Friday 17 January 2020

St Andrew's Healthcare boss says Northampton-based mental health service must downsize

St Andrew's Healthcare boss says Northampton-based mental health service must downsize The boss at Northampton-based NHS mental health provider St Andrew's Healthcare has admitted the organisation must downsize to ensure its survival.

The UK’s biggest independent charitable provider of mental healthcare plans to close 100 of its 860 beds in an attempt to streamline its operation. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

KGH shows its LGBTQ support

KGH shows its LGBTQ support Staff at Kettering General Hospital are showing their support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) community by wearing distinctive enamel badges. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Police called to 'utter chaos' Daventry council meeting

Police called to 'utter chaos' Daventry council meeting Police were called to a council meeting that descended into "utter chaos" after more than 400 village residents turned up to support a new doctors' surgery.

Planning officers at Daventry District Council had recommended an outline application for a new medical centre in Byfield, Northamptonshire, be refused. BBC Northampton

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GPs reject contract deal and PCN specifications

GPs reject contract deal and PCN specifications The BMA’s England GP committee (GPC) has voted against accepting a contract agreement with NHS England – and condemned the draft service specifications setting out expectations of primary care networks (PCNs) over the next four years, which the Royal College of GPs has previously warned would risk overloading PCNs still in their infancy, causing them to fail. OnMedica

Stroke consultant shortage 'hurtling towards crisis'

Stroke consultant shortage 'hurtling towards crisis' Almost half of hospitals have a shortage of specialist stroke consultants, new figures suggest. One charity fears "thousands of lives" will be put at risk unless action is taken, with others facing the threat of a lifelong disability. BBC News

Social media data needed for 'harm' research, say doctors

Social media data needed for 'harm' research, say doctors Leading UK psychiatrists say they will never understand the risks and benefits of social media use on children's mental health unless companies hand over their data to researchers.

Tech companies must be made to share data and pay a tax to fund important research, they say in a report.

There is growing evidence internet use can harm mental health but research is still lacking, it adds. BBC News

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'My sister died after taking a line of cocaine'

'My sister died after taking a line of cocaine' Research for the BBC by NHS Digital shows a huge rise in mental and physical illness linked to cocaine. BBC News

Sepsis killing almost twice as many people worldwide than previously thought, new study warns

Sepsis killing almost twice as many people worldwide than previously thought, new study warns Nearly twice as many people around the world are dying of sepsis than was previously thought, according to a new global study.

Researchers found that the condition, in which the body suffers an out-of-control response to infection, caused 11 million deaths globally in 2017 out of a total of 49 million cases. Previous estimates had said there were about 6 million deaths a year worldwide. The Independent

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Hospital bosses launched ‘witch hunt’ to find whistleblower who revealed blunders in woman’s treatment, inquest told

Hospital bosses launched ‘witch hunt’ to find whistleblower who revealed blunders in woman’s treatment, inquest told Hospital bosses have been accused of launching a witch hunt to find a whistleblower who told a widower about blunders in the treatment his wife received.

The row emerged as an inquest began into the death of Susan Warby who died five weeks after bowel surgery.

The 57-year-old died at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, in heath secretary Matt Hancock‘s constituency, on 30 August 2018 after a series of complications in her treatment. The Independent

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Carillion: New hospitals delayed for years by collapse of outsourcing giant, official report says

Carillion: New hospitals delayed for years by collapse of outsourcing giant, official report says Two hospitals being built by engineering giant Carillion when it collapsed are being delayed for several years, according to an official report.

The 646-bed Royal Liverpool, due to open in 2017, is now forecast to be completed more than five years late, although an opening date has not yet been set, said the National Audit Office (NAO). The Independent

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How might A&E departments without targets work? Look to sexual health clinics

How might A&E departments without targets work? Look to sexual health clinics | Polly Toynbee Accident and emergency makes the headlines. Meanwhile, under-reported services are collapsing through lack of funding

Will the secretary of state for health and social care get away with such barefaced shamelessness in his apparent plans to abolish waiting-time targets for A&E? Matt Hancock’s faintly plausible excuse is that the four-hour target is a perverse incentive to treat an ingrown toenail, at three hours and 50 minutes, ahead of heart attacks and road accident victims. But most A&Es triage efficiently, diverting minor ailments to GPs on site; their real crisis is 12-hour trolley waits for very ill people queuing for reduced numbers of hospital beds. The Guardian

NHS will still need to rely on migrants after Brexit - until we train more UK nurses

NHS will still need to rely on migrants after Brexit - until we train more UK nurses The National Health Service is buckling under the weight of rising demand as is faces a severe staffing shortage.

With recruits from the European Union beginning to leave the NHS in greater numbers, the question of how to staff our hospitals and care homes becomes more acute.

More than 40,000 nursing roles are currently unfilled amid a sector-wide crisis. The Daily Telegraph

Only ONE NHS trust hit the target of seeing 95% of A&E patients in four hours in 2019

Only ONE NHS trust hit the target of seeing 95% of A&E patients in four hours in 2019 Only one hospital trust in England treated its A&E patients within the NHS time target last year, MailOnline can reveal.

Yeovil District Hospital was the only place that managed to process 95 per cent of its patients within four hours of their arrival. Its average for the year was 96.3 per cent.

Statistics analysed by this website reveal that 117 comparable hospitals across the country all missed the mark. The Daily Mail

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NHS hospitals are FULLER than they have been all winter amid a surge in cases of norovirus

NHS hospitals are FULLER than they have been all winter amid a surge in cases of norovirus Hospital beds in England were fuller last week than they have been all winter, according to NHS statistics.

Fewer than five per cent of overnight beds were open to new patients between January 6 and 12.

A surge in norovirus cases added extra pressure to already-stretched hospitals, the NHS said, after the number of infections had been dropping for weeks. The Daily Mail