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Post by Admin on Aug 17, 2022 9:08:06 GMT
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Post by Admin on Sept 7, 2022 18:50:53 GMT
‘No dentist will see me’: One million pregnant women and new mothers denied free NHS dental care Katie Grant www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/no-dentist-will-see-me-one-million-pregnant-women-and-new-mothers-denied-free-nhs-dental-care/ar-AA11yuTeJennifer is six months pregnant with her second child and needs emergency dental treatment. She has been waiting for an appointment for nearly two years. The 38-year-old has a unique way of charting the wait – she began seeking treatment in 2020, when her first baby was still a bump. That baby is now 19 months old. Jennifer is six months pregnant with her second child and needs emergency dental treatment. She has been waiting for an appointment for nearly two years. The 38-year-old has a unique way of charting the wait – she began seeking treatment in 2020, when her first baby was still a bump. That baby is now 19 months old. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can make gums more vulnerable to plaque, leading to inflammation and bleeding, while morning sickness can also damage teeth (Photo: Stone RF/Getty) Hormonal changes during pregnancy can make gums more vulnerable to plaque, leading to inflammation and bleeding, while morning sickness can also damage teeth (Photo: Stone RF/Getty) © Provided by The i Despite her best efforts to secure an appointment, Jennifer has been unable to access the free NHS dental care to which she is entitled. She is one of hundreds of thousands of women stuck in this position. Almost one million pregnant women and new mothers in England were denied free NHS dental treatment in the two years to March 2022, leaving women and their babies vulnerable to serious health problems. All pregnant women across the UK are entitled to free NHS dental care while they are expecting, and for 12 months after their baby is born. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can make gums more vulnerable to plaque, leading to inflammation and bleeding, while changes to dietary habits and morning sickness can also damage teeth. Periodontitis – gum disease – in pregnant women, is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, research indicates. But well over 900,000 expectant and new mothers were unable to access NHS dental treatment for two years, saving the Government an estimated £46m, figures shared with i show. In the five years prior to the pandemic, an average of just over 840,000 pregnant women and new mothers completed courses of free NHS dental treatment in England annually. This figure plummeted to 245,967 in 2020/21 when the country entered lockdown, according to the data supplied by the British Dental Association (BDA). The number of maternity claims rose to 490,298 in 2021/22, leaving an estimated 944,039 maternity appointments lost since lockdown. The true number of women denied appointments is likely to be much higher as the BDA figures only take data from NHS England into account. Jennifer, who lives in Surrey with her fiancé and their toddler, first attempted to see a dentist while pregnant in late 2020 when the couple were based in London, but found there was “zero availability”. It was only after their baby was born in 2021 that she decided she could not wait any longer – she was in agony and paid hundreds of pounds to go private, despite still being eligible for free NHS treatment.
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Post by Admin on Sept 8, 2022 14:31:41 GMT
New health secretary Therese Coffey branded ‘bizarre’ by BMA chief over claim NHS staff levels at record high Paul Gallagher www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/new-health-secretary-therese-coffey-branded-bizarre-by-bma-chief-over-claim-nhs-staff-levels-at-record-high/ar-AA11znC3New health secretary Therese Coffey has been branded “bizarre” by the head of the British Medical Association for claiming NHS staff numbers have reached a record number when there is now an all-time high of 132,000 vacancies in the health service. British Medical Association council chair Professor Philip Banfield said Ms Coffey had inherited an NHS “in greater crisis than any of her predecessors”. He called for her to come up with an emergency plan on how to fix it within days laying out the Government’s priorities around doctors and patients’ access to care. Referring to comments Ms Coffey made during her first full day in the role, Professor Banfield told i: “It was somewhat bizarre to hear the new Health Secretary talk of record numbers of staff in the NHS, when we have 130,000 vacancies in secondary care in England alone, and have lost the equivalent of almost 2,000 full-time GPs in England since 2015 when the Conservatives began pledging to recruit 5,000 more. “For patients waiting for hours on trolleys and in ambulances, or struggling to get an appointment at their practice, or the healthcare workers battling to provide care amid rota gaps and workforce shortages, these comments will seem completely out of touch.” Ms Coffey takes on arguably the most challenging role in government with one in seven British people waiting for routine treatment, ambulance delays the worst on record and experts lambasting Boris Johnson’s claim to have fixed social care as “one final insult”. Health unions are also balloting members on whether to strike later this year as the row over NHS pay continues. Ms Coffey said spending on health and social care will remain “exactly the same” despite Liz Truss’s planned reversal of the National Insurance hike. The previous Government had raised the level to pump in an extra £12bn for tackling the NHS backlog with waiting lists hitting record high of 6.7 million people in England. On hospitals, Ms Coffey said: “There are actually thousands of people currently in hospital today, who don’t need clinically to be in hospital that need that care for once they leave hospital. That’s why it’s this combination of focusing on social care and health is going to be critical.” Recommended video: NHS 111 health advisor now has had to pay for care after NHS failed her During her first Prime Ministers’ Questions, Lz Truss said that her new Health Secretary will be taking “immediate action” to allow people to get GP appointments, amid complaints across the country that it takes weeks for people to have a face-to-face appointment. Professor Banfield said: “If they want to make a real difference, they need to understand the severe crisis the whole health service is in, and the unprecedented pressures these same doctors and their colleagues are under in an understaffed and under-resourced system. While the Prime Minister says she will make sure everyone can get a doctor’s appointment, you cannot create extra appointments out of thin air, or without the doctors to do them.” Professor Banfield urged the Government to work with the BMA to make good on their pledge to “put the NHS on a firm footing”. He said: “Doctors are the solution, not the problem.” Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, also said publication of a long-term workforce plan is a top priority. He said: “We need to ensure we’re training enough doctors for the future, but we also need to be working to keep highly-trained, experienced doctors in the profession, not tied up in red tape but delivering patient care. “This is why we’ve launched Fit for the Future, calling for a bold new plan for general practice. We want to see a new recruitment and retention strategy that goes beyond the target of 6,000 GPs pledged by government in their election manifesto, plus investment in our IT systems and premises and steps to cut bureaucracy so that we can deliver the safe high-quality care that our patients need and deserve.” Earlier, Ms Coffey had outlined her top four priorities in the new role: “A, B, C, D – ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists”. She also pledged to do more on delayed discharges of people from hospital, which prevents other people from accessing beds. “There are actually thousands of people currently in hospital today who don’t need clinically to be in hospital, that need that care for once they leave hospital,” she said. “That’s why it’s this combination of focusing on social care and health (that) is going to be critical.” Social care remains in a perilous position, which has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis which experts say is set to worsen in coming months. Care homes have said they are faced with a ten-fold rise in energy costs which will leave them facing bankruptcy. Care England has written to the Prime Minister calling for the extension of the £400 energy rebate to vulnerable people in care and supported housing, introducing parity in the way they are treated compared with those living in their own homes. Chief executive Professor Martin Green said: “The adult social care sector is under extreme pressure. Long-standing workforce and funding issues have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, set to worsen in coming months. Care England has delivered a blueprint of immediate action to the new Government to start the re-stabilisation of the sector which current Government support packages have failed to do for energy, workforce, and funding. “This is essential to prevent widespread market collapse and to help commence the journey towards a sustainable future for the sector given 45 per cent of providers in the South East [of England] are considering exiting the market.”
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Post by Admin on Sept 8, 2022 18:08:04 GMT
Record 6.8m people on NHS waiting lists in England Laura Donnelly www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/record-6-8m-people-on-nhs-waiting-lists-in-england/ar-AA11BJjgNHS waiting lists in England have reached a new high, with 6.8 million people – one in eight of the population – in the queue for hospital treatment. The official statistics show that the number keeps rising, with record numbers waiting for tests to check whether they have cancer. The number of patients given an urgent referral for suspected cancer is the highest July figure recorded in records going back to 2009. NHS England statistics show that 238,771 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England that month, up from 229,093 in June and the fourth highest number of monthly referrals on record. The total number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment rose to 6.8 million at the end of July, up from 6.7 million in June and the highest number since records began in August 2007. Before the Covid pandemic, the figure was 4.6 million. The statistics also show that more than 13,000 beds a day are being taken by patients who do not need to be in hospital. Last winter, the figure peaked at 12,201. In total, 45 per cent of patients who were ready to be discharged remained stuck in hospital last month, officials said. The figures show the number of people facing waits of more than 18 months has fallen by almost a third since January, with 51,838 facing such delays. The NHS is aiming to eliminate 18-month waits by April next year, except where the patient chooses to wait longer or for very complex cases requiring specialist treatment. It comes as Therese Coffey, the Health Secretary, drew up new NHS recovery plans after Liz Truss pledged to divert billions of pounds from health services into social care. The figures show improvements in A&E waiting times and ambulance delays. Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said: “This month’s figures show that, despite another significant wave of Covid infection this summer, we are making significant progress on reducing backlogs with waits of more than 18 months down and the lowest number of patients waiting for tests and checks since we published our elective recovery plan. “We also saw improvements in A&E performance and ambulance response times across all measures this month, despite responding to a record numbers of the most serious ambulance callouts across summer – up a third on pre-pandemic levels – and continued challenges discharging into the community and social care.” Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “The new Health Secretary had vowed to deliver for patients. Sadly for cancer patients, who today face some of the worst waits for diagnosis and treatment on record, we’re a long way off. “When one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, tackling the crisis currently facing cancer services must be at the top of Therese Coffey’s in-tray. “A positive first step would be to deliver an ambitious and fully funded plan to give cancer patients the care they deserve. It’s time we transform cancer services in this country from world lagging to world leading.”
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Post by Admin on Sept 8, 2022 21:01:22 GMT
GPs warn of ‘tsunami of demand’ this winter as patient contacts surge 200% Rebecca Thomas www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/gps-warn-of-tsunami-of-demand-this-winter-as-patient-contacts-surge-200/ar-AA11zw41One of the largest GP providers in the UK, Modality Partnership, told The Independent it received 4.8 million calls from patients in one year alone with around a quarter going unanswered across many of its practices every day. The provider, which covers 500,000 patients across the country, said its practices were now working above “safe levels” with 50 appointments a day per GP, far higher than the 35 advised by the British Medical Association. Speaking with The Independent, Vincent Sai, chief executive and partner at Modality said the new health secretary Therese Coffey must “not point fingers” and “not find a scapegoat” as “every part of the system is under pressure. Every player in the health system is under the cosh.” The warning comes after new prime minister Liz Truss outlined GP access as one of her key priorities as new prime minister. Ms Coffey is yet to set out key details of the plan for improving GP access but did confirm she would not implement charges for appointments.
