Further fears for under-fire Northamptonshire County Council as millions of pounds worth of health spending is called into question

Further fears for under-fire Northamptonshire County Council as millions of pounds worth of health spending is called into question Millions of pounds worth of funding handed to Northamptonshire County Council may not have been used for its intended purpose.

Public Health England, the national organisation designed to promote healthier lifestyles across the country, gave £70 million worth of funding to the council over a two-year period, according to reports by the BBC this morning.

The funds were supposed to be ring-fenced for healthy living programmes such as smoking cessation services, but council leader Councillor Heather Smith told the BBC that some of the funding may have been used to prop up adult social services. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

• PHE asks Northants to explain spending of £10m grant funding Public Finance

Clinical salesmanship and better information: making the most of digital technology in the NHS

Clinical salesmanship and better information: making the most of digital technology in the NHS Digital technology is developing rapidly and is providing opportunities to change and improve care across a range of settings. Last year, we started work on a project with provider organisations that have already undergone significant organisation-wide digital transformation, attempting to find the common challenges and benefits brought by their projects. We will publish the full report on that work in June, just ahead of our Digital health and care congress in July, at which some of the organisations we are working with will be presenting.

In the meantime, though, we thought we’d share some of our early findings based on the experiences of two of our case studies. The King's Fund

Health Warnings on Chinese Takeaways and Ready Meals Should Be Mandatory After New Survey Exposes Certain Takeaways Contain As Much Salt As Five Big Macs

Health Warnings on Chinese Takeaways and Ready Meals Should Be Mandatory After New Survey Exposes Certain Takeaways Contain As Much Salt As Five Big Macs Chinese meals should carry a health warning on packaging and menus after a NEW survey by Action on Salt (formerly Consensus Action on Salt and Health, CASH) based at the Wolfson Institute, Barts & The London, Queen Mary University of London has exposed the astonishing and harmful amounts of salt found in both Chinese takeaways and Chinese ready meals sold by some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. The group of leading experts is now calling on Public Health England (PHE) to get tough on setting new salt targets, making front of pack labelling mandatory and put warning labels on menus for dishes high in salt.

English law on gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare must move towards Scottish position

English law on gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare must move towards Scottish position The law that is applied in gross negligence manslaughter (GNM) cases in healthcare should move towards Scotland’s comparable offence of Culpable Homicide, where charges are only brought against doctors if an act is proved to be intentional, reckless or grossly careless, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has said.

See also:

• Legal bar for convicting healthcare professionals of manslaughter is 'too low', medical organisation warns The Daily Telegraph
• Raise legal bar to avoid criminalising good doctors for mistakes, warns MPS GPonline

Ministers talking about how to get more cash into NHS

Ministers talking about how to get more cash into NHS There won't be a red box brandished on the steps of Number 11, a pint won't be up a penny or down a couple, and the chancellor certainly won't have to reach for a stiffener under the despatch box, like some of his predecessors who had a whiskey stashed there for the odd sip or two to get through a marathon Parliamentary statement.

What there also will not be in Philip Hammond's spring statement are grand gestures of new spending; no big cheques being signed by Mr Hammond to portion out your money. BBC News

NHS homeopathy ending in London

NHS homeopathy ending in London A major centre of homeopathy will no longer be able to spend NHS money on the controversial practice.

The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine - formerly the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital - will stop providing NHS-funded homeopathic remedies in April.

Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like", but scientists says patients are getting nothing but sugar.

Campaigners said the move was "hugely significant and long overdue". BBC News

Girls' guide to what a 'normal' vulva looks like

Girls' guide to what a 'normal' vulva looks like Teenage girls are being directed to a new online reference tool that helps them check if their vulva looks normal.

Available on the sexual health charity Brook website, the resource gives visual examples and advice on how female genitals change in puberty.

The health experts who designed it say they hope it will give body confidence and discourage girls from wanting "designer vagina" cosmetic surgery.

