NHS support during the Spring Bank Holiday across Northamptonshire

NHS support during the Spring Bank Holiday across Northamptonshire There are a range of services available to support patients with urgent but not life threatening illnesses and injuries, and NHS 111 online can direct patients to the most appropriate service to meet their needs.

And because it's available through your phone it is quick and convenient saving you time and energy. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Prevention and policy: hoping for a gathering storm and not a storm in a teacup

Prevention and policy: hoping for a gathering storm and not a storm in a teacup Anyone who has followed health policy in England over time will recognise the cycle of rhetoric about prevention. We see announcements of revolutionary approaches and then mostly inaction, punctuated by minor announcements, all for the cycle to start again. The King's Fund

Record number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates

Record number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates The number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates registered to practise in the UK has grown to a record total of 788,638, annual data shows . This means the NMC register is now equivalent to 1.2 percent of the estimated UK population. 

Underlying this strong growth, 2022–2023 saw the highest number of new joiners to the NMC’s register in a single year – 52,148. Almost half (25,006) were internationally educated, while the number of UK educated joiners rose by 8.5 percent to more than 27,142.

Meanwhile the number of people leaving the professions fell slightly last year, to just under 27,000. However, the NMC’s research raises concerns for employers and leaders across health and care to tackle in their retention strategies. Nursing and Midwifery Council

See also:

• Recruiting and retaining nurses critical to solving NHS workforce crisis The Health Foundation
• NHS Employers respond to the Nursing and Midwifery Council annual registration report NHS Employers
• More nurses and midwives good news but over-reliance on overseas recruits NHS Providers
• RCN responds to the latest NMC register data Royal College of Nursing
• Work pressures driving nurses and midwives away BBC News
• Britain has more nurses than EVER after jump of 30,000 in a year The Daily Mail
• Nursing numbers rise but concerns raised about 'premature leavers' The Independent
• Nursing numbers rise but concerns raised about ‘premature leavers’ ITV News
• Thousands of nurses leaving NMC register ‘earlier than planned’ Nursing Times
• Britain plugs nursing gaps with international staff amid WHO concern Reuters

Government not taking “appalling” harms from alcohol seriously enough

Government not taking “appalling” harms from alcohol seriously enough An estimated 10 million people in England regularly exceed the Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines, including 1.7 million who drink at higher risk and around 600,000 who are dependent on alcohol. 

But in a report today the Public Accounts Committee says a “staggering” 82% of those 600,000 dependent drinkers in England are not in treatment despite success rates of around 60% and evidence that, on average, every £1 spent on treatment immediately delivers £3 of benefit and significantly more in the longer term.

See also:

• Tories’ failure to tackle alcohol harm is causing public health crisis, say MPs The Guardian

Individual placement and support for severe mental illness

Individual placement and support for severe mental illness Individual placement and support (IPS) is an evidence-based model of supported employment. The implementation of IPS has been part of the NHS Long Term Plan and preceding strategies for national mental health improvement for over eight years and is a fundamental part of the ongoing transformation of community mental health services. This guidance is aimed at integrated care systems and outlines how IPS should be embedded within integrated models of primary and community services for patients with severe mental illness. NHS England

Tavistock: Top doctor questions need for change at gender clinic

Tavistock: Top doctor questions need for change at gender clinic A doctor with a key role in reforming a controversial gender identity clinic for children has been recorded questioning the need for change.

Prof Gary Butler, clinical lead for the children's gender clinic in England and Wales, also appeared to accuse the author of a report, which will underpin the new service, of "nepotism".

He was recorded making the comments in a keynote speech at a major conference. BBC News

People paying for operations up by third since Covid pandemic

People paying for operations up by third since Covid pandemic The number of people paying privately for operations and treatments in the UK has risen by more than a third since the pandemic started, figures show.

Last year 272,000 used their own money to pay for treatments, such as knee or eye surgery - up from 199,000 in 2019.

The NHS backlog has been blamed for the trend, with some of the treatments costing more than £15,000.

But there does appear to have been a shift away from private insurance driven by the cost of living crisis. BBC News

World must prepare for disease more deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns

World must prepare for disease more deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns The head of the World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday that governments need to prepare for a disease even deadlier than Covid-19.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, told its annual health assembly in Geneva that it was time to advance negotiations on preventing the next pandemic.

He warned that nation states cannot “kick this can down the road” and that the next global disease was bound to “come knocking”. The Independent

See also:

• Prepare for a disease even deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns The Daily Mail
• The next pandemic ‘even deadlier’ than COVID is coming, warns WHO New York Post
• World must prepare for disease even deadlier than Covid, WHO chief says in stark warning Northampton Chronicle and Echo

NHS England mental health trusts record 26,000 sexual abuse incidents

NHS England mental health trusts record 26,000 sexual abuse incidents The data over five years puts spotlight on underfunded hospitals where abuse can often easily be hidden, say experts.

A joint investigation by the Guardian and the British Medical Journal has found that thousands of vulnerable mental health patients have reported claims of being sexually abused in NHS hospitals.

Data released following freedom of information requests to NHS trusts in England showed that 35,606 “sexual safety incidents” were recorded in hospitals between 2017 and 2022.

See also:

• NHS reviews abuse of staff and patients, as legal bill exceeds £82m in five years The BMJ
• NHS trusts missing sexual assault policies Personnel Today

GPs want officials to think twice about alerting the public to health threats

GPs want officials to think twice about alerting the public to health threats GPs want officials to think twice about alerting the public to health threats in the future — so they aren't swamped by panicked Brits.

Under pressure family doctors have complained about the messaging pushed out during last winter's Strep A crisis. The Daily Mail

See also:

• GP leaders urge Government not to repeat ‘panic-causing’ Strep A-style alert Pulse

Women are TWICE as likely to die after a heart attack, study finds

Women are TWICE as likely to die after a heart attack, study finds Women are more than twice as likely to die after a heart attack compared to men, a study suggests.

More than 30,000 women a year in the UK are admitted to hospital after having a heart attack.

Now a study from Portugal highlights women’s lower risk of surviving this medical event. The Daily Mail