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Post by Admin on Sept 11, 2022 15:02:34 GMT
Millions of UK patients forced to go private amid record NHS waiting lists Andrew Gregory Health editor www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/millions-of-uk-patients-forced-to-go-private-amid-record-nhs-waiting-lists/ar-AA11H7NlMillions of patients are being forced to pay for private healthcare amid record NHS waiting lists and are having to cut spending, raid savings or get into debt to fund it, new research reveals. One in 10 (10%) adults in the UK have turned to the private sector or independent healthcare in just the last 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by charity Engage Britain. Of those, almost two thirds (63%) did so because they faced long delays or could not access treatment on the NHS. The latest NHS England figures show the number of people in England waiting for routine hospital treatments has jumped to a record 6.8 million. Of those who have gone private, almost half (46%) were forced to reduce their spending in other areas, plunder savings they had been keeping for another purpose, or get into financial debt to pay for it. Related: Record 6.8m people waiting for hospital treatment in England Miriam Levin, health and care programme director at Engage Britain, said: “While the NHS still unites many of us with a feeling of pride, it’s clear more and more people feel forced to turn to private treatment. “As people suffer through months of pain and discomfort after postponed appointments, or waste time and energy chasing up referrals, millions are feeling desperate enough to use savings or get into debt to help us get well again.” Faced with the prospect of waiting many months on the NHS, Leanne Langford, 59, who damaged her knee while learning to dance, sold her motorbike and took out a loan to pay for a knee replacement operation performed in the private sector. “I know what the NHS is going through,” she said. “Waiting for eight weeks might become 12 weeks or more. Living on my own I didn’t have anyone to help me and relying on friends just didn’t feel right.” The surgery cost the mother of two from Kent about £9,000. “It did frighten me how much it was. I’ve not been in debt, I’ve been very fortunate. So I was concerned by that. “There’s always a perception if you haven’t needed the NHS – more than the odd prescription – that it would be there in your hour of need. But of course that wasn’t the case for me then, and it’s certainly not the case now. “The NHS is amazing and it’s doing far more than it was set up to do. But the current crisis has shown us there need to be some changes in its delivery and our expectations of it.” The survey, commissioned by Engage Britain and conducted by Yonder, polled 2,075 UK adults. Of those who went private in the last year, 46% selected at least one of the following when asked about the financial impact: “I had to go into debt”, “I had to cut back on my spending” or “I had to use savings that I was keeping for another purpose”. Louise Ansari, national director at Healthwatch England, said the research was “very concerning”. “People on the lowest incomes are the most likely to wait the longest for NHS treatment and will have a more negative experience of waiting,” she said. “In turn, this leads to a worse impact on their physical health, mental health and their ability to work and care for loved ones. “Tackling the NHS backlog is a huge challenge but decision-makers must find a way to do so without exacerbating health inequalities, the extent of which has been laid bare by the pandemic.” Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said: “Whilst health leaders have been working at full pelt to drive down patient waiting times, they know only too well the challenge of clearing the treatment backlog is far from over. “The NHS is understaffed with over 130,000 vacancies at the last count, and a continued lack of investment is being compounded by decades of austerity. The founding principle of the health is that it is exists for everyone and does not discriminate based on whether people can pay. “The new government would do well to remember that and need to do more to ensure that timely and safe care and treatment are not only available to those that can afford it.” When asked, “Which of the following best describes the reason why you had private healthcare?”, 45% responded, “Because of the waiting time for NHS treatment”, and 18% chose “Because the treatment you needed was not available on the NHS”, with 63% choosing one of the two options. Related: NHS is ‘over the precipice’, warns nurses’ leader as strike vote looms Of those who had experienced NHS healthcare in the last 12 months, more than one in four (28%) reported having had an appointment cancelled or postponed. Almost one in five (18%) said they had not been notified about “something important” relating to their treatment, while 12% reported not being kept “properly updated” while waiting. One in 10 (11%) said there had been a mistake in correspondence from the NHS relating to their treatment. An NHS England spokesperson said record numbers of people were being treated by the NHS with waits of more than two years “virtually eliminated” and those waiting more than 18 months down by more than 20,000 since January. “The message to patients is clear and has not changed – it is vital that people do not put off seeking care when they need it.” A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are working to ease pressure on the NHS by busting the Covid backlogs, and recently announced the opening of 50 surgical hubs on top of the 91 that are already open, which will ensure millions of people get the surgery they need.”
