Friday 8 December 2017

Research and analysis: Modern slavery and public health

Research and analysis: Modern slavery and public health This research focuses on the public health implications of modern slavery and how they can be addressed, based on a rapid evidence assessment.

The findings provide 5 reasons why modern slavery is a public health issue and identify next steps for public health leaders and the wider community. Public Health England

Guidance: A framework for mental health research

Guidance: A framework for mental health research This framework provides a collective view of how mental health research should develop in the UK over the next decade. It sets out a structure to improve co-ordination and strengthen the focus on areas where mental health research is likely to translate into significant health benefit.

This document is a response to a recommendation in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report that the Department of Health lead on the development of a 10-year strategy for mental health research. The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report was published in February 2016 by the independent Mental Health Taskforce. Department of Health

The final injustice: variation in end of life care in England

The final injustice: variation in end of life care in England This report provides an insight into the experience of cancer patients' final months and years. It finds that cancer patients approaching the end of their life face repeat emergency visits and the situation is worse for patients who are most socioeconomically disadvantaged. The report highlights the variation in patient experience for people dying of cancer and the need for improved access to care and support in the community. Macmillan Cancer Care

Locked up, locked out: health and human rights in immigration detention

Locked up, locked out: health and human rights in immigration detention This report outlines how aspects of current detention policies and practices, such as no clear time-limits on how long people will be detained, are detrimental to the health of migrants and asylum-seekers, and also sets out the challenges doctors face when providing healthcare in detention settings. It argues that the detention of people who have not been convicted of a crime should be a measure of last resort and should be phased out. British Medical Association

Challenging health inequalities: support for CCGs

Challenging health inequalities: support for CCGs This guide has been created to help identify areas of variation in emergency admissions in more and less deprived CCGs and to promote a discussion where variation occurs. NHS England

Teen with anorexia 'failed by every NHS body' before death

Teen with anorexia 'failed by every NHS body' before death A teenager who died weeks after leaving for university was failed by "every NHS organisation that should have cared for her", a review has found.

Averil Hart, from Newton, Suffolk, died of a heart attack caused by anorexia in Norwich in 2012.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has found her death could and should have been prevented.

The NHS services involved say changes have been made, with one saying it accepted the report's findings. BBC News

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Inquiry announced into case of rogue surgeon Ian Paterson

Inquiry announced into case of rogue surgeon Ian Paterson Paterson was not suspended until eight years after concerns were first raised, and inquiry will look for lessons to be learned

The government will launch an independent national inquiry into the actions of the rogue surgeon Ian Paterson, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in August after carrying out needless surgery on patients who were left traumatised and scarred.

The inquiry will begin in January and report in the summer of 2019, and will be chaired by the Right Rev Graham James, the bishop of Norwich. Continue reading... The Guardian

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NHS England accused of hiding hospitals' winter crisis alert figures

NHS England accused of hiding hospitals' winter crisis alert figures Opposition MPs accuse government of covering up ‘evidence that the NHS is under unsustainable pressure’

NHS bosses have been accused of unacceptable secrecy after deciding no longer to reveal how many hospitals come under such pressure during winter that they have to declare an alert.

NHS England will not publish this winter’s figures for the number of trusts forced to issue an alert under the operational pressures escalation levels (Opel) framework system. Continue reading... The Guardian

NHS wards becoming 'long stay institutions' amid lack of social care 

NHS wards becoming 'long stay institutions' amid lack of social care Hospitals are being turned into long-stay institutions, amid a crisis in social care, with more than 17,000 people now stuck on hospital wards for at least three weeks, official figures show.

The NHS figures show that across the country, bed occupancy levels are already approaching 95 per cent, with 18 hospital trusts reaching 100 per cent capacity last week.

The new data - the first ever analysis of the numbers stuck in hospital for such periods - shows the number of “long stay patients” already rising as winter sets in.

NHS trust chief executives said pensioners admitted to wards with relatively minor health problems were ending up dispatched to care homes, weeks later, because they had lost so much mobility while trapped needlessly. The Daily Telegraph

University hospitals train hairdressers to spot melanoma

University hospitals train hairdressers to spot melanoma University hospitals are teaching hairdressers to identify an increasingly common skin cancer that clients often miss on their scalps and necks.

Half of melanomas - a potentially life-threatening form of skin cancer - go undetected by people who try to check themselves for cancerous moles, and many of those are on the head and scalp.

At least one state now recognizes that hairdressers are uniquely positioned to respond to domestic abuse, and legally requires training.

If melanoma detection training is successful, it could one day be required and potentially save lives, particularly in under-served communities where the cancer is deadliest. The Daily Mail