Northamptonshire’s Vice Lord Lieutenant appointed as Healthwatch interim chair

Northamptonshire’s Vice Lord Lieutenant appointed as Healthwatch interim chair Northamptonshire’s Vice Lord Lieutenant has been appointed as the interim chair of the Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire advisory board.

Morcea Walker, who was appointed as Vice Lord Lieutenant in January, is taking a step up from her role as Healthwatch’s vice chair. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Deal or no deal: understanding the effect of the NHS pay settlement on earnings

Deal or no deal: understanding the effect of the NHS pay settlement on earnings The recently announced pay deal for NHS staff comes amid rising costs and a general cost-of-living crisis, as well as increased competition from the private sector. So what are the implications of that pay deal on different staff groups in the health service? Nuffield Trust

Building capacity and capability for improvement in adult social care

Building capacity and capability for improvement in adult social care In this discussion paper, we look at how local authorities in England improve the quality of adult social care. This discussion is timely because the government intends to increase funding for improvement activities to support the reforms of adult social care. There are also plans to introduce a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) assurance framework to assess local authority performance in delivering all their adult social care functions. The King's Fund

Life changing care: the role, gaps and solutions in providing social care to people experiencing homelessness

Life changing care: the role, gaps and solutions in providing social care to people experiencing homelessness This report examines the provision of care services for people who have been homeless and finds they are missing out on the care they need and deserve because of a lack of specialist provision. People who have experienced homelessness often have multiple and complex health conditions, which can result in their care needs being much higher and more prevalent at an earlier age, than the general population. The report makes eight recommendations about how to improve the current situation. St Mungo’s

Tens of thousands of people sign up to careers in the NHS

Tens of thousands of people sign up to careers in the NHS Tens of thousands of new healthcare support workers are set to join the NHS, following successful recruitment drives across the country.

Since the end of January, NHS trusts reported that almost 35,000 job offers have been made, with over 25,000 already starting as healthcare support workers – with 9,000 being new to healthcare.

A nationwide recruitment drive earlier this year saw almost 4,000 “on-the-spot” job offers made to people attending events between March and May to help boost support for patients, families and staff. NHS England

See also:

• Consultation launched on NHS pension changes to boost winter workforce Department of Health and Social Care
• Open consultation: NHS Pension Scheme: proposed amendments to continue the suspension of restrictions on return to work Department of Health and Social Care

Covid infections keep falling in August across UK

Covid infections keep falling in August across UK Covid infection levels have continued to fall across the UK in mid-August, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

One in 45 people tested positive, with Covid rates lowest in school-age children.

The ONS says it will "closely monitor" the numbers as children return to the classroom. BBC News

See also:

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK: 26 August 2022 Office for National Statistics
• Moderna suing Pfizer over Covid vaccine technology BBC News
• Vaccine chiefs clash over Covid booster advice as they give conflicting views on jabs' usefulness The Daily Mail
• Liz Truss rules out imposing another lockdown as PM and says Covid rules were 'too draconian'  The Daily Mail
• Boris Johnson insists Covid lockdown decisions were 'right' The Daily Mail
• Covid vaccine mastermind Kate Bingham warns NHS is relying on jabs that are 'not good enough' The Daily Mail
• ‘A collective trauma’: Covid keeps its grip on mental health of many patients The Guardian
• How dare anyone demand an apology for Covid lockdowns – have they forgotten the terrors of early 2020? The Independent
• 'Copied without permission': Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech over Covid vaccine ITV News

Statin pills rarely cause muscle pain or problems, study finds

Statin pills rarely cause muscle pain or problems, study finds People on cholesterol-lowering statins can be reassured that it is uncommon for the tablets to cause muscle pain, say the authors of a large study.

The pills can protect against heart attacks and strokes, but have had some bad press because of a very rare risk of dangerous muscle inflammation.

The British Heart Foundation says patients should not automatically stop their tablets for mild muscle aches.

