NGH shortlisted for national award for way it supports cancer patients

NGH shortlisted for national award for way it supports cancer patients Northampton General Hospital is in the running for a national award for the innovative ways it supports cancer patients.

The Trust’s Macmillan Information & Support Team is vying with eight other UK Trusts in the Cancer Experience of Care Award category of the Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA). Northampton Chronical and Echo

CAMHS staff benefit from AI mental health support to improve wellbeing

CAMHS staff benefit from AI mental health support to improve wellbeing Staff in CAMHS services at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) and St Andrew’s Healthcare (STAH) have been using Wysa’s AI mental health app to support their wellbeing and mental health.  

The project, in collaboration with NHSEI Midlands, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, saw Wysa provided to 350 staff members at the hospitals. Digital Health

Building community health and care capacity: Reflections from other countries

Building community health and care capacity: Reflections from other countries Changing our services so that more care is provided in community settings and people can leave hospital when they are fit for discharge has been an explicit policy aim for decades. Other, similar countries have been on the same mission and have had more success. Why might this be? This new analysis looks internationally at how our performance compares and how other countries have succeeded in building up community health and care services to understand what England might learn. Nuffield Trust

Implications of the NHS workforce plan

Implications of the NHS workforce plan In June, NHS England published its much-awaited long-term workforce plan, which was welcomed across the political spectrum. The plan aims to increase the number of staff employed by the English NHS from around 1.5 million in 2021–22 to between 2.3 and 2.4 million in 2036–37. This would be equivalent to average growth in the size of the NHS workforce of between 3.1% and 3.4% per year. For context, we estimate that NHS staffing numbers grew by around 1.1% per year between 2009–10 and 2019–20. 

Here, we do not seek to evaluate the merits of the plan, its modelling assumptions or its achievability. Instead, we start from the assumption that the plan will be implemented in full and the report considers the potential implications for the size of the NHS workforce and NHS budget in England. Institute for Fiscal Studies

See also:

• NHS workforce plan implies 1 in 11 of all workers will be employed in health by 2036 The Daily Mail
• NHS’s £50bn recruitment plan to prompt higher taxes or spending cuts, IFS warns The Daily Telegraph
• One in 11 workers in England could be NHS staff by 2036-37, study shows The Guardian

NHS world first rollout of cancer jab that cuts treatment time by up to 75%

NHS world first rollout of cancer jab that cuts treatment time by up to 75% Drug treatment times for some NHS cancer patients will be slashed by up to three quarters, thanks to an anti-cancer injection that takes as little as seven minutes to administer.

Following the green light from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the NHS in England will be the first health system in the world to roll out the seven-minute injection to hundreds of patients each year. NHS England

£5 million fund to tackle fatal drug deaths across the UK

£5 million fund to tackle fatal drug deaths across the UK People at risk of drug deaths could be saved by overdose detecting artificial intelligence or antidote dispensing drones after the government awarded a share of £5 million to projects aimed at tackling fatal overdoses.

As part of the Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge which aims to reduce drug related deaths across the UK, Office for Life Sciences is investing in 12 promising projects to develop technologies aimed at improving detection, response, or intervention in potential drug related deaths. Department of Health and Social Care

Ministers join forces to encourage veterans to self declare to GPs

Ministers join forces to encourage veterans to self declare to GPs Veterans’ Minister Johnny Mercer and Health Secretary Steve Barclay are urging veterans and service leavers to access specialist healthcare pathways run by NHS England and service charities. Department of Health and Social Care

Close to 1m NHS appointments lost to strikes

Close to 1m NHS appointments lost to strikes The number of appointments and treatments postponed by strike action in the NHS in England is nearing one million.

The 48-hour walkout by consultants in England last week saw more than 45,000 appointments being cancelled.

It brings the total number of postponed hospital appointments since industrial action began in the NHS in December to 885,000.

Once mental health and community bookings are included, it tops 944,000. BBC News

See also:

• Consultant strike caused tens of thousands of patients to have their appointments cancelled ITV News

Lucy Letby: NHS England 'persuaded' trust boss to take new job

Lucy Letby: NHS England 'persuaded' trust boss to take new job The man who was chief executive of the NHS trust where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies said he was asked to take a top job in London after the serial killer had been arrested.

Tony Chambers went on to get three senior NHS jobs following the nurse's arrest for murdering babies.

And in a now-deleted blog, he wrote about being "persuaded" to take the job in London by a senior NHS England boss.

NHS England said its London region had been unaware of the murder probe. BBC News

Homelessness charities report huge spike in mental health need as NHS waiting lists spiral

Homelessness charities report huge spike in mental health need as NHS waiting lists spiral Homelessness services are reporting a surge in the number of people they support in need of mental health treatment post-Covid, as thousands of people are trapped waiting months for care on the NHS.

NHS waiting times for elective mental health treatment have surged since the Covid-19 pandemic, with latest data from June 2023 showing that people still on waiting lists had been waiting an average of 12 weeks.

This is compared to an average of 9.1 weeks in June 2022 and 6.1 weeks in June 2021. iNews

See also:

• Key findings of the 2022 Annual Review of Single Homelessness: More demand. Less supply. More complex needs Homeless Link

Migrants to get Home Office reference number on NHS England records

Migrants to get Home Office reference number on NHS England records NHS records of migrants are to have a Home Office reference number attached to them, prompting concerns about potential tracking, privacy rights and the expansion of the “hostile environment”.

A previous scheme using NHS data to track down patients believed to be breaching immigration rules was abandoned after a legal challenge from health and civil liberties organisations warning of a breach of patient confidentiality, discrimination against non-British patients and a risk of deterring people from seeking medical help. The Guardian

Postnatal depression sufferers who take medication have boosted mental health, relationships and better behaved children, study shows

Postnatal depression sufferers who take medication have boosted mental health, relationships and better behaved children, study shows Giving mothers with postnatal depression antidepressants could improve the behaviour of their children at the age of five, a study suggests.

Up to 15 per cent of women experience postnatal depression, with symptoms including a persistent feeling of sadness and low mood, lack of enjoyment and interest in the wider world and withdrawing from contact with other people.

It can have negative effects on both the mothers and their children, but only three per cent of women with the condition in the UK get antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). The Daily Mail

See also:

• Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes Following Postnatal SSRI Treatment (open access) JAMA Network Open
• Postnatal depression drug ‘shows benefits five years on’ The Independent

UK should be preparing for bird flu pandemic, scientist warns amid concern over virus mutations that could see it take off in humans

UK should be preparing for bird flu pandemic, scientist warns amid concern over virus mutations that could see it take off in humans The UK should be preparing for a bird flu pandemic amid concerns the virus could jump to humans, a leading public health expert has warned. 

Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at Edinburgh University, said it is too early to say what will cause the next outbreak.

But there are 'signals' that there is a pattern emerging in avian flu's mutations, which means it could take off among humans at 'some point', according to the researcher, who advised the Scottish Government during the Covid crisis. The Daily Mail

See also:

• Expert calls for future pandemic planning amid ‘signals’ from bird flu The Independent