Is Manchester greater?: a new analysis of NHS integration

Is Manchester greater?: a new analysis of NHS integration The government is embarking on the most significant NHS reforms for a decade, with the aim of improving collaboration and integration across health and social care. However this analysis of existing pilot schemes finds no compelling evidence of overall improvement. This report finds that in Greater Manchester, where integration is most advanced, results have been generally poor. Centre for Policy Studies

NHS appoints national director of learning disability and autism

NHS appoints national director of learning disability and autism NHS England has announced the appointment of Tom Cahill as the national director for learning disability and autism.

Tom, who has been chief executive of Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust since 2009, will join NHS England to build on progress already made in providing people with a learning disability or autism with care in the community, rather than in inpatient settings. 

Consultation on mandatory vaccination for frontline health and care staff

Consultation on mandatory vaccination for frontline health and care staff The government is seeking views on plans for staff in health and care settings in England to be required to have COVID-19 and flu vaccines to protect vulnerable people. 

The consultation, running for a period of 6 weeks, looks at whether requirements should apply for health and wider social care workers: those in contact with patients and people receiving care. It would mean only those who are fully vaccinated, unless medically exempt, could be deployed to deliver health and care services. The consultation will also seek views on whether flu vaccines should be a requirement for health and care workers. Department of Health and Social Care

Weekly national flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published

Weekly national flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports published National influenza and COVID-19 report, monitoring coronavirus (COVID-19) activity, seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses. Public Health England

See also: 

• Research: COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports Public Health England

Covid: Boosters not needed for all, says Oxford jab creator

Covid: Boosters not needed for all, says Oxford jab creator Giving booster jabs to everyone is unnecessary, says the scientist behind the Oxford vaccine, as she calls for doses to be sent to countries in need.

Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert told the Daily Telegraph some vulnerable groups would need boosters but immunity was "lasting well" in the majority of cases.

"We need to get vaccines to countries where few of the population have been vaccinated so far," she added. BBC News

See also:

• Covid: Pfizer and AstraZeneca approved as booster vaccines BBC News
• Covid England: PHE data highlights how vast majority of people being hospitalised are unvaccinated The Daily Mail
• Covid cases in England rose 9% last week as schools went back The Daily Mail
• Covid cases in Israel fall sharply amid mass booster vaccine rollout The Daily Mail
• More than 8,000 people in hospital with Covid in UK The Guardian
• Ministers hoping vaccines watchdog will back mass rollout of booster jabs The Guardian
• NHS 'faces breaking point by November' without masks and social distancing as Covid cases rise iNews

Record 5.6m people in England waiting for hospital treatment

Record 5.6m people in England waiting for hospital treatment The number of people in England waiting for hospital treatment has reached a new record high.

A total of 5.6 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, according to figures from NHS England. This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and includes those waiting for hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. The Guardian

See also:

• NHS performance summary: July-August 2021 Nuffield Trust
• Long waits for ambulances continue in England BBC News
• One in 10 people in England now on NHS waiting list, figures show The Daily Mail
• Spire reports £4.7m profits on back of long NHS waiting lists The Guardian
• Johnson’s hopes of banishing NHS backlog likely to remain wishful thinking The Guardian
• NHS waiting list hits record high, new figures show The Independent

Johnson’s hopes of banishing NHS backlog likely to remain wishful thinking

Johnson’s hopes of banishing NHS backlog likely to remain wishful thinking Analysis: Persistent understaffing and ageing estate means drive to slash waiting lists will be very hard to achieve

Every day brings reminders of how permanently under-resourced the NHS is: a ward closing here because there are too few nurses, a queue of ambulances – each with a patient in the back – stuck outside an overstretched A&E there. The Guardian

See also: 

• Raising the levy: will the new health and social care tax work? The King's Fund
• Additional funding alone not enough for momentous recovery task ahead for health and care services Nuffield Trust
• Minister defends social care bill reform wait BBC News
• Don't kid yourself tax rises will fund a better NHS The Daily Telegraph
• Left in its current state, the NHS will squander every penny of Boris' windfall The Daily Telegraph
• Nearly half of all NHS staff have no medical qualifications The Daily Telegraph
• I don't want NHS managers to be paid 'unacceptable' salaries with health tax funds, says care minister The Daily Telegraph
• NHS will run out of extra cash promised by government in two years, IFS analysis shows The Independent

Remote GP calls may have contributed to five deaths, says coroner

Remote GP calls may have contributed to five deaths, says coroner Remote GP appointments may have been a contributing factor in the deaths of five people who did not see their doctor face to face, a coroner has concluded.

