One-year cancer survival rate continues to increase in Northamptonshire – but early diagnosis lags behind

One-year cancer survival rate continues to increase in Northamptonshire – but early diagnosis lags behind Survival rates of cancer patients in Northamptonshire one year after diagnosis are still on the rise, new figures show.

But it comes as early diagnosis rates lag behind Government targets for 75 percent of cancer cases to be detected at stage one or two by 2028. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Daughter 'appalled' after elderly mother was 'left in her own urine for a day after being discharged' from Northampton General Hospital

Daughter 'appalled' after elderly mother was 'left in her own urine for a day after being discharged' from Northampton General Hospital A daughter says she has been left “appalled” after her elderly mother was allegedly left alone at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) for almost a day after being discharged, leaving her to call her daughter herself after being “saturated” in her own urine. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Home births: Concerns raised over halting of Northampton service

Home births: Concerns raised over halting of Northampton service Concerns have been raised that the closure of an NHS home birthing service will leave mothers-to-be without the delivery of their choice.

Northampton General Hospital temporarily halted the service at the beginning of April because of staff shortages at its maternity unit.

The hospital said it was due to Covid, other sickness and maternity leave. BBC Northampton

NHS Performance Summary: February–March 2022

NHS Performance Summary: February–March 2022 NHS England published the latest data on key activity and performance measures for February and March 2022. Here we show NHS performance against some key targets, including some of those set out in the latest planning guidance released last month, as well as other indicators of patient safety and care. Nuffield Trust

See also:

• Severe pressures in A&E should be a wake up call for Government to tackle the workforce crisis The Health Foundation
• The King's Fund responds to the latest monthly NHS hospital performance data The King's Fund
• Analysis: April release of NHS performance statistics NHS Confederation
• Longest waits falling despite busiest ever NHS winter NHS England
• Trusts are doing all they can to bear down on delays in the face of extraordinary pressures NHS Providers
• NHS activity tracker: April 2022 NHS Providers
• Impossible situation for emergency care staff as patients suffer long waits Nuffield Trust
• NHS faces an Easter 'as bad as any winter' BBC News
• NHS beds crisis as vacancy level hits lowest since Covid pandemic started The Daily Mail
• NHS waiting list hits ANOTHER high amid Covid-fuelled crisis: 6.18MILLION waiting for routine ops The Daily Mail
• Number of people on NHS waiting lists in England at record high The Guardian
• No sleep, little care, no medication: my 80-hour A&E ordeal | Fay Schopen The Guardian
• ‘Perfect storm’ of Covid and staff shortages leaves care homes unable to take hospital discharges The Independent

Approaches to projecting future healthcare demand

Approaches to projecting future healthcare demand To plan services and staff for the NHS, the government needs to know how much demand for services will rise and how much to spend on the NHS in future. These future estimates are known as projections: they indicate how much demand might rise or how much might be spent if certain assumptions hold true. This research paper aims to describe and critically assess alternative statistical methods for projecting future health care demand and expenditure. Centre for Health Economics

A window of opportunity: delivering prevention in an ageing world

A window of opportunity: delivering prevention in an ageing world This report brings together ILC UK's two-year global engagement programme on how to deliver prevention in an ageing world. It argues that while Covid has increased and exacerbated inequalities, it has also shown us how fast governments can act. There is a window of opportunity to build on the learnings from the pandemic. But governments need to act now. International Longevity Centre UK

Parkinson’s patients benefit from revolutionary watch on the NHS to manage care at home

Parkinson’s patients benefit from revolutionary watch on the NHS to manage care at home Patients with Parkinson’s disease are being given life-changing smart watches that allow doctors to remotely assess their condition in a pioneering project to revolutionise NHS care.

The cutting-edge gadget containing sensors, known as a Parkinson’s Kinetigraph (PKG), is worn around the clock for six days to monitor patients’ movements at home.

The information it collects is relayed to doctors who can look for signs that their medicines need changing, improving quality of life, or that make other interventions such as physiotherapy that can stop the condition getting worse. NHS England

Call for evidence for new 10-year plan to improve mental health

Call for evidence for new 10-year plan to improve mental health The general public, people of all ages with lived experience of mental health conditions and those who support people with mental ill-health are urged to respond to a 12-week call for evidence to inform a new 10-year mental health plan and a refreshed national suicide prevention plan seeking views on what can be improved within the current service, particularly in light of the pandemic which has led to record levels of people seeking treatment. Department of Health and Social Care

See also:

• Open consultation: Mental health and wellbeing plan: discussion paper and call for evidence Department of Health and Social Care

Thousands more patients to access second ground-breaking antiviral

Thousands more patients to access second ground-breaking antiviral Thousands more vulnerable people in England are now eligible to receive the UK’s second oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

Paxlovid has been added to the PANORAMIC national study, the UK’s fastest-ever recruiting clinical trial of its kind, which is run by the University of Oxford in close collaboration with GP hubs. Department of Health and Social Care

Covid: Thousands of vaccinators get permanent NHS roles

Covid: Thousands of vaccinators get permanent NHS roles More than 10,000 people who signed up to help deliver Covid-19 vaccinations have now taken permanent roles with the NHS in England.

