Investigations take place after serious mistakes at three Northamptonshire hospitals

Investigations take place after serious mistakes at three Northamptonshire hospitals Investigations are being carried out after serious mistakes were made at three Northamptonshire hospitals within the past three months. Kettering General, Woodlands and Northampton General all reported ‘never events’ in October.

Never events are classified by the NHS as serious incidents that should have not occurred and were preventable. At the private Woodlands Hospital off the A14 near Rothwell a wrong site surgery was reported in which pain relief was given to the wrong part of the body before a procedure. The NHS-run Kettering General Hospital incident involved a foreign object being retained in the patient’s body after the procedure. At Northampton General Hospital the incident involved a wrong site surgery. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Worry less about children's screen use, parents told

Worry less about children's screen use, parents told There is little evidence screen use for children is harmful in itself, guidance from leading paediatricians says.
Parents should worry less as long as they have gone through a checklist on the effect of screen time on their child, it says. While the guidance avoids setting screen time limits, it recommends not using them in the hour before bedtime. Experts say it is important that the use of devices does not replace sleep, exercising and time with family. BBC News - Health

See Also:

• Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: a systematic review of reviews BMJ Open
• Build screen time around family activities, not the other way round, parents told Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)

'Life-changing' asthma injection will be offered to patients who can't use inhalers

'Life-changing' asthma injection will be offered to patients who can't use inhalers People suffering from severe asthma are to get a ‘life-changing drug’ which has been approved for routine use on the NHS.

Around 100,000 patients whose symptoms are too bad for traditional inhalers or steroids will be eligible for treatment with benralizumab after it was given the green light by health spending watchdog NICE.

Patients’ groups welcomed the decision, saying the drug – which is administered by injection – has the potential to improve the lives of those suffering from a particularly severe form of asthma. Mail Online

See Also:

• Provisional thumbs up for biological asthma drug On Medica
• Benralizumab for treating severe asthma [ID1129] NICE - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

Sweeteners have 'few health benefits', study finds - NHS Website

Sweeteners have 'few health benefits', study finds - NHS Website Researchers carried out the biggest review yet of evidence looking at the effects of sweeteners on health (researchers used the term non-sugar sweeteners or NSS).

Non-sugar sweeteners include artificially-synthesized sweeteners such as saccharine and natural non-calorie sweeteners such as steviol. Non-sugar sweeteners have become more popular because of fears that sugar is feeding the obesity epidemic. NHS Website

Is a breath test key to detecting cancer?

Is a breath test key to detecting cancer? A clinical trial has been launched to see if a breath test could detect the presence of cancer. Researchers want to find out if signals of different cancer types can be picked up in patterns of breath molecules. The Cancer Research UK team in Cambridge will collect breath samples from 1,500 people, some with cancer. BBC News - Health

See Also:

• New cancer diagnosis research 'exciting' for the future of healthcare, says RCGP Royal College of General Practitioners

Hospitals 'coping better with winter'

Hospitals 'coping better with winter' Hospitals seem to be coping better with winter, NHS England figures suggest. Data released for the festive period showed fewer A&E closures and ambulance delays than the same period last year. Levels of flu and vomiting bug Norovirus also remain low. NHS England said the improvement was a result of good planning and hard work by staff. But senior doctors warned the picture could deteriorate in the coming week because of an impending cold snap. BBC News - Health

UK hospitals expecting 'mayhem' when cold snap hits, top doctor says

UK hospitals expecting 'mayhem' when cold snap hits, top doctor says Staffing problems and a spike in flu could mean ‘severe difficulties’ for NHS, says Dr Nick Scriven

Hospitals will be hit by “mayhem” this weekend because of the coming cold snap, a growing number of people with flu and the NHS’s staffing problems, a leading doctor has warned.

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said hospitals will face “severe difficulties” this weekend as lower temperatures lead to a surge in patients needing care. The Guardian

See Also:

• Hospitals will be hit by 'mayhem' this weekend as temperatures plummet Mail Online

Mental health budget worth £1.9bn 'to be devolved'

Mental health budget worth £1.9bn 'to be devolved'  Mental health specialised commissioning will be fully devolved to providers within the next three years, according to the chief executive of a major mental health trust. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust chief executive John Short told HSJ he expected NHS England’s £1.9bn specialised commissioning budget would be devolved to provider collaboratives.
“I think within two-and-a-half to three years all the £1.9bn of NHS England mental health spec comm will be run by collaboratives. That ambition is Simon Stevens’ ambition”, he said. Mr Short said he sat on an NHS England advisory board set up to examine how more of this budget, which includes forensic adult mental health, inpatient child and adolescent mental health, and eating disorder services, can be shifted to groups of providers. HSJ

NHS ‘better equipped’ to deal with winter crisis after funding boost

NHS ‘better equipped’ to deal with winter crisis after funding boost  The NHS in England has said it is “better equipped” to deal with the surge in demand for health services during winter thanks to a “£420m boost”. Part of the extra money has gone towards upgrading emergency departments – expanding space, creating new treatment areas and adding bed capacity at 80 hospitals across the country. Most of the improvements were put in place before Christmas, officials said. NHS England said the funding is making it easier to transfer patients from A&E to different wards and speed up their test results, helping to better manage the number of patient beds in use. Health officials said they expect the benefit from the schemes will be the equivalent of an additional 900 beds this winter. iNews

