Inside England’s first accident and emergency department for older people

Inside England’s first accident and emergency department for older people  Like most places, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s A&E department is under pressure from rising demand. And performance against the four-hour A&E waiting time standard remains far below the national target.

Some of this pressure – particularly at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital – can be explained by older patients accounting for a growing share of A&E attendances. These patients often require more complex and specialist care to avoid admission to hospital, which can take time to arrange, meaning older patients wait longer in A&E or end up being admitted to hospital unnecessarily.

But this is where Norfolk and Norwich’s journey diverges from most other trusts, because instead of trying to constantly pull geriatric specialists down to A&E, they built an older person’s emergency
department (OPED). King's Fund

 

Detailed guide: How healthcare providers can prepare for Brexit

Detailed guide: How healthcare providers can prepare for Brexit  This guidance sets out the actions that healthcare providers should take before and after Brexit. Doing this will help to plan for and
manage potential service disruption to healthcare in case the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
This guidance is for commissioners and healthcare providers, including hospitals, care homes, GP practices and community pharmacies.  It is based on the advice contained in the Brexit operational
readiness guidance issued for healthcare providers in December 2018. Department of Health

Homing in on free personal care

Homing in on free personal care  This report from Independent Age outlines the various reasons why free personal care can
help provide the systemic change that social care is in need of. The
report shows the scale of how many older people have had to sell their
homes to pay for care as well as how the current deferred payments
system is not working.  King's Fund

• Report

Course Corrections: How Health Care Innovators Learn from Setbacks to Achieve Success

Course Corrections: How Health Care Innovators Learn from Setbacks to Achieve Success Setbacks and outright failures are inherent to innovation and provide an
opportunity for health care leaders to learn as they design new care
models that improve health outcomes while reducing costs and unnecessary
service use.

When designing new care models, leaders should strive to understand
which patients fail to benefit and consider changing staff to better
meet patients’ needs. They should seek to identify which elements of
their models are most essential and find common ground with health care
payers on how to measure and reward success. The Commonwealth Fund

New Report on Health Care Affordability in Europe

New Report on Health Care Affordability in Europe  A recent World Health Organization (WHO) Europe report examining
financial hardship and unmet need for health services in 24 high- and
middle-income European countries found that catastrophic health care
spending is heavily concentrated among the poorest populations, with the
majority of spending on outpatient drugs. Those countries with strong
financial protections in place and low levels of unmet need were found
to have the following features in common: universal coverage based on
population entitlement; minimized out-of-pocket payments, particularly
for poor people and regular users of health services; caps on
out-of-pocket spending set at no more than 15 percent of total health
spending; and adequate public health spending to ensure timely access to
care. The Commonwealth Fund

Government sugar crackdown branded a 'shambles' as it emerges sweets got sweeter during campaign

Government sugar crackdown branded a 'shambles' as it emerges sweets got sweeter during campaign  Puddings and confectionary became sweeter during a government sugar crackdown, a new report has shown, as obesity campaigners branded the outcome a ‘shambles.’ Britons are collectively eating 2.6 per cent more sugar than they did before 2015, when Public Health England (PHE) told food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the amount in products by 20 per cent by 2020. The Telegraph

See also:

• Efforts to cut sugar out of food way off target BBC News

Labour pledges free personal care for over-65s in England

Labour pledges free personal care for over-65s in England  Labour is promising free personal
care in England for over-65s most in need of it, so they will not have to pay for help with dressing, washing and meals.  At the moment, those with savings of more than £14,250 have to contribute to the cost of home or residential help.
Labour says the pledge, costing an estimated £6bn a year, will double the number of those not having to pay.  It would bring England into line with Scotland, where personal care is free for those with the most severe needs.  BBC News

Health cover for retired Britons in EU to last six months in no-deal Brexit

Health cover for retired Britons in EU to last six months in no-deal Brexit  The government has pledged £150m to temporarily cover the healthcare
costs of 180,000 British nationals living in the EU in the event of a
no-deal Brexit. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said workers posted to the bloc,
plus pensioners and students, who can currently have their healthcare
funded by the UK under existing reciprocal arrangements, would continue
to be covered for six months after a crash out. The Guardian

NHS bed shortages cause late cancellation of cancer surgeries

NHS bed shortages cause late cancellation of cancer surgeries  One of the NHS’s biggest hospital trusts has apologised to a
78-year-old man after it had to cancel his cancer surgery twice in a
month because of a lack of beds. On both occasions the patient, who has
liver cancer, waited in the hospital for six hours and was ready to go
into the operating theatre to have his tumour removed when he was sent
home. Staff at Leicester general hospital explained to him that there was
no high-dependency bed for him if he experienced complications during
the surgery.  The Guardian

Alexa's robotic voice leaving dementia patients 'deeply distressed', social care report finds

Alexa's robotic voice leaving dementia patients 'deeply distressed', social care report finds  Amazon Alexa's robotic voice is causing "deep distress" for dementia patients by telling them to take their medicine, a new report has warned.  The technology think tank, Doteveryone, said older social care patients were often left confused by new gadgets and fearful they would replace contact with human carers.

It also found that disabled people feared that incoming advances with smart homes, which have features such as self-opening doors and windows, could malfunction and leave them trapped. The report, Better Care in the Age of Automation, argued that technology had a vital role in improving the care system but should not lead to “naive enthusiasm” that gadgets can replace human carers. The Telegraph