The National Health Service (NHS) retention programme has benefitted 23 NHS Trusts since it launched in April 2022, with thousands fewer staff leaving
frontline roles.
NHS data showed that 14,000 fewer staff left the service in the 12 months up to August 2023 (108,890) compared to 122,970 the year before.
In a statement released on Thursday, the NHS England said it is expanding the pilot programme across the country to benefit 42 more NHS trusts.
The programme is part of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan ambition to retain up to 128,000 more staff over the next 15 years in addition to training record
numbers of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Under this new initiative, NHS staff are being offered extra flexibility with working hours, clinical 'support squads' have been introduced to help menopausal
women at work, and HR 'stay advocates' are designated to identify ways to keep staff on the brink of leaving.
The National Health Service (NHS) is embracing new technology and innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the number of missed hospital
appointments and improve waiting times for elective care.
Following a successful pilot in Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, the health service is set to roll out AI software to 10 more trusts across England in
the coming months.
The software, developed by Deep Medical in collaboration with a frontline worker and NHS clinical fellow, helps reduce the number of missed appointments by
offering patients convenient time slots and backup booking options.
Since the AI programme was piloted six months ago, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has seen a 30 per cent fall in non-attendances.
During the pilot period, a total of 377 did not attends (DNAs) were prevented and an additional 1,910 patients were attended.
The NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard saluted the effort of over 100,000 Coid volunteers who alongside the NHS staff helped to deliver record-breaking numbers of jabs in December.
The "selfless volunteers" devoted around two million hours to help ramp up the vaccination programme in 2021- with over nine million doses delivered since December 12, when the prime minister announced the turbo-charged vaccination drive.
Pritchard said: "Alongside NHS staff, our selfless volunteers have worked tirelessly to protect the nation - in football stadiums, shopping centres, Christmas markets and countless other vaccination sites up and down the country.
"I want to give my personal thanks to everyone who has given up their time to help us beat record after record - continuing to make the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme the biggest and most successful in health service history.
The Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) has rebranded to be known as Community Pharmacy to present a strengthened and unified identity to the
local NHS, local government and other stakeholders, as the local voice of community pharmacy.
"There are now 58 LPCs in England. The number of LPCs has reduced from 69, with further consolidation expected by April 2024 to a network of 48 local organisations,"
said Community Pharmacy England.
"The changes mean there will be better alignment between LPCs and the 42 NHS Integrated Care Systems in England, who have taken on the responsibility for
commissioning pharmaceutical services delegated by NHS England."
"This marks a significant milestone, as similar to Community Pharmacy England, LPCs have been undergoing changes to respond to the Review Steering Group (RSG)
recommendations on pharmacy representation. The sector voted in favour of the RSG proposals in the summer of 2022, and since then progress has been made on many
of the changes at both local and national level as part of the Transforming Pharmacy Representation (TAPR) Programme."
Dr Amanda Doyle has been appointed as NHS England as director of primary and community care.
Prior to her new role, Amanda had joined NHS England and NHS Improvement as North West Regional Director on 2 August 2021 and previously she was the Chief
Clinical Officer for West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG.
Amanda was also the Integrated Care System Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria, leading a large health and care transformation programme across the patch.
She has been a GP for more than 20 years, practising in a large practice in a deprived area of Blackpool, which, in addition to primary medical services, provides a range of urgent care services for patients across the Fylde Coast.
Amanda was the Co-Chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners from 2013 to 2018.
She was Senior Responsible Officer for the primary care component of the Long Term Plan and was involved in the leadership of the health inequalities, prevention and personalisation elements.
Expressing its concerns over the Government's decision to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for health workers in England, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has said an "informed choice" is better than compulsory vaccination.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said today (Nov 9) that health workers in England will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by April 1, 2021, making it a mandatory condition of employment for those on the frontline of the NHS.
"All those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated. We must avoid preventable harm and protect patients in the NHS, protect colleagues in the NHS and of course protect the NHS itself," Javid told parliament.
The RPS said it "strongly encourages all pharmacists to take advantage of the Covid-19 vaccination programme and to get vaccinated unless there is a medical reason not to do so". It belies that "this is best practice" and part of the pharmacists' responsibility to act in the best interest of their patients.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard joined over 17 million people in England by taking her Covid-19 booster dose on Monday (December 6) whilst encouraging people to take their top-up jab.
The NHS boss got a dose in each arm as she also received her flu vaccine from pharmacist Bhaveen Patel at the Junction Pharmacy in Brixton.
Pritchard later posted a video on Twitter, thanking the team in the south London community pharmacy.
Ahead of the first anniversary of the NHS delivering the first Covid-19 vaccine in the world on Wednesday (December 8), Pritchard thanked the "incredible efforts" of NHS staff and volunteers who worked hard to protect millions of people.