These operations should not be performed on girls under the age of 18. BBC News

Don't assume GPs can prescribe drugs initiated in hospital, warns NHS England

Don't assume GPs can prescribe drugs initiated in hospital, warns NHS England Hospitals cannot transfer responsibility for prescribing medication initiated in secondary care to GPs without their agreement, NHS England has warned in guidance published this week. GPonline

One hundred years on from the Spanish Flu, we are facing another major pandemic

One hundred years on from the Spanish Flu, we are facing another major pandemic The World Health Organisation has put scientists and health workers around the world on alert for a new and potentially deadly pathogen, which it has named as Disease X

Should you meet someone who, unfortunately, has developed a fever, become short of breath, whose face appears to be tinged with blue and is subject to vomiting and severe nose bleeds, you could wonder if the Spanish Flu has returned, one hundred years after it first appeared in 1917/18, near the end of the First World War. For according to Dr Jonathan Quick, we are due another visit from this terrifying disease which is said to have infected 500 million people around the world. Dr Quick is chair of the Global Health Council. The Independent

NHS faces year-round crisis over lack of social care, says council chief

NHS faces year-round crisis over lack of social care, says council chief Comments come as chancellor warned that inaction on social care is no longer an option

The NHS could be plunged into a year-round crisis because of a lack of social care provision, the head of one of England’s biggest councils has warned.

The comments by Andrew Travers, the chief executive of Lambeth council in south London, were made as the chancellor, Philip Hammond, faces pressure to address funding shortages in his spring statement. They follow a warning by the Local Government Association (LGA) that a “tipping point” for adult social care was fast approaching and that inaction from ministers was no longer an option. Continue reading... The Guardian

'Shameful': widespread outrage over man denied NHS cancer care

'Shameful': widespread outrage over man denied NHS cancer care ‘Indefensible’ that Londoner living in UK for 44 years was told to pay upfront for treatment

Politicians, doctors and cancer charities have responded with outrage to the case of a Londoner asked to pay £54,000 for cancer treatment because he was unable to provide evidence of residency, despite having lived here for 44 years.

Albert Thompson, 63, arrived in the UK from Jamaica as a teenager in 1973, and has lived here continuously ever since. He is currently not receiving the radiotherapy treatment he needs for prostate cancer because the London hospital where he was due to be treated told him he needed to provide proof of residency or pay upfront for treatment. Continue reading... The Guardian

One in four adults have multiple health problems, 'startling' data finds

One in four adults have multiple health problems, 'startling' data finds More than a quarter of adults in Britain have multiple health problems, according to a major study warning of “alarming” pressures being placed on the NHS.

The research shows that the vast majority of GPs’ time is being taken up by patients with several conditions, with eight in 10 prescriptions now issued to patients with more than one health complaint.

Researchers from Cambridge University said the trend was set to worsen, amid soaring rates of obesity fuel diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

The four-year study of more than 400,000 adults in England found 27.2 per cent were suffering from more than one health condition - with even higher rates among women. The Daily Telegraph

NHS watchdog pays consultancy firm £500,000 to define its 'purpose'

NHS watchdog pays consultancy firm £500,000 to define its 'purpose' The NHS financial watchdog paid half a million pounds to a consultancy firm to define its ‘purpose’.

NHS Improvement - which oversees hospital spending - hired McKinsey on the lucrative contract earlier this month.

The firm will aim to clarify the watchdog’s ‘purpose and operating model’ by speaking to hospital chief executives.

Critics described the spend as ‘scandalous’ at a time when the NHS is facing an unprecedented cash crisis. The Daily Mail

The Great Recession crushed public health

The Great Recession crushed public health Blood pressure and blood sugar levels spiked nationally during the Great Recession between 2008 and 2010, a new study has revealed.

Workers and older homeowners were particularly affected by the public health dip triggered by the global economic crash, the most significant since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While previous studies have suspected this could have been the case, the new report published today by UCLA is the first to provide a comprehensive map of exactly how the dip affected health.

