Dad 'cannot speak' to autistic son at mental health unit

Dad 'cannot speak' to autistic son at mental health unit A father whose autistic son is at a mental health unit in England has said he has not been able to see or speak to him for three years.

Wayne Erasmus said his son Huw, 31, moved without notice from a unit in Carmarthen to Birmingham and then on to St Andrew's Healthcare in Northampton.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised concerns and criticised repeated failings in St Andrew's leadership.

St Andrew's said it had new leaders in place committed to making improvements. BBC News

Supporting a healthy childhood: the need for greater investment in services in England

Supporting a healthy childhood: the need for greater investment in services in England This briefing highlights that investment in services that would give children a good chance of having a healthy childhood has been severely lacking, with cuts commonplace. Today’s unhealthy and adversely affected children risk becoming tomorrow’s unhealthy and adversely affected adults. The briefing has two key recommendations: the development of a cross-government ‘healthy childhood strategy’, and a commitment in the March 2020 budget to reversing cuts to local authority children’s services and public health budgets in England. British Medical Association

Realising the neighbourhood NHS: delivering a new deal for primary care

Realising the neighbourhood NHS: delivering a new deal for primary care This report calls for general practitioners to become salaried employees of the NHS, rather than independent contractors, known as partners, who run their own GP practices. This move would overturn the historic model of general practice that has been in place since 1948. It argues that this shift, to be phased in, would enable the NHS in England to deliver better access to, and quality of, primary care in the community and would also help to address the workforce crisis in general practice. Institute for Public Policy Research

Britain's race to contain the coronavirus

Britain's race to contain the coronavirus There were 12 days between Steve Walsh leaving a business conference in Singapore and finding out he had been infected with the new coronavirus. When he was tested, he did not even have any symptoms.

But it was still enough to set in train a series of events that have left health officials battling to stop the disease - now named Covid-19 - from spreading across the UK. BBC News

See also:

• Detailed guide: Coronavirus (COVID-19): latest information and advice Department of Health and Social Care
• Ninth coronavirus case found in UK BBC News
• Coronavirus: 12 patients treated by two coronavirus GPs being traced BBC News
• Killer coronavirus poses a greater global threat than terrorism, World Health Organisation warns The Daily Mail
• Nurses 'in quarantine after treating patient with new suspected case of coronavirus' The Daily Mail
• NHS 111 is NOT asking if patients with coronavirus symptoms have been to China The Daily Mail
• It could be 'several months' before coronavirus outbreak ends The Daily Telegraph
• Yes, coronavirus kills, but it could also bring the NHS to a standstill  The New Statesman

East Kent baby deaths: Scale of deaths at trust 'not clear cut'

East Kent baby deaths: Scale of deaths at trust 'not clear cut' The boss of an NHS trust at the centre of concerns about preventable baby deaths has claimed the scale of the failings is not clearly defined.

Susan Acott, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals Trust, said there had only been "six or seven" avoidable deaths at the trust since 2011.

However, the BBC revealed on Monday that the trust previously accepted responsibility for at least 10.

Ms Acott said some of the baby deaths were "not as clear-cut". BBC News

Children with arthritis 'facing delays to diagnosis'

Children with arthritis 'facing delays to diagnosis' Delays diagnosing and treating children with arthritis are leaving them in pain and at a higher risk of lifelong damage, a national charity has warned.

Arthritis is commonly thought to affect only older people, but 15,000 children have the condition in the UK.

Versus Arthritis says many children are not getting help soon enough.BBC News

NHS trust withdraws ‘dangerous’ advice to women on how to achieve a ‘normal birth’

NHS trust withdraws ‘dangerous’ advice to women on how to achieve a ‘normal birth’ An NHS trust has been criticised for advising pregnant women to stay at home for as long as possible during labour to increase the chances of a “normal birth”.

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust also suggested mothers should avoid having epidurals or inductions and should try to have a home birth.

The advice has been described as “shocking” by experts, who said the guidance was contrary to evidence and could be “dangerous” for mothers and babies. The Independent

One in six appendectomies on children are unnecessary new research shows

One in six appendectomies on children are unnecessary new research shows Hundreds of children are having needless operations to remove their appendix, researchers have warned.

One in six children who had surgery actually had a healthy appendix taken out, according to their study.

An estimated 1,600 youngsters are having appendicectomies unnecessarily each year in the UK, it found. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Appendicitis risk prediction models in children presenting with right iliac fossa pain (RIFT study): a prospective, multicentre validation study (abstract) Lancet Child and Adolescent Health