Friday 16 March 2018

Corby urgent care centre group seeks legal challenge

Corby urgent care centre group seeks legal challenge Campaigners trying to save the existing service at Corby’s Urgent Care Centre have launched a fundraising bid to gain a judicial review into the decision to alter the service.

The Urgent Care Centre in Cottingham Road has been under intense scrutiny since the health body Corby CCG, which plans and pays for the borough’s health services, said the current service provision was not right for the town.

Bosses want to keep the facility open, but make it a pre-booked appointment-only service to ease pressure on local GPs and create extra slots for people who find it difficult to get an appointment at their own surgery. There will continue to be x-ray services but observation bays will be scrapped. The geographical base at Cottingham Road is also currently up for negotiation. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Northamptonshire County Council 'should be scrapped'

Northamptonshire County Council 'should be scrapped' Cash-strapped Northamptonshire County Council should be scrapped, according to a government report.

The report, ordered by Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid, recommends "a new start" which is "best achieved by the creation of two new unitary councils".

Council leader Heather Smith resigned following the report's publication.

Northampton North MP Michael Ellis called the management of the authority a "national scandal".

He said he was "appalled" by the report, which "makes for chilling reading". BBC Northampton

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Closing the gap on BME representation in NHS leadership: not rocket science

Closing the gap on BME representation in NHS leadership: not rocket science The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was introduced in 2015 and aims to address the inequality experienced by staff from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background in the NHS, to ensure they have access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment at work. The King's Fund

Let’s be frank about the NHS

Let’s be frank about the NHS In a guest blog for our NHS and the public project, Laura Fulcher explains how her poor experience as an NHS patient has prompted her to question whether our affection for the NHS as a national institution is blinding us to how it needs to change and improve. The King's Fund

Official Statistics: Children living with parents in emotional distress: 2010 to 2016

Official Statistics: Children living with parents in emotional distress: 2010 to 2016 Public Health England has published an update to four indicators reporting on the ‘proportion of children living with’:
  • at least one parent reporting symptoms of emotional distress
  • a mother reporting symptoms of emotional distress
  • a father reporting symptoms of emotional distress
  • both parents reporting symptoms of emotional distress
Data is up to 2010 to 2016 and is by family type and work status. These indicators were published previously by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

Pharmacists funded to work in care homes in England

Pharmacists funded to work in care homes in England NHS England is planning to fund the recruitment of 240 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to work in care homes to try to cut down on unnecessary medicines taken by the residents.

Care home residents often have one or more long-term health conditions, with some prescribed 10 or more medicines.

Trials have shown that pharmacists reviewing medicines reduced their use and improved patients' quality of life.

In one trial, an annual drug cost saving of £249 per patient was seen. BBC News

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NHS accused of fuelling rise in opioid addiction

NHS accused of fuelling rise in opioid addiction Doctors warn the NHS is fuelling an addiction crisis because of an increase in the prescribing of powerful painkillers.

Nearly 24 million opioids, such as morphine, were prescribed in 2017 - equivalent to 2,700 packs an hour.

A drugs counsellor and former user told the BBC the NHS was "creating drug addicts".

The Royal College of GPs said doctors would not prescribe opioid painkillers as a "quick fix".

Opioids such as morphine, tramadol and fentanyl are super-strength painkillers, which can be highly addictive and can kill if misused. BBC News

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The GMC pursued Hadiza Bawa-Garba – and is losing doctors' respect

The GMC pursued Hadiza Bawa-Garba – and is losing doctors' respect Loss of confidence in the General Medical Council will diminish its ability to protect patients and support medics

The issues around the case of junior paediatrician Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba and the death of six-year-old Jack Adcock have dominated headlines recently, and will continue to do so for some time. Seven years after Jack’s death as a result of negligence while in the care of specialists at Leicester Royal Infirmary, the case remains controversial.

It’s truly a sad event, catastrophic on all sides: for the parents, the continued media attention ensures that their grief continues; for the trainee who had always aspired to be a doctor, her dream is in tatters.In the eyes of many doctors, it is catastrophic, too, for regulator the General Medical Council (GMC), which has taken a trainee to court to remove her right to practise as a doctor. Continue reading... The Guardian

The NHS needs a reliable source of income. Here’s where to find it | Norman Warner and John Oldham

The NHS needs a reliable source of income. Here’s where to find it | Norman Warner and John Oldham From properly taxing tech giants to levies on property owned by overseas firms – there are ways to fund our health service

Our NHS is nearly 70 years old. Like many older people it has developed some chronic conditions. It hasn’t changed its model for delivering services sufficiently since Nye Bevan’s day to meet the massive changes in demography, complex disease profiles and the expectations of those it serves.

But even if it became much more efficient and worked more effectively with its sister service, adult social care, this would not resolve a fundamental problem. This is that in today’s world a tax-funded, pooled-risk healthcare system such as the NHS that is free at the point of clinical need requires a more generous funding system than we currently provide or are contemplating. The inconvenient truth for politicians and public alike is that if, as a country, we want an NHS of the kind we like, we have to agree collectively on a more generous and reliable funding system.

The health and care system needs to work more effectively with patients to co-produce better health and wellbeing Continue reading... The Guardian

New thinking is required to create desperately needed new antibiotics. We must act now  

New thinking is required to create desperately needed new antibiotics. We must act now Put yourself, for a moment, in the shoes of a pharmaceutical company boss.

You face a big decision about where to direct your R&D budget. Both options require multi-billion pound investment over 10 to 15 years in cutting-edge but high-risk research.

You could focus on cancer drugs where competition is fierce but prices predictably high and market size easy to forecast.

Or, you could choose to develop new antibiotics; drugs essential to modern medicine, but with a peculiarly unpredictable market, often low prices and breakthrough products likely to be reserved for only a handful of hardest-to-treat patients.

The dilemma cuts to the heart of the tricky yet crucial question of how to fix the dysfunctional antibiotics market. The Daily Telegraph