Minister's £1.75 million top-up for Northamptonshire's vulnerable adults 'will have minimum impact', says county council

Minister's £1.75 million top-up for Northamptonshire's vulnerable adults 'will have minimum impact', says county council A Local Government Settlement meant to address the prospect of collapsing councils will barely help Northamptonshire, County Hall has said.

Council leaders have been unsuccessful in attempts to persuade local government secretary Sajid Javid to loosen the purse strings and give the county appropriate funds for its growing population.

Huge bills for adult social care - as well as fixing the historically troubled children's service - have helped bring it to the brink of bankruptcy.

But an anticipated announcement from Mr Javid about extra money for all councils to deal with adult social care has been given a response that is, at best, lukewarm by council bosses. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Priorities for the NHS in 2018/19 and beyond

Priorities for the NHS in 2018/19 and beyond The Budget on 22 November 2017 contained some obvious good news for the NHS: it provided more money, if not as much as we hoped. With more money comes the inevitable re-set of NHS plans and the new planning guidance came out on 2 February.

This is desperately late in the day given the new financial year starts on 1 April but was inevitable given the financial settlement for the NHS changed so significantly at the last minute. In theory, the government is supposed to issue its Mandate for the NHS first, which the planning guidance then translates into actions for the NHS. There has been no new Mandate. While this might appear to represent a risk – that the guidance may need to change once the Mandate is finally released – realistically its contents must have been agreed with both the Department and HM Treasury anyway.

I’ll run through some of the key changes around money, performance and reform. However, it is perhaps what the guidance did not say that really matters and I’ll cover this at the end. The King's Fund

Learning from the vanguards: staff at the heart of new care models

Learning from the vanguards: staff at the heart of new care models This briefing looks at how the vanguards have broken down traditional organisational barriers across whole systems, how they have engaged staff in the programmes, communicated change and supported staff to work differently. Local Government Association, NHS Clinical Commissioners, NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation

Providing mental health support in UK schools

Providing mental health support in UK schools Almost half (45%) of school leaders have found it difficult to commission mental health support for their pupils, and over a third (34%) of counsellors and psychotherapists who work with children and young people said it was difficult to provide their services to schools.

A new report – Providing mental health support in UK schools – from Place2Be in partnership with BACP, NAHT and UKCP, provides a picture of the challenges faced by schools and school-based mental health professionals.

See also:

• Schools struggle to get mental health help, says survey BBC News

The adult social care workforce in England

The adult social care workforce in England The Department of Health and Social Care is not doing enough to support a sustainable social care workforce. The number of people working in care is not meeting the country’s growing care demands and unmet care needs are increasing, according to today’s report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Hip fracture patients waiting up to three months for rehab at home

Hip fracture patients waiting up to three months for rehab at home A major new audit conducted for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) reveals that hip fracture patients can wait up to 80 days before seeing a physiotherapist at home after being discharged from hospital.

Hip fracture is the most common cause of injury related death in adults. It costs the NHS and social care £1 billion per year. Hip fracture will affect one in three women over 50. Hip fractures are more prevalent than breast cancer.

The audit, which was conducted by the Royal College of Physicians reveals the average wait was 15 days, but some patients have to wait up to 80 days. The amount of rehabilitation patients received varied greatly, with some patients getting less than 1 hour per week.

NICE guidelines state after surgery, hip fracture patients should be offered rehabilitation at least once a day. The survey revealed four out of ten (43 per cent) missed a day’s therapy due to no physios being available.

See also:

• Hip fracture patients face up to 80-day wait for rehab, survey finds BBC News

Richard Handley: 'Gross failures' in constipation death

Richard Handley: 'Gross failures' in constipation death A "missed opportunity" for potentially life-saving treatment contributed to the death of a man from constipation complications, an inquest has found.

Richard Handley, 33, who had Down's syndrome, died at Ipswich Hospital on 17 November 2012.

Some 10kg (22lb) of faeces were removed from his body two days before.

Coroner Dr Peter Dean said there were "gross failures" in spotting Mr Handley was in a critical state after the surgery. BBC News

First human eggs grown in laboratory

First human eggs grown in laboratory Human eggs have been grown in the laboratory for the first time, say researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

The team say the technique could lead to new ways of preserving the fertility of children having cancer treatment.

It is also an opportunity to explore how human eggs develop, much of which remains a mystery to science.

