Hedge funder who pledged to cut cost of Aids pill sold with 5,000pc mark-up reneges on promise

Hedge funder who pledged to cut cost of Aids pill sold with 5,000pc mark-up reneges on promise Martin Shkreli, who once wrote that he grieves "every time a drug goes generic", has not cut the cost of the pills, as promised. The Daily Telegraph

Junior doctors' strike forces Northampton General Hospital to cancel appointments

Junior doctors' strike forces Northampton General Hospital to cancel appointments Northampton General Hospital is preparing for a staff walk-out after almost 100 per cent of junior doctors voted in favour of striking. Northampton Herald and Post

Hospital inpatient care: over 10,000 more admissions a day than 10 years ago

Hospital inpatient care: over 10,000 more admissions a day than 10 years ago Latest figures show that there were 15.9 million admissions to NHS hospitals in England in 2014-15 - the equivalent of 43,500 per day. This is 1,200 more per day on average than in 2013-145 and 10,400 more per day on average than 10 years ago in 2004-05. Health and Social Care Information Centre

Babies born on the weekend have slightly higher death risk

Babies born on the weekend have slightly higher death risk "Babies delivered at the weekend are significantly more likely to die or suffer serious injury," the Daily Mail reports.

However, while the increase in risk is both significant and an obvious cause for concern, it should be noted that it is a very small increase.

Researchers looked at the outcomes of 1,349,599 births in the two years from April 1 2010, and found that an estimated 770 extra deaths occurred each year above what would occur if all babies were born on weekdays.

Obviously, 770 extra deaths is 770 too many, but it is important to put the figure into a larger context. When we look at the actual numbers, 0.73% of babies born at the weekend died, compared to 0.64% of babies born on weekdays.

While it may be tempting to assume that the extra deaths are all down to staffing issues (e.g. consultants not working at weekends) other factors may be involved. For example, most women giving birth by planned caesarean section did so during the week. Babies born this way may be lower risk, which could make the weekday births appear safer. NHS Choices

Junior doctor dispute 'to go to Acas'

Junior doctor dispute 'to go to Acas' The government has agreed to talks at Acas in the dispute with junior doctors - and is now urging the British Medical Association to call off the three days of strikes planned for December. BBC News

See also:

• Imposition threat must be removed to defer juniors' action British Medical Association
• Correspondence: Health Secretary writes to Dr Mark Porter, Chair of the BMA Department of Health
• NHS Employers begins talks with ACAS NHS Employers
• Junior doctors row: A nightmare for the NHS and patients? BBC News
• Jeremy Hunt agrees to talks with junior doctors in bid to halt strikes The Daily Mail
• Junior doctors' strike: Government agrees to talks at Acas in bid to avoid walkout The Daily Telegraph
• Doctors 'naive' to think no harm will come to patients during strikes, says Harvard The Daily Telegraph
• Junior doctors' strike: what should patients do? The Daily Telegraph
• Junior doctor strikes will go ahead unless government drops imposition threat, warns BMA GP Online
• Doctors strike: Analysis finds that NHS patients will not be more likely to die during action period The Independent
• Junior doctor dispute to go to talks at Acas OnMedica

Doctors should exercise caution in prescribing Ritalin for ADHD

Doctors should exercise caution in prescribing Ritalin for ADHD Cochrane researchers criticise quality of evidence supporting use of methylphenidate. OnMedica

See also:

• Methylphenidate for children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) The Cochrane Library

Chancellor's 3.8bn cash injection for the NHS comes at a price

Chancellor's 3.8bn cash injection for the NHS comes at a price NHS’s burden could ultimately worsen as budget for recruitment, training health professionals and health bodies is cut by 25% under spending review

The chancellor has done a lot to burnish the Conservative party’s standing on the NHS. He has given the health service an extra £3.8bn for 2016-17 – which is most of the additional cash that its boss had been seeking – and earmarked £600m of the money to fund overdue improvements in mental health care, such as for new mothers and those in crisis.