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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2022 9:17:19 GMT
UK social care faces “tipping point” as energy costs soar Stephen Alexander www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/16/nvht-s16.htmlThe cost-of-living crisis is compounding desperate conditions in the UK’s social care system, following the widespread collapse of care standards during the COVID pandemic, culminating from decades of privatisation and austerity cuts. The sector was brought to the point of collapse in the initial waves of the pandemic, when tens of thousands of elderly, disabled and sick care home residents died in horrifying conditions, cut off from medical care. Hundreds of social care staff, who were forced to work without the slightest protection from infection, also lost their lives. Now, in response to the unprecedented hike in energy costs and rampant inflation, care providers are expanding cutbacks to services as well as raising user fees. Residential care and nursing homes, hospices and other vital care facilities are seeing their energy cost soar by between 500 and 1,000 percent as a result NATO’s proxy war against Russia and the rampant government-backed profiteering of the energy companies. According to Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England, “For years, those of us within the sector have spoken about social care as approaching a ‘tipping point’. The energy crisis being witnessed today may be what finally pushes it over the edge.” Figures produced by Care England show that care providers would have to pay £5,166 per bed per annum to buy gas and electricity from August. This is almost a 10-fold increase, with the comparative cost in August 2021 being £660 per bed per annum. Professor Green said the figures “illustrate the true scale of the energy crisis facing adult social care, with providers facing a staggering 683 percent increase in energy costs over the last 12 months.” This represents an additional cost of over £2 billion per annum for the sector as a whole. “Current packages of government support ignore the social care sector entirely. Care providers, despite paying the same VAT [sales tax] and Green Levy rates on energy bills as domestic settings, are not subject to the domestic price cap and are not set to benefit from the £400 energy rebate,” Professor Green said. In response to the Conservative government’s homicidal demand that the population cut back on energy usage over winter, Professor Green said, “Unlike other businesses, care providers cannot reduce opening hours, turn off the lights, or switch off the heating or cooling, they house and care for some of society’s most vulnerable and we are already seeing 45 percent of providers considering exiting the market due to the current financial unsustainability in the sector.” A recent survey of care providers conducted by the Independent Care Group found that 93 percent of care homes are instituting cutbacks, including making already scarce staff redundant and reducing the quality and quantity of food for residents. According to the survey, “81 percent of homes… said they would have to increase fees for residents, with rises of between 5 and 15 percent.” Another survey of 45 independent care providers conducted by the National Care Association for the Guardian, found that around half of their homes have reduced the amount of time staff spend talking to residents, supporting entertainment and cultural activities, including trips out of the home. Even prior to the escalation of the cost-of-living crisis, a spate of inspections over the summer by the Care Quality Commission exposed the fact that many homes are unable to meet the basic needs of their residents. The regulator found residents left in their rooms for a day or more without support, going without showers for more than a week, with others left soiled for long periods and subject to attacks from fellow residents. Of the 14,597 homes registered with the CQC, 241 are rated inadequate with 2,441 (17 percent) rated as “require improvement”. According to Disability News Service, more than half of care homes that had a new rating published in July were found to be requiring improvement (182 homes, or 43 percent) or inadequate (38 or nine percent). The CQC’s recent inspections have a failure rate of more than three times the 18 percent failure rate among all care homes. The sector continues to haemorrhage workers due to poverty wages, highly exploitative working conditions and the trauma of witnessing mass death and sickness. Staff are leaving for less stressful and marginally better paid jobs in retail, logistics and food services. One in 10 posts, or 160,000 full-time positions, are now vacant in England’s care sector, a rise of 52 percent or 55,000 vacancies in one year, according to Skill for Care. More than 400,000 left the profession over the same period. The staffing crisis in both health and social care has been a boon to private recruitment companies, as hospitals and care homes have become increasingly reliant on temporary agency staff. They charge around twice the rate of permanent staff—£19.57 versus £9.90 per hour for care staff and £37.56 versus £19.49 for nurses—and make profit margins as high as 50 percent on each shift. Significant numbers of staff have left permanent employment for agency work where they can earn higher wages. Recent research by Care England found that 78 percent of care home, home care and supported living providers have been using more or significantly more agency staff in May and June compared to April 2021. Agency staff are also harder to come by and more expensive due to competition between care homes and the National Health Service (NHS) for scarce healthcare workers. Three-quarters of respondents said that reliance on agency workers was affecting the quality and continuity of care. The lack of social care resources has left millions without vital social care services, including people who cannot bath, shower, feed, or dress themselves. According to the Care and Support Alliance, 2.6 million people aged fifty and above are presently living with unmet care needs, amounting to 12 percent of the population of England in this age bracket. There are 13,000 people awaiting discharge from hospitals but cannot access the social care they need. This can cause deadly delays in admitting patients from Accident and Emergency services, under conditions in which the NHS is faced with the impossible task—given current resources—of