Monday 4 June 2018

Jeremy Hunt becomes longest serving health secretary in NHS history - The Independent

Jeremy Hunt becomes longest serving health secretary in NHS history Jeremy Hunt is now the UK’s longest serving health secretary, as Monday marks five years and 274 days since he took over from Andrew Lansley in the wake of his predecessor’s disastrous NHS reforms.

Mr Hunt has also surpassed the tenure of health service founder, Labour’s Aneurin Bevan, in February. The milestone comes just a month ahead of the NHS' own 70th anniversary. Independent

See also:

Brisk ten-minute walk just as good as 10,000 steps, says Public Health England

Brisk ten-minute walk just as good as 10,000 steps, says Public Health England Just ten minutes of brisk walking, around 1,000 steps, can cut our chances of an early death by up to 15 per cent, according to new guidance from Public Health England and the Royal College of GPs. Mail Online

See also:

No 10 expected to lift visa cap preventing doctors entering UK

No 10 expected to lift visa cap preventing doctors entering UK Downing Street is poised to announce that it will lift the cap on visas for skilled migrants that has led to more than a thousand doctors being denied entry to the UK, after the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said he was “taking a fresh look” at the policy.

Theresa May has been under intense pressure to loosen the restrictions, including from the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, after quotas for so-called tier 2 visas began to bite in recent months. The Guardian

See also:

Videos demonstrate how eye conditions affect vision

Videos demonstrate how eye conditions affect vision The College of Optometrists has launched a series of short videos to demonstrate how various conditions affect a person’s vision. The College of Optometrists

Guidance: Developing pathways for alcohol treatment

Guidance: Developing pathways for alcohol treatment This guidance is about developing pathways for referral and care and for patients whose routine alcohol screening in secondary care suggests that they may be alcohol dependent.

It can be used by people implementing the Preventing ill health by risky behaviours – alcohol and tobacco CQUIN in acute, mental health and community trusts. It can also be used by NHS commissioners and planners and those planning, commissioning and providing community alcohol treatment. GOV.UK

Hospitals are massively overspending. But more money is not the answer

Hospitals are massively overspending. But more money is not the answer Forget the revelation that hospitals overspent by almost £1bn last year. The figure that really matters is the Nuffield Trust’s estimate that the true underlying deficit is closer to £4bn. NHS deficit last year twice as high as expected, say sources

One-off bungs and accounting sleight of hand may flatter the Department of Health’s end-of-year figures, but they do nothing to solve the hospital overspending problem, as the health secretary, chancellor and prime minister wrestle over the size and timespan of the anticipated long-term financial settlement for the NHS. The Guardian

One-in-twelve staff at Northampton General Hospital have taken sick days over stress and anxiety

One-in-twelve staff at Northampton General Hospital have taken sick days over stress and anxiety  The stress faced by Northampton General Hospital's staff has been made plain by a recent report showing over a fifth of sickness absences are because of anxiety, depression and mental wellbeing.

In the past year, Northampton's hospital lost over 15,000 working days to staff taking unplanned time-off because of stress and mental health.

These absences were taken by just over 400 members of staff - meaning one-in-twelve the hospital's 4,800 staff have taken time off for stress and mental health reasons.

It marks a national trend showing how the NHS is under pressure to deliver its frontline services and comes after NGH was escalated to its highest state of alert 18 times between January and May. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Kettering Hospital: Eye drug error consultant suspended

Kettering Hospital: Eye drug error consultant suspended A hospital consultant is to be suspended from the medical register for nine months for injecting a patient's eye with the wrong form of a drug.

Mr Pammal Ashwin admitted using an undiluted form of the drug Ocriplasmin, which should have been diluted, to treat a patient's eye condition at Kettering General Hospital in May 2014.

A tribunal was told that the patient later suffered a retinal detachment. It ordered that Mr Ashwin be suspended and his case then reviewed. BBC News