NHFT Libraries Health News

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Home care fees rise by up to 160pc as rationing takes hold

Home care fees rise by up to 160pc as rationing takes hold Elderly and disabled people who need care in their own homes have been hit with rises of up to 160 per cent in their bills in just five years, new research shows. Daily Telegraph

Minister orders review of guidelines for health workers wearing full-face veils

Minister orders review of guidelines for health workers wearing full-face veils Dan Poulter also asks regulators to devise new uniform rules to ensure patients always have 'appropriate face-to-face contact'

A review is being launched into health service guidelines on full-face veils to ensure that patients always have "appropriate face-to-face contact", it has emerged.

Health minister Dan Poulter claims face coverings can be a barrier to good communication between healthcare professionals and patients.

He has ordered a review of current advice and asked regulators to devise new uniform rules.

"I am proud of the rich ethnic diversity of our healthcare workforce and support appropriate religious and cultural freedoms, but a vital part of good patient care is effective verbal and non-verbal communication," Poulter told the Daily Telegraph.

"Being unable to see a healthcare professional's face can be a barrier to good and empathetic communication with patients and their families.

"That is why I am writing to all healthcare regulators to ask them to look into this matter and to review their professional regulations, to ensure that there is always appropriate face-to-face contact between healthcare professionals and their patients."

A ban on staff wearing the full-face veil when dealing with patients has already been introduced at 17 NHS hospitals, according to the newspaper.

The home secretary, Theresa May, insisted it is for women to make a choice about what clothes they wear, including veils, but said there will be some circumstances when it will be necessary to ask for them to be removed.

Earlier this week a judge ruled that a Muslim woman would be allowed to stand trial while wearing a full-face veil but must remove it while giving evidence.

The ruling followed calls by Home Office minister Jeremy Browne for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them. Guardian

The dismantled National Programme for IT in the NHS

The dismantled National Programme for IT in the NHS
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts

This report finds that although the National Programme for IT in the NHS has been dismantled, it in effect remains in place with separate component programmes which continue to incur costs, although the full costs are not yet known. It concludes that unless the Department of Health acts on the lessons from the National Programme it is unlikely to deliver the new vision of a paperless NHS by 2018.

MPs call for more transparent clinical trials

MPs call for more transparent clinical trials "Drug companies and medical researchers are putting patients' lives in danger by failing to publish unfavourable results from clinical trials, MPs have warned," The Guardian reports.

The news follows the recent publication of a report (PDF, 2.3Mb) by the influential House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which called for greater transparency in clinical trials and the data they produce.

Patients should have right to high risk trials OnMedica News

Community mental health care services need to improve

Community mental health care services need to improve A national survey of people who received community mental health services in 58 NHS trusts shows that services need to improve. NHS Networks

Highly Specialised Technologies

Highly Specialised Technologies Our recommendations on when and how a technology should be commissioned for use in the NHS in England. The programme will develop guidance on a small number of medicines aimed at treating patients with very rare diseases and very complex healthcare needs. NICE

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Hospital ward staffing levels 'must be made public daily'

Hospital ward staffing levels 'must be made public daily' The number of nurses on duty in every hospital ward should be collected daily and made publicly available to help prevent a repeat of the Mid Staffs scandal, MPs will recommend tomorrow. Independent

Hospital wards should publish ratio of staff to patients every day, say MPs Guardian
MPs urge openness on nurse numbers BBC News

You can't get the staff these days: the shifting NHS workforce

You can't get the staff these days: the shifting NHS workforce James Thompson

From humble beginnings, the NHS workforce has grown from approximately 144,000 in 1948 to more than 1.03 million in May this year. The NHS is the largest employer in the United Kingdom and is often touted as one of the biggest employers in the world.

Between March and April 2013 however, the NHS hospital and community health service workforce in England decreased by more than 11,600 full-time posts. Were these reductions in line with previous seasonal patterns or is there something bigger at play in the 'new' health system, which continues to grapple with flat-funding and tough productivity challenges?

NHS set to miss £20 billion savings target

NHS set to miss £20 billion savings target The NHS will struggle to meet its target of delivering £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015 according to The King's Fund's latest quarterly monitoring report.