clearing its record 6.7 million treatment backlog. The response of the Conservative government to the devastating crisis in social care is of a piece with its callous indifference to the lives of the disabled and elderly during the pandemic. Newly installed Prime Minister Liz Truss pledged to double the additional £5.7 billion in care funding set out by the Johnson government over the next three years. But this is to be achieved by robbing Peter to pay Paul, as she intends to divert finance away from desperately underfunded NHS hospitals and services. From October 2023, an £86,000 cap on social care costs is being introduced, setting a maximum an individual can be asked to contribute towards their own care. This is a blatant smash and grab from the meagre assets of working-class people. Since any means-tested support is excluded, poorer pensioners and the disabled will personally pay as much as the richer. Proportionally, they will bear a greater financial burden because of accessing social care than the better off. While this “reform” will protect the assets of wealthy households from the costs of long-term care it also leaves the for-profit providers to plunder the household assets of working-class people. Health and Social Care Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, intends to hand hundreds of millions of pounds in public funding to private residential care companies, with the justification of helping free up NHS hospital bedsplacing thousands of vulnerable people in dangerously under-resourced homes. The measure effectively revives the deadly “discharge to assess” scheme operated during the pandemic, a policy which the High Court later ruled was unlawful. Tens of thousands of patients were discharged into care homes without testing or quarantine, contributing to a death rate 10 times higher among care home residents than comparable age groups living in private residences. Timed to relieve the NHS of increased winter demand, Coffey’s plan will coincide with an autumn surge in coronavirus which, experts anticipate, could produce unprecedented infection rates. Moreover, it will go ahead under conditions where free testing and wearing compulsory personal protective equipment have been discontinued across health and social care. Hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people will be exposed to reinfection and the associated heightened risk of serious health complications and death. NHS FightBack, established by the Socialist Equality Party, calls for the establishment of rank-and-file committees of health/care workers to fight for the following demands: Halt the privatisation of the NHS—Facilities allocated for private patients must be utilised to treat NHS patients. Privatised services must be taken back into the NHS. Restore all lost pay for health and care workers—The loss in real wages must be fully reversed and a substantial rise awarded to ensure the low-paid receive a liveable wage. Stop all health/care cuts—All patients must have access to suitable treatment regardless of their age, frailty, disability, or visa status. Fully funded social care for all. Those who agree with this perspective should contact NHS FightBack, link up with our Facebook page, and take part in a confidential discussion with like-minded workers on setting up Health and Social Care Rank-and-File Committees.
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Post by Admin on Sept 18, 2022 20:44:20 GMT
'NHS in crisis': 500 people may be dying unnecessarily every week Lucy Johnston – Sunday Express Health Editor www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/nhs-in-crisis-500-people-may-be-dying-unnecessarily-every-week/ar-AA11Y7QlThey have urged the Government to take immediate action and have shared research with NHS England executives suggesting a crisis in the system is leading to thousands of avoidable deaths every month. A shortage of hospital beds has seen patients kept in ambulances or A&E. This in turn means fewer free ambulances and less space in A&E. Delays in treatment can also make a patient's condition worse. A report released last week revealed 35,000 patients were harmed as a result of ambulance delays in August alone. Approximately 4,000 of these experienced "severe harm", sometimes leading to death, according to the report by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. Serious harm incidents have included epileptic seizures, strokes, untreated sepsis, pressure sores, failure to give vital fluids and dangerously low oxygen levels. The RCEM says the NHS is facing as big a crisis as at the start of the pandemic and unless more is done to increase bed capacity by winter, sick and dying patients will be forced to "double up in corridors," or remain "stuck'' in ambulances that are unable to offload. Thousands will have operations and medical procedures cancelled, they warn. An analysis on excess deaths in England and Wales shows that this year there have been 11,000 deaths above the five-year average, or over the number normally expected. Excess deaths were above average for most of the pandemic due to increased Covid related deaths. However, while Covid deaths have remained low, since June there have been around 1,000 extra people dying every week from non-Covid causes. The RCEM believes long emergency care waits are partly to blame. RCEM president Dr Katherine Henderson said: "The emergency care system is in crisis. We believe up to 500 of the 1,000 excess weekly deaths relate to the collapse of the emergency care system. "Frail, elderly, mentally ill and those who are acutely ill, injured and distressed are being failed. And this is not just older people but across the age spectrum. We now have an acute post-pandemic problem on a scale as serious as the pandemic itself. "We need political engagement with the Prime Minister and Health Secretary to prevent more serious problems this winter." Dr Adrian Boyle, vice-chair of the RCEM, said the crisis stemmed from a lack of NHS beds. "The system-wide problem is happening because our hospitals are full and that is leading to full emergency departments. "We are short of 14,000 beds. In addition to this there are a lot of people in hospitals who cannot be discharged because they do not have safe social care in the community." A Department of Health spokesperson said: "The NHS has set out measures to rapidly boost capacity and resilience ahead of winter, including increasing the number of NHS 999 and 111 call handlers this year and creating the equivalent of 7,000 more beds."
