Virtual care reducing hospital admissions

Virtual care reducing hospital admissions These are difficult times for the health and care system. In most trusts and places it is matter of trying to survive through winter, to minimise patient harm and not slip too much further on national targets. But even in these challenging circumstances, leaders have their eye on ways to innovate to make services more effective and lay the foundations for more resilient ways of working. Matthew Taylor writes about his visit to Northampton General Hospital's virtual ward team. NHS Confederation

NHS Performance Summary December 2022 - January 2023

NHS Performance Summary December 2022 - January 2023 The analysis includes the latest data on key activity and performance measures from November and December 2022 (as well as some daily performance data from early January 2023), as published by NHS England on 12 January 2023. This includes data on the NHS's performance against some key targets, including some of those set out in the latest planning guidance as well as other indicators of patient safety and care. Nuffield Trust

See also:

• Pressures on the NHS result of political choices, not the cold weather or seasonal flu The Health Foundation
• The King's Fund responds to the latest NHS performance stats The King's Fund
• NHS Confederation responds to the latest performance statistics and winter situation report NHS Confederation
• NHS Providers responds to record-high A&E attendance and delayed discharges NHS Providers
• Crisis of health service resilience is years in the making Nuffield Trust
• Our urgent care system needs long-term rehabilitation to meet patients’ needs Nuffield Trust
• RCN responds to latest NHS England performance data Royal College of Nursing
• Ambulances taking 90 minutes to get to 999 calls BBC News
• A&E nurse: Most challenging I've seen in 30 years BBC News
• NHS services ‘never been this bad’, British Medical Associations UK council chair says Channel 4 News
• NHS waiting list FALLS for first time since Covid began The Daily Mail
• NHS emergency care crisis laid bare: 999 response times are worst ever The Daily Mail
• A&E patients in England waiting over 12 hours tops 50,000 for first time The Guardian
• It’s beyond dreadful. We’re now running A&E out in the corridor and waiting room | The Secret A&E Doctor The Guardian
• ‘Mayhem’ in A&E: The horrifying reality of Britain’s emergency care crisis The Independent
• New NHS record as more than 54,000 patients wait 12 hours to get into A&E The Independent
• What the newest NHS figures reveal about the severity of the health crisis ITV News
• Downing Street insists the Government is "very focused" on improving NHS performance ITV News
• 'I thought people would get healthier - it's gone the opposite': Inside a maxed-out NHS hospital buckling under the strain Sky News

Making speaking up business as usual: National Guardian's Office annual report 2022

Making speaking up business as usual: National Guardian's Office annual report 2022 The report shares intelligence and learning collated by the National Guardian’s Office, including speaking up data shared by Freedom to Speak Up guardians of the cases they receive. Over 20,000 cases have been brought to them last year, remaining at the record level set in 2020/21 (20,362, compared with 20,388 in 2020/21).  Freedom to Speak Up guardians have handled over 75,000 cases since the National Guardian’s Office first started collecting data in 2017.

The report also features case studies from across England and different healthcare providers, sharing the experiences of people who have spoken up and the difference Freedom to Speak Up guardians are making. In the words of one group of workers, “It finally felt that we were being listened to and our opinions and thoughts mattered.”

Annual report on ethnicity differences in organ donation and transplantation

Annual report on ethnicity differences in organ donation and transplantation This report outlines the need for more organ donors of Black and Asian heritage, in order to help the growing number of patients waiting for life-saving transplants. It shows that in 2021-22, people of Asian heritage represented 3 per cent of deceased donors but 15 per cent of deceased donor transplants and 18 per cent of the transplant waiting list; while those of Black heritage represented 2 per cent of deceased donors but 9 per cent of deceased donor transplants and 10 per cent of the waiting list, similar to figures from the previous year. It also finds that family consent or authorisation is lower for potential donors from ethnic minority backgrounds. NHS Blood and Transplant

National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published

National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published Swab positivity for flu has decreased to 12.2% in week 1, compared to 25.2% in week 52. The highest positivity is seen in 5 to 14-year-olds at 17.0%.

Hospital admission rates and intensive care admission rates have decreased in the last week. Hospital admission rates have decreased and intensive care activity decreased this week but remained at medium activity levels. UK Health Security Agency

UKHSA update on scarlet fever and invasive group A strep

 UKHSA update on scarlet fever and invasive group A strep The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to show scarlet fever and group A strep (GAS) infections remain high, although the number of notifications has fallen in recent weeks.

So far this season (from 19 September to 8 January), there have been 37,068 notifications of scarlet fever. This compares to a total of 4,490 at the same point in the year during the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018 – although cases in that season started to rise at a different point. In 2017 to 2018, there were 30,768 scarlet fever notifications overall across the year.

See also: 

• UK suffers worst year for scarlet fever since the 1950s  The Daily Mail

New breast cancer screening units to speed up diagnosis

New breast cancer screening units to speed up diagnosis Cancer diagnosis will be sped up for tens of thousands of women after the government pledged an additional £10 million to provide 29 new NHS breast cancer screening units and nearly 70 life-saving upgrades to services in areas where they are most needed. Department of Health and Social Care

Consider statins for millions more people in England, NHS told

 Consider statins for millions more people in England, NHS told About 15 million more people in England could be prescribed daily cholesterol-lowering statin pills to cut their risk of heart attacks and stroke, new advice for the NHS says.

Given the very cheap price of the tablets and the possible health gains, they should be considered more often, the draft guidance says.

There can be side effects though.

There is debate about how widely this long-term treatment should be given and what associated risks are acceptable. BBC News

See also:

• Statins could be a choice for more people to reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes NICE
• Statins should be offered to anyone who wants them under new NHS guidance The Daily Telegraph
• New statins guidance could make extra 15m people eligible in England The Guardian
• GPs to prescribe statins at a lower risk under updated draft NICE guidance Pulse

Birmingham hospital trust declared war on me - surgeon

Birmingham hospital trust declared war on me - surgeon John Watkinson was one of the country's top ear, nose and throat surgeons.

He wrote guidelines and ran courses for cancer care. He was invited to work at London's renowned Royal Marsden hospital. If you looked at the front cover of the main surgical textbook for his discipline, you would see his name.

But Mr Watkinson's life and career were turned upside down when he was accused of shortening the lives of three patients, suspended and investigated.

General Medical Council investigators would eventually close his case, taking no further action, and Mr Watkinson would receive an apology for what he had experienced from his employer University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust. BBC News 

Steve Barclay privately concedes he will have to increase pay offer to NHS staff

 Steve Barclay privately concedes he will have to increase pay offer to NHS staff Steve Barclay has privately conceded he will have to increase his pay offer to NHS staff, in a U-turn that may help to end the growing wave of strikes.

However, the Treasury has made clear he will have to find any new cash from within the existing health budget, raising the prospect of cuts to key services. The Guardian

See also:

• Steve Barclay ‘concedes’ he will have to increase NHS pay offer to avoid strikes The Independent

Being stressed, nervous or exhausted in middle-age may increase risk of dementia, study claims

Being stressed, nervous or exhausted in middle-age may increase risk of dementia, study claims Being stressed, nervous or exhausted in middle-age may increase the risk of dementia, a study suggests.

At a time when most people are trying to juggle work, family and social commitments, it's not unusual to suffer from mental distress.

But it could raise the risk of developing the brain disease by as much as 24 per cent, researchers have found. The Daily Mail

 

See also:

• Association Between Psychological Distress and Incident Dementia in a Population-Based Cohort in Finland (open access) JAMA Network Open