Northamptonshire firefighters will attend medical emergencies in bid to ease pressure on ambulance service under new pilot scheme

Northamptonshire firefighters will attend medical emergencies in bid to ease pressure on ambulance service under new pilot scheme Firefighters are set to deliver life-saving medical care as part of a ‘first responder’ scheme set to run for six months in Northamptonshire. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Enhancing health care in care homes: integration in practice

Enhancing health care in care homes: integration in practice Many care homes provide laudably caring environments for residents living with frailty, dementia and complex needs, often in the face of funding constraints and recruitment problems. Indeed, ‘enhanced care in care homes’, is one of the new care models set out in the NHS five year forward view, and six vanguard sites are currently taking work forward to offer older people better, more joined-up care and rehabilitation services. This is good news, as it is high time this issue was brought to the fore – for a number of reasons.

Lifting the lid on the role of Secretary of State for Health

Lifting the lid on the role of Secretary of State for Health Whom did Margaret Thatcher encourage to “cut the throat” of health reform? And which Secretary of State told the head of Monitor to “piss off”? Passions run high when it comes to the NHS and our health services, not just from people working to deliver care, but all the way up to those at the very top. The Health Foundation

Dying without dignity: Investigations by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman into complaints about end of life care.

Dying without dignity: Investigations by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman into complaints about end of life care End of life care has been a key issue for the NHS for some time. This report highlights the key themes coming from complaints to inform the debate about how, as a society, we can drive up standards to improve the quality of end of life care offered across the country.

The report features 12 cases that illustrate the issues we regularly see in our casework on end of life care. The examples represent a diverse collection of powerful stories, drawn from a range of different health care settings. They are from all parts of the country and represent different areas of concern. Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman

See also:

• RCGP response to Ombudsman report on end of life care Royal College of Physicians
• 'Too many dying without dignity' BBC News
• Too many are dying without dignity, health ombudsman warns The Daily Telegraph
• Too many die without dignity, says report on end-of-life care The Guardian
• All healthcare professionals must all know how to care for, and communicate with, people who are terminally ill | Jane Collins The Guardian
• Terminally ill patients should be given the right to die at home, says harrowing report The Independent

Research? It's Ok to Ask

Research? It's Ok to Ask This year, the NIHR Clinical Research Network is supporting the NIHR Ok to ask campaign, now in its third consecutive year. One of the main aims of the campaign is to encourage more patients to ask about research opportunities that could be available to them if they have a medical condition they are receiving treatment for, so this campaign is about empowering patients to ask about research.

It’s also about reminding all healthcare professionals from consultants and doctors to nurses, midwives and carers, whether research-active or not, to be research-aware. We know that research professionals across the NIHR actively promote opportunities to patients about research but there is a much wider opportunity to encourage all healthcare professionals to get involved in and support research activity.

Bioengineering advances raise fears of 'home-brew heroin'

Bioengineering advances raise fears of 'home-brew heroin' The Daily Mirror carries the alarming headline that, "Heroin made in home-brew beer kits could create epidemic of hard drug abuse". It says scientists are "calling for urgent action to prevent criminal gangs gaining access to [this] new technology" following the results of a study involving genetically modified yeast.

This study did not actually produce heroin, but an important intermediate chemical in a pathway that produces benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs). BIAs are a group of plant-derived chemicals that include opioids, such as morphine.

BIAs have previously been made from similar intermediate chemicals in genetically engineered yeast. Researchers hope that by joining these two parts of the pathway, they will get yeast that can produce BIAs from scratch. This could be cheaper and easier than current production methods, which often still involve extraction from plants.

But because morphine can be refined into heroin using standard chemical techniques and yeast can be grown at home, this has led to concerns about the potential misuse of this discovery.

So, will this lead to a rash of "Breaking Bad"-style heroin labs in criminals' garages and spare rooms? We doubt it – at least in the near future. A strain that can produce morphine has not yet been made and would need to be specially genetically engineered to do this, not just using unmodified home-brewing yeast available off the shelf.

Stepping Hill nurse jailed for life

Stepping Hill nurse jailed for life Nurse Victorino Chua is jailed for a minimum of 35 years for murdering and poisoning patients at Stepping Hill Hospital. BBC News

See also:

• Victorino Chua found guilty of murder Nursing and Midwifery Council
• VIDEO: Nurses 'shocked' at Chua murders BBC News
• Stepping Hill nurse Victorino Chua jailed for life for murdering patients The Daily Mail
• Stepping Hill nurse Victorino Chua jailed for life The Guardian
• Stepping Hill nurse Victorino Chua: How an 'evil angel' avoided suspicions to begin a hospital killing spree The Independent

Theresa May pledges £15m to keep mentally ill people out of police cells

Theresa May pledges £15m to keep mentally ill people out of police cells Home secretary to put cash into health facilities for 4,000 people a year detained under Mental Health Act and ban children being held.