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Post by Admin on Sept 20, 2022 23:38:36 GMT
Are people enjoying the end of proper medical care? Nearly 90,000 more people died at home from non-Covid causes in pandemic Sarah Knapton www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/nearly-90-000-more-people-died-at-home-from-non-covid-causes-in-pandemic/ar-AA122TpiNearly 90,000 more people died at home from non-Covid causes during the pandemic, leading to fears that some could not access medical treatment or passed away without pain relief. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there was a 30.2 per cent increase in deaths in private homes between March 2020 and June 2022. At the same time, the number of people dying in hospital and hospices for non-Covid reasons plummeted by nearly 95,000, suggesting that most of those who died at home would ordinarily have been taken in for care. Charities said that the situation was concerning and needed urgent investigation. ‘Postcode lottery in palliative care’ Ruth Driscoll, the head of policy and public affairs for England at Marie Curie, said: “This significant increase in the number people dying at home due to terminal illness is deeply concerning because many of these people are struggling to access the pain relief and end of life care they need, especially at nights and weekends, due to the postcode lottery in palliative care across England and Wales. “We urge the Government to invest in local services and the health and care workforce to ensure that in future nobody is left to die in pain and without dignity.” Figures show that the number of people dying at home from heart disease rose by 19.1 per cent during the pandemic period, with 9,991 more deaths than expected compared to the five-year average. Likewise, there were 9,134 more deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in private homes, an increase of 62.5 per cent, and 9,593 more deaths from cancers. Commenting on the figures, the ONS said: “There is evidence that deaths due to causes other than Covid-19, usually expected to have occurred in hospitals were transposed to other places of occurrence, particularly private homes.” Rise in non-Covid excess deaths The new statistics also show there has been a worrying rise in non-Covid excess deaths in recent months, with May recording 15.4 per cent more deaths than the five-year average, while June experienced a rise of 8.6 per cent. Of the 6,473 excess deaths in May, more than three-quarters – 4,897 or 76 per cent – were not due to coronavirus while in June, 82 per cent were non-Covid. The ONS said that many of the excess deaths this year were owing to cardiac arrhythmias, heart diseases and diabetes, as well as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said that urgent research was needed to find out why so many more people were dying of heart problems. “Far more people are now dying at home from cardiovascular causes than before the pandemic,” she said. “Patients with heart disease continue to face delays to their vital care from delays in having heart surgery to long ambulance waits even for heart attacks and for life-threatening arrhythmia. “This is a deeply concerning situation with devastating consequences that needs to be addressed urgently if we are to reduce avoidable deaths.” She added: “We also need to understand whether the families of people who died of heart disease at home had access to the home-based support and care they needed.” ‘Mortality displacement’ Overall, there have been 3,848 excess deaths registered in England and Wales in the first half of 2022. The ONS also said it was possible that there has been some “mortality displacement”, with the number of deaths higher than average now because of below-average deaths earlier in the year. Sarah Caul, the head of mortality analysis at the ONS, said: “Excess deaths do fluctuate over time. And when looking at individual months in 2022, the number of deaths were below expected levels in January and February.”
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Post by Admin on Sept 21, 2022 1:04:58 GMT
Millions in poor health due to lack of rehab after illness, warns UK report Andrew Gregory Health editor www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/millions-in-poor-health-due-to-lack-of-rehab-after-illness-warns-uk-report/ar-AA123ErEMillions of people in the UK are suffering poor health because they miss out on vital rehabilitation after strokes, heart attacks and cancer, which in turn is also heaping further pressure on the NHS, a damning report warns. Physiotherapists say some groups of patients are particularly badly affected. Without access to these services, many patients desperately trying to recover from illness became “stuck in a downward spiral”, they said, with some developing other health conditions as a result. The new report by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) says millions of people in marginalised communities, including those from ethnic minorities, are not only more likely to live shorter lives, but also spend a greater proportion of their lives struggling with health difficulties. Vital services that could tackle those inequities are either unavailable or poorly equipped to meet their needs, the report warns, adding that “some communities face particular barriers”. Prof Karen Middleton, the chief executive of the CSP, said: “Rehabilitation services have been under-resourced for decades and were not designed coherently in the first place. This has exacerbated poor health outcomes, particularly for people from marginalised groups. “It’s not only the individual who suffers. Without adequate access to rehabilitation, health conditions worsen to the point where more and more pressure is eventually piled on struggling local health systems and other public services. “We desperately need a modernised recovery and rehabilitation service that adequately supports patients following a health crisis and prevents other conditions developing.” People who face “systemic discrimination and marginalisation” and those who live in poor communities are more likely to miss out on rehab, the report says. The CSP said access to high-quality rehabilitation services must be improved to avoid “further entrenching health inequalities faced by millions”. People are living longer with long-term conditions and after cancer, stroke or heart disease. When people are dealing with a long-term condition, their future health and wellbeing “makes a significant difference”, according to the report. However, the authors warned: “It should be universally available as an unmissable part of treatment. But currently millions miss out. “Without rehabilitation people can be stuck in a downward spiral where having one long-term condition leads to other health conditions, including further long-term conditions, with loss of mobility and poor mental health and multiple medication regimes. “Ensuring everyone who needs rehabilitation can access it can reverse this downward spiral.” It emerged on Tuesday that thousands of physiotherapy staff in England and Wales would vote on industrial action after overwhelmingly rejecting this year’s NHS pay award. The CSP said almost 80% of those voting in England said they were prepared to take industrial action, with 83% in Wales. The CSP council recommended members voted in support of action. A decision has already been taken to ballot in Scotland.
