Move to speed up vaccine boosters as Covid-19 deaths pass 1,300 in Northamptonshire hospitals

Move to speed up vaccine boosters as Covid-19 deaths pass 1,300 in Northamptonshire hospitals Health chiefs in Northamptonshire have welcomed a move to open up bookings for Covid-19 vaccination boosters a month early.

Those over-50s who are eligible for third jabs can now book appointments five months after their second dose to ensure they get jabs on the day they reach the six-month milestone rather than waiting extra days or weeks for a convenient appointment. Northamptonshire Telegraph 

CQC stops new patients at some St Andrew's Healthcare wards

CQC stops new patients at some St Andrew's Healthcare wards A mental health hospital has been prevented from taking new admissions on some of its wards by health inspectors.

It follows an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at St Andrew's Healthcare in Northampton.

Inspectors were told patients did not feel safe and "staff fell asleep when they were supposed to be observing" people, the CQC said. BBC Northampton

See also: 

• Northampton mental health hospital blocked from admitting new patients on three wards over safety concerns  Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Caring for older patients with complex needs: How does England compare with 11 OECD countries?

Caring for older patients with complex needs: How does England compare with 11 OECD countries? How the NHS performs compared to health care systems in other countries is the subject of ongoing public debate. But international comparisons can be methodologically limited and often raise more questions than answers.

Launched in 2018, the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes and Needs in Care (ICCONIC) aims to advance international comparisons research by using patient-level data. This enables comparison across whole pathways of care – essential in order to identify areas for improvement for the most complex patients. The Health Foundation 

No one wants to see my baby: challenges to building back better for babies

No one wants to see my baby: challenges to building back better for babies This report explores the continued impact of Covid-19 on babies. It consists of a survey of professionals, in-depth studies with eleven families and a review of the literature, conducted with partner organisations Home-Start and Best Beginnings. The report shows that many services across the UK are not operating as they were before the pandemic, and babies and their families are missing out as a result. Parent-Infant Foundation 

Health at a glance 2021: OECD indicators

Health at a glance 2021: OECD indicators This annual report provides the latest comparable data and trends on different aspects of the performance of health systems in OECD countries. It provides striking evidence of large variations across countries in indicators of health status and health risks, as well as in the inputs and outputs of health systems. This edition also has a special focus on the health impact of Covid-19 in OECD countries, including deaths and illness caused by the virus, adverse effects on access and quality of care, and the growing burden of mental ill-health. There is also a document giving highlights for the United Kingdom Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

See also:

• ‘UK compares poorly with other advanced nations’ on excess deaths and life expectancy The King's Fund
• Covid crisis has slashed life expectancy in four-fifths of countries, major report finds The Daily Mail

NHS health and wellbeing strategic overview

NHS health and wellbeing strategic overview This Framework is a high-level culture change toolkit aimed at health and wellbeing staff, human resources (HR) and organisational development (OD) staff, HR and OD directors, wellbeing guardians, managers and leaders and anyone with an interest in health and wellbeing. It is made up of four documents: strategic overview; elements of health and wellbeing; diagnostic tool; implementation guide. NHS England

Toddlers may be getting hooked on sugar in snacks

Toddlers may be getting hooked on sugar in snacks Some snacks sold as weaning or infant foods contain alarming amounts of sugar which could encourage a sweet tooth from an early age, according to health campaigners.

Action on Sugar analysed 73 baby and toddler products on sale in UK shops. BBC News

See also:

• Baby & Toddler Sweet Snacks Action on Sugar
• The sugars content of baby and toddler sweet snacks and the health halo that surrounds them (report) Action on Sugar
• A third of ‘healthy’ toddler snacks would get red traffic light rating The Daily Telegraph

AI skin cancer diagnoses risk being less accurate for dark skin – study

AI skin cancer diagnoses risk being less accurate for dark skin – study AI systems being developed to diagnose skin cancer run the risk of being less accurate for people with dark skin, research suggests.

The potential of AI has led to developments in healthcare, with some studies suggesting image recognition technology based on machine learning algorithms can classify skin cancers as successfully as human experts. The Guardian

See also:

• Characteristics of publicly available skin cancer image datasets: a systematic review (open access) The Lancet Digital Health

NHS must be 'careful' with numbers, warns Health Secretary in wake of Amanda Pritchard error

NHS must be 'careful' with numbers, warns Health Secretary in wake of Amanda Pritchard error The NHS must be "careful" with Covid numbers, the Health Secretary has warned in the wake of an error by the head of the health service in England.

Amanda Pritchard came under fire for claims the NHS had 14 times as many Covid admissions as the service did this time last year. The Daily Telegraph

See also: 

• Covid-19 hospitalisations are below last year, not 14 times higher as NHS CEO claimed Full Fact
• NHS chief ridiculed over claims of '14 times as many Covid admissions as last year' The Daily Telegraph

No10's OWN estimates show just 20,000 unjabbed NHS staff will get compulsory jabs

No10's OWN estimates show just 20,000 unjabbed NHS staff will get compulsory jabs The new 'no jab, no job' rule in the NHS might only spur on around 20,000 workers to get vaccinated against Covid, according to the Government's own estimates.

A white paper into the impact of the policy was published by the Department of Health tonight after Sajid Javid announced that all frontline NHS workers in England need to be double-jabbed against Covid by April 1 or they will be sacked. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Coronavirus births: 'My baby's first word was mask' BBC News
• Making Covid vaccines compulsory may NOT be best method of boosting uptake, data shows The Daily Mail
• Boris Johnson warns 'too many' fully-vaccinated elderly Britons are ending up in hospital with Covid The Daily Mail
• Covid infections picked up on hospital wards killed 11,000 patients being treated for something else The Daily Mail
• 'Tens of thousands' of NHS and care home staff could quit over Covid jabs The Guardian
• Compulsory Covid jabs: three NHS workers on the policy The Guardian
• NHS to lose tens of thousands of staff over mandatory Covid vaccines The Independent
• Mandatory vaccination welcome but could be disastrous The Independent
• Covid conspiracy theorists confront ‘sickest’ patient in hospital The Independent
• Hospital faces backlash after defending PM not wearing mask The Independent
• Dominic Raab defends Boris Johnson after PM is pictured not wearing mask on hospital visit Sky News

Depressed elderly Brits suffered equivalent of SIX YEARS of natural memory decline in lockdown

Depressed elderly Brits suffered equivalent of SIX YEARS of natural memory decline in lockdown Depressed Britons suffered a rapid decline in their memory over lockdown, research claims. 

Exeter University and King's College London academics looked at the mental health and cognition of 6,300 over-50s. 

Depressed and anxious adults performed worse on short-term memory tests, which experts blamed on spending a third of the year in lockdown. The Daily Mail