Northampton mum’s plea to NHS to fund rare drug to change son’s life

Northampton mum’s plea to NHS to fund rare drug to change son’s life A Northampton mum-of-one is urging the NHS to pay for a rare drug needed to keep her son alive.

Six-year-old Archie Kambanis of Duston has a rare muscle-wasting condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and was diagnosed with SMA when he was just two. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Maths, baths and computer models: ways to make health services more efficient

Maths, baths and computer models: ways to make health services more efficient Chris Sherlaw-Johnson looks at different approaches being used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health services, and explains the value they could bring to the NHS. Nuffield Trust

NHS key statistics: England, October 2018

NHS key statistics: England, October 2018 This briefing paper provides a summary of NHS demand, performance and capacity of services in England. It includes A&E statistics, waiting lists, ambulance data, delayed discharges, staffing levels including doctors and nurses, and more. House of Commons Library

GP at Hand's smartphone doctor ads ruled misleading

GP at Hand's smartphone doctor ads ruled misleading Adverts for a smartphone GP service that promised NHS doctor appointments "in minutes" have been ruled misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The service offers a symptom-checker and free GP consultations via videolink on smartphones.

The ASA received complaints that the ads did not say users would first have to leave their GP, and registration could take up to three weeks.

GP at Hand said it thought the process was "self-evident". BBC News

See also:

• ASA Ruling on Babylon Healthcare Services Ltd t/a GP at hand Advertising Standards Authority
• Ads for virtual GP at Hand service banned The Daily Mail
• Advert for GP access smartphone app banned by watchdog The Guardian
• Watchdog rules GP at Hand adverts were misleading HSJ

MP's 'horror' at getting £4.2bn to digitise NHS with no plan

MP's 'horror' at getting £4.2bn to digitise NHS with no plan A former minister has described his "horror" at being handed £4.2bn to create a "paperless" NHS in England by 2020 without a plan how to do it.

George Freeman's role was digitizing the NHS - but he had not been involved in the 2016 public spending talks.

And he said his civil servants were ordered to set out how they would spend the money only after it was allocated.

This is how things are done in government, said Mr Freeman, and, he suggested, why they go wrong. BBC News

Government's £240m winter pledge for social care is a ‘sticking plaster’, experts say

Government's £240m winter pledge for social care is a ‘sticking plaster’, experts say A £240m emergency funding injection to prop up social care this winter and ease pressure on the NHS has been labelled a “sticking plaster” by patient groups.

Ahead of his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham on Tuesday, health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said the move would prevent hospital beds being used by people who could be better cared for in their homes.

But council leaders warned they cannot be expected to “turn services on and off” in response to short-term bailouts from the government. The Independent

See also:

• £240 million social care investment to ease NHS winter pressures Department of Health and Social Care
• Matt Hancock on funding health services BBC News

Newly discharged mental health patients at much higher risk of death

Newly discharged mental health patients at much higher risk of death Such patients are 90 times more likely to die from drugs overdose than general population, research finds

People with mental health problems are at a hugely increased risk of dying from unnatural causes, including suicide, soon after they have been discharged from hospital, new research reveals.

Such patients are 38 times more likely to die of fatal poisoning and 90 times more likely to perish from a drugs overdose than the general population, according to a new study. The Guardian

See also:

• Suicide Methods and Specific Types of Accidental Death and Fatal Poisoning Among Discharged Psychiatric Patients: A National Cohort Study (abstract) Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
• Discharged mental health patients ‘at greater risk of dying’ University of Manchester

‘I was left to fight alone for NHS whistleblowing protection’

‘I was left to fight alone for NHS whistleblowing protection’ | Benedict Cooper As his tribunal case is finally heard, Chris Day discusses winning protection for other junior doctors – and why he feels betrayed

Blowing the whistle in the NHS is meant to be easy. Medical bodies such as the Department of Health and Social Care, the General Medical Council (GMC) and individual hospital trusts all encourage the practice – on paper. But when Chris Day, a junior intensive care doctor, raised numerous concerns about understaffing and safety at the intensive care unit of Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich, he found out all too quickly the toll it would take on his career.

Day says he made a “protected disclosure” to hospital management and to Health Education England (HEE) – which oversees junior doctors’ training and career development – about the understaffing. But he says that far from being believed, he became the victim of a pernicious effort to discredit him and the issues he’d raised. A number of counter-allegations were made against him, and his HEE training number was deleted, effectively forcing him out of his career. “Looking back it was incredible that so much effort was going into discrediting me and my safety concerns,” he says. The Guardian

NHS must follow the lead of driverless cars and embrace technology – even if it doesn't work perfectly, Health Secretary says

NHS must follow the lead of driverless cars and embrace technology – even if it doesn't work perfectly, Health Secretary says The NHS must follow the lead of driverless cars and embrace technology - even if it doesn't work perfectly, the Health Secretary has said.

Matt Hancock urged GPs to do more to adopt innovations such as virtual consultations via video, and the use of artificial intelligence.

The minister, who became Health Secretary in July, personally uses an app called “GP at Hand” which uses artificial intelligence to assess symptoms and offers smartphone consultations.

Last month he criticised NHS attempts to block use of such schemes, saying every patient should be able to benefit from such services. The Daily Telegraph

Over a million women screened for cervical cancer wait longer than two-weeks for their results

Over a million women screened for cervical cancer wait longer than two-weeks for their results More than one million women screened for cervical cancer wait longer than the two-week target for their results, new figures show.

Only 53 per cent of women who were tested between August 2017 and 2018 received their results within 14 days, a Freedom of Information request found.

These delays create unnecessary anxiety and 'could put women off' attending their appointments, according to the charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust.

