​Traffic jam-busting £2.6m upgrade planned for road near Northampton General Hospital

​Traffic jam-busting £2.6m upgrade planned for road near Northampton General Hospital A Northamptonshire County Council project to improve a busy stretch of road in Northampton will be heard at a meeting of the authority’s cabinet next week.

​The plan focuses on Cliftonville Road in the town, reducing traffic congestion on the inner ring road - particularly York Road and Cheyne Walk - and improving access to Northampton General Hospital, while also benefitting air quality. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Prisoner health and homeless health: understanding the links between them

Prisoner health and homeless health: understanding the links between them As part of our prisoner health project, Miranda Davies has been talking to people from different organisations. One of those was David Parker-Radford from The Queen’s Nursing Institute, where they discussed people’s experience of homelessness before and after prison, and the health care issues affecting both groups. This blog by Miranda and David takes a closer look at those issues. The Nuffield Trust

Consultation outcome: Personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets: extending legal rights

Consultation outcome: Personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets: extending legal rights The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England held a public consultation that explored giving more people the right to have personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets. This would give people more choice and control over the money spent on meeting their health and wellbeing needs. The consultation ran from 6 April 2018 to 8 June 2018 and received over 400 responses. The government and NHS England’s response to the consultation sets out: what was heard over the course of the consultation; the response to respondents’ views; and next steps.

Social media effect 'tiny' in teenagers, large study finds

Social media effect 'tiny' in teenagers, large study finds The effects of social media use on teenage life satisfaction are limited and probably "tiny", a study of 12,000 UK adolescents suggests.

Family, friends and school life all had a greater impact on wellbeing, says the University of Oxford research team.

It claims its study is more in-depth and robust than previous ones.

And it urged companies to release data on how people use social media in order to understand more about the impact of technology on young people's lives. BBC News

Minister considers 'all options' to boost vaccine uptake

Minister considers 'all options' to boost vaccine uptake Health secretary Matt Hancock has said he is willing to look at "all options" to boost England's vaccination levels, including compulsory immunisation.

Mr Hancock told the BBC he did not want to "reach the point" of imposing jabs, but would "rule nothing out".

More than half a million children in the UK were unvaccinated against measles from 2010 to 2017, Unicef says. BBC News

NHS failing child sex abuse survivors with ‘woeful’ support, victim says

NHS failing child sex abuse survivors with ‘woeful’ support, victim says A survivor of child sexual abuse who experienced the NHS’s “woeful” support first hand has said he is not surprised to hear five out of six victims today still feel let down.

Ian Ackley, who was abused by paedophile football coach Barry Bennell in the early 1980s, said he has given up on NHS mental health services in the wake of his past experiences.

A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse revealed on Tuesday that 16 per cent of survivors of child sexual abuse felt their needs were met by NHS mental health services. The Independent

See also:

• Can adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse access justice and support? Part One: Achieving quality information and support for survivors All-Party Parliamentary Group for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Hospitals see twice as many children with fatty liver disease as in 2013, NHS figures show

Hospitals see twice as many children with fatty liver disease as in 2013, NHS figures show The number of children being hospitalised with fatty liver disease in England has more than doubled since 2013, according to NHS statistics showing the impact of the UK’s obesity crisis.

NHS Digital statistics show that 195 under-18s were admitted to hospital with the problem last year, a rise from 96 cases reported in 2013-14. The Independent

Most depressed English communities 'in north and Midlands'

Most depressed English communities 'in north and Midlands' Analysis shows London v rest of England divide when it comes to mental health and treatment.

The most depressed neighbourhoods in England are all in the north and the Midlands, with almost a quarter of patients at some GP surgeries seeking help for the condition, research by the Guardian shows.

Yet it is in these areas where psychiatrists are most scarce, with more than twice as many practitioners in London as in Yorkshire per head of population. Proportionately, more specialist psychiatric research and treatment is also undertaken in the capital. The Guardian

The infected blood inquiry reminds us we need a less painful way to deal with health failings

The infected blood inquiry reminds us we need a less painful way to deal with health failings | Kieran Walshe Our system of scrutiny lets down patients and families and inflicts more agony

No one watching the heartfelt testimony of witnesses – patients, family members, and carers – at the opening sessions of the infected blood inquiry could fail to be moved. The inquiry will examine how and why thousands of people were given blood infected with hepatitis and HIV in the 1980s, the harm this caused, and how government then dealt with this avoidable tragedy and its consequences.

However, you have to ask: why do we need public inquiries like this one, and what do they achieve? Just as importantly, why do we have so many of them? In healthcare alone, alongside the infected blood scandal, there’s an inquiry into disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson; the recent Gosport Memorial Hospital panel report; and a trail of past cases too long to list in full (Bristol, Shipman, Mid-Staffs).  The Guardian

Expectant mothers to be given same midwife throughout pregnancy in £40million NHS promise

Expectant mothers to be given same midwife throughout pregnancy in £40million NHS promise All expectant mothers are to be given the same midwife throughout their pregnancy in a £40 million NHS promise.

Maternity deaths are expected to fall by 50 per cent after thousands more expectant mothers will be offered a named midwife to guide them through pregnancy.

To coincide with International Day of the Midwife 2019 on Sunday, the NHS has said that funding to transform maternity services will be doubled this year to £40 million. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• NHS Long Term Plan to give mums the ‘Royal Treatment’, as 14,000 choose home birth NHS England

NHS digital leaders leaving for private sector over Health Secretary's tech 'revolution', IT chief warns

NHS digital leaders leaving for private sector over Health Secretary's tech 'revolution', IT chief warns NHS digital leaders are leaving for the private sector in frustration over the “chaos” involved in introducing Matt Hancock’s tech “revolution”, a departing IT chief warns.

Richard Corbridge, formerly chief digital and information officer at Leeds teaching hospitals, describes the “excrutiating” situation of trying to realise centrally-imposed slogans such as “axe the fax” and “purge the pager” without dedicated funds. The Daily Telegraph

Three in four maternity units have NO consultants on site out of office hours

Three in four maternity units have NO consultants on site out of office Three quarters of maternity units have no consultants on site at night, a damning audit reveals today.

The Daily Mail found that at most centres consultants go home in the early evening, leaving women in the hands of midwives and often exhausted junior doctors.

Weekend cover is also extremely patchy, with the majority of wards relying on a lone consultant who attends for a few hours.

NHS receptionists take the brunt of patients' frustrations over a lack of appointments

NHS receptionists take the brunt of patients' frustrations over a lack of appointments NHS receptionists take the brunt of patients' frustrations over a lack of appointments and long waiting times, research suggests.

A study found staff who are 'front-of-house' in GP surgeries, hospitals and dental clinics 'take the flak for things that are not their fault'.

Researchers argue an inability to get an appointment in the NHS is 'the result of funding shortages' that are 'beyond the receptionist’s control'. The Daily Mail

Ambulance services records 80% jump in staff leaving the workforce

Ambulance services records 80% jump in staff leaving the workforce Ambulance services have seen an 80 per cent leap in staff leaving the workforce.

More than 33,000 workers in England have left their jobs since 2010, raising concerns that patients may have to wait longer in blue-light emergencies.

Ambulance crews are on the frontline of the NHS, with a third having been victims of violence in the past year. The Daily Mail