Supporting elderly patients in Northamptonshire to stay well

Supporting elderly patients in Northamptonshire to stay well The integrated care system in Northamptonshire has, along with partner organisations, helped create a web of support for patients with long-term conditions, backed by co-production and collaborative working. This support extends through the time they are living in the community to when they are in hospital and are discharged. Case study from the NHS Confederation.

How chronic stress weathers our health

How chronic stress weathers our health How healthy we are in part depends on the many different exposures we've had over our life – including to physical, psychological and social factors. 

Chronic exposure to psychosocial stress – for example, poverty or other disadvantage – leads to prolonged strain on the body. This weathering can make us physically ill before our time and prematurely age us. 

So what is psychosocial stress, how does it harm our health and what can be done about it? Podcast from The Health Foundation.

Patients to benefit from faster, more convenient care

Patients to benefit from faster, more convenient care Millions of patients will receive quicker, more convenient access to NHS care from their high street pharmacy, thanks to a major expansion of services under a radical plan to improve access to primary care.

For the first time ever, patients who need prescription medication will be able to get it directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment, for seven common conditions including earache, sore throat, or urinary tract infections by next winter, thanks to government investment of £645 million over two years to expand community pharmacy services. NHS England

See also:

• Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care NHS England
• New plan to make it easier for patients to see their GP Department of Health and Social Care
• What the Prime Minister’s Primary Care Recovery Plan means for you Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
• NHS Confederation responds to government and NHS plans to support primary care NHS Confederation
• Government pledges £645m investment in community pharmacy Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee
• RCGP response to government plan on GP access Royal College of General Practitioners
• New GP plan asks more patients to use pharmacies BBC News
• Scores of local pharmacies closing across England BBC News
• Number of pharmacies in England drops 160 in two years - more could close without government funding The Daily Mail
• Chemists to be given powers to hand out prescriptions for common illnesses to ease pressure on GPs The Daily Mail
• GPs to be given £240 million for new phone systems to ease chaos and lengthy waits for patients The Daily Mail
• Skip the GP for common illnesses under PM's plan to help NHS The Daily Telegraph
• Pharmacies in England to offer prescriptions for seven conditions amid surgery crisis The Guardian
• Pharmacists to offer prescriptions for these seven conditions without GP sign-off The Independent
• Government pledges £240m for GP telephony upgrades as part of 'recovery plan' Pulse

Number of repeat prescriptions ordered via NHS App up by 92% in the last year

Number of repeat prescriptions ordered via NHS App up by 92% in the last year More than 500,000 repeat prescriptions are now booked through the NHS App every week.

New figures released by NHS England show that since the NHS App’s launch in December 2018, more than 42 million repeat prescriptions have been ordered through the app.

Last month alone, the NHS App enabled 2.4 million repeat prescriptions to be ordered compared with 1.7 million in April 2022 and 393,000 in April 2021. NHS England

What the NHS is learning from Brazil

What the NHS is learning from Brazil Knocking on doors to check on people's health and catch problems before they escalate is common practice across Brazil. But could that approach work in the UK? BBC News

Covid global health emergency is over, WHO says

Covid global health emergency is over, WHO says The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency".

The statement represents a major step towards ending the pandemic and comes three years after it first declared its highest level of alert over the virus.

Officials said the virus' death rate had dropped from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 on 24 April.

The head of the WHO said at least seven million people died in the pandemic. BBC News

See also:

• Statement on the fifteenth meeting of the IHR (2005) Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic World Health Organization

Lip fillers: Call for tighter regulation after botched treatments

 Lip fillers: Call for tighter regulation after botched treatments Lip fillers have grown increasingly popular but the industry is "like the wild west", experts warn, with many patients left in pain and embarrassed by their appearance.

As Harriet Green left a salon after getting an injection to add volume to her lips, she was reassured the excess swelling would go down.

But three months later her lips were still so bloated she could not close her mouth properly. BBC News

NHS disruption warning as ambulance staff strike in south-east

NHS disruption warning as ambulance staff strike in south-east Ambulance staff in the south-east of England are to strike over pay for the second time on Tuesday, prompting warnings from hospital bosses of further pressure on overstretched emergency services.

Members of the Unite trade union employed by two ambulance trusts are striking after rejecting the government’s pay offer of a lump sum cash payment for 2022-23 and a below inflation increase of 5% for 2023-24. The Guardian

See also:

• South East ambulance workers to strike as Unite escalates industrial action Unite the Union
• NHS strikes: What is the new NHS pay offer? BBC News
• Ambulance staff to strike in south-east England BBC News
• Unite starts 'escalation' of strike action with ambulance walkout in south of England on Tuesday Sky News

NHS patients are getting CANCER because of record 7.2m-long waiting list, nation's top GP warns

NHS patients are getting CANCER because of record 7.2m-long waiting list, nation's top GP warns NHS patients are developing cancer while waiting to be treated, Britain's leading GP has warned. 

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, claimed huge delays in receiving hospital care also means Brits are left being in so much agony they can't  even climb stairs.

She wants the ailing health service to adopt an Amazon-style system so patients can track exactly where they are on the record waiting list. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Patients getting sicker as they face long waits for NHS care, says top GP The Guardian

NHS launches probe child takes records of 150 patients to school to use as 'drawing paper'

NHS launches probe child takes records of 150 patients to school to use as 'drawing paper' The NHS has launched a probe after a pupil took printed records containing details of 150 patients to school to use as drawing paper.

Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust confirmed it is investigating how the child got hold of the personal documents.

However, it refused to say if any of the pupil’s relatives worked for the trust. The Daily Mail