Free NHS winter warmth packs at Northamptonshire events - Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Free NHS winter warmth packs at Northamptonshire events - Northampton Chronicle & Echo:

Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Free NHS winter warmth packs at Northamptonshire events Northampton Chronicle & Echo NHS Northamptonshire is 'spreading the warmth' at events around the county by giving advice and practical tips on how to keep warm as part of their 'Wrapped Up' campaign. The outreach team will be giving out winter packs to those who may be vulnerable ...

The King's Fund responds to Andy Burnham's speech launching the Labour Party's health and care policy review

The King's Fund responds to Andy Burnham's speech launching the Labour Party's health and care policy review: Responding to the Shadow Secretary of State's speech launching the Labour Party's health and care policy review, Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King's Fund, said:

'Andy Burnham's diagnosis of why the NHS and social care needs to change is the right one. The demands of an ageing population, changing burden of disease and rising patient expectations mean that fundamental change is needed.
'His prescription for change is ambitious and his vision of delivering integrated care, co-ordinated around the needs of the individual, will be widely welcomed. But it leaves a number of unanswered questions, not least how plans as radical as these could be implemented while keeping his promise not to embark on further structural change.
'We have argued that it is time to think differently about how to respond to the future challenges facing the NHS and social care. Andy Burnham has responded to the challenge to think differently, but the ideas he has articulated today leave many questions unanswered.' Kings Fund

Direct Commissioning: planning guidance document published

Direct Commissioning: planning guidance document published:
The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has today published a document which supports the planning for Direct Commissioning responsibilities for 2013/14.
Supporting planning for 2013/14 for Direct Commissioning follows the publication of Everyone Counts: Planning for Patients 2013/14 which outlined the incentives and levers that will be used to improve services from April 2013 – the first year of the new NHS, where improvements and outcomes are delivered through existing and new commissioning routes.
The new document describes the processes that will be used to support planning for the next financial year.  It aims to support the NHS Commissioning Board’s national, regional and area teams to ensure that every plan is as strong as it can be, by designing an approach that achieves national consistency and improves quality and equity of access to services. This should be in the context of local priorities and in conjunction with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local Health and Wellbeing Boards. NHS Commissioning

Mobile Health Worker Project

Mobile Health Worker Project: This study aimed to better understand the requirements of mobile working. The final report examines 11 NHS pilot sites and outlines the benefits of mobile technology for health staff and patients. Findings include: greater productivity; an increase in available time for patient contact; less unnecessary journeys as well as time spent travelling; and significant reductions in data duplication. CASH Full News

NICE publish first guideline for psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people

NICE publish first guideline for psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people: Everyone who read the extracts from Michael Schofield’s memoir, published by the Guardian on January 19th, must surely have been moved by the sometimes harrowing description of his daughter Janni who was diagnosed with child-onset schizophrenia aged just 7 years old. Janni is an exception, as schizophrenia generally starts between the ages of 15 and [read the full story...] Mental Elf

Methods for the estimation of the NICE cost effectiveness threshold

Methods for the estimation of the NICE cost effectiveness threshold:
This study aimed to develop methods to estimate the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold making use of routinely available data. The methods used in this study provide an empirically-based and explicit
quantification of the scale of opportunity costs the NHS faces when considering whether the health benefits associated with new technologies are expected to offset the health that is likely to be forgone elsewhere in the NHS.
Research paper
Kings Fund

Homeopathy should not be available on the NHS

Homeopathy should not be available on the NHS:
Chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies has criticised homeopathy as being “rubbish”, describing practitioners as “peddlers”.
She said she was “perpetually surprised” homeopathy was still available on the NHS and raised concerns that homeopaths can prescribe pills and potions to treat malaria and other illnesses. Her views, which conflict with policy of the heath service, were expressed as s...Healthcare Today

Prostate cancer trebled in 30 years

Prostate cancer trebled in 30 years:
Cancer Research UK has released figures which suggest that boys born in 2015 will be almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point as those born in 1990.
The charity has suggested that the increased use of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which picks up a wide variety of prostate cancers, and the ageing population are key factors in explaining the increase with 41,000 me...Healthcare Today

NHS drug decisions 'flawed'

NHS drug decisions 'flawed':