Alison Mutch, senior coroner for Greater Manchester South, said important information missed in telephone appointments may have been acted on if they were seen in person. The Daily Telegraph

NHS trust AI pilot prompts 80% drop in admissions of vulnerable patients

NHS trust AI pilot prompts 80% drop in admissions of vulnerable patients A pilot at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust has shown that predictive artificial intelligence improved care for vulnerable people and reduced hospital appointments by 80%.

Data from the MySense pilot between May 2020 and April 2021 showed that it also significantly reduced unnecessary burden on GPs and other healthcare workers. Public Technology

Vaccine centre's first drop-in sessions for 16-year-olds as Northamptonshire's jabs total passes ONE MILLION

Vaccine centre's first drop-in sessions for 16-year-olds as Northamptonshire's jabs total passes ONE MILLION Northamptonshire’s 16-year-olds can now 'grab a jab' at the county's Covid-19 Vaccination Centre as the number of doses delivered in the county passed ONE MILLION.

The centre at Moulton Park is running its first drop-in sessions for those aged 16 and 17 from 5.30pm on Thursday (September 9). Northampton Chronicle and Echo

See also: 

• Consultation on mandatory Covid vaccination for health and care staff begins Northampton Chronicle and Echo
• Sword swallower who reached Britain's Got Talent final has a new job with Northamptonshire's Covid jab army Northamptonshire Telegraph

Revealed: The best and worst trusts to be a junior doctor

Revealed: The best and worst trusts to be a junior doctor HSJ analysis of data from the latest General Medical Council national training survey has revealed the top and bottom trusts for overall experience for junior doctors.

Northamptonshire Healthcare features in the top five best trusts to be a junior doctor. Health Service Journal 

The NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19: Assessing progress and the pandemic’s impact

The NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19: Assessing progress and the pandemic’s impact This analysis looks at progress on the main pledges in the NHS Long Term Plan and the impact of COVID-19 on their delivery. 

The NHS Long Term Plan remains the blueprint for the NHS’s evolution, but the pandemic has dealt a huge blow to both the NHS and social care. In this report, we provide a narrative of what was achieved before the pandemic, assemble the evidence of how the pandemic has affected progress against the plan’s major commitments, and identify implications for the future as the NHS and government plans its recovery from the pandemic. The Health Foundation

Cancer nursing on the line: why we need urgent investment across the UK

Cancer nursing on the line: why we need urgent investment across the UK UK cancer services are slowly recovering from the devastating blow caused by Covid-19. The pandemic has both laid bare and exacerbated the terrible strain the cancer workforce has been under for many years. 

When the pandemic hit, some services were forced to pause, whilst others had to quickly adapt and many have still not ‘returned to normal’. Some cancer nurses were also deployed to care around the clock for the half a million people admitted to hospital with coronavirus. The practical and emotional impact of this disruption on people living with cancer has been profound. McMillan Cancer Support

See also:

• Nurse shortage ‘delaying treatment for 21% of UK cancer patients’ The Guardian
• NHS staff shortages led to failings in my cancer treatment, says patient calling for more specialist nurses iNews
• COVID-19: Cancer and heart patients say they felt 'abandoned' and 'anxious' after NHS treatments repeatedly cancelled and disrupted by pandemic Sky News

An ever-growing NHS budget could swallow up all of this week’s tax rise, leaving little for social care

An ever-growing NHS budget could swallow up all of this week’s tax rise, leaving little for social care This week saw major announcements on health and social care funding. Outside of the usual Budget or Spending Review process, the government announced around £12 billion of additional spending for the Department of Health and Social Care for each year between 2022−23 and 2024−25, alongside a corresponding tax rise. Institute for Fiscal Studies

See also: 

• 'If NHS needs money, there's less for social care' BBC News
• NHS could ‘swallow up’ all the money raised by new tax rise, says IFS The Guardian

Innovation and new technology to help reduce NHS waiting lists

Innovation and new technology to help reduce NHS waiting lists Local surgical hubs, new technology to speed up diagnosis, and innovative ways of working will help the NHS to tackle growing waiting lists and treat around 30% more patients who need elective care by 2023/24.

