Autumn Budget 2017: a step back from the precipice for the NHS?

Autumn Budget 2017: a step back from the precipice for the NHS? Wednesday’s Budget felt like one of the most eagerly awaited in years. With a government still reeling from a disappointing election result and embroiled in painstaking Brexit negotiations the stakes were high. A good budget might restore some hope and optimism, an unpopular one would heap further pressure on a government in need of a lift.

Judging by the Chancellor’s joke-filled start you could be forgiven for thinking that the outlook was going to be rosy. Sadly, predictions of flatlining productivity and slowing GDP growth started to pervade his speech. The mood changed faster than you could say ‘fit for the future’.

But with such doomsdayish forecasts, what would this all mean for health and social care? The Health Foundation

See also:

• NHS prepares for financial showdown BBC News
• Hammond backtracked on funding after 'fury' at NHS boss's demands The Guardian
• Senior Tories in budget backlash over NHS and social care cash The Guardian

Vaginal mesh operations should be banned, says NICE

Vaginal mesh operations should be banned, says NICE The health watchdog NICE is to recommend that vaginal mesh operations should be banned from treating organ prolapse in England, the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show has learned.

Draft guidelines from NICE say the implants should only be used for research - and not routine operations.

Some implants can cut into the vagina and women have been left in permanent pain, unable to walk, work or have sex.

One expert said it is highly likely the NHS will take up the recommendation. BBC News

See also:

• Scores of women say top UK surgeon left them with traumatic complications The Guardian

Home Office review over harassment at abortion clinics

Home Office review over harassment at abortion clinics New laws could be introduced to protect women from harassment outside abortion clinics, the Home Office has said.

An assessment of protests held outside clinics has been ordered by the home secretary, following concerns about the tactics used by some protesters.

Amber Rudd said it was "unacceptable" that anyone should feel intimidated for accessing healthcare.

But anti-abortion campaigners said it was "ludicrous" to suggest new powers, because women were not being harassed.

The Home Office review will hear from police forces, healthcare providers and local authorities to understand the scale and nature of anti-abortion protests. BBC News

Patient safety ‘at risk’ as junior doctors left to run A&E and other departments, GMC warns

Patient safety ‘at risk’ as junior doctors left to run A&E and other departments, GMC warns Junior doctors are being left in charge of hospital A&E departments and other units, putting patient safety at risk, Britain’s medical regulator has warned.

Trainee medics are being “left to fend themselves” by being asked to look after patients they are not qualified to treat, the General Medical Council (GMC) said.

Its chief executive, Charlie Massey, said inexperienced young doctors left without supervision feel worried they might “inadvertently cause harm to patients” and risk losing their licence if they act beyond their competence. The Independent

See also:

• Training environments 2017: key findings from the national training surveys  General Medical Council
• Medical training too reliant on doctors' goodwill, says GMC General Medical Council
• Patients put at risk by inexperienced doctors left in charge of A&E  The Daily Telegraph
• Inexperienced doctors are being left in charge of A&Es, regulator warns The Guardian

NHS could introduce four week waiting target for young mental health patients, shows leaked report

NHS could introduce four week waiting target for young mental health patients, shows leaked report Young people struggling to access mental health support might get a Government-backed promise of treatment within four weeks of referral, but funding pressures mean it won’t be UK-wide until 2021.

Leaked details from the upcoming green paper on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) suggest a four week standard waiting standard could be introduced for the first time.

However this is likely to be piloted in a few regions first, with a full roll-out reportedly unlikely before 2021. The Independent

Two-thirds of children referred for mental healthcare in England not treated - The Guardian

Two-thirds of children referred for mental healthcare in England not treated Sixty per cent of children and young people referred for specialist care by their GP are not receiving treatment, figures reveal.

Data from 32 NHS Trusts in England showed about 60% of under-18s who are referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) by their GP are not receiving treatment, according to figures obtained by Spurgeons children’s charity.

The number of under-18s admitted to A&E for self-harm has increased by 50% in five years but outpatient treatment rates are falling, according to the charity. Self-harm admissions to A&E departments for young people have increased for the seventh year running according to figures from 59 A&E departments in England. Continue reading...  The Guardian

NHS urges parents to vaccinate flu 'super-spreader' children

NHS urges parents to vaccinate flu 'super-spreader' children Health service encourages take-up of nasal spray for those aged two to nine to stop them passing on illness to older relatives

NHS England is urging parents to vaccinate “super-spreader” children against flu so grandparents and other vulnerable relatives will be less at risk over the Christmas period.

Flu vaccines administered through a nasal spray rather than an injection have been rolled out this autumn for two and three-year-olds, and children in reception class and years one to four in primary school. Continue reading... The Guardian

My prescription for dejected doctors? Stop harking back to a golden age that never was | Clare Gerada

My prescription for dejected doctors? Stop harking back to a golden age that never was | Clare Gerada
Medicine’s a tough career and professionals are demoralised. But the good old days had their dark side too. • Clare Gerada is a former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners

In the 17th century there was a disease so virulent it was able to wipe out whole armies. Sufferers experienced intense melancholia, anxiety and longing triggered by smell, touch, sight or thought of an object. This disease was nostalgia, described by a medical student and named after nosta for home, and algia for pain. It was prevalent in the Swiss mercenary army, and military physicians postulated it was caused by the unremitting clanging of cowbells in the Alps.

Dormant for centuries, the disease is returning, but this time the afflicted are drawn from a section of the ageing medical establishment. These doctors have developed a delusional system of beliefs that the past was always rosy, that doctors “all knew each other … the firm was a happy band of brothers”, as recalled by Harold Ellis, a surgeon who qualified in 1948. This was a time, they reminisce, where doctors were able to give their patients what they needed: a golden age of medicine, defined by American sociologist Eliot Freidson as the period between 1945 and 1965.

The downside of professional freedom was that only the most incompetent or negligent behaviour led to disciplinary action Continue reading...

NHS pays out record compensation to cancer patients

NHS pays out record compensation to cancer patients The number of cancer patients successfully suing the NHS for missed diagnoses has doubled in the past five years, new figures show.

The health service also paid out a record amount in negligence compensation for cancer misdiagnoses last year, according to the data.

The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) paid damages of £12.6 million to 152 people last year. The figure has risen year-on-year since 2013, when 46 pay-outs were made. In 2012, 59 pay-outs were made.

There was a total of 1,392 successful claims for all misdiagnoses in 2016, worth £152.5 million. The Daily Telegraph

'Robot surgery' could save men from prostate cancer

'Robot surgery' could save men from prostate cancer Surgeons have praised the pioneering use of robots in saving a record number of men from one of the UK’s deadliest cancers.

The £1 million machines, known as Da Vinci robots, have performed life-saving surgery at University College London Hospitals on more than 500 men with advanced prostate cancer.

Surgeons credit them with being quicker, safer and the procedures have fewer side effects than existing treatments in a move that has been described as a 'game changer'.

The robot, controlled by a surgeon at a computer console, has six arms with tiny scissors and pliers, which make incisions in the patient's abdomen. The Daily Mail