Monday 8 April 2019

NHSX: digital experts will be part of cancer and mental health teams

NHSX: digital experts will be part of cancer and mental health teams Digital and data specialists from NHSX will team up with NHS England’s cancer and mental health national policy teams to help clinicians and policymakers improve patient experience through technology. Department of Health and Social Care

Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities

Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities This report says there has been a persistent failure by national and local policy makers to tackle long standing inequalities facing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in any sustained way. It finds that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have the worst outcomes of any ethnic group across a huge range of areas, including education, health, employment, criminal justice and hate crime. The report of this two year inquiry makes 49 recommendations for change. Women and Equalities Select Committee

Ian Paterson: 'Sheer volume' of victims delays breast surgeon report

Ian Paterson: 'Sheer volume' of victims delays breast surgeon report Victims of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson are still coming forward two years after he was jailed following hundreds of botched operations.

The "sheer volume" of patients giving evidence to an independent inquiry has pushed back a report into his malpractice, an official said.

Paterson is serving a 20-year sentence for 17 counts of wounding with intent.

About 150 patients gave evidence last year and dozens more are understood to have since come forward. BBC News

NHS offering £127m of contracts to private companies despite health secretary pledging: 'No privatisation on my watch'

NHS offering £127m of contracts to private companies despite health secretary pledging: 'No privatisation on my watch' The NHS is offering more than 20 contracts to private companies, despite health secretary Matt Hancock having insisted there would be "no privatisation on my watch", Labour has said.

The party released data showing 21 NHS contracts worth £127m are currently out to tender - 19 of which have been put out since mid-February.

The figures were revealed by House of Commons Library analysis and include a £91m contract to run an NHS assessment service in the South East, a £16m deal to provide health services in Leicestershire and a £6m tender for a GP surgery in High Wycombe. The Independent

NHS patients have cancer scans cancelled after supplier problems

NHS patients have cancer scans cancelled after supplier problems Scan delays in England leading to ‘stress and anxiety’ for those awaiting their prognosis

Concerns have been raised that problems related to the supply of a substance used to screen for cancerous cells is causing delays for NHS patients in England, with many exposed to repeated cancellation of scans at short notice.

Choline is a radiotracer injected into patients an hour before PET-CT scans, predominately when patients are feared to have a recurrence of prostate cancer. Without it the scans cannot go ahead. The Guardian

‘Second-class’ NHS workers struggle as pay gap widens

‘Second-class’ NHS workers struggle as pay gap widens Staff employed on minimum wage by private contractors across England missed out on £2,000 income boost

Tens of thousands of NHS workers are struggling to get by on the minimum wage because their private sector employers are failing to match public sector pay rises.

The estimated 100,000 low-paid cleaners, porters, security guards and catering staff who work for private contractors in hospitals across England are being treated as “second-class employees”, thanks to a growing pay divide between public and private sector workers, according to the country’s leading health union. The Guardian

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Molly Case, the NHS nurse who finds poetry on the wards

Molly Case, the NHS nurse who finds poetry on the wards Her impassioned poem defending the NHS thrust Case into the public eye. With a memoir out soon, she talks about how the job of caring continues to inspire her

Read an extract from Molly Case’s memoir How to Treat People

Not so long ago, first-person accounts of what goes on in the operating theatre or the emergency ward – and in the hearts and minds of those who work there – were hard to find. Author William Boyd said recently that when writing his novel about a surgeon, The Blue Afternoon, some years ago, he failed to unearth any descriptions of surgery by surgeons at all. But no more. The medical memoir has become a publishing phenomenon. The Guardian

Dementia patients should be offered music and dance therapy   

Dementia patients should be offered music and dance therapy More people with dementia should be given music or dance therapy in a bid to prevent them being "over-medicalised", the Health Secretary has said.

It follows research which found that giving people with dementia personal playlists resulted in a 60 per cent reduction in the need for mind-altering drugs. The Daily Telegraph

Homeopathic medicine will be banned by the NHS because they are a 'misuse of public funds'

Homeopathic medicine will be banned by the NHS because they are a 'misuse of public funds' Homeopathic treatments will be blacklisted by the NHS after it emerged GPs are issuing thousands of prescriptions a year – despite being told to stop.

NHS experts say the alternative ‘medicines’ have no credible scientific evidence to support their continued use and are a ‘misuse of public funds’.

Since 2017, official NHS England guidelines have advised against prescribing the treatments which it warns are ‘at best a placebo’. The Daily Mail

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