Almost 100 million jabs have been delivered in England since December 8, 2020, including over 17 million booster vaccines.
Expressing her delight after taking the booster dose, Pritchard said: "The booster jab was quick, easy and I now have extra protection against the virus."
Seven NHS trusts in England are set to begin trials of new wireless technologies to help improve patient care and strengthen connectivity in A&Es and
ambulance bays.
They have been awarded around £1 million as part of NHS England's Wireless Trials programme, which aims to leverage advanced wireless technologies to enhance
patient care and experiences while freeing up more staff time.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust will introduce an innovative approach of combining satellite and cloud-based wireless solutions to enhance connectivity
across its 10 hospital sites and wider community services.
At Mid Cheshire and Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS trusts, wireless trackers will be installed on medical equipment and hospital beds. This will allow real-time
monitoring and location tracking, enabling easy accessibility for staff to locate necessary items promptly.
NHS England has agreed to offer an additional payment of £2.50 per jab if pharmacies would be willing to extend the duration of their COVID-19 vaccination
contract until 31st August 2024.
Pharmacies currently providing the autumn vaccination are asked to let their local commissioner know, by 22nd February 2024, if they can provide cover for a
potential Spring booster programme, if the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises in their guidance expected to be published soon.
NHS figures showed that more than 3,500 community pharmacies signed the contract to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations between 1 September 2023 and 31 March 2024, as
part of the autumn booster programme.
The health service is hoping that most of these pharmacies will be able to continue to support the Spring campaign, which will run from 1 April 2024 to 31st
August 2024, to help protect the nation's most vulnerable populations.
For the Spring campaign only, pharmacies would be offered an extra £2.50 per jab in addition to the existing item of service fee of £7.54, NHS England said.
NHS England has expanded its national bowel screening programme to people aged 54 so that cancers can be detected at an earlier stage when they are easier to
treat.
As part of the expansion, the health service would be sending a home-testing kit for bowel cancer, known as the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), to thousands more
people in the North West.
Those who are eligible (aged 54 and over) will now automatically receive the kit every two years by post, enabling them to self-check for blood in stool samples,
which can be a sign of bowel cancer.
With the expansion of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme to people aged 54 years, an additional 830,000 people in England will now be eligible for the
screening test.
Deviating from the initial schedule to kick off the flu and Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in October, the NHS England has announced that the autumn
vaccination drive will commence sooner than expected in England, starting on September 11. This decision was taken as a precaution in response to a new Covid-19
variant.
The precautionary measure is being taken as the Department of Health and Social Care and the UK Health Security Agency examined the variant BA.2.86, which was first
detected in the UK on Friday, August 18, 2023, the NHSE said on Aug. 30.
While NHS England had previously announced that vaccinations for both NHS programmes would begin on October 2 for residents of older adult care homes, appointments
for other eligible groups were scheduled for the following week, starting on October 7. This decision prompted community pharmacy leaders to denounce the delayed
start of the flu service as 'unacceptable'.
The new 'How to Involve and Engage Patients on Digital Health Tech Innovation' learning module has been created specifically to support the development and
delivery of patient-centric technologies, at a time of critical digital transformation in the NHS.
The foundation level module will be freely available at www.orcha-digitalhealthacademy.com and on the Health Education England NHS Learning Hub (learninghub.nhs.uk).
No training previously exists on conducting effective patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), leading to wasted resource on unsuitable technologies
at a time when the healthcare system simply cannot afford it. The module aims to educate innovators who are creating new technology, and the clinicians who are
prescribing these solutions. Crucially, the module also provides valuable support to the 500 NHS clinicians who are on the Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.
The module is an introduction to the first evidence-based framework for PPIE, launched by the University of Plymouth, the AHSN Network (the national voice of the
15 academic health science networks in England) and Boehringer Ingelheim UK & Ireland. It helps to fast-track learning for the EnACT principles described in the
framework, outlining how to involve patients in product innovation and critical issues such as data privacy, intellectual property, inclusivity, reimbursement,
useability, and recruitment of patients.
All 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) in England have signed memorandums of understanding for the NHS Independent Prescribing Pathfinder programme, the
first nationally-funded prescribing service in the country.
Anne Joshua, interim deputy director of pharmacy commissioning at NHS England, made the revelation during the 'Chief pharmaceutical officer bi-monthly
webinar' held on 7 March 2024, as reported by The Pharmaceutical Journal.
In the initial phase of the programme, 210 community pharmacies across all ICBs will trial independent prescribing, ahead of establishing a commissioning
framework for the service.