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Post by Admin on Sept 28, 2022 20:07:40 GMT
'End of the NHS as we know it' if chancellor does not reverse mini-budget Ed Conway - Economics & data editor www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/end-of-the-nhs-as-we-know-it-if-chancellor-does-not-reverse-mini-budget/ar-AA12jPPfIf the government does not reverse its fiscal plans in the coming weeks, it may be left with little option but to cut public spending so significantly it could result in the end of the National Health Service, according to one of Britain's leading economic policymakers of recent decades. Sir Charlie Bean, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, urged the Bank to carry out an emergency interest rate rise of 1.5 percentage points to help calm the markets. He warned that the government has begun to lose the confidence of markets. UK policy condemned as 'utterly irresponsible' - pound latest "The thing about credulity is when you lose it, it can be quite difficult to get it back," he told Sky News. "It takes time." Sir Charlie's warning came as the International Monetary Fund criticised the mini-budget, saying it would "likely increase inequality" in the UK. 'It is serious' Asked whether that was where the country is now, Sir Charlie added: "I would say that we've got a few steps down the road. It is serious. And I don't think the government can really afford just to say, 'Oh, this is just a little bit of froth in markets; they'll come to their senses as soon as we lay out our full programme.' "There are real questions to be addressed about how the government's fiscal strategy hangs together, and how it can ensure that the debt to GDP ratio is back on to a sustainable path by the medium term." Asked what it could do to resolve the situation, Sir Charlie said: "The ideal would be to get a Tardis and go back and undo the errors… I find it implausible that the measures that are presently being contemplated to boost growth… will be anything like powerful enough to obviate the need for some significant spending cuts." He added that the scale of those cuts - potentially as much as £50bn a year - would have enormous consequences for the public sector. "Frankly, the only way you can really deal with this is with a very fundamental rethinking of the boundaries of the state. "So if you want to get the share of government spending to GDP down, you have to be prepared, say, to move away from our own health service, which is free at the point of delivery to one funded by social insurance like they do in Germany." Sir Charlie said that had he still been at the Bank he would have advised Andrew Bailey, the governor, to hold an emergency interest rate meeting. "And the evidence from many of these sorts of episodes across the world is that the secret is to go early and go big. So had the bank decided to have an emergency meeting, it would have needed to raise bank rate by at least I think 100 basis points (a full percentage point), or possibly 150 basis points. Anything less than that would have been worse than not doing anything."
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2022 17:07:26 GMT
NHS faces cuts to cancer, mental health and GP services due to £21bn financial black hole Jane Merrick www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/nhs-faces-cuts-to-cancer-mental-health-and-gp-services-due-to-21bn-financial-black-hole/ar-AA12FPnkThe NHS is facing a funding black hole of £21bn by 2024 and may be forced to scale back on its core provision of GP services and cancer and mental health treatment unless the government can offer more money, health chiefs have warned. Ongoing pressures due to covid mean that the NHS in England has identified a shortfall in funding of £14bn by 2024, with a further £6bn to £7bn missing from the balance sheet due to the costs of high inflation over the next year, a meeting of the NHS board heard on Thursday. The size of the black hole is £7bn in the next financial year alone. Even if Liz Truss reversed her decision to cut income tax by 1p, which costs £5bn a year, it would not be enough to cover the shortfall. While covid is no longer causing the pressures on hospitals seen in 2020 and 2021, NHS chiefs said the fourth wave of infections this year has just begun, with a significant increase in people admitted to hospital with the virus in the past few weeks. There are currently 9,500 people with covid in hospital. The NHS is also dealing with the backlog of elective surgery and other treatment caused by the pandemic, and a shortage of doctors, nurses and other staff. The combination of a surge in covid and flu cases this winter, coupled with pressures from the cost of living and the prospect of industrial action in the NHS, means the service is facing a grim few months ahead, the meeting heard. NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “We are looking at a potentially quite significant set of challenges over this winter period.” The £21bn shortfall is forecast even after efficiency savings the NHS is making to keep up with a real terms reduction in funding from the government of 1.4 per cent. The ongoing costs of covid treatment, as well as infection control in hospitals, has been compounded by a cut in funding from the government of money designed to deal with the pandemic. Chief financial officer Julian Kelly said there was no more room for further efficiencies, meaning there would need to be cuts to core provision. He told the board: “We will be having to consider talking through with the government what the options would be to manage that [financial] pressure. “And if we had to manage it within the nominal budget that we have, clearly you have to completely revisit investment in cancer, mental health, primary care, the increase in diagnostic capacity and you would have to look at what it meant in total for what the NHS could deliver.” The black hole will add to the challenges Health Secretary Therese Coffey faces in her first few weeks in the job. NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the latest surge in covid was due to waning of immunity from vaccination, some reinfections, and the fact that new variants of covid are showing signs of immune escape, meaning they could make vaccines less effective.
