A&E at Northampton General Hospital operating at double capacity 'almost every day' this winter, data shows

A&E at Northampton General Hospital operating at double capacity  'almost every day' this winter, data shows A hospital’s accident and emergency (A&E) department has routinely operated at twice its capacity over recent months, bosses were told.

Northampton General Hospital (NGH) has capacity for 60 patients in its A&E but has had to treat up to 120 people at peak times “almost every day” this winter, a consultant said. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Northamptonshire psychologist Sunil given national voice on health and justice

Northamptonshire psychologist Sunil given national voice on health and justice Having a voice at the highest level, and to champion healthcare for those in the justice system, is part of a new role taken on by a leading psychologist in Northamptonshire.

Dr Sunil Lad, a consultant counselling psychologist at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), has just taken on the role of national clinical director for health and justice. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Unborn baby of mother with HIV at centre of court case

Unborn baby of mother with HIV at centre of court case A baby boy whose mother has HIV was given specialist drugs within hours of birth following a High Court case.

The "rare" and "exceptional" ruling was made after Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust took the matter to court before the child was born.

Doctors feared the mother - unaware of the legal action - would not consent to her baby receiving the anti-retroviral medicine.

The High Court said treatment could go-ahead. BBC Northampton

An NHS in crisis: patients are now waiting longer for almost every type of emergency care

An NHS in crisis: patients are now waiting longer for almost every type of emergency care There’s no doubt that the NHS is deep in crisis. The NHS is facing spiralling waits for emergency and routine care; waves of national strikes; budgets squeezed by inflation; and endless declarations of critical incidents by trust trying to preserve capacity for their sickest patients.

But what does an ’NHS in crisis’ really mean for patients needing emergency care? The unfortunate reality is that patients are likely to face multiple delays on their journey to treatment. The King's Fund

One year on from the backlog recovery plan: what next for NHS waiting lists?

One year on from the backlog recovery plan: what next for NHS waiting lists? One year ago, NHS England published its plan to tackle the backlog of elective care, which had surged following the onset of the pandemic. Since then, as widely expected, waiting lists for NHS treatment in England have continued to grow, increasing by around 1 million between February and November 2022 to just shy of 7.2 million incomplete treatment pathways. In this report, we examine whether the NHS is on track to achieve the challenging ambitions laid out in its backlog recovery plan and present a number of different scenarios for waiting lists over the next two years. Institute for Financial Studies

See also:

• NHS waiting lists will not fall until the summer of 2024 The Daily Mail
• NHS waiting lists in England unlikely to fall in 2023, research suggests The Guardian

Latest NHS reforms will not succeed until Government fixes longstanding problems

Latest NHS reforms will not succeed until Government fixes longstanding problems Major new reform of the NHS will not work until Government addresses multiple chronic issues in the service, says PAC in a report released today. The case has not been made for what improvements Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) will bring to patients, and by when. 

ICSs are the latest attempt to bring NHS and local government services together to join up services and focus on prevention. But in a new report the Committee says the reforms will founder if the major systemic problems in the NHS are not addressed by Government at a national level House of Commons Public Accounts Committee

Major plan to recover urgent and emergency care services

Major plan to recover urgent and emergency care services The NHS and the government will publish a new blueprint today to help recover urgent and emergency care services, reduce waiting times, and improve patient experience.

Frontline capacity will be boosted further thanks to 800 new ambulances, including 100 specialist mental health vehicles, and 5,000 more sustainable hospital beds backed by a £1 billion dedicated fund.

The two-year delivery plan for recovery comes amid record demand for NHS services, with the latest data showing more A&E attendances than ever before, growing numbers of the most serious ambulance call outs, and millions of NHS 111 calls a month over winter. NHS England

Specialised services and system working

Specialised services and system working This briefing outlines NHS England’s changes to specialised commissioning, beginning April 2023, as well as NHS Providers analysis of the benefits and risks that come with greater system leadership.

New strategy to boost NHS access to innovative medical technology

New strategy to boost NHS access to innovative medical technology Patients across the UK are set to benefit from access to safe, effective and innovative equipment and medical devices as part of the first ever medical technology (medtech) strategy published today.

