Tuesday 2 October 2018

Northamptonshire County Council: Plan to save £55m unveiled

Northamptonshire County Council: Plan to save £55m unveiled A council plans to cut spending on agency staff and highways services, while boosting tax receipts, to tackle a £65m funding shortfall.

The "stabilisation plan" published by Northamptonshire County Council aims to save an additional £20m in 2018-19, on top of £45m in cuts already planned.

Government-appointed commissioners have been brought in to oversee the council, which has twice banned new spending.

Council leader Matt Golby said the authority faced "unprecedented times".

Plans to slash £35m had already been announced in the initial budget passed for this year. BBC Northampton

New £350,000 haematology and oncology bay opens at NGH to treat cancer patients

New £350,000 haematology and oncology bay opens at NGH to treat cancer patients Generous fundraisers and medics got together to officially unveil a new haematology and oncology assessment bay at Northampton General Hospital, which is aimed to keep cancer patients out of A&E.

Oncology and haematology patients are often ill between their treatment cycles and require emergency support and review, sometimes immediately. The urgent nature of these complications means that patients are unable to wait for outpatient appointments. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Guidance: Improving people’s health: applying behavioural and social sciences

Guidance: Improving people’s health: applying behavioural and social sciences A comprehensive and collaborative strategy to enable public health professionals to use behavioural and social sciences to improve health and wellbeing. Public Health England

Integrating care for every community

Integrating care for every community Health and care needs are changing, with more people living longer with multiple long term conditions.

This new animation explains the challenges facing the health and care system and how partnerships are being formed between the NHS, local government and the third sector in every part of the country. NHS England

Emergency £240m to free up hospital beds

Emergency £240m to free up hospital beds An emergency £240m will be pumped into social care in England to ease pressure on the NHS this winter by enabling more elderly people to be cared for at home.

The cash will help councils pay for measures like housing adaptations and care packages, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will tell the Tory conference.

Getting people back home will "free up hospital beds", Mr Hancock will say.

Winter months often place hospitals under strain. In January, one in five patients faced long delays for a bed. BBC News

See also:

NHS to suffer £2.7bn cuts 'after government miscalculation of public sector pension costs', research suggests

NHS to suffer £2.7bn cuts 'after government miscalculation of public sector pension costs', research suggests The NHS will suffer cuts worth £2.7bn after the government miscalculated the pension costs of public sector workers, new analysis by the House of Commons library has shown.

The research suggested that government underestimated the costs by as much as £4bn a year.

That money could have paid for the salaries of over 61,900 nurses, the Labour Party, which released the research, said. The Independent

As a black nurse, I see the crushing racial inequality across the NHS. This has to stop

As a black nurse, I see the crushing racial inequality across the NHS. This has to stop | Donna Kinnair Black doctors and nurses are paid far less than their white colleagues. The NHS must address the barriers and prejudices in its system

Some years ago a fellow black nurse said to me that I had been described by a nursing leader as “the only acceptable black nurse”.

I’d like to say we’ve come a long way since then, but the enormous ethnic pay gap in the NHS shows there’s a long road yet to travel. As revealed last week, black doctors and nurses are on average paid thousands of pounds less than their white colleagues. There are still those who divide our workforce between “acceptable” and “unacceptable”. The Guardian

Physical restraint used on 50% more NHS patients with learning disabilities

Physical restraint used on 50% more NHS patients with learning disabilities Growing numbers of patients with learning disabilities are being physically restrained in mental health units, despite ministers telling NHS trusts to use such techniques less often.

Staff in NHS mental health hospitals deployed restraint on such patients 22,000 times last year, almost 50% more than the 15,000 occasions in 2016, BBC research has found.

That included a rise in face-down or “prone” restraint, which is particularly controversial and has been widely criticised as dangerous. Used 2,200 times in 2016, the figure rose to 3,100 in 2017.

The disclosures, made by Radio 4 programme File on 4, prompted criticism from health charities and the minister who, in 2014, ordered trusts to reduce their use of restraint. The Guardian

See also:

Cost of lifesaving heroin withdrawal drug soars by 700%

Cost of lifesaving heroin withdrawal drug soars by 700% Treatment agencies warn of extra drug-related deaths unless price hike is addressed

A 700% spike in the price of a drug used to wean addicts off heroin has caused alarm among treatment agencies, which warn of a rise in drug-related deaths unless urgent action is taken to make it more affordable.

Buprenorphine is an alternative to methadone that reduces the symptoms of withdrawal and lessens the desire to use heroin. It is estimated that more than 30,000 people in England use the drug, which offers a reduced risk of overdose compared with methadone. The Guardian

More than one in four weekend GP appointments left unused, investigation finds 

More than one in four weekend GP appointments left unused, investigation finds More than one in four GP appointments are left unused at weekends, amid a “shocking” failure of policies to improve access to family doctors, an investigation has found.

Ministers have repeatedly promised to expand opening hours of GP surgeries, so that working people are able to get appointments during evenings and weekends.

But the research from areas offering such access shows 37 per cent of Sunday appointments are being left unfilled, along with 24 per cent of Saturday slots, and 23 per cent of those on weekday evenings. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

I've seen lives destroyed by hospitals losing test results

I've seen lives destroyed by hospitals losing test results While the rest of society has embraced a paperless culture, some NHS records are still written on easily lost bits of paper, says Dr Mike Brooks. The Daily Mail

Hospital patients should volunteer and give back to the NHS to make it 'work so much better'

Hospital patients should volunteer and give back to the NHS to make it 'work so much better' Hospital patients should give back to the NHS by volunteering when they are better, according to the head of a watchdog.

Sir Robert Francis, who today took charge of Healthwatch England, said more people should be offering their help for free to the health service.

The 68-year-old added the NHS would 'work so much better' if everybody did their bit.

But, Sir Robert stressed, volunteers must not be expected to make up for short-staffing or to do the work of paid employees. The Daily Mail