Monday 2 December 2019

Election 2019: Will you rebuild Kettering hospital?

Election 2019: Will you rebuild Kettering hospital? Are all parties committed to delivering the planned rebuild of Kettering General Hospital, whatever the result of the general election?

Nick, from Thrapston, in Northants, sent his question to BBC News ahead of the 12 December poll.

The five candidates for the Kettering constituency all responded. BBC Northampton

Stay away from Northampton General Hospital if you have norovirus bug, doctor warns

Stay away from Northampton General Hospital if you have norovirus bug, doctor warns With Northamptonshire hospitals seeing an increase in the number of patients with symptoms of flu and norovirus, the local NHS is urging people to avoid visiting if they know or suspect they may be infected. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

The future of general practice: the views of GP trainees

The future of general practice: the views of GP trainees The number of doctors entering GP training is higher than ever, yet the overall number of full-time equivalent GPs keeps decreasing. This is one of the reasons that patients report increasing dissatisfaction with their ability to access general practice, although they are satisfied with their care once they are seen. The King's Fund

See also:

Mental health: Quality Watch indicator update

Mental health: Quality Watch indicator update In England, approximately 1 in 6 adults experiences a common mental disorder (such as anxiety or depression) in any given week. Half of mental health problems are established by the age of 14, rising to 75% by age 24. And in the UK, suicide is the leading cause of death among young people aged 20-34 years.

Despite these statistics, mental health services have been underfunded for many years. People with mental health problems have been stigmatised and marginalised, although public attitudes towards mental health have shifted recently. The latest NHS policies aim to address prevention and transform mental health services. However, the ambition to achieve parity of esteem between physical and mental health will be challenging.

Here at QualityWatch, we’ve been monitoring how the quality of NHS mental health care has been changing over time. While some measures show an improvement, such as access to psychological therapies, other measures, such as follow-up for patients discharged from psychiatric inpatient care, show a decline in quality. Find a summary of mental health indicators and click for more detailed content and analysis. Nuffield Trust

Better for women report: Improving the health and wellbeing of girls and women

Better for women report: Improving the health and wellbeing of girls and women The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is calling for better joined up services, as part of its “Better for Women” report, published today. It emphasises the need for national strategies to meet the needs of girls and women across their life course – from adolescence, to the middle years and later life.

There should also be greater focus on moving the UK away from providing a disease intervention service towards a preventative health service, says the report.

The report recommends that one-stop women’s health clinics provide reproductive and sexual healthcare services – such as contraception, STI testing, cervical screening, and treatment and advice about the menopause – in one location and at one time to improve services for women and make savings for the NHS.

See also:

Detailed guide: Child death review data collection: submitting data

Detailed guide: Child death review data collection: submitting data How child death overview panels (CDOPs) should submit information for the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB1) data collection. Department of Health and Social Care

Private firms handed £15bn in NHS contracts over past five years

Private firms handed £15bn in NHS contracts over past five years Figures cast doubt on government’s denial of creeping NHS privatisation

Private firms have been handed almost £15bn in NHS contracts over the past five years, figures show.

The value of contracts given to non-NHS providers, mainly profit-driven firms but also including some social enterprises, has soared by 89% since 2015, from £1.9bn to £3.6bn a year. The Guardian

See also:

1.5m patients kept waiting in ambulances for half an hour or more

1.5m patients kept waiting in ambulances for half an hour or more Patients have been delayed inside ambulances for at least 30 minutes almost 1.5m times over the past three years due to waiting for hospital handovers, information provided to Labour has shown, with the party saying it was “damning evidence” of a crisis in the NHS.

In more than 280,000 of these cases, people were delayed for more than 60 minutes, according to figures provided by freedom of information requests to ambulance trusts in England. The Guardian

See also:

Revealed: Millions to be affected by NHS plan to ration 34 everyday tests and treatments

Revealed: Millions to be affected by NHS plan to ration 34 everyday tests and treatments List includes hernia repair surgery and blood tests to detect prostate cancer

Millions of patients will be stopped from having an X-ray on their sore back, hernia repair surgery or scan of their knee to detect arthritis under controversial plans from NHS and doctors to ration “unnecessary” treatment.

The Guardian has seen a list of 34 diagnostic tests and treatments that in future patients in England will only be able to get in exceptional circumstances as part of a drive to save money and relieve the pressure on the NHS.

NHS hospital admissions are highest in a decade so far this year

NHS hospital admissions are highest in a decade so far this year NHS hospitals are on track for their busiest winter in a decade, statistics revealed today.

There were more hospital admissions between April and September this year – 2.95million – than in any comparable period since at least 2009.

Some 1.49million overnight stays were recorded in English hospitals in the second quarter of the year, today's figures showed.

This was a rise of around 300,000 on the same three months last year, and was the second busiest 12 weeks on record. The Daily Mail

Doctors must stop prescribing Zantac until further notice, Department of Health says

Doctors must stop prescribing Zantac until further notice, Department of Health says A popular heartburn and indigestion drug has been completely pulled from supermarket shelves amid a global contamination scandal, health bosses claim.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DoHS) said all versions of ranitidine, including Zantac, had been quarantined after months of recalls.

And it has banned doctors from prescribing them until further notice, over fears they contain a cancer-causing chemical. The Daily Mail