Northamptonshire cancer patient told he has just months to live launches petition calling for 'amazing' chemotherapy treatment to be funded by NHS

Northamptonshire cancer patient told he has just months to live launches petition calling for 'amazing' chemotherapy treatment to be funded by NHS A Northamptonshire man who was told he has just months to live unless he undergoes major breakthrough surgery has launched a petition calling for a form of chemotherapy to be made available on the NHS. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

A new NHS reorganisation: will it work this time?

A new NHS reorganisation: will it work this time? From today, integrated care boards take statutory control over a budget of tens of billions of pounds. It marks the biggest legislative restructure of the NHS in England for 10 years, but is the latest in a long line of attempts across the UK to make health and care services work together better. With many of the previous efforts underlining how difficult it is to make progress, Mark Dayan, Camille Oung and Sarah Reed take a closer look at what we may learn from the past. Nuffield Trust

See also:

• The Health and Care Act The BMA
• New beginnings for the NHS NHS Confederation
• What are Integrated Care Systems? NHS Confederation 
• Integrated Care Boards NHS Digital
• Integrated care systems explained NHS Providers

Guidance: Virginity testing and hymenoplasty multi-agency guidance

Guidance: Virginity testing and hymenoplasty multi-agency guidance This guidance offers advice for chief executives, directors, senior managers, front-line professionals within agencies and anyone else who may come in to contact with women and girls affected by virginity testing and hymenoplasty. It encourages agencies to cooperate and work together to protect and support those at risk of, or who have undergone, these procedures.

The Health and Care 2022 Act makes carrying out, offering, and aiding and abetting virginity testing and hymenoplasty illegal. Department of Health and Social Care

NHS checks and treatment on patients’ doorsteps part of new changes to health and care in England

NHS checks and treatment on patients’ doorsteps part of new changes to health and care in England Dedicated mental health staff to help children and young people in GP practices, and blood pressure checks in betting shops, are among initiatives devised and delivered by new integrated care systems that come fully into force today.

Boosting health checks in the community to find people with health problems before they become seriously unwell is a key goal of the shift to integrated care systems, where local organisations work together to better meet the needs of local people. NHS England

NHS saves £1.2 billion on medicines over three years

NHS saves £1.2 billion on medicines over three years The NHS has saved taxpayers £1.2 billion in just three years, while securing cutting-edge treatments for patients, by using its buying power to negotiate better prices for hundreds of hospital medicines.

The adoption of cheaper versions of a single drug – adalimumab – which is used to treat more than 45,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, has accounted for about one third of the savings. NHS England

Covid: UK hospital cases set to rise, says health chief

Covid: UK hospital cases set to rise, says health chief The number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid is expected to rise further, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency has said.

Hospital cases and infections are down on earlier highs but Dame Jenny Harries told the BBC there could still be an impact on treating other patients.

Her warning comes after figures showed UK Covid cases jumped by 32% in a week. BBC News

See also:

• Special Covid leave scrapped for NHS England staff BBC News
• Covid infecting one in 30 in the UK, says ONS BBC News
• Are Covid restrictions STILL on the cards? Boris says no plans for curbs 'at the moment' The Daily Mail
• Will Covid drug Evusheld be offered to vulnerable Britons who don't respond to vaccine? The Daily Mail
• Children with 'long Covid' actually have a mental illness, suggest health chiefs The Daily Mail
• End of special Covid leave for NHS staff in England branded ‘unacceptable’ The Guardian
• UK health chiefs brace for ‘bumpy ride’ amid fears over Covid wave The Guardian
• What’s the UK’s booster policy ahead of a feared autumn Covid wave? The Guardian
• Where’s the herd immunity? Our research shows why Covid is still wreaking havoc | Danny Altmann The Guardian
• Top Covid symptom revealed by new data as cases surge in UK The Independent
• Update Covid vaccines to target variants, experts urge, as cases rise The Independent
• Government to cut enhanced sick pay for NHS staff off work with Covid The Independent
• Warning early flu wave could join Covid surge and monkeypox outbreak in triple threat The Independent
• Leading GP warns Covid-19 infections 'here with a vengeance' ITV News
• Government may need to rethink its strategy on living with COVID if summer surge continues Sky News

Dame Deborah James death prompts more bowel-cancer checks

Dame Deborah James death prompts more bowel-cancer checks Thousands more people visited their bowel-cancer symptoms page this week following the death of Dame Deborah James, according to NHS figures.

