Untapped potential: Investing in health and care data analytics

Untapped potential: Investing in health and care data analytics The NHS generates a huge amount of data.Making better use of this growing mountain of information has the potential to improve care and how services are run.

Yet the NHS is failing to make the most of its data because there aren’t enough people with the right analytical skills to make sense of the information that is being collected.

More investment is needed in skilled analysts to unlock the full potential of NHS data to benefit patients.

The Health Foundation’s new report highlights nine key reasons why there should be more investment in analytical capability.

Workforce implementation plan: Five key issues to look out for

Workforce implementation plan: Five key issues to look out for Back in November 2018, The King’s Fund came together with the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation to set out the current state of the NHS workforce and five tests for the (at that time) forthcoming NHS long-term plan. In the event, the long-term plan did not so much ‘fail’ these tests as decide to not take the exam: the answer on workforce was instead pushed back to an interim workforce implementation plan, now overdue, and a final plan towards the end of 2019 after the Spending Review.

Government "losing grip" on health screening

Government "losing grip" on health screening Health screening is an important way of identifying potentially life-threatening illnesses at an early stage. Yet the Department of Health & Social Care (the Department), NHS England and Public Health England (the national health bodies) are not doing enough to make sure that everyone who is eligible to take part in screening is doing so, and do not know if everyone who should be invited for screening has been. Public Account Select Committee 

See also:

• MPs brand NHS cancer screening programmes 'unfit for purpose' The Daily Mail
• NHS accused of 'losing its grip'on cancer screening as checks fall  The Daily Telegraph
• All heart and cancer screening programmes in England missed targets last year, MPs warn The Independent
• More than 1.25m women waited too long for cervical screening results, damning report finds ITV News

Progress delivering the Emergency Services Network

Progress delivering the Emergency Services Network The delayed Emergency Services Network (ESN) is likely to be even later than expected and the government’s already increased forecast costs are highly uncertain, according to today’s report by the National Audit Office.

Mental health patients increasingly sent 'hundreds of miles' for care

Mental health patients increasingly sent 'hundreds of miles' for care More mental health patients are being sent hundreds of miles from home for treatment, new figures have revealed.

NHS figures showed more than 3,000 patients were placed over 100km (62 miles) from home for treatment because of a lack of beds - a 35% increase since last year.

The NHS spends an average of £9m a month on so-called inappropriate Outside Area Placements (OAPs). BBC News

Bereaved father leads NHS movement against suicide

Bereaved father leads NHS movement against suicide It has been a painful journey for Steve Mallen, whose 18-year-old son killed himself in 2015.

Edward Mallen was a talented student who had won a place at Cambridge University.

The inquest into his death found he had "slipped through the cracks" of local NHS mental health services.

At Edward's funeral, his father vowed to investigate what had happened and fight for reform to prevent other deaths.

That vow has turned into a remarkable personal campaign, culminating with the foundation and launch of a movement across the NHS, the Zero Suicide Alliance. BBC News

True Cancer Bodies: 'Adverts don't show how traumatic cancer is'

True Cancer Bodies: 'Adverts don't show how traumatic cancer is' A group of cancer patients have launched a hard-hitting photographic campaign in response to “pink and fluffy” adverts by some cancer charities which they say “don’t tell the truth” about the brutal reality of the disease.

True Cancer Bodies was set up by Vicky Saynor after she saw a campaign video from the Breast Cancer Now charity, which she says used insensitive language and images.

Breast Cancer Now has since apologised and has removed the video from its social media channels. But Vicky says more work needs to be done to show the reality of living with cancer. BBC News

Police officers suffering PTSD on 'alarming' scale, study finds

Police officers suffering PTSD on 'alarming' scale, study finds Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among police officers is reaching “crisis” levels with almost one in five suffering from the medical condition, a landmark study suggests.

Experts have warned of a “clinical and public sector crisis” after a survey of about 17,000 serving officers and operational staff indicated rates of PTSD were nearly five times higher than the wider population. The Independent

See also:

• Police workforce: almost one in five suffer from a form of PTSD University of Cambridge
• Policing: The Job & The life" Survey 2018 University of Cambridge
• Almost one in five suffer with a form of PTSD, research finds Police Care UK
• PTSD 'at crisis levels' among police officers BBC News
• One in five police officers in UK suffer from PTSD, study finds The Guardian
• Cambridge University study reveals PTSD in the police ITV News

£14m pay deal for boss of 'unaffordable' cystic fibrosis drug

£14m pay deal for boss of 'unaffordable' cystic fibrosis drug Investors speak out over executive pay at makers of life-saving treatment NHS struggles to afford

The chief executive of a company making a potentially life-saving cystic fibrosis drug that the NHS says is unaffordable was paid $18.8m (£14.4m) in cash and shares last year, the Guardian can reveal.

A circular to shareholders ahead of the company’s upcoming annual meeting showed that Jeff Leiden’s deal was 81 times more than the median Vertex employee was paid and an increase on last year’s $17.2m deal. Separate stock market announcements show that he has also sold more than $70m of company stock over the past two years, some or all of it handed to him as part of his pay deals. The Guardian

See also:

• Patients' fury as boss of firm NHS says charges too much is paid £14million in a year The Daily Mail

'My tutor said it wasn't a job for a man': my journey from roofer to midwife

'My tutor said it wasn't a job for a man': my journey from roofer to midwife I’ve encountered sexism, but it’s an amazing job and an honour to support women give birth

It was after I almost died falling off a roof that I decided to train to be a midwife.

I was a roofer doing a repair job 36 feet off the ground when I slipped. I fell and hit a gas pipe on the way down. My right foot shattered, and I broke my left leg, my right arm, and my back in two places. I was in hospital for three-and-a-half months. It was pretty horrific but I’m alive and I can walk. I was so impressed by the people who looked after me, which was one of the reasons I wanted to go into the caring profession.

I don’t deliver the baby, the women do. I’m a cheerleader. The Guardian

Men with low risk prostate cancer must be offered option to 'watch and wait' instead of gruelling treatment

Men with low risk prostate cancer must be offered option to 'watch and wait' instead of gruelling treatment Men with “low risk” prostate cancer should not be pushed into having treatment and should instead be offered a “watch and wait” approach, new guidance for the NHS suggests.

The recommendations mean thousands of men could be spared surgery and radiotherapy.

For the first time, the official advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says there is no survival benefit to having treatment, in cases identified as low risk. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Prostate cancer: diagnosis and management (guideline) NICE
• Prostate cancer (quality standard) NICE
• Men spared from chemotherapy as NHS adopts 'active surveillance' for prostate cancer patients The Daily Mail

Warning over global failure to act on deaths from drug-resistant TB

Warning over global failure to act on deaths from drug-resistant TB The spiralling number of deaths from drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is set to cost the world economy nearly $20 billion annually.

A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit warned that despite the fact that DR-TB is a huge global health threat, the fight against the disease lags behind others in terms of both money and attention. The Daily Telegraph

NHS crisis: Record 4.23million people are on the waiting list for routine ops

NHS crisis: Record 4.23million people are on the waiting list for routine ops The NHS waiting list is longer than it has ever been and April was the busiest month on record for A&E departments, figures revealed today.

A total of 4.23 million people in England were waiting for routine hospital treatment in March, a rise of 90,000 on the previous month.

The number shows 10 per cent more people were waiting than at the same time last year, which experts have branded a 'failure' of the NHS.

A&Es in English hospitals had to deal with a staggering 70,403 visits on an average day in April – the most ever. The Daily Mail