Only 1 in 10 (10 per cent) of NHS finance directors surveyed for the report rated the chances of meeting the target as better than 50/50. The majority (56 per cent) identified a high or very high risk that the target will not be met, while a third (34 per cent) rated the likelihood of success as 50/50.

The survey – which this quarter includes finance leads from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) as well as trust finance directors – highlights the growing pressures on NHS providers. Only a third (33 per cent) of trusts surveyed expect to meet their cost improvement targets for 2013/14 – a sharp fall on the same quarter last year when nearly three-quarters were confident of meeting their targets. Commissioners are more optimistic, with 72 per cent of CCG finance leads expecting to meet their organisation’s targets.

Analysis of NHS performance data for the first quarter of 2013/14 shows most indicators are broadly stable, although A&E waiting times remain comparatively high. Over the quarter, 241,000 patients (4.3 per cent) spent four hours or more in A&E; although this is back within target range, it is the highest level for this quarter since 2004. With 61 hospitals breaching the government’s target, this reinforces the challenge the NHS faces in managing pressures in A&E over the coming winter, despite the new funding announced last week by the Secretary of State.

NHS finances, A&E waiting times and bed shortages all worsening - survey Guardian
NHS ‘will not make £20bn savings’ say senior managers Independent

PAC doubts DH can deliver paperless NHS

PAC doubts DH can deliver paperless NHS The Department of Health has come in for stinging criticism over the way it handled National Programme for IT contacts from Parliament's spending watchdog, which has also cast doubt on its ability to deliver a 'paperless' NHS by 2018. EHI News

Abandoned NHS IT system has cost £10bn so far Guardian
Health IT 'fiasco' costs rising BBC News

Mental illness and unhappiness

Mental illness and unhappiness
Centre for Economic Performance

This paper is a contribution to the second World Happiness Report. It argues that: mental health is the biggest single predictor of life-satisfaction; depression and anxiety are more common during working age than in later life, accounting for a high proportion of disability, major economic costs, and financial losses to governments worldwide; in rich countries treatment is likely to have no net cost to the Exchequer due to savings on welfare benefits and lost taxes, and even in poor countries a reasonable level of coverage could be obtained at a cost of under $2 per head of population per year.

NHS England’s 1st Annual General Meeting: the public’s voice – Olivia Butterworth

NHS England’s 1st Annual General Meeting: the public’s voice – Olivia Butterworth On a grey September afternoon 250 (ish) people came together from all over the country – people who use NHS services, people who provide services, Carers, volunteers, Drs, Nurses, young people, policy people, people who commission services, people from Healthwatch, voluntary organisations and NHS England – bringing colour, vibrancy and energy to five really important conversations.

NHS England’s first Annual General Meeting was a significant opportunity for us to create spaces for people to discuss issues together that are fundamentally important to all of us. We had two aims for the day: -

To engage in open and informed debate about our aspirations for the future
To create space for participation that informs our work, offering different views and ideas

Smoking and mental health

Smoking and mental health It examines the evidence of what works to reduce harm from smoking for this group and how providers are implementing the smoking ban in practice. NHS Networks

Optimising medicines use in care pathways using pharmacy support

Optimising medicines use in care pathways using pharmacy support his document will guide you through the four key questions that should be asked each time medicines are required in a care pathway and why these questions matter. It then highlights how pharmacy services might help deliver a service which is safe, effective and provides the best patient experience. NHS Networks

Women who experience domestic violence are almost twice as likely to suffer from depression and vice versa In June this year The World Health Organisation (WHO) published a report, which highlighted violence against women as a ‘global health problem of epidemic proportions’. The report detailed the impact of violence on the physical and mental health of women and girls. This can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related complications, mental problems and impaired [read the full story...] The Mental Elf

Mental health team to assess Surrey police custody site detainees - BBC News

Mental health team to assess Surrey police custody site detainees - BBC News
Mental health workers are to assess people being held at four police custody sites in Surrey. Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said the £300,000 scheme would cover sites in Guildford, Staines, Salfords and Woking. The team will ...