NHS England has launched a cloud-based platform that links recently-retired consultants, who still hold a licence to practice, with secondary care providers
who need additional help with their waiting lists.
It has been developed to make it easier and more flexible for retired doctors to return to the health service as part of the Long Term Workforce Plan.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard in June 2023 announced the NHS Emeritus pilot scheme, which is expected to help reduce long waits for elective care.
Initially, the scheme will run for a year across England, and if successful, it may be expanded to cover other work areas.
Health Minister Andrew Stephenson commented: "Returning consultants will bring invaluable experience and knowledge, and the new digital platform will match
highly-skilled consultants with the NHS trusts that require their expertise, providing high quality care and alleviating pressures on high demand areas.
In a bid to address the ongoing deficit in staff in the UK's healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS) has entered into a new workforce agreement
with India.
According to media reports, the healthcare service plans to hire 2,000 doctors from India on a fast-track basis to alleviate this pressing issue.
It is learned that the NHS has set up training centres across many Indian cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Delhi, Gurugram, Indore, Mysore, Chennai,
and Calicut to provide postgraduate training for the first batch of doctors.
Post their training period (which ranges from six to 12 months), these doctors will be deployed at hospitals across Britain. They will also be exempted from the
Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) examination that is otherwise mandatory for practising in the country.
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.
Community pharmacy teams are urged to share their views relating to the new NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS).
"This will ensure that the tool supports the needs of pharmacy team members and their patients," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
BaRS is an interoperability standard for healthcare IT systems which should enable booking and referral information to be sent to or from care providers, such as
community pharmacies, quickly, safely and in a format useful to clinicians.
"The intentions are that the BaRS IT standard will eventually be available in all care settings. The way the standard could be used in pharmacies is currently being
considered, including the potential for use for referrals from NHS 111 to community pharmacy."
The BaRS team are conducting interviews (usually lasting 30-45 minutes) to hear more the current experiences and the future preferences regarding sending and
receiving referral messages.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has welcomed the new research guidance published by NHS England for the integrated care systems.
The guidance is said to reflect the benefits of delivering research, for patients, staff and healthcare system performance, including the economic benefits for the
NHS.
Jennifer Harris, ABPI's Director of Research Policy, said: "This guidance is clear on what good research practice looks like and it's great to see it out and
available for the NHS to use.
"A research-active NHS delivers huge value to patients, staff and the system itself. We hope that putting this guidance into action will help Integrated Care Systems
realise the huge benefits that research can offer, and help make the UK once again a destination of choice for developing the medical breakthroughs people need."
A recent survey conducted by the British Society Attitudes (BSA) and published by the King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust highlighted people's satisfaction
with the National Health Services (NHS) to be a new record low since the survey's inception in 1983.
The latest findings that are based on the public satisfaction and opinion with the NHS and social care, and funding in the context of prominent national debate
about taxation and healthcare spending reveal the satisfaction with the NHS to have dwindled across all services and demographics in 2023.
Public contentment has sharply declined, with only 24 per cent expressing satisfaction in 2023, a significant drop from 2020.
Factors contributing to this dissatisfaction include prolonged waiting times for GP and hospital appointments, staffing shortages, and perceived inadequate
government spending.
Most people in Great Britain believe that new junior doctors, nurses and health care assistants are underpaid, senior doctors and matrons are paid about right,
and NHS CEOs are paid too much, according to a new study.
About half the people surveyed indicated that newly qualified junior doctors are paid too little, with this sentiment increasing to three in five (60 per cent) among
Labour voters.
The research conducted by the Policy Institute at King's College London, King's Business School, and Ipsos also showed that more people believe NHS staff overall were
badly paid than well paid.
Dr Nick Krachler, senior lecturer in Human Resource Management at King's Business School, said: "Our survey shows considerable alignment between public perception
of NHS pay levels and the claims of trade unions and professional associations that pay levels - which are determined by government after consultation from a Pay
Review Body - are unsatisfactory for frontline NHS roles."