The charity has today blamed the delays on changes to the NHS cervical screening programme, which has caused a shortage of staff to deal with the results. The Daily Mail

Northamptonshire County Council: Plan to save £55m unveiled

Northamptonshire County Council: Plan to save £55m unveiled A council plans to cut spending on agency staff and highways services, while boosting tax receipts, to tackle a £65m funding shortfall.

The "stabilisation plan" published by Northamptonshire County Council aims to save an additional £20m in 2018-19, on top of £45m in cuts already planned.

Government-appointed commissioners have been brought in to oversee the council, which has twice banned new spending.

Council leader Matt Golby said the authority faced "unprecedented times".

Plans to slash £35m had already been announced in the initial budget passed for this year. BBC Northampton

New £350,000 haematology and oncology bay opens at NGH to treat cancer patients

New £350,000 haematology and oncology bay opens at NGH to treat cancer patients Generous fundraisers and medics got together to officially unveil a new haematology and oncology assessment bay at Northampton General Hospital, which is aimed to keep cancer patients out of A&E.

Oncology and haematology patients are often ill between their treatment cycles and require emergency support and review, sometimes immediately. The urgent nature of these complications means that patients are unable to wait for outpatient appointments. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Guidance: Improving people’s health: applying behavioural and social sciences

Guidance: Improving people’s health: applying behavioural and social sciences A comprehensive and collaborative strategy to enable public health professionals to use behavioural and social sciences to improve health and wellbeing. Public Health England

Integrating care for every community

Integrating care for every community Health and care needs are changing, with more people living longer with multiple long term conditions.

This new animation explains the challenges facing the health and care system and how partnerships are being formed between the NHS, local government and the third sector in every part of the country. NHS England

Emergency £240m to free up hospital beds

Emergency £240m to free up hospital beds An emergency £240m will be pumped into social care in England to ease pressure on the NHS this winter by enabling more elderly people to be cared for at home.

The cash will help councils pay for measures like housing adaptations and care packages, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will tell the Tory conference.

Getting people back home will "free up hospital beds", Mr Hancock will say.

Winter months often place hospitals under strain. In January, one in five patients faced long delays for a bed. BBC News

See also:

• Emergency funding for social care to be announced at Tory conference The Guardian

NHS to suffer £2.7bn cuts 'after government miscalculation of public sector pension costs', research suggests

NHS to suffer £2.7bn cuts 'after government miscalculation of public sector pension costs', research suggests The NHS will suffer cuts worth £2.7bn after the government miscalculated the pension costs of public sector workers, new analysis by the House of Commons library has shown.

The research suggested that government underestimated the costs by as much as £4bn a year.

That money could have paid for the salaries of over 61,900 nurses, the Labour Party, which released the research, said. The Independent

As a black nurse, I see the crushing racial inequality across the NHS. This has to stop

As a black nurse, I see the crushing racial inequality across the NHS. This has to stop | Donna Kinnair Black doctors and nurses are paid far less than their white colleagues. The NHS must address the barriers and prejudices in its system

Some years ago a fellow black nurse said to me that I had been described by a nursing leader as “the only acceptable black nurse”.

I’d like to say we’ve come a long way since then, but the enormous ethnic pay gap in the NHS shows there’s a long road yet to travel. As revealed last week, black doctors and nurses are on average paid thousands of pounds less than their white colleagues. There are still those who divide our workforce between “acceptable” and “unacceptable”. The Guardian

Physical restraint used on 50% more NHS patients with learning disabilities

Physical restraint used on 50% more NHS patients with learning disabilities Growing numbers of patients with learning disabilities are being physically restrained in mental health units, despite ministers telling NHS trusts to use such techniques less often.

Staff in NHS mental health hospitals deployed restraint on such patients 22,000 times last year, almost 50% more than the 15,000 occasions in 2016, BBC research has found.

That included a rise in face-down or “prone” restraint, which is particularly controversial and has been widely criticised as dangerous. Used 2,200 times in 2016, the figure rose to 3,100 in 2017.

The disclosures, made by Radio 4 programme File on 4, prompted criticism from health charities and the minister who, in 2014, ordered trusts to reduce their use of restraint. The Guardian

See also:

• File on 4: Transforming Care - Is it Working? BBC Radio 4
• 'Shameful' use of restraints on disabled patients BBC News
• Restraint on adults with learning disabilities soars by nearly 50% in a year, figures show The Independent

Cost of lifesaving heroin withdrawal drug soars by 700%

Cost of lifesaving heroin withdrawal drug soars by 700% Treatment agencies warn of extra drug-related deaths unless price hike is addressed

A 700% spike in the price of a drug used to wean addicts off heroin has caused alarm among treatment agencies, which warn of a rise in drug-related deaths unless urgent action is taken to make it more affordable.

Buprenorphine is an alternative to methadone that reduces the symptoms of withdrawal and lessens the desire to use heroin. It is estimated that more than 30,000 people in England use the drug, which offers a reduced risk of overdose compared with methadone. The Guardian

More than one in four weekend GP appointments left unused, investigation finds

More than one in four weekend GP appointments left unused, investigation finds More than one in four GP appointments are left unused at weekends, amid a “shocking” failure of policies to improve access to family doctors, an investigation has found.

Ministers have repeatedly promised to expand opening hours of GP surgeries, so that working people are able to get appointments during evenings and weekends.

But the research from areas offering such access shows 37 per cent of Sunday appointments are being left unfilled, along with 24 per cent of Saturday slots, and 23 per cent of those on weekday evenings. The Daily Telegraph

See also:

• Revealed: 'Shocking' 25% of evening and weekend GP appointments empty Pulse
• Extending access to routine GP services must be based on patient need, says RCGP Royal College of General Practitioners
• Quarter of weekend and evening GP appointments wasted due to 'lack of of demand', despite record waiting times The Independent