Experts said it was an exciting breakthrough, but more work was needed before it could be used clinically. BBC News

See also:

• Human eggs have been grown outside of the body - how was it done and what could they be used for? The Independent

Too few cancer patients are getting end of life care

Too few cancer patients are getting end of life care Over the past 20 years, there has been a rapid advancement in the treatment of cancer, leading to impressive survival rates for many and a general perception that we’re getting this cancer business cracked. But the stark reality is that half of all patients diagnosed with cancer in the UK still die of the disease.

The vast majority of research funding is directed towards developing new treatment options or towards strategies to improve early diagnosis – with less than 0.3 per cent of the £500m spent on cancer research allocated to palliative (end-of-life) care. The Independent

Liverpool NHS trust 'dysfunctional' and unsafe, report finds

Liverpool NHS trust 'dysfunctional' and unsafe, report finds Patients suffered ‘significant harm’ and staff who raised concerns were bullied, inquiry concludes

Patients suffered “significant harm” because of multiple serious failings by a “dysfunctional” NHS trust, an independent inquiry has found.

Liverpool Community Health NHS trust (LCH) provided poor, unsafe and ineffective care to patients, including inmates at HMP Liverpool, the scathing report concluded. Continue reading... The Guardian

The trauma trap: what's causing inequalities in emergency care?

The trauma trap: what's causing inequalities in emergency care? As US studies reveal worrying disparities in trauma treatment based on patient ethnicity, one surgeon urges more research into inequalities in UK emergency care

Ten years ago, when Dr Adil Haider, a trauma surgeon at Harvard Medical School, began investigating disparities in emergency centre outcomes based on information recorded in the US National Trauma Data Bank, he discovered a striking trend.

In the US, trauma is the number one cause of death for people under 47, and Haider had identified huge differences in patient survival rates based entirely on race. Compared to white patients with injuries of similar severity, black and Hispanic patients were found to have 20% and 50% greater likelihoods of death respectively.

When Haider compared uninsured black patients to insured white patients, the black patients were 80% more likely to die

It’s sometimes impossible to completely remove social judgement from clinical decisions Continue reading... The Guardian

Autism charity accused of hiding horrific abuse at care home

Autism charity accused of hiding horrific abuse at care home The National Autistic Society has been accused of covering up a care home scandal likened to Winterbourne View “without the cameras" .

The charity ran a home in which residents were forced to eat chillies, repeatedly thrown into a swimming pool and forced to crawl around on all fours, a review has found.

Mendip House in Somerset was run by a male “gang” who threw cake at residents and forced them to fund staff meals out. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Safeguarding adults review: Mendip House Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board

Waiting times at major A&E departments worst on record in January, figures reveal

Waiting times at major A&E departments worst on record in January, figures reveal The NHS has suffered the worst pressure in its history this winter, Jeremy Hunt has said, as new statistics show record Accident & Emergency delays.

More than 1,000 patients faced trolley waits of more than 12 hours in January, after doctors had decided they should be admitted to a ward. The figure is the highest on record, and more than twice that the previous month.

Overall. just 77.1 per cent of patients at major A&E units were treated within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent.

The record low was reached despite the cancellation of up to 55,000 operations, in an attempt to relieve immediate pressures, in the worst flu season for seven years. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• The King’s Fund’s response to January NHS performance data The King's Fund
• NHS winter: Over 1,000 12-hour trolley waits in January BBC News
• NHS pressure: Hospital corridors 'the new emergency wards' BBC News
• NHS hospitals in England record worst ever A&E performance The Guardian
• Patients suffering as direct result of NHS wait-time failures The Guardian
• Hospitals almost full for fourth week in a row as NHS winter pressure continues GPonline
• Jeremy Hunt admits NHS winter crisis is 'worst ever' but says doctors and nurses 'knew what they signed up for' The Independent
• Jeremy Hunt tells ITV News that NHS winter crisis is 'worst ever' ITV News

The 202 nationalities working in the NHS

The 202 nationalities working in the NHS It's well-known that the NHS is reliant on foreign staff.

And a new infographic, released by a Parliament research group, reveals exactly where the workers in the health service are from.

The House of Commons Library picture shows there are 976,288 British staff working in the NHS - the equivalent of 87.5 per cent.

In contrast, 137,000 doctors, nurses and infrastructure staff are nationals of other countries, including just under 62,000 EU nationals - around 5.6 per cent.

Fears of an NHS staffing crisis have loomed since the historic Brexit vote in June 2016, as the numbers of EU nurses registering to work in the UK plunged. The Daily Mail