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Post by Admin on Oct 10, 2022 3:39:49 GMT
Patients turning to A&E as wait times for NHS mental health treatment spiral Royal College of Psychiatrists found patients’ mental health was deteriorating amid 12-week waits www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/10/nhs-mental-health-patients-wait-timesMental health patients are increasingly having to turn to A&E for help, experts have warned, as new research suggests nearly one in four are being forced to wait more than 12 weeks to start treatment. The Royal College of Psychiatrists said its research found 43% of adults with mental illness say the long waits for treatment have led to their mental health getting worse. Almost a quarter (23%) have to wait more than 12 weeks to start treatment, with many so desperate they turn to A&E or dial 999. The college said many people face a “hidden wait time” for starting treatment, with no publicly available data on how long people wait from their initial referral to actually starting treatment. Those surveyed for the research had a range of mental illnesses, including eating disorders, addiction, bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression. Patients whose mental health deteriorated said it had led to financial problems such as debt, struggles with work resulting in job loss, as well as relationship difficulties, including divorce and family breakdown. A significant proportion end up so desperate for help that they turn to A&E or ring 999, the college said. It is calling for a year-on-year increase of medical school places from 7,000 to 15,000 by 2028/29 and a fully funded workforce strategy to tackle staff shortages. Dr Kate Lovett, the college’s presidential lead for recruitment, said: “We cannot sit idly by and watch the most vulnerable people in our society end up in crisis. Not only do spiralling mental health waiting times wreak havoc on patients’ lives, but they also leave NHS services with the impossible task of tackling rising demand.” One female patient, a 45-year-old from south London, told how she ended up in A&E after having to wait seven months to be referred to a community team. “The only other way to get help was to present to A&E, which was a traumatic experience – having to be reassessed and readmitted again and again. Turning up to A&E was the only way I could be seen regularly. No one should have to go through that.” It comes as separate research for the charity Mind found 40% of 16- to 24-year-olds say they do not have the words to share how they are feeling when struggling with their mental health. Most (91%) said they turned to creative outlets like listening to music or spoken word to help them cope with their feelings. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Mental wellbeing is a priority for the government and we will invest an additional £2.3bn a year into mental health services by 2024 – giving 2 million more people the help they need.” The government will announce on Monday that a NHS service helping people who are receiving mental health support with their employment will be rolled out nationally. About £122m is being invested to expand the service so people receiving help for common mental health problems have access to an employment adviser, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will say. Sean Duggan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s mental health network, said it was “welcome news” but added that with 1 million people now on waiting lists for specialist mental healthcare it was “deeply worrying” that the government’s long-term vision “remains a mystery”.
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Post by Admin on Oct 13, 2022 22:50:05 GMT
Inside the staffing crisis that’s crippling the NHS Harry de Quetteville www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/inside-the-staffing-crisis-that-s-crippling-the-nhs/ar-AA12UfBwThe NHS is in crisis. Waiting lists are ballooning. Already more than six million – one in 10 of us – are on hold for a procedure. By March 2024, when lists are forecast to peak, that number could be 10 million. Every day, as the system buckles, 22,000 appointments are cancelled. That’s one in 10. Occasionally, the problem might be broken equipment. But mostly it’s about people, or absence of them. “There’s a huge shortage of doctors across the board,” says oncologist Karol Sikora. “Those cancellations are due to a lack of staffing, nothing else.” The NHS is one of the world’s largest employers, with around 1.22 million full-time staff. How could it be running short? But having a large workforce means it has to recruit relentlessly just to stand still. Some 121,236 staff left in the year to March 2021. A British Medical Association survey, published this week, reveals almost half of hospital doctors plan to leave the NHS within a year, with its chairman Dr Vishal Sharma warning that without action the service is in danger of “complete collapse”. The latest quarterly figures show that 132,139 roles are vacant. And the workforce is already stretched. The UK ranks among the worst countries in the rich world for the number of doctors per capita: 2.9 per 1,000 people, against 3.7 on average in the EU. Austria, top of the pile, has 5.36. The BMA claims another 46,300 doctors are required just to bring us up to the average. But wanting another 46,300 doctors and getting them are two very different things. Medical training is long, so hopefuls won’t relieve the pressure for seven years. And even if 46,300 students did start today, 38,800 would be prevented from pursuing their dreams – blocked by a government cap that this year is limiting medical school places to 7,500. In May this year, the BMA told a Commons’ committee that cap needs to more than double, with another 11,000 places created. Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt says short-termism has been rife: “It’s been like trying to get blood out of a stone to get the Government to do a long-term workforce strategy for the NHS. It’s been immensely frustrating.” He blames “resistance from the Treasury” and “changing health secretaries” for a lack of “focus and grip” on staffing issues. The result is an NHS caught in a vicious cycle. Rotas are stretched, making conditions hard, so doctors leave, worsening the staffing crisis. Some are so demoralised they ditch medicine altogether. “That’s a tragedy when you think it’s £250,000 of taxpayers’ money to train them,” says Hunt. It’s also a tragedy that is unique to Britain. “Staffing is a very British phenomenon,” says Sikora. “France, Germany, Italy don’t have a problem. But here we lose staff.” And that has an appalling knock-on effect: locums, called on at vast cost. “Uniquely in Europe, we spend £6 billion a year on locums and agency staff,” says Hunt. Sikora, who is dean of medicine at the University of Buckingham, knows this first hand. He signed up to a locum agency recently, thinking he might do no more than a day a week. Instead he was overwhelmed by demand. Sikora found himself offered “double the normal consultant salary” to see far fewer patients than a consultant would. “But they [the NHS] pay because they’re desperate.” So how to break the vicious cycle? How to get enough medics into the NHS so they want to stay and patients get seen on time? It’s a question with two answers: supply of new doctors, and retention of the existing ones.
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Post by Admin on Nov 7, 2022 17:43:08 GMT
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