The home secretary, Theresa May, is to pledge up to £15m of new funding to provide health-based alternatives for the 4,000 people a year who spend time in detention in police cells under the Mental Health Act.

In her first speech since being reappointed home secretary, May will tell the Police Federation conference on Wednesday that a new policing and sentencing bill, to be included in next week’s Queen’s speech, will include legislation to ban the use of police cells to detain any children with mental health problems. Continue reading... The Guardian

Unconscious bias and its effect on healthcare leadership

Unconscious bias and its effect on healthcare leadership If the health service is to survive it must take diversity seriously.

The need to build organisational cultures in which there is high quality, ever improving compassionate care focused on the needs of patients is now an indisputable and understandable refrain of health policy. But, experience has demonstrated time and again that achieving change takes considerable time, energy, passion and conviction.

Culture is about values but it is also made up of the countless interactions and exchanges between people every day. These interactions form the basis of relationships and within organisations relationships are the basis of culture. Culture is hard to pin down and while we can’t help but contribute to it, changing it is difficult. At the King’s Fund we have published a compelling evidence base in support of an approach to developing collective leadership as a way of changing culture. It invites a different way of thinking about leadership, where the responsibility for delivering high quality compassionate care resides within and across organisations, and relies heavily on how leaders build relationships. Continue reading... The Guardian

Dementia Awareness Week: we urgently need more specialist nurses

Dementia Awareness Week: we urgently need more specialist nurses Dementia costs the UK twice as much as cancer every year. But despite increased awareness, we still need many more resources if we're to cope with this illness. The Daily Telegraph

Rogue doctors could be altering records to hide their mistakes, health bodies warn

Rogue doctors could be altering records to hide their mistakes, health bodies warn Rogue doctors could be altering medical records to hide their mistakes or procedures they have carried out on patients without their consents, according to a warning from health bodies. The Independent

New report reveals 8,000 people live with dementia in Northamptonshire but more are staying at home rather than hospital

New report reveals 8,000 people live with dementia in Northamptonshire but more are staying at home rather than hospital The number of dementia patients in Northamptonshire is set to double to 16,000 in the next 15 years, according to research by the county council. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Parking issues and dwindling patient numbers at health centre will see x-ray service moved back to Northampton General Hospital

Parking issues and dwindling patient numbers at health centre will see x-ray service moved back to Northampton General Hospital Scans will no longer be carried out at a local health centre in Northampton from October, the NHS has said. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Serious incident review at Kettering General Hospital after accidental death of great-great-grandmother

Serious incident review at Kettering General Hospital after accidental death of great-great-grandmother A serious incident review has been carried out at Kettering General Hospital and changes made after the death of a great-great-grandmother. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

New Wellbeing organisation for Northamptonshire seeks residents views

New Wellbeing organisation for Northamptonshire seeks residents views A new online survey has been launched to find out how Northamptonshire residents would like to access wellbeing services and understand what keeps them well.

The wellbeing survey is a piece of research being carried out between Northamptonshire County Council, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Northampton, who are all working together to form a new Wellbeing Community Interest Company. Northants Herald and Post

Every Patient a research Patient? Evaluating the current state of research in the NHS

Every Patient a research Patient? Evaluating the current state of research in the NHS Daily pressures on the NHS are having a serious impact on its ability to support world leading research into cancer, according to a Cancer Research UK commissioned report from the University of Birmingham.

The report, based on interviews with clinicians, nurses and administrators involved in NHS clinical cancer research**, revealed pockets of excellence in clinical research, but also showed how escalating pressures to deliver routine NHS services are squeezing out time for hospital staff to do vital research.

It also highlights how financial pressures are affecting research infrastructure and the capacity of host organisations to fund additional research costs.

See also:

• NHS pressures at risk of stifling cancer research (press release) Cancer Research
• Pressure on day-to-day NHS cancer services impacting ability to deliver scientific research breakthroughs, says charity The Independent

Fundamentally changing mental health support in the community

Fundamentally changing mental health support in the community The introduction of personal budgets and the need to deliver cost savings in the London Borough of Wandsworth presented national charity Together for Mental Wellbeing with the opportunity to fundamentally change its approach to mental health support in the community. NHS Confederation

Simon Stevens call for bold action to make NHS fit for the future

Simon Stevens call for bold action to make NHS fit for the future NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens today (Monday) called for bold action on prevention, the redesign of care and efficiency to help the NHS through the most challenging period in its history. NHS England

GP services online in most of England

GP services online in most of England Almost every patient in England can now book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions or access their medical records online, data reveals. BBC News

Mentally ill 'sent home unprepared'

Mentally ill 'sent home unprepared' Pressures to free up mental health beds may be leaving vulnerable people at risk, says a watchdog. BBC News