Wednesday 10 January 2018

New short breaks services for Northamptonshire children with special needs to be discussed by cabinet

New short breaks services for Northamptonshire children with special needs to be discussed by cabinet A proposed new model for short breaks services for children with disabilities and special educational needs will be discussed by Northamptonshire County Council’s Cabinet next Tuesday (January 16).

The council says the new model has been designed to better suit the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and/ or disabilities and reflects feedback received from families as part of the recent public consultation.

The short breaks contracts, which provide day, evening, overnight and weekend respite breaks for children with complex needs, is jointly funded by Northamptonshire County Council and both Nene and Corby Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and delivered by Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust. Northamptonshire Telegraph

NHS winter pressures

NHS winter pressures The NHS is once again hitting the headlines, with many hospitals on ‘black alert’ and a large number of elective operations being postponed to reduce the extreme pressure on services over this winter period - referred to in the media as a ‘winter crisis’. Here The King's Fund brings together a range of our content examining the reasons for this.

Official Statistics: End of life care profiles: January 2018 update

Official Statistics: End of life care profiles: January 2018 update The end of life care profiles data update for January 2018 has been published by Public Health England (PHE).

This update contains new data for the financial year ending 31 March 2017 for:
  • care home bed rate
  • nursing home bed rate
These indicators are presented for clinical commissioning groups (CCG), sustainability and transformation partnerships (STP) and local authorities (upper and lower tier).

The profiles are designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information around end of life care. The data are presented in an interactive tool that allow users to view and analyse them in a user-friendly format.

The profiles provide a snapshot overview of end of life care at various geographies. They are intended to help local government and health services to improve care at the end of life. Public Health England

Accountable care organisations

Accountable care organisations This briefing paper looks at the introduction of Accountable Care Organisations (ACO) in the NHS in England, the development of the ACO policy, and comment on its potential impact. House of Commons Library

NHS efficiency map

NHS efficiency map The Healthcare Financial Management Association and NHS Improvement have worked in partnership to update and revise the NHS efficiency map. The map is a tool that promotes best practice in identifying, delivering and monitoring cost improvement programmes in the NHS. It contains links to a range of tools and guidance to help NHS bodies improve their efficiency.

Once-a-week pill for HIV 'ready for testing in people'

Once-a-week pill for HIV 'ready for testing in people' Human trials of a once-a-week oral pill for HIV could start, after successful tests in pigs, claim US scientists.

The slow-release tablet could free patients from having to take daily medication, they say.

It looks like a normal capsule, but on reaching the stomach its coating dissolves and a special structure packed inside unfolds.

This 4cm (1.5in) star-shaped scaffold stays in the stomach for seven days, steadily releasing its cargo of drugs.

More tests in other mammals, including monkeys, are recommended but the researchers say trails in people could begin within two years. BBC News

Jeremy Hunt has raised the stakes in how history will judge him

Jeremy Hunt has raised the stakes in how history will judge him | David Brindle As well as overseeing the NHS’s 70th birthday celebrations, the health and social care secretary will take charge of long-awaited reform.

So now it is the Department of Health and Social Care. There is no doubt that the new name is a much-needed symbolic boost for the battered cause of adult social care in England, but it is less clear how else Theresa May’s reshuffle – and Jeremy Hunt’s reported refusal to move from the department he continues to lead – will change things. Although we await further detail on how Hunt plans to address the social care challenge with new vigour, and what, if any, new powers he may have to do so, the early judgment must be: not a lot.

The much-anticipated green paper on social care for older people is set to be published by summer 2018 – although, having been promised before last year’s general election, there were hopes the paper would appear much sooner.  Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

Pfizer ends research for new Alzheimer's Parkinson's drugs

Pfizer ends research for new Alzheimer's Parkinson's drugs Despite investing heavily in trying to cure both diseases, the US drugs giant has now decided to redistribute funding to other areas it deems more likely to produce results. The Daily Mail

Britain faces an 'exceptional' outbreak of 'Aussie flu'

Britain faces an 'exceptional' outbreak of 'Aussie flu' UK faces a 'double-whammy' of 'Aussie flu' cases as kids head back to school and experts warn of an 'EXCEPTIONAL' outbreak as travellers return from flu-hit France.

The European country has been rocked by an 'exceptional' outbreak, with nearly 12,000 people having been left hospitalised and more than 30 dead.

Figures show the UK is heading the same way, with scientists concerned the flu causing havoc on the over-stretched NHS is 'unpredictable'.

And flocks of children heading back to school this week after enjoying the festive break could lead to a 'danger period', virologists fear. The Daily Mail