Care Pathways

NHS to get 20,000 more support staff in major GP contract reform banning promotions of private healthcare

01.02.19: The number of non-GP staff in general practice – including physios, pharmacists and paramedics – will grow by 22,000 under a five-year GP contract in a deal which will also see a banning of GPs advertising private healthcare services...

Patient groups in appraisals of NHS drugs receiving undeclared funds from manufacturers, review finds

17.01.19: Two-thirds of patient groups involved in the appraisal of drugs and treatments for use in the NHS received money from the manufacturer or a competitor that they had not declared, according to new research. The team behind the review is call...

£300,000 up for grabs to fund ‘drunk tanks’ during overindulgent holiday season

21.12.18: Up to £300,000 will be made available to fund dozens of ‘drunk tanks’ over the festive period to ensure revellers who have overindulged can get checked over and even sleep it off. The supervised areas will help take the pr...

Hunt wrong to blame breast screening scandal on admin incompetence, panel concludes

14.12.18: An independent panel of reviewers has called for the NHS breast screening programme to be entirely reset after they concluded that former health secretary Jeremy Hunt called for a national investigation based on incorrect advice. Back in Ma...

‘We have lost all confidence’: Number of women affected by Capita cancer screening scandal rises above 50,000

13.12.18: Even more women have been affected by Capita’s cervical screening programme scandal than previously thought. NHS England has admitted that a further 3,591 women were caught up in the administrative blunder, bringing the total number t...

Are we doing enough to accelerate self-care?

05.12.18: Dr Selwyn Hodge, co-chair of the Self Care Forum, makes the case for the further reach of self-care, and for it to be embedded into our everyday lives. Having worked for many years to get self-care accepted as a legitimate and valuable part...

We’ll pay in the years to come if we fail to improve circulatory health today

30.11.18: The upcoming NHS long-term plan will provide a once-in-a-decade opportunity to improve our approach to heart and circulatory health – but only if we act now, writes Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation (BHF). ...

More same-day emergency clinics ‘could cut down on 14,000 hospital stays’ during winter

21.11.18: Greater investment in same-day emergency clinics could save at least 14,000 overnight hospital stays during the months of January and February next year, making ambulatory emergency care (AEC) a potential solution to the looming winter period. ...

NHS reacts to State of Care: ‘We’re almost running on empty and well beyond tipping point’

11.10.18: The CQC has today released its annual State of Care report, which has found that most people in England receive a good quality of care – but that, much like the situation last year, quality remains inconsistent and access to care is very m...

CQC: ‘Postcode lottery’ makes way for ‘integration lottery’ as NHS walks towards ‘unjust’ future

11.10.18: This year’s CQC State of Care report has found that most people in England receive a good quality of care, but that, much like the situation last year, quality remains inconsistent and access to care is very much dependent on where you liv...

Hancock: Ineffective NHS ‘fetish’ with project pilots must be replaced with ‘agile iteration’

10.10.18: We have to fight against the NHS’s “fetish about piloting everything” and instead implement a system of “agile iteration” where projects are tested, learned from, and expanded organically over time, the health and s...

GMHSC laments ‘limited’ integrated organisation forms and floats new care trust vehicle

19.09.18: Beyond short-term funding arrangements and traditional organisational boundaries, there are other systemic barriers that hold back the pace of health and social care integration – including a limited option of integrated organisational for...

Hancock confirms NHS will not need to stockpile vital medicines for ‘no-deal Brexit’

23.08.18: NHS organisations will not need to spend extra cash stockpiling on medicines in the event of the UK leaving the EU with no deal in place, the health and social care secretary has said. In a letter released today, Matt Hancock said local sto...

Medication without harm

15.08.18: The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Third Global Patient Safety Challenge, ‘Medication without harm,’ is ambitious, but it must not detract from the ongoing work of healthcare professionals, writes consultant pharmaci...

Stepping up the fight against AMR

15.08.18: Professor Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Guidelines at NICE, explains what the organisation is doing to support the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the challenges that lie ahead. The global risk of AMR is clear. It...