Friday 27 October 2017

Tell us how county council's £9.8million of cuts will hit you and Northampton, urges Healthwatch

Tell us how county council's £9.8million of cuts will hit you and Northampton, urges Healthwatch Healthwatch Northamptonshire wants residents hit by the upcoming £9.6million worth of county council cuts to tell them how they will be affected.

They say the council's planned cuts to libraries, children's services and bus subsidiaries could have a direct impact on health and wellbeing in the county.

It comes after the council announced they would need to find nearly £12million in savings to balance the budget by the end of September 2018. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Review of children and young people's mental health services: Phase one report

Review of children and young people's mental health services: Phase one report This report looks at the quality and accessibility of mental health services for children and young people. It summarises the current state of knowledge from across a range of sources.

The Prime Minister asked us to conduct a review of quality and access across the system of mental health services for children and young people. This report marks the first phase of that review.

The report brings together the insights and experiences of many different people and organisations. It summarises the current state of knowledge, the problems and challenges, and the effect of these problems and challenges on children and young people and their families and carers. Care Quality Commission

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Investigation: WannaCry cyber attack and the NHS

Investigation: WannaCry cyber attack and the NHS The WannaCry cyber attack had potentially serious implications for the NHS and its ability to provide care to patients. It was a relatively unsophisticated attack and could have been prevented by the NHS following basic IT security best practice. There are more sophisticated cyber threats out there than WannaCry so the Department and the NHS need to get their act together to ensure the NHS is better protected against future attacks. National Audit Office

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Social care spending up £556m as costs also rise

Social care spending up £556m as costs also rise Annual spending by local authorities on social care rose by £556 million in 2016/17 to £17.5 billion, new figures show.

That constitutes a 3.3 per cent increase in cash terms and a 1.0 per cent increase in real terms. It is the first time social care expenditure has risen in real terms since 2009/10.

In 2016/17 Local Authorities were able to raise the council tax precept by two percent for the first time in order to fund adult social care. This raised an additional £382 million.

The Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report published by NHS Digital shows that, while expenditure has risen, there has been minimal change in activity, which may be linked to the increasing costs in the provision of care.

Public health: everyone's business?

Public health: everyone's business? This is the second report in the Provider Voices series. It uses 12 interviews with health leaders from a range of trusts and other parts of the service to help gain a better understanding of NHS providers’ role in shaping and delivering public health and care. NHS Providers

Why it is so difficult to develop new antibiotics

Why it is so difficult to develop new antibiotics Over-reliance on and misuse of antibiotics has led to warnings of a future without effective medicines. Why is it so difficult for scientists to discover new drugs?

It's a tale of scientific discovery taught the world over: the serendipitous find of a mould that revolutionised modern medicine.

Almost 90 years ago, Alexander Fleming returned from holiday to find Penicillium on Petri dishes left in his basement laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London.

By the 1950s, the golden age of antibiotic discovery, an array of new medicines was being found.

Today, scientists are searching for a new breakthrough, testing microbes in sources as diverse as soil, caves and Komodo dragon blood, as well as developing new, lab-made synthetic drugs. BBC News

The hopes and fears of young people facing life-limiting conditions

The hopes and fears of young people facing life-limiting conditions A pioneering project has begun which aims to get young people with life-limiting conditions to express their emotions and opinions. BBC News

Sharp rise in number of children admitted to intensive care in England

Sharp rise in number of children admitted to intensive care in England Researchers warn that the increase in children admitted to paediatric intensive care units since 2009 is putting additional pressure on overstretched services

The number of children admitted to intensive care in England has risen sharply since 2009, putting additional pressure on already overstretched health services, researchers have warned.

A study of admissions to paediatric intensive care units in England found a nearly 15% increase from 2004 to 2013, with a larger than expected rise against population growth from 2009 onwards. In Wales there was a more than 2% rise over the period studied. Continue reading... The Guardian

Having a mental illness doesn’t mean you can’t work – I’m proof

Having a mental illness doesn’t mean you can’t work – I’m proof Government research has confirmed that mental health costs the nation £99bn. It doesn’t make financial sense for employers to discriminate

It’s official. The government-commissioned Thriving at Work report has found that many of us are not, in fact, thriving at work. About 300,000 of us with long-term mental health problems lose their job each year in the UK. For me, this is news alongside sky is blue; Liverpool FC are perpetually underachieving; David Davis understands the Brexit process as much as he does superstring theory.

There’s a crisis safety net when individuals reach the nadir, and that’s it Continue reading... The Guardian

Three lessons from Houston that could help your city fight the diabetes crisis

Three lessons from Houston that could help your city fight the diabetes crisis I’ve worked in public health for 20 years but my peers and I were completely caught off guard by the true picture of the city’s obesity and diabetes problem

Diabetes is such a global crisis that it unavoidably brings us together. Over the past two years Houston has been getting to grips with the problem, as one of the first members of a coalition called Cities Changing Diabetes.

On 26 and 27 October, our city is hosting the US’s first global summit on urban diabetes in order to share what we’ve learned. So here are three unexpected things our experience has taught us that could help other cities in their fight. Continue reading... The Guardian

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Stop rationing cataracts until patients are nearly blind, NHS warned 

Stop rationing cataracts until patients are nearly blind, NHS warned The NHS must stop rationing cataract surgery, or delaying it so long that elderly patients are almost blind, new national health service guidance states.

Investigations have found that patients who are losing their sight are waiting up to 15 months for cataract surgery, amid a stark postcode lottery across the health service

Thousands of sufferers are being forced to wait as their eyesight deteriorates, with some going untreated until they are nearly blind. The Daily Telegraph

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NHS must help staff who have to deal with terror attacks

NHS must help staff who have to deal with terror attacks The NHS must plan for the devastating long term effects on staff dealing with mass casualty terror attacks, such as the Manchester suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande gig which killed 22 innocent concert-goers, warns a new report.

Experts claim the physical and psychological complications of such atrocities on medical staff who have to deal with the repercussions of the horrific events are 'severe, under-reported, and underappreciated'. The Daily Mail

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