Northampton General Hospital reinvests surplus money from parking charges into healthcare

Northampton General Hospital reinvests surplus money from parking charges into healthcare Northampton General Hospital retains all the money it makes in pay and display parking charges, reinvesting it into its car park facilities and health provision.

Last week, a series of Freedom of Information requests made by Mail Online revealed Northampton's main hospital to have the second most expensive car park (£3.20/hour) in the country behind Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford (£4/hour).

The hospital made £1.67 million in charges during the 2016/17 financial year, which is used to pay for things like the car park's security, administrative costs, and its maintenance. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Volunteers lent four-wheel drives to take Northamptonshire medics to poorly patients in the snow

Volunteers lent four-wheel drives to take Northamptonshire medics to poorly patients in the snow Over 70 volunteers for a Northamptonshire charity worked around the clock in December to help transport nurses and doctors to see their patients during the bitter weather. Many people rely on services that normally get taken for granted such as carer or district nurse visits, but when the roads become treacherous through ice, snow or flooding these services become a lot harder to provide. Volunteers from the charity Northants 4x4 Response covered hundreds of miles in Northamptonshire over the festive period, providing specialist transport for the emergency and essential services who needed to carry out their work regardless of the conditions. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Local government spending on public health: death by a thousand cuts

Local government spending on public health: death by a thousand cuts On health the November budget, as ever, was dominated by the numbers on NHS funding and whether the chancellor would find up to £4 billion more to maintain the standard of services. In the end he did find more, though not as much as is needed. There was no mention of social care funding or public health funding. However, as in every budget, there were policy changes that will impact on health including on housing and homelessness, and changes in excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The King's Fund

Independent doctors to be rated by the Care Quality Commission

Independent doctors to be rated by the Care Quality Commission New changes mean that, for the first time, all healthcare organisations in England that offer regulated care will be rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Organisations will have to display their inspection ratings so patients can clearly see safety standards.

The CQC’s current ratings programme – which covers hospital care, social care and GPs – will be extended to include more than 800 additional providers. This includes independent doctors that offer primary care online. Department of Health

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt sorry as A&Es struggle to cope

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt sorry as A&Es struggle to cope Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has apologised to patients in England who have had their operations postponed.

Non-urgent treatments had already been cancelled until mid-January, but NHS England said on Tuesday that would now be extended to the end of the month.

It came after hospitals reported they were struggling to cope with the surge in patients being seen since Christmas.

At least 17 hospital trusts - one in 10 - have declared a major incident in the last 24 hours, the BBC understands.

Bosses said they had been forced into the move as patients were experiencing long waits in A&E and being left on trolleys in corridors because there were no beds available. BBC News

See also:

• NHS 'better prepared for winter than ever' BBC News
• Sarah Wollaston urges government to get a grip on NHS 'crisis' BBC News
• Jeremy Hunt's 10-year-old plan to revamp NHS The Daily Mail
• NHS chief DENIES crisis despite 55,000 delayed operations The Daily Mail
• Patients dismiss claims hospitals are like 'third world' The Daily Mail
• NHS chiefs urge relatives to help them ease crisis The Daily Mail
• Jeremy Hunt apologises to patients over cancellation of thousands of NHS operations The Daily Telegraph
• Here's the real reason the NHS is on its knees – and it has little to do with A&E The Daily Telegraph
• There is no winter NHS 'crisis', just a series of challenges that won't be solved without deep reform The Daily Telegraph
• Come and collect your elderly, hospital trusts say, amid soaring numbers of 'black alerts' The Daily Telegraph
• PM hails NHS readiness for winter as operations are cancelled GPonline
• Patients' charity attacks ministers over NHS winter crisis The Guardian
• Doctors and patients accuse government of failing to stop NHS crisis The Guardian
• The Tories knew there would be an NHS winter crisis but did nothing | Polly Toynbee The Guardian
• The Guardian view on the NHS winter crisis: not such a happy birthday | Editorial The Guardian
• 'My mum was treated with dignity': NHS care amid the winter crisis The Guardian
• GPs under growing pressure as well as A&Es OnMedica

One in four pregnant women has mental health problem

One in four pregnant women has mental health problem A quarter of all pregnant women suffer from mental health problems, a UK study has revealed.

For the first time in the UK, researchers at King’s College in London looked at the prevalence of mental health problems or mental health disorders in pregnant women when visiting their midwives for ante-natal care.

They found that when interviewed, one in four women had a mental illness ranging from depression (11 per cent) and anxiety (15 per cent) to eating disorders (two per cent) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (two per cent). iNews

See also:

• 'I was in a really negative terrible place' BBC News

NHS bosses have failed to declare nearly £4 million

NHS bosses have failed to declare nearly £4 million Regional health trusts accepted £5,027,818 from firms between 2015 and 2017, according to freedom of information data from all 207 clinical commissioning groups in England. The Daily Mail

See also:

• NHS groups made millions from undeclared deals with drug companies The Independent