The number of page visits rose from 2,000 on Tuesday to 23,000 on Wednesday, after the family announced her death on Tuesday evening.

Dame Deborah, who was 40, had bowel cancer since 2016. BBC News

See also:

• Dame Deborah James helps more people check signs of cancer NHS England

Woman suffering mental health crisis left waiting eight days in A&E

Woman suffering mental health crisis left waiting eight days in A&E An 18-year-old woman suffering a mental health crisis was forced to wait eight-and-a-half days in A&E before getting a bed in a psychiatric hospital – believed to be the longest such wait seen in the NHS.

Louise (not her real name) had to be looked after by the police and security guards and sleep in a chair and on a mattress of the floor in the A&E at St Helier hospital in Sutton, south London, because no bed was available in a mental health facility. The Guardian

See also:

• ‘Dejected and desperate’: the ordeal of a mental health patient left in limbo The Guardian

Paramedics set up units inside A&E to ease long queues

Paramedics set up units inside A&E to ease long queues Paramedics have begun looking after patients inside an A&E unit, in an initiative by the health service to stop ambulances queueing outside hospitals and ease the strain on overstretched casualty staff.

The scheme has led to patients being handed over much more quickly at a hospital that was one of the worst in England for sick people being stuck, sometimes for many hours, in the back of an ambulance. The Guardian

Boris Johnson faces investigation into claims over 40 ‘new’ hospitals

Boris Johnson faces investigation into claims over 40 ‘new’ hospitals The government’s official spending watchdog is to launch an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s claim that 40 new hospitals will be built by 2030, as concerns grow in Whitehall that the pledge is unaffordable and has been greatly oversold to the public.

In a move that could prove hugely embarrassing for the prime minister, the independent National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to conduct a “value for money review” into the entire scheme, which was a cornerstone of the Conservative party’s 2019 general election manifesto. The Guardian

See also:

• Boris Johnson's 40 new hospitals pledge faces investigation by spending watchdog Sky News

Soaring fuel bills add to to 'dire' cost pressures facing NHS

Soaring fuel bills add to to 'dire' cost pressures facing NHS Hospitals across Britain face rises in power bills running into millions of pounds as the spiralling cost of living crisis hits NHS trusts.

As household fuel bills climb to unprecedented levels, the health service also faces soaring charges as a result of the escalating cost pressures.

A survey of NHS trusts across England and Scotland shows they are facing rises of up to £29 million in the three financial years to date. Metro

Want to see an actual GP and have a face-to-face appointment? You've only got a one in four chance

Want to see an actual GP and have a face-to-face appointment? You've only got a one in four chance Just a quarter of GP appointments in England are face-to-face and with an actual doctor, MailOnline can reveal.

Critics have warned general practice is heading down a 'slippery slope' where nurses and other staff are picking up the burden amid crippling staffing shortages.

An NHS source told The Daily Mail that of the 27.5 million GP appointments carried out across England in May, just 27 per cent were both in-person and with a qualified doctor.

See also:

• Letting doctors WFH to do the 'school run' could help solve GP crisis, expert claims The Daily Mail
• GP workforce shrank by 116 in May as appointments rose by 3.6m GPonline
• Government's short-term, top-down approach won't solve GP crisis, experts warn GPonline
• The Observer view on Britain’s shortage of GPs | editorial The Observer

Could haemophilia be 'cured' by a new gene therapy that costs £2.5million per jab?

Could haemophilia be 'cured' by a new gene therapy that costs £2.5million per jab? A genetic drug hailed as 'close to a cure' for the deadly bleeding disorder haemophilia has been given the green light by European health watchdogs.

In trials, a single jab of Roctavian left nine in ten patients symptom-free and no longer in need of the daily injections usually required to control their condition.

Last week the European Medicines Agency, the equivalent of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, approved the treatment, opening the door for its widespread use here. The Daily Mail