Giving an update on the pathfinder programme, Joshua confirmed that 164 of these potential pathfinder sites had registered for the programme as of 29 February 2024.
Additionally, she announced the clinical models to be followed by the participating pharmacies and presented a graph showing an overview of the services they will
provide.
The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, which was introduced in England in 2016, is helping hundreds of thousands of people to lead healthier lives.
People with pre-diabetes are being identified and offered a nine-month behaviour change programme that supports healthier diet and exercise choices to reduce their
risk of developing diabetes.
A study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has found a significant reduction in diabetes risk among patients who had been
referred to the NHS programme.
Three years after their referral, the participants were 20 per cent less likely to have type 2 diabetes than a similar person who was not included in the
programme, the evaluation revealed.
Trust leaders involved in the New Hospital Programme (NHP) have warned that further delays in the government scheme will lead to more patient harm,
disappointment among staff, and higher costs for taxpayers.
According to NHS Providers, delays in the government scheme that promised 40 new hospitals in England by 2030 are draining millions of pounds from scarce NHS
funds every month.
Some trusts are compelled to spend over £1 million a month from their under-pressure budgets due to spiraling cost pressures, on-hold building projects, and the
bill for having to patch up deteriorating sites.
While there has been some progress over the past year, trust leaders remain apprehensive that "uncertainty over funding and shifting timetables risks putting
their promised buildings further out of reach."
NHS England has funded the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) to offer 80 free places in their Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT)
programme.
Starting August 2024, up to 10 NHSE-funded places will be available each month on a first-come, first-served basis for pharmacy technicians working in community
pharmacy, NHS hospitals, and in health and justice.
The funding will continue until all 80 places are allocated or until March 2025.
CPPE has revealed that 50 per cent of the funding has been allocated for community pharmacy and 50 per cent for other sectors.
The ACPT programme is a 3-12 month course aimed at helping pharmacy technicians achieve various competencies, ensuring they can provide safe and effective patient
care.
In a collaborative effort, the National Health Services England (NHSE) is set to deliver the RSV(respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination programme where
pharmacists alongside other healthcare professionals will play a crucial role in administering the vaccine.
The UK Health Security Agency has announced the launch of the new vaccination programme targeting the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), set to begin on 1 September
2024.
Along with GPs, NHS England (NHSE) will "commission a number of community pharmacies to deliver the programme", ensuring broad accessibility and coverage to protect
two high-risk groups: older adults and pregnant women.
RSV is an RNA virus related to mumps, measles, and human parainfluenza viruses.
It commonly causes coughs and colds in winter, transmitted through droplets and secretions from close contact with infected individuals.
While most RSV infections are mild, infants under six months and the elderly are particularly susceptible to severe diseases like bronchiolitis and pneumonia,
which can lead to hospitalisation.
NHS England has confirmed the initial sites that will test and implement Martha's Rule in the first phase of the programme.
This follows the announcement in February regarding NHSE funding for the major patient safety initiative for this financial year.
The scheme is named after Martha Mills, who died from sepsis at the age of 13 in 2021. She had been treated at King's College Hospital, London, where a failure
to escalate her to intensive care and a lack of response to her family's concerns about her deteriorating condition contributed to her death.
Martha's Rule aims to provide a consistent and understandable way for patients and families to seek an urgent review if their or their loved one's condition
deteriorates and they are concerned this is not being responded to.
NHS England on Monday (27 May) announced that the scheme will be implemented at 143 hospital sites across the country by March 2025.
The UK government's community diagnostic centre programme, which was first launch in July 2021, is helping cut waiting lists, and speed up diagnoses and
treatments for NHS patients.
As of November 2023, a total of 6.1 million vital checks have been carried out at community diagnostic centres (CDCs) across England, according to a joint statement
released by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England.
Under the £2.3 billion programme, 141 CDCs have been opened across the country in a variety of settings including shopping centres, university campuses and football
stadiums, offering patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home.
The government has set a target to open 160 CDCs by March 2025, with many expected to open ahead of schedule.
Cervical screening is one of the best ways to protect women from cervical cancer, which claims nearly two lives daily in England, according to NHS England.
Therefore, all women and those with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 64 are encouraged to attend cervical screening when invited.
Sadly, 3 in 10 of those eligible for cervical screening do not take up the potentially life-saving offer, as revealed by the NHS Cervical Screening Programme,
England 2022-2023 annual report.
Pharmacist Thorrun Govind, also a Healthcare Lawyer (Brabners LLP), underscores the significant role pharmacists and pharmacy teams can play in promoting cervical
cancer screening.
The former Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in England told Pharmacy Business: "Pharmacists and pharmacy teams are a trusted part of the local
community. They therefore have a key part in promoting cervical cancer screening."