seen the benefits of quality improvement at first hand. Now, The King’s Fund and The Health Foundation are making a powerful case for quality improvement techniques to be applied consistently and systematically across the NHS. Leaders and their boards know the value it can bring – helping to drive quality, finance and access improvements as well as enhancing staff experience – so why hasn’t the NHS been able to embed quality improvement comprehensively across the service? Why aren’t all our patients and staff benefitting from what works so well in patches? The King's Fund

Loneliness can be as bad for health as a chronic long-term condition, says GP leader

Loneliness can be as bad for health as a chronic long-term condition, says GP leader Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, will talk about the older patients who are seeing their GP because they are lonely and want human contact or someone to talk to.

In her opening speech to the College’s Annual Primary Care Conference – her first as Chair - Professor Stokes-Lampard will look at the impact of social isolation on individual patients and its inevitable toll on the entire NHS. Royal College of General Practitioners

Reconfiguration of NHS services (England)

Reconfiguration of NHS services (England) This briefing on reconfiguration of NHS services includes recent policy developments, information on consultation and scrutiny powers, and drivers of major service changes. House of Commons Library

Jeremy Hunt to pledge £20,000 'golden hello' for rural GPs

Jeremy Hunt to pledge £20,000 'golden hello' for rural GPs Newly-qualified GPs are to be offered a one-off payment of £20,000 if they start their careers in areas that struggle to attract family doctors.

The £4m scheme, to be announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, aims to boost the numbers of doctors in rural and coastal areas of England.

Mr Hunt said it will help "reduce the pressure" on practices in those areas.

The Royal College of GPs backed the plan, saying there was a "serious shortage" of family doctors.

The one-off payment will be offered to 200 GPs from 2018.

As of September 2016, there were 41,985 GPs in England. BBC News

Number of NHS nurses falls for first time since 2013 after 'significant drop' in EU staff

Number of NHS nurses falls for first time since 2013 after 'significant drop' in EU staff The number of nurses employed by the NHS has fallen for the first time since April 2013, figures have revealed, following a steep drop in EU nationals registering as nurses since the Brexit vote

Analysis of data by the King’s Fund shows that there were fewer NHS nurses in post this summer than the previous summer, with 316,725 nurses in post in June 2017 – 703 fewer than the same month last year.

A “significant” reduction in EU nurses joining the UK register since the EU referendum has been a key factor in the fall, as well as an increasing number of EU staff leaving the NHS and changes to language testing requirements, according to the analysis. The Independent

Philip Hammond admits Brexit 'no deal' will mean less money for NHS and social care

Philip Hammond admits Brexit 'no deal' will mean less money for NHS and social care A “no deal” Brexit will mean less money for the struggling NHS and for cash-starved social care, the Chancellor has admitted.The Independent

Jeremy Hunt admits false claims over mental health

Jeremy Hunt admits false claims over mental health The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been forced to re-write parliamentary records after making a false claim about mental health.

Speaking on World Mental Health Day, he told MPs: “We’ve got 30,000 more people working in mental health today than we had when [Labour] left office.”

He repeated this again, saying: “We have 30,000 more professionals working in mental health than when my Government came into office.”

But when questioned by FactCheck, the Department for Health admitted that Mr Hunt’s figure includes all professionally qualified clinical NHS staff in England – not just those working in mental health. Channel 4 News

Obese people deserve surgical treatment, too | Richard Welbourn

Obese people deserve surgical treatment, too | Richard Welbourn Britain has the most obese people in western Europe, yet fewer of them get gastric operations than in other countries. We need to stop judging and start treating them• Richard Welbourn is a bariatric surgeon

One in four people in the UK suffer with obesity. Severe and complex obesity is a lifelong condition associated with many major medical problems, the costs of which threaten to bankrupt the NHS. The major ailment caused by obesity – type 2 diabetes – is linked to shorter life expectancy, decreased quality of life and increased socio-economic and psychosocial problems. A new report out this week suggests the global cost of treating obesity will rise to $1.2tn a year from 2025.

Yet in the UK, less than 1% of those who can benefit from it receive bariatric (sometimes called weight-loss) surgery, such as gastric bypass or gastric banding. So why is a safe, cost-effective therapy for a deadly disease so under-utilised? Continue reading... The Guardian

Locked up, locked out – inadequate stats on mental health are failing prisoners

Locked up, locked out – inadequate stats on mental health are failing prisoners The last reliable data on prevalence of offender mental health problems is from 1998, when the prison population was about half what it is today

Prisoners are among the most vulnerable people with mental health problems, yet the government does not collect even basic information on how many inmates have a mental illness, or the total number in need of treatment. This means, according to campaigners, that they are being repeatedly let down by the system.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report highlighted the stark lack of data, triggering serious questions about the government’s commitment to prisoners’ mental healthcare. Continue reading...

NHS operations could be cancelled for months this winter, senior medics warn

NHS operations could be cancelled for months this winter, senior medics warn Thousands of operations could be cancelled for months this winter, leading medics have warned, as the NHS prepares to announce plans to cope with mounting pressures.

The Society for Acute Medicine raised fears that services could be “overwhelmed” by a bad flu season, accusing the Government of doing little more than “crossing fingers” that a crisis can be averted.

Health officials will today launch their annual Stay Well This Winter campaign, urging at-risk groups to be vaccinated against flu. It is part of wider attempts to ease pressures on hospitals, with plans to expand the number of A&E consultants in the long-term. The Daily Telegraph