Monday, 20 March 2023

New number one trust CEO revealed

New number one trust CEO revealed The overarching theme of HSJ’s 2023 ranking of the NHS’s leading provider trust chief executives is one of change. Twenty-four of the names in the top 50 are new when compared to the 2022 list, although some have appeared in the rankings during previous years.

We also have a new number one chief executive – Angela Hillery, the leader of Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and Leicestershire Partnership Trust. Health Service Journal

Wellingborough NHS chefs hoping to dish up a win at world famous competition

Wellingborough NHS chefs hoping to dish up a win at world famous competition Two local NHS chefs are set to cook up a storm in a high-profile competition alongside culinary challengers from across Britain.

Kerrey and Natasha – who work for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) – have been invited to take part in this year’s NHS 4 Nations Chef Challenge, part of the International Salon Culinaire, which is due to take place on 20 March 2023 at ExCeL, London. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Health care funding: Three key questions

Health care funding: Three key questions This analysis from the REAL Centre explores the latest health care funding figures, including how much funding has been committed, how it compares to historical levels and how it stacks up against what is needed to meet current pressures facing health services. The Health Foundation

Number of autistic people in mental health hospitals: latest data

 Number of autistic people in mental health hospitals: latest data This is the most up-to-date record of how many autistic people and people with learning disabilities, both adults and children, are currently in inpatient units in England. It also shows how long they have been in these units for, when their care and treatment is checked and what kind of unit they are in. National Autistic Society

Sector leaders to drive progress on national Dame Barbara Windsor Mission to beat dementia

Sector leaders to drive progress on national Dame Barbara Windsor Mission to beat dementia The UK Government has named two leaders in dementia research to spearhead the ambitious national Mission to tackle dementia, which was launched in memory of the late Dame Barbara Windsor.

Hilary Evans is the Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, the largest charitable funder of dementia research in Europe. Nadeem Sarwar is currently a senior leader at Eisai, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Together, they will convene industry, the NHS, academia and families living with dementia, to tackle this devastating illness. Department of Health and Social Care

Temporary border measures to enhance Covid surveillance from China removed

Temporary border measures to enhance Covid surveillance from China removed Precautionary and temporary measures introduced in January to improve the UK’s ability to detect potential new variants of Covid from China are being removed. Department of Health and Social Care

Inside the secret talks to end nurse and ambulance strikes

Inside the secret talks to end nurse and ambulance strikes It was one of the most bitter disputes in the history of the NHS, with the Royal College of Nursing staging its most extensive strike action ever. But as a deal with ministers was reached in England this week, the BBC can now reveal details of the secret and unprecedented talks. BBC News

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Weight-loss: Are injections the answer to tackling obesity?

Weight-loss: Are injections the answer to tackling obesity? You cannot escape the hype around weight-loss injections.

Social media is full of before-and-after pictures. They are the source of wild gossip about Hollywood stars, and now the UK's National Health Service is going to pay for them.

You can understand the appeal. Excess weight affects our health and leads to stigma - and the mantra of "diet and exercise" has simply failed for most people.

But should we be calling semaglutide, the drug in question, a "miracle" or "skinny jab" when some doctors think it is as controversial as treatments get? Does the hype match the reality? Or are we failing to tackle the causes of obesity and just consigning people to a lifetime of medication? BBC News

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Watchdog fears healthcare tech merger could push up NHS costs

Watchdog fears healthcare tech merger could push up NHS costs The competition watchdog has warned that a proposed merger between two healthcare technology specialists would lead to higher costs and “worse outcomes for the NHS and ultimately patients and UK taxpayers”.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found the £1.2bn deal for the US firm UnitedHealth to buy British rival EMIS could reduce competition to develop and supply digital and data analytics products to the health service. The Guardian

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Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England found to use outdated equipment in Lib Dem study

Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England found to use outdated equipment in Lib Dem study Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England are using outdated medical equipment including 37-year-old X-ray machines, according to research from the Lib Dems, who are calling for extra funding to replace outdated devices.

NHS hospitals are using hundreds of old X-ray machines, CT scanners and radiotherapy machines, with some dating back to the 1980s, according to research based on freedom of information requests to 69 hospital trusts. Of these, 41 said they had at least one X-ray machine that was more than 20 years old. The Guardian

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Doubts grow over number of NHS doctors helped by pension giveaway

Doubts grow over number of NHS doctors helped by pension giveaway The number of hospital doctors that could be helped by Jeremy Hunt’s pensions giveaway has been cast into doubt, after new figures revealed that only 100 of them left the NHS last year due to voluntary early retirement.