Falling immigration could destroy the NHS

Falling immigration could destroy the NHS  Workforce gaps currently pose a major threat to the viability of our health services, as noted in a joint 2018 report by the King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust, and Health Foundation. One in 11 NHS clinical posts is currently unfilled, rising to one in eight nursing posts. The report estimates that, without concerted action, the current shortage of NHS staff employed by trusts in England—already around 100 000—will grow to an estimated 250 000 by 2030. The BMJ

Radiotherapy should be given at different times of day to reduce side effects, Leicester Uni study suggests

Radiotherapy should be given at different times of day to reduce side effects, Leicester Uni study suggests Radiotherapy should be given at different times of day to reduce terrible side effects according to a new study from Leicester University.
A breakthrough study by genetic scientists at the University of Leicester shows that radiotherapy toxicity - the side effects from radiotherapy - can be reduced by scheduling treatment according to the body’s circadian rhythm. They found that 24 percent of patients treated in the morning had bright red skin after radiotherapy compared to 11 percent of those treated in the afternoon. Telegraph

2019: handling the uncertainty

2019: handling the uncertainty An NHS long-term plan, a social care Green Paper, a prevention Green Paper. And somewhere woven in amongst all that, Brexit. Or possibly not Brexit, depending on how the politics plays out. At the same time staff in the newly aligned NHS England and NHS Improvement will be settling into post, not least in the newly restructured regions – this alignment ends well over a decade of separation, remembering that Monitor existed long before the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Of course, on a bigger scale, the whole NHS is moving from competition to co-operation despite the legislative framework. Meanwhile across the country we expect sustainability and transformation partnerships to continue the journey towards integrated care systems with an added dose of primary care networks on top. King's Fund

Government promises to improve maternity care

Government promises to improve maternity care Mothers and new babies will be offered better support as part of plans designed to make the NHS one of the best places in the world to give birth. The measures will improve safety, quality and continuity of care to halve stillbirths, maternal and infant deaths and serious brain injuries in new-born babies by 2025.
At the heart of these plans is a major redesign of neonatal services, led by an expansion in staff numbers – with more expert neonatal nurses and specialists, and new roles for allied health professionals. Gov.uk

NHS England wants to see new year boost to numbers getting health check

NHS England wants to see new year boost to numbers getting health check Making a New Year’s resolution to take up a free NHS health check could stop people developing dementia as well as catching physical conditions, a top doctor said today. The national health check – a 20-minute, pain-free assessment carried out by a GP or nurse and involving tests on blood pressure, weight and height – is free to everyone aged 40 years old and above.
Symptoms like high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat increase the risk of having a stroke or suffering a heart attack and can be spotted as part of the routine health check. The national health check programme also picks up conditions such as kidney disease and type 2 diabetes and, since June, has included advice about preventing dementia. However, recent figures show that of the 15 million people eligible for a free NHS health check over the last five years, fewer than 50% took one. NHS England

EU exit operational readiness guidance: actions the health and care system in England should take to prepare for a 'no deal' scenario

EU exit operational readiness guidance: actions the health and care system in England should take to prepare for a 'no deal' scenario Department of Health and Social Care - This guidance, developed and agreed with NHS England and NHS Improvement, will support the health and care system in England to be prepared for a no-deal scenario. It summarises the areas where the department is focusing no-deal exit contingency planning, and where local action is required. Further operational guidance will be provided to support the health and care system to prepare for the UK leaving the EU before 29 March 2019. King's Fund
Guidance
Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Corby man’s charity perm raises funds for KGH

Corby man’s charity perm raises funds for KGH A Corby man took fundraising and his hair to new lengths by getting a perm for charity. Father-of-two Steve Gibson, a warehouse operative at Tata Steel in the town, decided to have the hairstyle as a fun way of raising money for the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Kettering General Hospital. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Training hub for front line ambulance crews opens in Northampton

Training hub for front line ambulance crews opens in Northampton
A new hub for training emergency first aid crews has launched at a Northampton ambulance station.

Previously, the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) had one regional training centre in Nottingham where new recruits from across the county were trained.

But now, a new hub for training crews in Northamptonshire has opened at the Northampton North Ambulance Station, off Kettering Road, in a modular building by Portakabin. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

All aboard! Volunteers needed at NGH to take little patients to theatre on a new train buggy

All aboard! Volunteers needed at NGH to take little patients to theatre on a new train buggy
Poorly young patients at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) are in need of hard-working volunteers to steer them to the operating theatre on a new train.

The green and yellow train, complete with a working bell, was unveiled at NGH last week and will transport younger patients around the hospital. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Northamptonshire in laughing gas ‘epidemic’ says charity

Northamptonshire in laughing gas ‘epidemic’ says charity Potentially-lethal laughing gas is still being widely used by young people in Northamptonshire two years on from a law banning its sale for psychoactive purposes, a drugs charity has said. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Northamptonshire County Council: Former leader resigns

Northamptonshire County Council: Former leader resigns A former leader of what was dubbed the country's "worst-run council" has resigned as a councillor.

Heather Smith quit as Northamptonshire County Council leader in March after a report recommended it be scrapped after it ran out of money.

In a resignation letter for Oundle, Ms Smith said it was time to put "horrendous events of 2018" behind her and to "move on".

It means a by-election for an authority which is due to be axed in 2020. BBC News