He highlighted the urgent need to address healthcare workers' economic wellbeing, hoping that the new government will consider it in its upcoming negotiations with
junior doctors this week.
Rising chronic illnesses and an aging population are threatening to bankrupt the National Health Service, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has
said on October 11.
Streeting announced a substantial £1.1 billion injection to strengthen the NHS with the goal of clearing the backlog and introducing additional clinics on
evenings and weekends.
The frontbencher outlined a reform agenda to ensure NHS is back on its head for the future of healthcare in the UK.
Streeting said that a Labour government will not waste "money we don't have"- instead aims to revolutionise the NHS by shifting its focus from hospitals to
communities.
"Our emphasis is on transitioning from an analogue to a digital framework and prioritising prevention over sickness-oriented healthcare," he noted.
The STADA Health Report 2024, published today, has revealed a significant decline in satisfaction with national healthcare systems across Europe, with a
notable drop seen in the UK, Germany, and Kazakhstan.
According to the report, satisfaction with the UK's healthcare system dropped sharply by 11 percentage points in just one year, falling from 67 percent in 2023
to 56 percent in 2024, likely fuelled by "post-pandemic pressure on the National Health Service (NHS)." In 2020, satisfaction stood at 85 percent before declining
to its current level.
In terms of discontentment over healthcare, Britain is followed closely by Kazakhstan and Germany, where satisfaction fell by 10 and 8 percent respectively in
one year.
The 10th annual health report released by global healthcare leader STADA Arzneimittel AG, the parent company of Thornton & Ross, is based on a survey of over
46,000 respondents aged 18 to 99 across 32 countries, with around 2,000 respondents in each country.
A continuous decline in satisfaction levels has been observed since 2021. Overall satisfaction with healthcare systems in Europe was recorded at 74 percent in
2020, just before the pandemic. This figure dropped to 71 percent in 2021, 64 percent in 2022, and 61 percent in 2023.
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.
A massive global technology outage on Friday has disrupted essential services, including healthcare, airlines, banks, and broadcasters worldwide.
The outage, attributed to a flawed update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has also affected the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, with several hospitals
and GP practices losing access to their computer systems.
Community pharmacies are also facing significant disruptions. Services such as accessing prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries have been affected, causing
inconvenience to patients and healthcare providers.
An NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in
the majority of GP practices."
The spokesperson assured that the NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage such disruptions, including the use of paper patient records and handwritten
prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact GPs.
ECG has launched a new 'simple and straightforward' Patient Group Direction (PGD) service for pharmacists working in primary care, together with a service
which offers direct access to an NHS Consultant for medical advice to offer robust safeguarding as and when needed.
Taking on more clinical services with the PGDs can feel daunting and a big responsibility for healthcare professionals. ECG's new medical advice service (for anyone
purchasing their PGDs) will offer pharmacists the opportunity to call and speak to a clinical member of the ECG team who will triage the calls and support them.
If required, the call will be connected to an experienced NHS Consultant to offer immediate medical advice. The service will start with a Monday-Friday 08:30-16:30hrs
provision with an option to increase to 24 /7 for those working out of hours. This is inclusive in the PGD pricing offer.
ECG has been the market leader in providing vaccination training to pharmacists since 2004, providing robust knowledge and clinical skills to enable pharmacists to
develop their private and NHS commissioned vaccination services (such as flu and covid). By developing their close working relationship with all of the multiples,
many smaller chains, membership groups and independents over the years, ECG has continued to further consolidate their 'one stop shop' approach to supporting the
sector.
ECG wants to offer this sector choices in the level of guidance and support that the individual healthcare professionals feel they need to offer safe care to
patients.
NHS England has commissioned the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to develop guidance that helps community and hospital pharmacy teams across Britain to
reduce the impact of pharmacy services, pharmaceutical care and medicines on the environment.
The RPS said the Greener Pharmacy Guidance will enable pharmacies to self-assess their impact against the standards, benchmark and improve through evidence-based
activities and actions.