About 71,000 people took paid roles and thousands more volunteered to help with the programme which has now given more than 120 million doses. BBC News

See also:

• NHS chief praises thousands of vaccination staff staying in the health service NHS England
• Covid levels starting to fall in UK, says ONS BBC News
• 'Life without Covid rules is much worse than we thought' BBC News
• Valneva Covid vaccine approved for use in UK BBC News
• Global daily Covid deaths are now at their LOWEST point since pandemic took off The Daily Mail
• Covid disruption to NHS in England wreaks havoc with surgery backlog The Guardian
• Covid threat being ignored in England for ideological reasons, say NHS leaders The Guardian
• Thousands of long Covid patients feared to be missing out on disability benefits The Independent
• Covid nasal spray could replace vaccine jabs as scientists rethink fight against virus The Independent
• NHS staff at odds over calls for a return of Covid restrictions after A&E waits hit 12 hours in some areas iNews

Is a virus we all have causing multiple sclerosis?

Is a virus we all have causing multiple sclerosis? Nearly three million people around the world have multiple sclerosis. Scientists think they have now uncovered a mystery cause of this incurable disease. It is a virus that nearly every one of us can expect to catch. So what does it mean for treating and even preventing MS? BBC News

See also:

• Longitudinal analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated with multiple sclerosis (open access) Science

Two new drugs to fight superbugs available on NHS soon

Two new drugs to fight superbugs available on NHS soon Two new medications which fight drug-resistant superbugs could soon become available to NHS patients in England.

Drugs' watchdog NICE says cefiderocol and ceftazidime with avibactam offer value for money and will save lives.

These 'last line of defence' drugs will tackle severe infections which cannot be cleared by other treatments. BBC News

Excess weight nearly doubles risk of womb cancer – study

Excess weight nearly doubles risk of womb cancer – study Excess weight almost doubles a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer, new research suggests.

The Cancer Research UK-funded study found that for every five extra body mass index (BMI) units – the equivalent of a 5ft 5in tall adult woman being two stones heavier – the risk increased by 88%. The Independent

See also:

• Identifying molecular mediators of the relationship between body mass index and endometrial cancer risk: a Mendelian randomization analysis (open access) BMC Medicine

Medical regulator faces questions over board members’ links to drug firms

Medical regulator faces questions over board members’ links to drug firms The UK medicines watchdog has been urged to strengthen its conflict of interest policy after it emerged that six of its board members are receiving payments from the pharmaceutical industry.

Board members involved in overseeing the regulator’s “strategic direction” also have financial interests in companies including US and Saudi drug giants and firms with ambitions to break into the UK’s healthcare market. The Guardian

‘Brutalised and burnt out’ NHS hospital staff take 8m mental health sick days in five years

‘Brutalised and burnt out’ NHS hospital staff take 8m mental health sick days in five years Staff shortages, treatment backlogs and the pandemic have contributed to hospital doctors and nurses taking almost 23,000 years off with mental health problems since 2017.

Doctors and nurses have spoken of feeling “brutalised” and burnt out, amid an escalating mental health crisis that has seen hospital staff take more than 8m days off sick in the past five years. The Guardian

Suicide rates FELL in England and Wales in 2020 despite Covid lockdown, ONS data shows

Suicide rates FELL in England and Wales in 2020 despite Covid lockdown, ONS data shows Suicide rates fell in England and Wales in 2020, official data shows — despite fears the first lockdown would trigger a spike.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found the overall suicide rate was 9.8 deaths per 100,000 people from April 2020 to December 2020.

This marked a 9 per cent decrease compared to 2019 (10.8 deaths per 100,000) and was 12 per cent lower than in 2018 (11.2). The Daily Mail

Global deaths from antibiotic-resistant 'super bugs' have surged seven-fold in half a decade

Global deaths from antibiotic-resistant 'super bugs' have surged seven-fold in half a decade Global deaths from antibiotic-resistant 'super-bugs' have surged 600 percent in just five years, one expert warns.

Scientists have been sounding the alarm over bacterial infections resistant to current treatments for years, and calling on people to use the medicines less often. The Daily Mail 

See also:

• Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis (open access) The Lancet