Investing in Patient Safety and Outcomes Health and care nursing workforce and supply in England

Investing in Patient Safety and Outcomes: Health and care nursing workforce and supply in England A new report by the RCN shows how failure by successive UK governments to tackle the nursing workforce crisis in England has created “the greatest risk to publicly funded health and care services since their creation”.

The report, which presents solutions for sustainable nursing recruitment and retention, outlines how past, current and impending government policies are causing severe nursing workforce shortages, with demand for staff vastly exceeding supply.

There are record nursing vacancies in the NHS in England and the latest data shows there will be 2,000 fewer nursing students graduating from education in 2025 than there are in 2024. Royal College of Nursing

Why have ambulance waiting times been getting worse?

Why have ambulance waiting times been getting worse? In England, people are waiting longer than ever for ambulances to arrive. For the most critical calls, with a target response time of 7 minutes, patients in 2021/22 waited 8 and a half minutes on average – almost a fifth longer than they would have waited in 2018/19. For less urgent cases that still require an ambulance response, waits have more than doubled to an average of 3 hours. The Health Foundation

See also:

• Increasing handover delays contributing to growing ambulance waiting times The Health Foundation

Joining the dots for population health

Joining the dots for population health Population health is one of the top priorities for integrated care systems, the NHS, us at The King’s Fund, at a global level and increasingly for anyone in health and care who recognises that many of the current challenges facing the health and care system in England are often linked to the lack of earlier and more concerted focus on population health. The King's Fund

Health and Care Act 2022: combined impact assessments

Health and Care Act 2022: combined impact assessments The Health and Care Act received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. This primary legislation aims to build on the NHS’s own proposals for reform to make the health and care system less bureaucratic, more accountable and more integrated in the wake of coronavirus. These documents assess the impact of the legislation. Department of Health and Social Care

Nurses set to hold first UK-wide strike

Nurses set to hold first UK-wide strike The biggest ever strike by nurses looks set to go ahead.

The Royal College of Nursing is due to unveil the results of its ballot, which ended last week, in the next few days.

The final results are being counted but RCN sources say a large majority of nurses have voted in favour of action in a dispute over pay.

The RCN had recommended to its 300,000 members that they walk out. If strikes take place, they would affect non-urgent but not emergency care. BBC News

See also:

• Thousands of nurses WILL strike before Christmas after 100-year-old union's members voted in favour of first EVER mass NHS walk-out The Daily Mail
• Plans in place to deal with strike action by UK’s nurses, government says The Guardian
• Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action The Guardian
• Nurses vote to strike in first ever national action as cost of living bites The Independent
• Biggest-ever NHS nurses’ strike ‘would hit A&E patients’ and worsen Covid backlog iNews
• What happens if nurses vote for strike action - and how many will take part? ITV News
• Nurses set to strike in first ever national action - as patients braced for disruption Sky News

Child speech delays increase due to lockdowns

Child speech delays increase due to lockdowns The number of five and six year olds who need speech and language support at school has risen by 10% in England over the past year, BBC analysis shows.

The increase, which is substantially greater than previous years, is partly due to lockdown limiting social interactions, experts say.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists says the profession is struggling to cope with the demand. BBC News

NHS to prescribe cognitive behavioural therapy apps to children with anxiety

NHS to prescribe cognitive behavioural therapy apps to children with anxiety Children as young as five who suffer from anxiety are to be prescribed cognitive behavioural therapy apps on the NHS via mobile phones, tablets and computers.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the health regulator, has conditionally recommended digital CBT for use in the health service to help children and young people with symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety. The Guardian

See also:

• NICE conditionally recommends digital cognitive behaviour therapies for use in the NHS to help children and young people with symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

New hope for sickle cell patients as UK trial of lab grown red blood cells begins

New hope for sickle cell patients as UK trial of lab grown red blood cells begins Laboratory grown red blood cells have been transfused into volunteers in a world first clinical trial that could help revolutionise treatments for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia.

The manufactured blood cells were grown from stem cells from donors, which in future could allow donor blood to be expanded into much larger volumes for transfusion. The trial is studying the lifespan of the lab grown cells compared with infusions of standard red blood cells from the same donor. The Guardian

See also:

• RESTORE: Recovery and survival of stem cell originated red cells NHS Blood and Transplant
• First ever clinical trial of laboratory grown red blood cells being transfused into another person underway University of Bristol
• Lab-grown blood given to people in world-first clinical trial BBC News
• Lab-grown blood used for human transfusion in world first The Independent

Getting a flu vaccine lowers your risk of a STROKE years later, study shows

Getting a flu vaccine lowers your risk of a STROKE years later, study shows Getting a flu shot might be more important than ever — a study indicates it also lowers the risk of a stroke years later.

Researchers say health officials should push harder for everyone to get routine influenza vaccines rather than just the most vulnerable.

The study analyzed the health records of more than 4million adults in Alberta, Canada, over a 10-year period. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Association between influenza vaccination and risk of stroke in Alberta, Canada: a population-based study (open access) The Lancet Public Health
• NHS delivers 13 million flu jabs NHS England

Fewer than HALF of those eligible for Covid booster have come forward for vaccine, analysis shows

Fewer than HALF of those eligible for Covid booster have come forward for vaccine, analysis shows Millions of Britons eligible for the autumn Covid booster vaccine have yet to come forward, according to official figures.

Only 12.2million over-50s, health and care workers and immunocompromised people in England had a top-up jab by October 30. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Covid infections falling in England and Wales, says ONS BBC News
• Only 8% of care home staff have received their latest Covid-19 booster jab The Daily Mail
• Covid cases fall in England and Wales as 1 in 35 people infected The Independent