EU nurses no longer want to work in Britain. Brexit is poisoning the NHS

EU nurses no longer want to work in Britain. Brexit is poisoning the NHS The number of nurses signing up to work in the UK has dropped dramatically. Is it any wonder when Theresa May’s government is so hostile to EU nationals?

How will Brexit impact the NHS? It already has. Nurses from the EU are much less keen to come and work here. Today the Times reported that in the last four months of 2015, an average of 797 EU nurses per month signed up to work in the UK; over the same period last year, that number fell to 194 a month. We currently have a huge shortage of nurses, with 24,000 jobs unfilled in England alone. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• NHS nurses are being cast into a perfect Brexit storm The Guardian
• Brexit could make NHS shortage of nurses worse, says report The Guardian

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould People being hired in management positions don’t have the skills to tackle the health service’s current problems

It’s my job to support and develop senior NHS managers. And I’m deeply worried that we’re setting them up to fail – then recruiting more in the same mould.

I’m a former primary care trust director; I now work as an executive coach, helping NHS executives to improve their skills. Many of my clients lead trusts whose leadership has been deemed “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission – but few of them are genuinely bad leaders. The problem is that they were hired to do one job, and the requirement is now for something quite different. Yet they’re not being helped to change their approach, and when their trusts run into trouble they are being replaced with people likely to encounter exactly the same set of problems.

The characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities Continue reading... The Guardian

A million patients take anti-depressants 'they don't need'

A million patients take anti-depressants 'they don't need' Patients are left on the drugs for months or years at a time, fuelling a growing epidemic of addiction to prescription medicines. The Daily Mail

No more painkillers and gluten-free food on the NHS as health service head launches cost-cutting drive

No more painkillers and gluten-free food on the NHS as health service head launches cost-cutting drive The NHS will no longer pay for everyday medicines, including painkillers and cough mixture, the head of the health service has said.

Simon Stevens has outlined plans for patients to have to pay for basic items, like hay fever drugs, indigestion pills and gluten-free food, in a money-saving drive.

The cuts are part of new measures to reduce £1 billion of costs in the health service, which is struggling to cope with a surge in demand caused by an expanding population. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• NHS funding review for gluten-free food BBC News
• Dramatic drive to cut NHS costs unveiled The Daily Mail
• NHS draws up list of items to be banned from prescriptions The Guardian
• Travel jabs and gluten-free food may no longer be available on NHS under ‘low-value’ prescription crackdown The Independent
• NHS funding review: What medicines could be affected? ITV News

Government's health chief called in to discuss waiting woes at under-pressure Northampton GP surgery

Government's health chief called in to discuss waiting woes at under-pressure Northampton GP surgery The health secretary has agreed to hold discussions about lengthy waiting times at a Duston surgery - after a number of complaints from those unable to get an appointment. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Teen pregnancy rates in Northants are half of that in 2005 stats show - but more terminate pregnancy

Teen pregnancy rates in Northants are half of that in 2005 stats show - but more terminate pregnancy Teenage pregnancies in Northamptonshire have halved over the past 10 years, latest figures have revealed, though almost half of those led to an abortion. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Compromise offered in funding row over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre

Compromise offered in funding row over future of Corby Urgent Care Centre A compromise has been put forward in the funding row over the future of Corby Urgent Care Centre.

In response to concerns raised by patients, Lakeside+ has offered a ‘major concession’ to keep the centre open with the existing staff after April 1.

The offer suggests that both parties back away from the March 31 deadline and keep the centre open while the legal process carries on to fix how much the centre will be paid for treating NHS patients.

It comes as Lakeside+ has been inundated with both local and national messages of support since news of the situation broke. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Sending shockwaves through the NHS?

Sending shockwaves through the NHS? Taken at face value, Simon Stevens’ recent remarks to the Public Accounts Committee should be sending shockwaves through the NHS. Six to ten sustainability and transformation plan (STP) areas, to be announced in the forthcoming Forward View delivery plan, are set to become ‘accountable care organisations or systems, which will for the first time since 1990 effectively end the purchaser–provider split, bringing about integrated funding and delivery for a given geographical population’. 

It would be hard to overstate the magnitude of such a shift in policy, if that is what we are witnessing. Since the early 1990s, governments have pinned their hopes on purchaser–provider separation as the basis for health care improvement. Simon Stevens’ comments reflect, in large part, a growing perception that the costs of the purchaser–provider split outweigh the benefits of the market it was supposed to create. Transaction costs are high. Meanwhile, the market has delivered, at best, only modest efficiencies. Demographic and epidemiological changes are driving integration, which makes arm’s-length contracting even harder.  The King's Fund

New measures to target inequality in health and social care

New measures to target inequality in health and social care The Care Quality Commission has published ambitious new equality objectives for 2017 to 19. Despite progress on equality, people from some equality groups are still less likely to receive good quality health and social care.

The new objectives for the next two years focus on CQC regulatory role in improving equality. Through its inspections, CQC will check that providers make person-centred care work for everyone, from all equality groups – for example for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people using adult social care or mental health inpatient services.

CQC has set an objective to look at reducing barriers and improving access to primary care for migrants, asylum seekers, Gypsies and Travellers, to help address their poor health outcomes.

Meeting us where we're at: learning from INTEGRATE's work with excluded young people

Meeting us where we're at: learning from INTEGRATE's work with excluded young people This report discusses the approach taken by London-based charity MAC-UK in offering mental health support to young people involved in gangs or at risk of offending. The INTEGRATE approach is characterised by engaging young people through activities that they set up themselves and getting referrals through peers and friends. The evaluation of the INTEGRATE approach found that it brought notable improvements in many of the participants and helped to support young people in finding work. Centre for Mental Health

Jeremy Hunt 'sorry' NHS 111 call did not spot boy's sepsis

Jeremy Hunt 'sorry' NHS 111 call did not spot boy's sepsis  A boy who died aged one after NHS staff failed to identify he had septicaemia was "let down", Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted.