Backed by a new £36 billion investment in health and social care over the next 3 years, ‘doing things differently’ and embracing innovation will be the driving force to get the NHS back on track. Department of Health and Social Care 

4 in 5 people aged 16 and over vaccinated with both doses

4 in 5 people aged 16 and over vaccinated with both doses Four in 5 people aged 16 and over in the UK have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest figures show.

A total of 43,535,098 people have received 2 doses (80.1%) and 48,292,811 people have received one dose (88.8%).

More than half of all teenagers aged 16 to 17 in England have already received their first jab, just over 4 weeks after the green light was given for this age group to be offered the vaccine. Department of Health and Social Care 

Covid: Consultation on mandatory jabs for frontline health staff

Covid: Consultation on mandatory jabs for frontline health staff Compulsory Covid and flu jabs for frontline NHS and care workers in England are being considered in a government consultation.

Plans are already in place to make it mandatory for care home workers in England to be fully vaccinated.

But some unions and care organisations have warned that making the jabs mandatory will lead to staff shortages. BBC News

See also:

• Covid: Boris Johnson concerned over unvaccinated hospital patients BBC News
• Covid England and Wales: Weekly deaths rise 17% to 668 as virus now behind one in 15 fatalities The Daily Mail
• Covid vaccines do NOT increase the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women, two new studies find The Daily Mail
• 'Frustrated' doctors reveal Covid patients STILL not being given Regeneron's antibody cocktail The Daily Mail
• PHE says it has spotted 53 cases of 'Mu' variant in UK which is feared to be resistant to vaccines The Daily Mail
• People refusing Covid jabs should not work in social care, minister suggests The Guardian
• WHO asks rich countries to delay Covid booster jabs for rest of year The Independent
• Covid-19 booster vaccines will start being given to older groups in the next fortnight under NHS plans iNews
• Doctors and nurses say NHS needs 'firebreak' as staff struggle with demand of Covid cases iNews
• Unvaccinated frontline NHS staff to be redeployed Nursing Notes

Will Boris Johnson’s plan for the NHS work?

Will Boris Johnson’s plan for the NHS work? Boris Johnson chose to visit a hospital he knows only too well to highlight the new funding package for the NHS in England.

He spent anxious days in intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital in central London in April 2020, seriously ill with Covid.

The pandemic continues to cast a long shadow over the NHS and that's because of uncertainty over how case numbers and hospital admissions will develop next year. BBC News

See also: 

• Health Secretary opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph Department of Health and Social Care
• Boris Johnson on need to address NHS wait times BBC News
• Social care tax rise: Boris Johnson wins Commons vote  BBC News
• Social care: Will people still have to sell their homes? BBC News
• Now NHS wants to hire £270k bosses: Recruitment drive fuels fears over where extra cash raised by social care reforms will be going The Daily Mail
• ‘Misleading’ social care cap does not cover care home food and accommodation costs The Daily Telegraph
• UK care homes say funding shake-up threatens their viability The Guardian
• Social care backlash grows after MPs vote through tax plan The Guardian
• Social care funding in England: your questions answered The Guardian
• UK lawmakers back tax hike to pay for health, long-term care The Independent
• MPs back National Insurance hike to tackle NHS backlog and fund PM's care changes Sky News

Transport noise linked to increased risk of dementia, study finds

Transport noise linked to increased risk of dementia, study finds Exposure to noise from road traffic and railways is associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to the largest study of its kind.

Research has consistently linked transport noise to health conditions including heart disease, diabetes and obesity, but studies on transport noise and dementia were scarce and small, and findings inconsistent. The Guardian

See also: 

• Residential exposure to transportation noise in Denmark and incidence of dementia: national cohort study (open access) The BMJ

GP surgeries in England told to provide face-to-face appointments

GP surgeries in England told to provide face-to-face appointments Sajid Javid has told nearly 1,000 GP surgeries to provide more face-to-face appointments — after they were found to be failing to meet basic patient needs.

The Health Secretary said that while online and phone consults can be convenient for some, they 'are not right for everyone'.  The Daily Mail