Friday 3 January 2020

Striving to deliver

Striving to deliver Trust leaders are warning that they are more concerned than ever before about the level of risk they will need to manage for patients and their staff this winter. This briefing is an assessment of readiness looking into the areas of concern facing the NHS and the extensive planning they and their local partners have put into place to mitigate this. King's Fund

Briefing
Press release

GPs to visit care home patients fortnightly under network requirements

GPs to visit care home patients fortnightly under network requirements GPs will have to carry out visits to care home patients 'at least' every fortnight from this September as part of the delivery of new network service specifications, new proposals have revealed.
According to a draft NHS England document outlining the primary care network service specifications, practices in PCNs will deliver five national services from April 2020 onwards, including enhanced care in residential homes and structured medication reviews.
Plans for services to provide anticipatory care and personalised care must be drawn up by 'no later than June 2020'. Services to support early cancer diagnosis must have a clinical lead in place from April, and during 2020/21 there must be a 'safety netting' approach put in place to monitor patients referred for suspected cancer. Pulse

Nurse who worked at the first privatised NHS hospital says she wants people to 'remember' the 'disaster'

Nurse who worked at the first privatised NHS hospital says she wants people to 'remember' the 'disaster' Private provision of health care services has always been controversial and has been a hot topic during and since the recent general election. Labour claimed that more NHS services could be outsourced to private companies, particularly in connection with a possible post-Brexit UK-US trade deal. Boris Johnson, for his part, insists "the NHS will never be for sale”.
However, the ITV documentary The Dirty War on the NHS aired recently, arguing that the health service is "under threat of being sold off and converted to a free market model inspired by America's disastrous health insurance system".
The film focused on Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, the first hospital to be handed to a private management firm. i newspaper

The NHS begins 2020 with good reason to hope for a better decade

The NHS begins 2020 with good reason to hope for a better decade The NHS stands at the threshold of a new decade facing both potentially its most difficult winter in decades and the most hopeful medium-term future since the 2008 financial crash.
The global economic meltdown at the end of this century’s first decade was significantly more important than anything that happened between 2010 and 2019. It led, though not directly, to public sector austerity, which undermined many of the gains made by the NHS during the New Labour years and decimated other areas of social provision on which the health service depends.
The aftermath of austerity will go on damaging the NHS for some time, not least because budget cuts for local authorities and other areas of expenditure have only been mitigated, but not ended. We have also yet to count the cost in staff morale and resilience from what may prove to be a cruel winter.
However, for the first time in nearly 10 years NHS leaders can look forward over a three-year period and reasonably expect to do more — albeit only a little — than manage decline and hope that a more logical and effective way of working may become a widespread reality. Health Service Journal

Children in mental distress denied NHS help until close to suicide


Children in mental distress denied NHS help until close to suicide Children suffering mental health problems are being refused treatment until they are close to suicide, amid soaring referrals, an investigation reveals. Medics said services were “washing their hands” of vulnerable children and teenagers, with one in three trusts only accepting cases classed as the most severe.
Experts said children were being forced to wait until their condition deteriorated - in some cases resulting in a suicide attempt - in order to get to see a specialist. It comes amid concern that social media is fuelling a growing mental health crisis among younger generations, encouraging feelings of inadequacy.
Some are facing waits of 18 months for counselling, amid rising numbers of referrals. NHS data shows the total number of referrals to such specialists has risen by almost a fifth in the year. The Telegraph

New DNA tests mean babies and children can be diagnosed with rare diseases in just days

New DNA tests mean babies and children can be diagnosed with rare diseases in just days The NHS is promising a “genomic revolution,” with rare child diseases diagnosed in days, with far more accuracy than has previously possible.
Up to 700 babies and children a year will be offered a new form of DNA test, which can rapidly identify mutations in critically ill patients.
The Health Secretary said the new technology was “game changing” for the NHS, with experts saying the tests could double the chance of an accurate diagnosis and ensure swift treatment.
The technique, known as “whole exome sequencing” can reveal what is wrong with patients in days rather than weeks, reducing waits for worried families. The Telegraph