“As [NHS England chief executive] Simon Stevens said, ‘The NHS has been heard and actively supported,’” George Osborne said after the announcement. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• Press release: Department of Health's settlement at the Spending Review 2015 Department of Health
• Professor Ian Cumming statement on Spending Review Health Education England
• The King's Fund's response to the Spending Review The King's Fund
• Autumn Budget and Spending Review NHS Employers
• The spending review Nuffield Trust
• NHS England spending review uplift at expense of other health services, economists warn GP Online
• Spending review 'falls short' for general practice, warns top London GP GP Online
• NHS settlement may not be enough for seven-day service, experts warn The Guardian
• 'We need more hospital beds, not more A&E staff' The Guardian
• George Osborne's lack of ideas means care homes face meltdown, warn industry chiefs The Guardian
• Autumn Statement: Plans to force nurses to pay tuition fees will saddle future generations with even more debt The Independent

Expect more teenage pregnancies and STIs as public health cuts kick in

Expect more teenage pregnancies and STIs as public health cuts kick in Slicing money out of local prevention services is ‘economically nonsensical’, completely undermining the pledge to pump billions into the NHS

The term “false economy” is bandied about a lot in discussions about government cuts, but when it comes to slashing public health budgets it is entirely appropriate. Think for one moment about the point of preventative public health services, such as sexual health clinics, suicide prevention schemes and smoking cessation programmes – to avert serious problems and crises later on – and it really isn’t difficult to join the dots.

Reducing or cutting initiatives that help keep people out of doctors’ surgeries and hospitals stores up future problems for an already stretched NHS, yet this is exactly what is happening.

Every £1 spent on contraception saves £11 in healthcare costs. Cuts to sexual health sector are economically nonsensical. Continue reading... The Guardian

Winter deaths hit 15-year high, shocking official figures show

Winter deaths hit 15-year high, shocking official figures show Last winter saw the highest number of winter deaths since the turn of the millennium as respiratory diseases claimed thousands of lives. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Excess Winter Mortality in England and Wales 2014/15 (Provisional) and 2013/14 (Final) Office for National Statistics
• Winter deaths 'highest since 1999' BBC News
• Ineffective flu vaccine causes the number of excess winter deaths to TRIPLE in a year  The Daily Mail

Award for Northamptonshire’s lifesaving vehicles

Award for Northamptonshire’s lifesaving vehicles An award has been given to East Midlands Ambulance Service for the the way it looks after its fleet of vehicles. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Exploring how available NHS data can be used to show the inequality gap in mental healthcare

Exploring how available NHS data can be used to show the inequality gap in mental healthcare This report collated publicly available data and banded CCGs based on the experiences of mental health service users in their area. The data found specifies in greater detail the differing quality as and outcome of life for those with poor mental health. The report also found across the country that those with mental illnesses are more likely to die earlier and more like to get treated differently by health care professionals. Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Supplying the demand for nurses: the need to end the rationing of nurse training places

Supplying the demand for nurses: the need to end the rationing of nurse training places This paper proposes reforming the present financing of nurse education, under which tuition fees and living bursaries are paid up front, and replacing it with a system whereby nursing undergraduates would take out student loans as with any other course. The NHS would then pay back the loan for nursing graduates if they work for the organisation after qualification. The paper argues that this reform would remove the need for a limit on nurse numbers. Nurses who work in the private sector are likely to similarly have their student debt repaid as companies compete with the NHS to recruit nurses. Civitas

Psychological therapy: big differences in recovery rates across England

Psychological therapy: big differences in recovery rates across England Recovery rates for patients treated for mental health disorders are published today, highlighting markedly different outcomes across the country. Health and Social Care Information Centre

See also:

• Psychological therapy outcomes vary vastly between CCGs OnMedica

Loneliness 'may affect the immune system'

Loneliness 'may affect the immune system'"Being lonely won't just make you miserable; it could also suppress your immune system and knock years of your life," the Daily Mail reports.

This headline was prompted by a laboratory study in humans and rhesus macaque monkeys, which aimed to investigate if there were biological mechanisms associated with isolation that could also be associated with the risk of chronic disease or early death.

The findings suggest increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system – responsible for the "fight or flight" response – may overstimulate development of inflammatory white blood cells in the bone marrow. At the same time it may decrease the production of antiviral proteins, reducing the body's ability to fight infections.

However, at this stage this is still just a hypothesis. The study has not directly demonstrated that people who are socially isolated are more likely to become ill or die earlier and the immune system played a key role. NHS Choices

Weekend births 'pose higher death risk'

Weekend births 'pose higher death risk' Babies born in hospitals in England at the weekends have a "significantly" greater chance of dying than those born on weekdays, researchers say. BBC News

See also:

• Association between day of delivery and obstetric outcomes: observational study The BMJ
• Babies delivered at the weekend suffer greater threat of stillbirth or death The Daily Mail
• Babies more likely to die if born in NHS hospitals at weekend The Daily Telegraph
• Weekend-born babies slightly more likely to die in their first week The Guardian
• Babies born at weekends more likely to be stillborn or die in first week of life The Independent

GPs urged to report unfit drivers

GPs urged to report unfit drivers Family doctors must tell the DVLA about any patients who continue to drive when they are medically unfit to do so, says the General Medical Council. BBC News

See also:

• RCGP response to GMC announcement on GPs reporting patients to the DVLA or DVA Royal College of General Practitioners
• Doctors should not become agents of the DVLA The Daily Telegraph

Has Alaska found holy grail of cutting costs and improving healthcare?