The conclusions are based on data from nearly 155,000 people. BBC News

See also:

• Effect of statin therapy on muscle symptoms: an individual participant data meta-analysis of large-scale, randomised, double-blind trials (open access) The Lancet

Energy bills: 'Without my machine I will die' - dialysis patient

Energy bills: 'Without my machine I will die' - dialysis patient Dawn White lives with renal failure and relies on her haemodialysis machine to survive.

She's worried about the growing energy costs of running her machine, which she says is needed "five times a week, 20 hours".

Dawn says she and her husband have run out of ways to save money on energy costs around their home and are worried about the winter. BBC News

See also:

• Community transport: ‘It was a reason to get up in the morning’ BBC News

Revealed – black and Asian people wait longer for cancer diagnosis in England than white people

Revealed – black and Asian people wait longer for cancer diagnosis in England than white people Black and Asian people in England have to wait longer for a cancer diagnosis than white people, with some forced to wait an extra six weeks, according to a “disturbing” analysis of NHS waiting times.

A damning review of the world’s largest primary care database by the University of Exeter and The Guardian discovered minority ethnic patients wait longer than white patients in six of seven cancers studied. Race and health leaders have called the results “deeply concerning” and “absolutely unacceptable”.

See also:

• Assessing Ethnic Inequalities in Diagnostic Interval of Common Cancers: A Population-Based UK Cohort Study (open access) Cancers
• Facing the uncomfortable possibility that healthcare is discriminatory The Guardian
• Black and Asian people in England waiting longer for cancer diagnosis – analysis The Independent

NHS hospital wait times above 18 weeks at a third of departments

NHS hospital wait times above 18 weeks at a third of departments Nearly 40% of NHS hospital departments in England have average treatment waiting times above 18 weeks – with average waits at some well over 30 weeks, according to Observer analysis of NHS data.

In England, the NHS Constitution sets out that patients should wait no more than 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment. But analysis of hospital waiting time data published on the NHS My Planned Care site shows that 813 out of 2,148 specialties at hospital trusts in England had average wait times for non-cancer treatment of more than 18 weeks in mid-August – 38% in total. The Guardian

See also:

• Hospitals are hit by £5.5m-a-day bed blocking crisis The Daily Mail
• Senior health chief warns NHS may have to go on pandemic footing this winter to protect service The Daily Mail
• ‘A horrible winter lies ahead’: next PM will inherit an NHS on its knees The Guardian
• Thousands of NHS staff to leave because they can’t afford to travel to work, chiefs warn The Independent
• Flu could ‘bite’ as early as October, NHS leaders and scientists warn The Independent

Why are more people being sectioned by psychiatrists?

Why are more people being sectioned by psychiatrists? Britain is returning to the era of asylums, a top doctor has warned, after figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show the number of mental health patients locked up in psychiatric hospitals against their will has spiralled over the past four decades.

A person with a mental disorder can be legally detained for treatment in a secure ward under the Mental Health Act – known as being sectioned – if there is a risk they may harm themselves or others.

Is a new fast-acting pill for depression the Holy Grail that patients have been waiting for?

Is a new fast-acting pill for depression the Holy Grail that patients have been waiting for? Treating severe and chronic depression can be extremely difficult. Over the years, medicines have been developed to treat mood disorders, from tricyclics in the 1950s to SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) in the 1970s.

However, it can take time for these drugs to have an effect (and in an estimated 30 per cent of cases, they don’t work at all); with SSRIs, it’s between four to eight weeks.

But could a new drug that’s just been approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. be the answer? The Daily Mail

See also:

• FDA Approval of AUVELITY, the First and Only Oral NMDA Receptor Antagonist for the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder in Adults Axsome Therapeutics
• Efficacy and Safety of AXS-05 (Dextromethorphan-Bupropion) in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial (GEMINI) (open access) Journal of Clinical Psychiatry