The researchers' next step is to analyze how the crash affected insulin resistance and inflammation to determine how much of a role it played in the rising rates of heart disease and diabetes. The Daily Mail

Northamptonshire County Council: £10m public health grant probe

Northamptonshire County Council: £10m public health grant probe A council dubbed the "worst-run in the country" is under investigation over allegations it used millions of pounds ring-fenced for public health to prop up other services.

Northamptonshire County Council is in talks with Public Health England about the possible "claw-back" of up to £10m.

It comes after the authority voted for almost £40m in budget cuts.

Conservative council leader Heather Smith said the money "may have been spent in adult social care".

She added: "It is debatable whether that was a public health need or not."

The county council received more than £70m in funding from Public Health England over a two-year period.

It was meant to be used only for specific purposes, such as health education and smoking cessation services. BBC Northamptonshire

Northampton General Hospital: Man, 85, 'died due to overcrowding'

Northampton General Hospital: Man, 85, 'died due to overcrowding' An 85-year-old man died while waiting in an accident and emergency unit because of "dangerous overcrowding", a hospital boss has said.

An email leaked from Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust to the Health Service Journal said the patient died after going to A&E with stomach pain on Wednesday afternoon.

He died after suffering a cardiac arrest early on Thursday morning.

The hospital said the long wait for treatment was "unacceptable".

The man was initially seen and assessed within an hour, and was waiting on a chair to be seen by senior staff after a blood test suggested he may have had heart problems.

But he deteriorated and suffered a cardiac arrest. BBC Northamptonshire

See also:

• Man dies due to A&E overcrowding, says hospital trust's medical director The Daily Telegraph
• Hospital says patient died 'due to dangerous overcrowding of A&E' Health Service Journal
• Man died waiting in A&E due to overcrowding, says hospital official The Guardian
• Northampton hospital 'overcrowding' caused 85-year-old's death yesterday, claims chief Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Still work to do at Northampton mental health hospital to shake 'inadequate' tag, inspector finds

Still work to do at Northampton mental health hospital to shake 'inadequate' tag, inspector finds Managers are still not providing enough supervision at a Northampton mental health hospital after the facility’s damning 'inadequate' rating last year.

Inspectors issued St Andrews Healthcare with a warning notice last year after finding failings in a number of areas. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

NHS reality check: Update 2018

NHS reality check: Update 2018 returns to last year's key report and once again gives over 1,500 doctors working in the NHS the chance to discuss their experiences of delivering care in the UK health service. The key finding for the 2018 update was that conditions had got worse and NHS staff, who have benefited from some of the best medical education in the world, were not able to provide the standard of care they have been trained to deliver. Royal College of Physicians

See also:

• RCoA responds to NHS Reality Check report Royal College of Anaesthetists 
• RCGP welcomes solutions suggested in latest NHS Reality Check report Royal College of General Practitioners
• Patient safety getting worse, say two-thirds of NHS doctors The Guardian

Care Quality Commission: regulating health and social care

Care Quality Commission: regulating health and social care This report outlines the findings of the Committee's review of performance the Care Quality Commission and it finds that it has improved significantly since 2012. However, it highlights areas for improvement and argues that inspection reports are not made available soon enough after inspections and that work is needed to improve the relationship with and regulation of GP practices. House of Commons Public Accounts Committee

See also:

• CQC responds to latest Committee of Public Account’s report Care Quality Commission

Concerns over Coventry brain surgeon's operations

Concerns over Coventry brain surgeon's operations Surgeons have seriously criticised two brain surgery operations where the patients went on to die.

Hussien El-Maghraby, a consultant neurosurgeon in Coventry, removed a healthy part of a brain instead of a tumour during one operation.

The 51-year-old was stopped in September from performing two different surgical procedures, following a Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) inspection. BBC News