Has Alaska found holy grail of cutting costs and improving healthcare? Not-for-profit organisation delivering health services for Alaska Native people has tackled waiting times and improved outcomes. What can the NHS learn?

Truly innovative leaders and organisations look far and wide for inspiration – and often find it in unexpected places; think of Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin. The NHS urgently needs a eureka moment, with primary care and hospital services close to breaking point and waiting times spiralling out of control.

An unexpected inspiration for the NHS might be Southcentral Foundation, the not-for-profit organisation delivering primary, community and mental health services for Alaska Native people in Southcentral Alaska. In the mid-1990s, Southcentral faced many of the challenges crippling NHS services today: four-week waits for routine primary care appointments and GPs coping with 40 or more appointments every day. Continue reading... The Guardian

Simon Stevens won his extra NHS cash. Now for the hard bit

Simon Stevens won his extra NHS cash. Now for the hard bit The NHS boss used all his powers of persuasion to get George Osborne to hand over £3.8bn upfront next year. But can he deliver on transforming care?

So, well played, Simon Stevens. Spectacularly well played, in fact. To have somehow got George Osborne to stump up £3.8bn extra for the NHS next year, at a time when the cash-strapped chancellor had to fix his tax credits problem, as well as finding extra money for security and counter-terrorism, demonstrates that NHS England’s chief executive has persuasive skills of a very high order. To have won the argument, that a sizeable chunk of the extra £8bn ministers had pledged to deliver by 2020 had to come next year, is a real coup. Until as recently as Monday, most NHS leaders were pessimistically saying that the Treasury was being inflexible and remained very unpersuaded of the need for a significant upfront downpayment of the £8bn. Stevens’s refusal to accept Osborne’s preference, to phase in the £8bn over time in equal amounts, shows real backbone and an admirable certainty of purpose. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• News story: Unprecedented investment in the NHS Department of Health
• RCGP response to Chancellor's announcement on NHS investment Royal College of General Practitioners 
• A shot in the arm for an ailing NHS Royal College of Nursing
• An NHS funding plan at last – but what’s the catch? BBC News
• Don't waste 3.8bn NHS funding uplift on seven-day services, warns GPC GP Online
• Osborne to hike NHS budget £3.8bn in 2016/17 GP online
• George Osborne: 'strong, well-funded NHS is absolutely crucial' - video The Guardian
• The Guardian view on the NHS settlement: a good compromise, but not a generous one | Editorial The Guardian
• 'Risks remain' despite George Osborne's £3.8bn cash boost for NHS Northamptonshire Telegraph
• NHS spending boost of £3.8bn next year, £10bn by 2020 OnMedica

Devolution bill poses a serious threat to the NHS

Devolution bill poses a serious threat to the NHS The little discussed and barely comprehended bill has reached committee stage in the Commons, and has significant implications for the health service.

The penny is beginning to drop within the NHS world at last. The seemingly marginal cities and local government devolution bill, now in its Commons committee stage, has major implications for the NHS that have been little discussed and barely comprehended. It all began with Greater Manchester combined authority securing control of its £6bn NHS budget earlier this year, and now several other devolution bids to the Treasury are seeking some NHS remit.

The problem here is not so much that the idea is necessarily wrong in principle, but rather that it hasn’t been thought through. Regions seeking such powers need to meet the Treasury’s requirement of securing “a financially sustainable health and social care system” by 2020. Typically they will claim to be able to do so by developing community-based models of care that focus on preventing expensive hospital treatment. In reality there is little evidence to suggest this model will work.

... ones which achieve or exceed their initial goals in such a way that they become embedded; able to survive a change of government; represent a starting point for subsequent policy development or remove the issue from the immediate policy agenda. Continue reading... The Guardian

Number of rough sleepers in Northampton is double what borough council pledged, report reveals

Number of rough sleepers in Northampton is double what borough council pledged, report reveals The number of rough sleepers in Northampton this year was double the figure the council had aimed for. Northampton Chronicle and Echo