Northamptonshire County Council's Shared Lives service praised by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Northamptonshire County Council's Shared Lives service praised by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has praised Northamptonshire County Council’s Shared Lives service following its recent outstanding Care Quality Commission rating.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has praised Northamptonshire County Council’s Shared Lives service following its recent outstanding Care Quality Commission rating. Northampton Telegraph

Radiology consortium says it won't pay for imaging system until supplier fixes issues

Radiology consortium says it won't pay for imaging system until supplier fixes issues The East Midlands Radiology consortium (EMRAD) is reported to be withholding money from GE Healthcare until the supplier patches up problems with its beleaguered imaging system.

EMRAD, which covers eight trusts in the East Midlands (including Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital), paid £30 million for a cloud-based picture archiving and communication system, radiology information system, and vendor neutral archive from GE Healthcare in 2015.

Yet issues have plagued the system as far back as 2016 Digital Health

Transforming health care in nursing homes: an evaluation of a dedicated primary care service in outer east London

Transforming health care in nursing homes: an evaluation of a dedicated primary care service in outer east London This study finds that a new GP service offering seven-day-a-week support to four nursing homes has resulted in a 36 per cent reduction in emergency admissions to hospital, with the largest reductions happening during the last three months of a person’s life. Nuffield Trust

Guide to implementing the patient activation measure

Guide to implementing the patient activation measure ‘Patient activation’ describes the knowledge, skills and confidence a person has in managing their own health and care. Evidence shows that when people are supported to become more activated, they benefit from better health outcomes, improved experiences of care and fewer unplanned care admissions. NHS England

Health in private-rented housing

Health in private-rented housing This briefing looks at the quality of housing in the private rented sector and explains the effects that housing conditions can have on health. It also looks at interventions to improve housing quality in the private rented sector and at the challenges to implementing them. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

Why call it care when no one cares?

Why call it care when no one cares? This report summarises the results of a series of listening events held with older people who are receiving care and their family carers over the last two months. Participants said that they would be prepared to pay more for care and that either a rise in general taxation or a percentage from estates following death should be used to fund care. Age UK

New report suggests 5.7m UK adults are living with undiagnosed hypertension

New report suggests 5.7m UK adults are living with undiagnosed hypertension Millions of UK adults could be suffering from undiagnosed high blood pressure (BP), increasing the risk of heart disease or stroke by up to three times, according to a new report from the British Heart Foundation.

According to the charity’s High Blood Pressure: How Can We Do Better? report, for every ten people diagnosed with high BP in the UK, seven more remain undiagnosed and untreated. On average, each CCG in England has 26,000 people with undiagnosed high BP, the report says. GPonline

RCGP warns GPs and patients over safety of online services

RCGP warns GPs and patients over safety of online services GPs and patients have been warned to think carefully about signing up for online health services, in RCGP guidance that highlights ongoing safety concerns around some providers.

Guidance published by the college sets out questions for patients to ask when considering signing up for an online provider of general practice, and for GPs, practices and commissioners to ask when considering working for or adopting online services.  GPonline

See also:

• College takes the lead in advising patients on online consultation safety Royal College of General Practitioners 

Half of NHS patients wait over a week to see a GP

Half of NHS patients wait over a week to see a GP The research of 15,000 patients also found that one in 20 had been made to wait three weeks or more for an appointment. A further 15 per cent said they waited longer than a fortnight. The Daily Mail