Thursday 4 January 2018

Northampton General Hospital reinvests surplus money from parking charges into healthcare

Northampton General Hospital reinvests surplus money from parking charges into healthcare Northampton General Hospital retains all the money it makes in pay and display parking charges, reinvesting it into its car park facilities and health provision.

Last week, a series of Freedom of Information requests made by Mail Online revealed Northampton's main hospital to have the second most expensive car park (£3.20/hour) in the country behind Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford (£4/hour).

The hospital made £1.67 million in charges during the 2016/17 financial year, which is used to pay for things like the car park's security, administrative costs, and its maintenance. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Volunteers lent four-wheel drives to take Northamptonshire medics to poorly patients in the snow

Volunteers lent four-wheel drives to take Northamptonshire medics to poorly patients in the snow Over 70 volunteers for a Northamptonshire charity worked around the clock in December to help transport nurses and doctors to see their patients during the bitter weather. Many people rely on services that normally get taken for granted such as carer or district nurse visits, but when the roads become treacherous through ice, snow or flooding these services become a lot harder to provide. Volunteers from the charity Northants 4x4 Response covered hundreds of miles in Northamptonshire over the festive period, providing specialist transport for the emergency and essential services who needed to carry out their work regardless of the conditions. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Local government spending on public health: death by a thousand cuts

Local government spending on public health: death by a thousand cuts On health the November budget, as ever, was dominated by the numbers on NHS funding and whether the chancellor would find up to £4 billion more to maintain the standard of services. In the end he did find more, though not as much as is needed. There was no mention of social care funding or public health funding. However, as in every budget, there were policy changes that will impact on health including on housing and homelessness, and changes in excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The King's Fund

Independent doctors to be rated by the Care Quality Commission

Independent doctors to be rated by the Care Quality Commission New changes mean that, for the first time, all healthcare organisations in England that offer regulated care will be rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Organisations will have to display their inspection ratings so patients can clearly see safety standards.

The CQC’s current ratings programme – which covers hospital care, social care and GPs – will be extended to include more than 800 additional providers. This includes independent doctors that offer primary care online. Department of Health

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt sorry as A&Es struggle to cope

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt sorry as A&Es struggle to cope Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has apologised to patients in England who have had their operations postponed.

Non-urgent treatments had already been cancelled until mid-January, but NHS England said on Tuesday that would now be extended to the end of the month.

It came after hospitals reported they were struggling to cope with the surge in patients being seen since Christmas.

At least 17 hospital trusts - one in 10 - have declared a major incident in the last 24 hours, the BBC understands.

Bosses said they had been forced into the move as patients were experiencing long waits in A&E and being left on trolleys in corridors because there were no beds available. BBC News

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One in four pregnant women has mental health problem

One in four pregnant women has mental health problem A quarter of all pregnant women suffer from mental health problems, a UK study has revealed.

For the first time in the UK, researchers at King’s College in London looked at the prevalence of mental health problems or mental health disorders in pregnant women when visiting their midwives for ante-natal care.

They found that when interviewed, one in four women had a mental illness ranging from depression (11 per cent) and anxiety (15 per cent) to eating disorders (two per cent) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (two per cent). iNews

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NHS bosses have failed to declare nearly £4 million

NHS bosses have failed to declare nearly £4 million Regional health trusts accepted £5,027,818 from firms between 2015 and 2017, according to freedom of information data from all 207 clinical commissioning groups in England. The Daily Mail

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