Criticism has mounted about the measure announced in the budget, which would scrap the up to 55% tax levied on lifetime pension pots worth just over £1m and raise the annual allowance threshold from £40,000 to £60,000. The Guardian

NHS to offer 'world's most expensive' £1.8m-a-dose drug to cure baby spinal disease

NHS to offer 'world's most expensive' £1.8m-a-dose drug to cure baby spinal disease Babies born with a genetic disease that can lead to a life expectancy of just two years without intervention will now be cured on the NHS with a new £1.8million drug.

Around 56 infants are born with severe spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in England every year, which causes muscle weakness and can lead to paralysis.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the NHS watchdog, has approved the use of onasemnogene abeparvovec, branded as Zolgensma, for babies born with the condition. The Daily Mail

Friday, 17 March 2023

Northampton General Hospital nurse shortlisted for national 'Nurse of the Year' for her commitment to end-of-life care

Northampton General Hospital nurse shortlisted for national 'Nurse of the Year' for her commitment to end-of-life care A nurse at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) has been shortlisted for a national ‘Nurse of the Year Award’ for the way she has helped enhance end-of-life care for patients and their families.

Kerry Messam, deputy lead nurse for specialist palliative and end of life care at the Cliftonville hospital, is in the finals of the British Journal of Nursing (BJN) Awards 2023. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

When is a death an excess death? Getting behind the numbers

When is a death an excess death? Getting behind the numbers The number of excess (ie, more than expected) deaths is a measure that’s probably now familiar to many since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020. It's widely used nationally and internationally to measure the mortality impact of Covid-19, including indirect impacts such as deaths resulting from unmet or delayed care. Rising numbers of excess deaths reported for the UK in the latter part of 2022 have received much attention, raising concerns about what's driving them. The King's Fund

The Leading Integration Peer Support Programme: using peer review to strengthen clinical and care professional leadership arrangements within Gloucestershire

The Leading Integration Peer Support Programme: using peer review to strengthen clinical and care professional leadership arrangements within Gloucestershire When developing its local framework for clinical and care professional leadership, Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (One Gloucestershire ICS) wanted to take an approach that explored opportunities to strengthen leadership in an inclusive way. An external peer review, facilitated by the Leading Integration Peer Support (LIPS) Programme, created an opportunity for everyone’s voice to be heard. NHS Confederation

UKHSA urges those with new or multiple sexual partners to get tested after gonorrhoea cases resurge

UKHSA urges those with new or multiple sexual partners to get tested after gonorrhoea cases resurge Provisional data indicates that gonorrhoea diagnoses from January to September 2022 were 21% higher than those reported over the same period in 2019. Data also indicates that during the first 9 months of 2022, gonorrhoea cases were higher than those reported over the same period in each of the last 3 years.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is reminding people to wear a condom and get tested regularly if having sex with new or casual partners. Testing is free and discreet and you should get tested even if you are not showing any symptoms.

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Norovirus cases up 50% as NHS pressure significant

Norovirus cases up 50% as NHS pressure significant Commenting on the NHS weekly winter operational update for the week ending 12 March 2023, NHS National Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “Last week was a clear reminder that, even as we head into Spring, pressure on NHS staff remains significant with almost 5,000 more patients in hospital beds every day last week compared to this time last year, 10% more 111 calls answered than the week before, and we’ve seen a surge in norovirus with cases in hospital increasing by 50% over the past week. NHS England

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MHRA trialling pioneering stem cell robot that could transform the availability of life-saving cell therapies

MHRA trialling pioneering stem cell robot that could transform the availability of life-saving cell therapies An innovative new robot that grows stem cells, the CellQualiaTM Intelligent Cell Processing System, is being trialled by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). This robotic system has the potential to bring safer and more cost-effective treatments to people with a wide range of diseases. It is currently the only one in the world outside of Japan, where it was developed. Department of Health and Social Care

NHS 5% pay offer may end bitter dispute in England

NHS 5% pay offer may end bitter dispute in England A 5% pay rise from April has been offered to NHS staff in England, including nurses and ambulance workers.

In addition, staff have been offered a one-off payment of at least £1,655 to top up the past year's pay award.

You can see the complete offer in principle here Secretary of State offer in principle for the Agenda for Change (AfC) workforce (download).

Unions are recommending members back the deal, after nearly two weeks of talks with ministers, raising hopes the bitter dispute may be coming to an end.

The offer covers all NHS staff except doctors, who are on a different contract. BBC News

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Plans to end free prescriptions for 60-65 year-olds ‘scrapped’ after backlash

Plans to end free prescriptions for 60-65 year-olds ‘scrapped’ after backlash Plans to end free NHS prescriptions for 60-65 year-olds in England have reportedly been scrapped by the Government following backlash.

The plan was first proposed in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government to lift the qualifying age for free prescriptions from 60 to 66 to bring it into line with the state pension age. The Independent