Charity launches gift appeal to make sure all Northamptonshire hospital patients receive Christmas present

Charity launches gift appeal to make sure all Northamptonshire hospital patients receive Christmas present A Northamptonshire charity has launched its yearly Christmas gift appeal to bring festive cheer to those in hospital.

Northamptonshire Health Charity aims to make sure every patient in county NHS hospitals - including Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals - receive a present on Christmas Day. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Health inequalities: what is happening in emergency medicine

Health inequalities: what is happening in emergency medicine Accident and emergency (A&E) departments across England are struggling to provide safe, dignified, and equitable care. In August 2022, only 71.4 per cent of patients were seen and either admitted or discharged within four hours. Ambulance waiting times and handover times are at an all-time high as we move into winter – a season notorious for rising rates of admissions and pressures on emergency health services. The King's Fund

NHS reform: towards a more balanced change model?

NHS reform: towards a more balanced change model? Reforms to the NHS that are apparently being considered by politicians, policy makers and officials, may address the lack of dynamic balance in the NHS, writes Matthew Taylor.

There are rumours a new change model may be emerging for the NHS, including more devolution to systems, fewer central targets and the strengthening of financial performance incentives for individual trusts. While there is a huge distance between theory and practice, there is just a chance that reform could take us towards a better balanced and more dynamic system. NHS Confederation

Support for vulnerable adolescents

Support for vulnerable adolescents Because of the potential costs to adolescents and society arising from serious adverse outcomes, this report examines the information government uses to understand these issues and how well government bodies are working together to plan and deliver support to vulnerable adolescents who are at serious risk of avoidable adverse outcomes. The report sets out evidence on the complexity of challenges facing vulnerable adolescents, the cumulative impact of adverse outcomes for adolescents and society, and the challenges for government to provide effective support and deliver value for money. National Audit Office

Government “not sufficiently prioritising threat” from animal diseases like COVID-19, avian flu, swine fever

Government “not sufficiently prioritising threat” from animal diseases like COVID-19, avian flu, swine fever In a report today the Public Accounts Committee says Government is not sufficiently prioritising the “significant threat to UK health, trade, farming and rural communities” posed by animal diseases. The risk of a zoonotic (animal sourced) disease is real and the consequences can be devastating: the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001, more recently Avian Influenza and of course COVID-19 showed the breadth of impact a zoonotic disease outbreak can have across society.

See also:

• UK zoonotic research site left to deteriorate - MPs BBC News

Health and Social Care Secretary sets out key priorities ahead of winter

Health and Social Care Secretary sets out key priorities ahead of winter The Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay will today set out his plans to steer the health and care system through the upcoming winter and signal changes that will make the NHS better prepared for future “storms to come.”

Addressing the NHS Providers conference in Liverpool, Steve Barclay will say he will focus “on the areas that matter most to the patient experience” and measures which make it “as easy as possible” for frontline NHS and care workers to do their jobs. Department of Health and Social Care

See also:

• Health Secretary pledges NHS changes to tackle 'future storms' The Independent

NHS gives GP teams direct access to tests to speed up cancer diagnosis

NHS gives GP teams direct access to tests to speed up cancer diagnosis Tens of thousands of cancers could be detected sooner each year thanks to a national roll out of fast-track testing, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard will announce today.

NHS England is expanding direct access to diagnostic scans across all GP practices, helping cut waiting times and speeding up a cancer diagnosis or all-clear for patients.

From this month, every GP team will start to be able to directly order CT scans, ultrasounds or brain MRIs for patients with concerning symptoms, but who fall outside the NICE guideline threshold for an urgent suspected cancer referral. NHS England 

See also:

• Direct access to diagnostics will reassure patients - but GP workforce must be increased and given appropriate training and support Royal College of General Practitioners
• All GPs to receive direct access to cancer tests BBC News
• GPs will fast-track patient scans to speed up cancer diagnoses The Daily Telegraph
• NHS to roll out direct access to cancer tests for all GP practices GPonline
• GPs in England to send suspected cancer patients directly for tests The Guardian

Mental health patients sent miles due to bed shortage

Mental health patients sent miles due to bed shortage Hundreds of mental health patients in England are sent to hospitals miles from home each month because of local bed shortages - more than a year after the NHS aimed to end the practice.

NHS data shows that 630 patients were in inappropriate out of area placements (OAPs) at the end of August 2022.

Experts say such placements, which the NHS said would end by March 2021, are traumatic for patients and costly. BBC News

See also:

• Out of Area Placements in Mental Health Services, August 2022 NHS Digital

Mould in Rochdale flat caused boy's death, coroner rules

Mould in Rochdale flat caused boy's death, coroner rules A toddler died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home, a coroner has concluded.

Awaab Ishak's father repeatedly raised the issue with Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) but no action was taken.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley said RBH were not "proactive" and asked: "How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die as a result of exposure to mould?" BBC News

How you're born alters vaccines' power

How you're born alters vaccines' power How we are born - by Caesarean-section or vaginal delivery - alters how our immune system responds to vaccines, a Scottish and Dutch study suggests.

Babies born vaginally had double the level of protective antibodies produced after childhood vaccines.

The researchers said the difference was caused by the types of good bacteria, which colonise our bodies at birth. BBC News

See also:

• Mode of delivery modulates the intestinal microbiota and impacts the response to vaccination (open access) Nature Communications
• Babies’ antibody response to jabs linked to mode of delivery – study The Independent

Racism in the NHS 'having knock-on effect on patients', says health chief

Racism in the NHS 'having knock-on effect on patients', says health chief Racism remains a huge problem within the health service according to an NHS leader who said discrimination of staff is having a knock on effect on patients.

Saffron Cordery, chief executive of NHS Providers, told delegates at its annual conference in Liverpool, that experiences of minority groups “are so much worse than those of their white colleagues”. iNews

NHS mental health boss 'shocked' ward managers not on seven days a week

NHS mental health boss 'shocked' ward managers not on seven days a week The NHS’ mental health director has warned trusts they should have ward managers working seven days a week amid national safety concerns.

Claire Murdoch, national director for mental health at NHS England, said she was “shocked” to hear in some NHS trusts ward managers were not working and overseeing the quality and safety of wards seven days a week, warning some were “Monday to Friday” people. The Independent

Family of schizophrenic man who killed parents say it was preventable

Family of schizophrenic man who killed parents say it was preventable Gloucestershire hospital staff did not notice William Warrington had absconded for two hours nor tell police he was dangerous

The family of a man with paranoid schizophrenia who stabbed his parents to death after absconding from a psychiatric hospital have criticised the authorities for not doing more to protect them. The Guardian

Why IS the NHS doing less but costing you MORE?

Why IS the NHS doing less but costing you MORE? Hospitals are still performing fewer operations and scans each month than before Covid, despite being given billions more taxpayer cash.

Analysis shows the health service in England carried out 600,000 fewer procedures in the first nine months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2019. The Daily Mail

See also:

• The Guardian view on the NHS: set up to fail by being underresourced to meet demand | Editorial The Guardian
• Don’t be fooled by anti-NHS myths – paying more tax for it makes sense The Independent