Mr Hunt spoke at a memorial service for William Mead, from Cornwall.

William, from Penryn, died in 2014, after an NHS 111 call did not lead to him being admitted to hospital.

Speaking at the private service in Truro, Mr Hunt said: "I as health secretary, the government, and the NHS let down William." BBC News

Exclusive: Urgent cancer scans blocked for two in five GPs

Exclusive: Urgent cancer scans blocked for two in five GPs Two in five GPs have had referrals on the two-week cancer pathway bounced back or downgraded as less urgent within the last year - with one in four affected patients later found to have cancer - a GPonline survey suggests.

Experts warn new TB drugs’ effectiveness could be lost

Experts warn new TB drugs’ effectiveness could be lost Experts are warning today that the effectiveness of new drugs in treating tuberculosis (TB) could be lost without real efforts to support their introduction.

A report* published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal to coincide with World TB day today, says that the rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB threatens to derail decades of progress in controlling the disease. OnMedica

Half of £2bn boost for NHS 'spent outside health service'

Half of £2bn boost for NHS 'spent outside health service' Extra £100m spent on external providers in 2015/16 shows NHS cannot cope with rising demand, FT research suggests

Health chiefs spent about half of the £2bn of extra cash allocated in George Osborne’s pre-2015 election autumn statement on buying care from private and other non-NHS providers, an analysis has shown.

The Health Foundation research for the Financial Times showed £901m was spent on buying services from outside the health service in 2015/16 for care provided free at the point of use for NHS patients. It compared with £800m spent on purchasing the same kind of care from NHS trusts. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

• NHS bosses 'spent half of extra Autumn Statement cash on outside services' BBC News

GPs 'dismissing womb illness as period pain', report says

GPs 'dismissing womb illness as period pain', report says Hundreds of thousands of women with a painful womb condition are left to cope without specialised care and are often dismissed as imagining their symptoms, a report says.

Some 40 per cent of those with endometriosis – a chronic condition suffered by two million in Britain – have to visit their GP ten times before they are referred to a specialist, it reveals.

For 10 per cent of women it takes 15 years of seeking help to receive a diagnosis, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Health. The Daily Mail

See also:

• GPs will always take womens health conditions seriously, says RCGP Royal College of General Practitioners
• Treatment for endometriosis 'unacceptable' BBC News

Cabinet ministers warned social care crisis could exacerbate if UK pensioners return from abroad over Brexit

Cabinet ministers warned social care crisis could exacerbate if UK pensioners return from abroad over Brexit Britain’s social care crisis will escalate after Brexit as tens of thousands of pensioners living in the EU return home, cabinet ministers have been warned.

Failure to secure continued access to healthcare for elderly Britons based on the Continent could trigger many to move back to the UK, ministers were told.

Such a change would pile pressure on the NHS and increase demand on care homes that are already under strain from an aging population. The Daily Telegraph

Council in talks with both parties involved in funding row over Corby Urgent Care Centre

Council in talks with both parties involved in funding row over Corby Urgent Care Centre Corby Council is in talks with both parties about the funding row which has led to fears over the future of Corby’s Urgent Care Centre.

Bosses at the centre issued a warning yesterday (Wednesday) that it will close its doors to patients at 8pm on March 31 as a result of Corby and Nene Clinical Commissioning Groups’ refusing to organise the extension of a contract in line with minimum fees due under the NHS national tariff.

NHS Corby Clinical Commissioning Group issued a statement in response to this, saying the centre is not closing and even if they have to find another provider, the service will continue. Northamptonshire Telegraph

A mixed bag of results from the NHS Staff Survey

A mixed bag of results from the NHS Staff Survey The 2016 NHS Staff Survey results are a mixed bag. Close to a million staff were invited to take part in the survey, more than 400,000 responded, and overall staff engagement has increased incrementally over the past four years.

The survey highlights that there are many organisations with well-motivated and engaged staff who are delivering high-quality care day-after-day. This performance is a testament to the dedication of people in the NHS against a backdrop of many organisations working at the edge of their capacity. We should give these dedicated people our collective thanks because they keep the system going despite being under huge pressure. The King's Fund

NHS commissioning groups restricting weight loss surgery, surgeons warn – at a cost to patients and the public healthcare bill

NHS commissioning groups restricting weight loss surgery, surgeons warn – at a cost to patients and the public healthcare bill A freedom of information (FOI) request made to all NHS commissioning groups (CCGs) shows that several have adopted policies which attempt to ration weight loss surgery to the super-obese, and ignore official advice on who should be eligible for surgery.

This has made it more difficult for overweight and obese people to get effective treatment to help them lose weight despite evidence that it is safe, effective and saves healthcare costs, according to the findings of a joint report from The British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society and the Royal College of Surgeons.

See also:

• Fat people encouraged to become super obese for surgery The Daily Mail

Providing physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal conditions report

Providing physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal conditions report Physical activity is a key part of a public health approach to musculoskeletal conditions and it has a range of benefits for people with musculoskeletal conditions in terms of improving quality of life and supporting people to be independent. It can reduce joint and back pain by 25% while also improving sleep, managing stress and reducing depression, anxiety and dementia and is therefore beneficial for people who have a musculoskeletal conditions and one or more other long-term health conditions. Arthritis Research UK