The blueprint for boosting NHS medtech will focus on accelerating access to innovative technologies, such as the latest generation of home dialysis machines that enable patients to manage their own health at home and in their day to day lives. Department of Health and Social Care

Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme: a rapid mixed-methods study

Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme: a rapid mixed-methods study The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme is funding the creation of new mental health support teams (MHSTs) to work in schools and further education colleges. MHSTs directly support children and young people with ‘mild to moderate’ mental health problems and work with school and college staff to promote wellbeing for all. A new workforce of education mental health practitioners (EMHPs) is being trained for the teams. This early evaluation of the Trailblazer programme examines the development, implementation and early progress of MHSTs in the programme’s first 25 ‘Trailblazer’ sites. National Institute for Health and Care Research

Retrospective pay talks are 'not right' - Barclay

Retrospective pay talks are 'not right' - Barclay The health secretary said "we should be looking forward" to the pay review body giving its next settlement as health staff in England strike over pay.

Steve Barclay said the government wanted to work "constructively" with unions and was "keen" to get evidence to the independent pay review body "which reflects the pressure the NHS is under and wider context of inflation".

Planned industrial action has suspended in Scotland and Wales following new pay offers, while some nurses and ambulance staff were on strike on Monday. BBC News

See also:

• NHS strike: Re-open pay talks, hospital bosses plead BBC News
• Nurses offer to call off strikes in England if Sunak makes fresh pay offer BBC News
• Why are NHS staff striking and what should patients do? BBC News
• NHS chief: Strikes making hospital bosses restless BBC News
• Steve Barclay warns never-ending NHS strikes are having a terrible impact on patients The Daily Mail
• NHS under fire for hiring branding agency to improve its image amid strikes and waiting list crisis The Daily Mail
• NHS salary: Are UK nurses paid more than those in Europe? The Daily Mail
• How NHS doctor's £110,000 salary is dwarfed by European counterparts The Daily Mail
• Deadlock over NHS pay putting patients in danger, chief nurses warn The Guardian
• Ministers accused of being ‘on strike’ as action by nurses in England continues The Guardian
• Union leader calls Rishi Sunak deluded as NHS pay row escalates The Guardian
• NHS faces worst day of disruption as nurses and ambulance staff in England strike The Guardian
• Ministers ‘punishing’ nurses in England, says union as NHS hit by biggest strike The Guardian
• NHS strikes: Patient safety fears could stop nurses joining further coordinated walkouts The Independent 

HIV testing: Free do-it-at home kit offered in England

HIV testing: Free do-it-at home kit offered in England Free HIV tests that can be done at home are being offered this week to people in England.

It is part of a government drive to improve diagnosis, which dropped off during the Covid pandemic.

The kit is small enough to fit through the letterbox and arrives in plain packaging through the post. BBC News

Stress led to more NHS staff absences than Covid, new figures show

Stress led to more NHS staff absences than Covid, new figures show “Burnout” and stress among doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health staff has cost the NHS in England more than 15m lost working days since March 2020, about 50% more than the days lost to Covid infections and self-isolation, analysis of official figures by the Observer reveals.

NHS sickness figures show that between March 2020, the month of the first Covid lockdown, and last September, 15.4m working days have been lost in the NHS because of stress-related absences, compared with 9.8m days lost from staff who were required to self-isolate or were ill with Covid.

Pfizer’s Susan Rienow: from Covid to fighting the ‘silent pandemic’

Pfizer’s Susan Rienow: from Covid to fighting the ‘silent pandemic’ The pharma giant’s UK chief is adding the company’s voice to scientists’ warnings of the dangers of antibacterial resistance

Pfizer’s president in the UK, Susan Rienow, is lobbying to switch the focus towards early-stage illness to prevent people being hospitalised. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity coming out of the pandemic to try to break the cycle of ill health that holds back the economy, the NHS and the health of the population. The key to that is prevention,” she says. “We don’t have enough hospital beds for all the patients who need them.” The Guardian

New blood test is 92% accurate at spotting signs of prostate cancer, study says

New blood test is 92% accurate at spotting signs of prostate cancer, study says A blood test can detect prostate cancer with more than 90 per cent accuracy, a study reveals.

Men who visit their GP with symptoms, such as straining while urinating, have a blood test called a PSA test.

But this is inaccurate, meaning thousands of men are wrongly told they may have prostate cancer and can be sent for a painful biopsy or MRI scan unnecessarily. The Daily Mail

See also: 

• Circulating Chromosome Conformation Signatures Significantly Enhance PSA Positive Predicting Value and Overall Accuracy for Prostate Cancer Detection (open access) Cancers