Kettering General Hospital nurses and ambulance staff vote to join strike over pay and patient safety

Kettering General Hospital nurses and ambulance staff vote to join strike over pay and patient safety Kettering General Hospital nurses and the region’s ambulance staff will join in strike action after backing a national call for industrial action.

The Royal College of Nursing said the majority of England’s biggest hospitals would see staff stop work in a dispute over pay and patient safety — including KGH, Northamptonshire Health Foundation Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

• Northampton General Hospital nurses' strike ballot 'narrowly misses' turnout threshold Northampton Chronicle and Echo

NHS performance summary September - October 2022

NHS performance summary September - October 2022 Emergency care performance continues to deteriorate, with A&E waiting times in October 2022 being the worst on record. 31% of attendees waited over 4 hours before being discharged or admitted.

A record number of people, over 150,000, waited over 4 hours between a decision to admit them through A&E, and being admitted. A new record was also set for the number waiting over 12 hours.

The elective care backlog continues to grow beyond 7 million, with month-on-month increases in the waiting list. Nuffield Trust

See also: 

• Trolley waits in 2022 three times higher than previous 10 years combined The Health Foundation
• The King's Fund responds the latest NHS performance data The King's Fund
• NHS continues to operate under huge pressure but has made progress in meeting rising demand for care NHS Confederation
• Progress on clearing long waits for NHS treatment stalls Nuffield Trust
• NHS cuts 18-month waits as staff contend with busiest October ever NHS England
• Record numbers faced four-hour A&E waits in England in October BBC News
• NHS's never-ending crisis: Waiting list hits another all-time high with 7.1 MILLION The Daily Mail
• Record 7.1m people in England waiting for NHS hospital treatment The Guardian
• NHS waiting times for routine hospital treatment hit another new record high The Independent
• Record number of people waiting at least four hours in A&E, NHS England data shows Sky News

Chart of the week: The cost of NHS backlog maintenance hits an all-time high

Chart of the week: The cost of NHS backlog maintenance hits an all-time high The cost of fixing the backlog of maintenance in the English NHS has increased markedly over the years. In this chart, John Appleby shows how just six trusts account for over a quarter of the total backlog. He also describes how the cost of high-risk maintenance has risen considerably. Nuffield Trust

Anxiety nation?: economic insecurity and mental distress in 2020s Britain

Anxiety nation?: economic insecurity and mental distress in 2020s Britain Amid rocketing rates of diagnosis for anxiety, and with 7.3 million English adults already having received antidepressants by 2017-18, this report establishes many connections between financial insecurity and poor mental health. It calls for more to be done to protect those millions of Britons, and not just those on the very lowest incomes, at a time of increasing prices and interest rates. Joseph Rowntree Foundation

A knotted pipeline: data-driven systems and inequalities in health and social care

A knotted pipeline: data-driven systems and inequalities in health and social care This report aims to describe the interplay between data and inequalities in the health and social care system across the UK. Acknowledging the potential for data-driven technologies to improve health and social care outcomes, it scrutinises the ‘pipelines’ of data that power health technologies, identifying trends, approaches or limitations in data and data use that might undermine the beneficial outcomes sought. Ada Lovelace Institute

National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published

National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published Swab positivity for flu* has remained stable and is now at 6.6%; it is highest in 15 to 44-year-olds at 12.4%, followed by 5 to 14-year-olds at 11.2%.

Hospitalisation rates for flu are stable overall but are now slightly exceeding the baseline threshold for the first time this season. There is some week-to-week variability: the over 75s and under 5s remain the highest but have dropped, while rates in the 15 to 44-year-olds have increased. Intensive care admission rates remain above baseline. are highest in those aged 75 to 84 at 1.67 followed by those aged 85 and over at 1.49. UK Health Security Agency

NHS catching more cancers earlier than ever before

NHS catching more cancers earlier than ever before The NHS is diagnosing more patients with cancer at an earlier stage than ever before, according to new analysis.

Last year (2021-2022), over 100,000 (100,461) patients were diagnosed with cancer at stages one or two when it is easier to treat – the highest proportion on record.

Record numbers of people are getting checked for cancer – almost half a million more patients were checked between March 2021 and August 2022, compared to the same period before the pandemic. NHS England

'Leap forward' in tailored cancer medicine

'Leap forward' in tailored cancer medicine People with untreatable cancers have had their immune system redesigned to attack their own tumours.

The experimental study involved only 16 patients, but has been called a "leap forward" and a "powerful" demonstration of the potential of such technology.

Each person had a treatment developed just for them, which targeted the specific weak spots in their tumour.

It is too early to fully assess the therapy's effectiveness and is expensive and time-consuming. BBC News

See also:

• Non-viral precision Tcell receptor replacement for personalized cell therapy (open access) Nature
• Silver bullet for cancer? Scientists use CRISPR to unlock patients' true tumor-fighting potential The Daily Mail

Nurses' union pay demands not affordable, says Rishi Sunak

Nurses' union pay demands not affordable, says Rishi Sunak The 17% pay rise requested by a nursing union that has voted to strike is "not affordable", Rishi Sunak has said.

Nurses in the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union have voted for its first UK-wide strike in its 106-year history.

The action will involve RCN members in more than half of hospitals and community teams, but emergency care will still be staffed.

The prime minister said the health secretary would sit down with unions to "see how we can resolve this". BBC News

See also:

• Now the MIDWIVES start voting on strikes! The Daily Mail
• NHS strike chaos could last SIX MONTHS and begin before Christmas The Daily Mail
• I beg my colleagues to think again and not strike, writes NHS staff nurse CARMELAH JACOBS The Daily Mail
• Government urged to reverse NHS pay cuts as nurses back historic strikes GPonline
• UK nurses’ pay rise demand ‘remarkably high’, says minister as strike looms The Guardian
• Army could answer 999 calls if ambulance workers in England strike The Guardian

Desperate NHS paying nurses up to £2,500 a shift

Desperate NHS paying nurses up to £2,500 a shift NHS bosses are increasingly paying premium rates for agency staff to plug holes in rotas, the BBC has found.

Spending in this area rose by 20% last year to hit £3bn in England.

For many shifts, bosses have been so short-staffed they have been willing to breach the government pay caps for these agency workers, most of whom are doctors and nurses. BBC News

England’s mental health care lacks money, yes – but it also lacks compassion

England’s mental health care lacks money, yes – but it also lacks compassion | Jay Watts We have made great progress in England when it comes to acceptance and knowledge around mental health issues. But have our basic services also improved in tandem? We are told that clinical approaches to mental health are getting better: that the coercive control of the asylum era is over, heralding care in the community; that the blossoming of interest in wellbeing means psychiatric care is no longer the second-class citizen of medicine. But some facts, unfortunately, tell a more harrowing story, reflecting a problem as much with ideology as funding. The Guardian

Circumcisions, tummy tucks and liposuction are among operations which will stop being funded by NHS

Circumcisions, tummy tucks and liposuction are among operations which will stop being funded by NHS Circumcisions, tummy tucks and liposuction are among 13 operations which will stop being funded by the NHS in a 'crackdown' on wasteful spending.

It is thought that stopping the state funding of these operations could save £2 billon a year, along with less wasteful prescribing methods.

Last week bosses of the ailing NHS said that they want billions more cash to keep key services running this winter as Rishi Sunak ruled out cutting its budget as part of the public spending squeeze. The Daily Mail