The Government’s drugs watchdog has hit back at criticism by European researchers over the system it utilises to recommend which medicines should be funded for NHS use.A study, funded by the European Commission, said the system applied by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was flawed and should be scrapped.NICE, however, responded by saying the measure it uses for ass... Healthcare Today

System used to decide whether drugs are cost-effective for NHS 'is flawed'

System used to decide whether drugs are cost-effective for NHS 'is flawed': The formula used to decide whether NHS patients can have access to costly drug treatments is flawed and should be scrapped, according to a European Commission-funded study. Daily Telegraph

Extra baby unit planned at Northampton General Hospital - Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Extra baby unit planned at Northampton General Hospital - Northampton Chronicle & Echo:

Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Extra baby unit planned at Northampton General Hospital Northampton Chronicle & Echo NGH has been awarded �480,000 for a midwife-led unit. By John Harrison Published on Thursday 24 January 2013 07:00. Northampton General Hospital has been awarded £480,000 to improve maternity services, the Government will announce today. and more »

Revalidation: opportunity or challenge?

Revalidation: opportunity or challenge?: On 3 December 2012 the UK was the first nation, and the General Medical Council (GMC) the first regulatory body, to implement large-scale changes to the regulation of its medical workforce. By April 2016 it is expected that the ‘vast majority’ of the UK’s 220,000 doctors would have undertaken revalidation – the process by which licensed doctors will demonstrate that they are up to date and fit to practise. Revalidation has been a popular topic in our leadership work with medical directors, GPs and consultants, having presented both opportunities and challenges. So what have we learnt so far?

Information overload: tackling bureaucracy in the NHS

Information overload: tackling bureaucracy in the NHS: The NHS Confederation has for many years emphasised the need to tackle the bureaucratic burden in the NHS.

'Blacklist' of failed NHS managers planned

'Blacklist' of failed NHS managers planned:
NHS managers who are deemed as having presided over failure in the NHS could be blacklisted.
Government ministers are considering the option of placing senior health officials who significantly under-perform on such a list in a move that would effectively see them prevented from working in the health service in the future.
HSJ has reported that the option is one of a range of suggestions being considere... Healthcare Today

New meningitis B vaccine approved for UK use

New meningitis B vaccine approved for UK use:

Much of the media are reporting the news that a new meningitis B vaccine called Bexsero has been licensed by the European Commission. This means the vaccine should soon be available for use in the UK.

A fat lot of good that will do: minister loses health argument by stereotyping the poor

A fat lot of good that will do: minister loses health argument by stereotyping the poor:
Anna Soubry may have thought she was making an innocent observation about the nature of society when she declared that she could recognise the poor because they were fat. The Independent

See also:

• We used to describe poor children as 'skinny runts' - now it's the opposite: Minister says deprived families are more likely to be obese The Independent
• Are the poor kids really the fat ones? BBC News
• Poor kids 'more likely to be obese': BBC News

Private health contractor's staff told to cut 999 calls to meet targets

Private health contractor's staff told to cut 999 calls to meet targets:  Leaked email from Serco managers tells workers to manipulate computer system to 'stop the clock' on emergency calls
Call handlers staffing an out-of-hours GP service run by the private contractor Serco have been told to make new checks before calling 999 when they receive what appear to be emergency cases in order to cut down the number of referrals they make to the ambulance service.

NHS maternity units to share £25m fund to improve childbirth experience

NHS maternity units to share £25m fund to improve childbirth experience: More than 100 hospitals in England will share money to modernise maternity units in midst of ongoing baby boom.

NHS maternity units will get new birthing pools, more family rooms so dads can sleep over and extra midwife-led units after winning slices of a £25m fund to improve women's experiences of childbirth.
More than 100 hospitals in England will share the £25m, which will modernise maternity units and help the NHS cope with an ongoing decade-long baby boom during which births have been at their highest rate for 40 years.

Have NHS managers got the right skills?

Have NHS managers got the right skills?: With three CCGs recently warned, healthcare leaders must be able to engage staff and patients if they are to deliver change
Managers in both acute trusts and clinical commissioning groups have been scrutinised by the NHS leadership in the last few days and found wanting.

Homeopathy is 'rubbish', says chief medical officer

Homeopathy is 'rubbish', says chief medical officer: Homeopathic remedies are "rubbish" and do not serve as anything more than placebos, England's chief medical officer has claimed. The Daily Telegraph