"I'm delighted our strong commitment to helping pharmacy reduce its environmental impact can now be taken to the next level through developing guidance and
accreditation for pharmacy teams," RPS president Professor Claire Anderson said.
"Medicines account for 25 per cent of carbon emissions within the NHS and this initiative underscores our commitment to promoting sustainable healthcare and
supporting the NHS's goal of achieving 'net zero' emissions by 2040."
Peter Morgan, medicines assistant director at NHS England, commented: "Pharmacy staff are involved in the purchasing and dispensing of almost every medicine used
in the NHS and the new Greener Pharmacy Guidance and Self-accreditation scheme will provide support for pharmacy professionals by outlining clear actions to deliver
more environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices."
The RPS said the guidance and digital self-assessment toolkit will integrate with carbon calculator tools to help pharmacy teams to measure their carbon footprint,
action plan to reduce use of carbon and improve sustainability.
More pharmacies should do NHS Health Checks to improve access, a new study that focuses on ways to improve the lives of people living with obesity, recommends.
The report, Levelling Up Obesity Care, by pharma giant Novo Nordisk follows a series of roundtables with patient advocates, healthcare professionals and academics to generate understanding on the future of obesity care in England.
Amongst its recommendations, the report says that 'to widen access and alleviate pressure on GP services, consideration should be given to expanding NHS Health
Checks in community pharmacy'.
NHS Health Checks include a measurement of Body Mass Index (BMI).
Those most likely to benefit from a Health Check include people who live in more deprived areas, and are more likely to be living with obesity, says the report.
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.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) made a recent announcement that the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) and NHS England (NHSE) have
joined forces in a groundbreaking move by signing a Collaboration Charter on AI.
This pivotal partnership aims to equip the NHS workforce with the tools and resources to leverage AI technology for enhancing patient care, improving staff
experience, and driving operational efficiency.
The Charter, endorsed by Minister Burghart, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, and Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DHSC,
signifies an important step towards integrating AI into the fabric of the NHS.
Under this collaboration, the i.AI team, comprising elite technical experts within the government, will identify opportunities where AI technology can be deployed
responsibly to support the NHS.
This initiative is expected to streamline processes, optimize resource allocation, and ultimately enhance patient outcomes.
Representatives for prescribers across Scotland, politicians, academics and clinicians gathered to discuss the importance of environmental sustainability
in healthcare during a Scottish Parliamentary reception held at Holyrood on Wednesday (13 December).
Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) informed the parliament that medicines account for around 25 per cent of carbon emissions across the NHS, while highlighting
the various innovative ways to reduce these carbon emissions.
The NHS in Scotland needs to implement effective environmentally sustainable approaches to healthcare in order to meet its ambition to achieve net zero, RPS
pointed out.
Laura Wilson, Director for Scotland at RPS, said: "It was fantastic to bring together pharmacists, parliamentarians and partners from across government and
healthcare to highlight the huge opportunity which exists in healthcare to make our systems and processes more environmentally sustainable.
National Health Services (NHS) patients across England are set to experience a significant enhancement in accessing key healthcare services such as
community nursing through the expansion of self-referral options that no longer require a GP appointment.
The recent announcement is part of the NHS primary care access recovery plan and is set to offer hundreds of thousands more individuals each month the opportunity
to refer themselves for essential services such as "incontinence support", "podiatry", or "hearing tests" without GP referrals.
This move aims to alleviate the burden on general practitioners through self-referrals for more than 180,000 patients, allowing them to focus their time and
resources on patients in need of immediate care and recover the long waiting times.
As per the NHS data, approximately 200,000 people per month self-refer themselves which under the new plan will extend to additional critical services tailored
to local population needs to "continue modernising GP, expand pharmacy services, and offer patients more choice in how they access care".
NHS England will collaborate with "a number of system suppliers" to increase the number of trusts using electronic prescription service (EPS) over the next
few years.
Nishali Patel, clinical lead for digital medicines at NHS England, announced it during the Clinical Pharmacy Congress, held at the Excel, London, on Friday, 10 May
2024.
According to Nishali, at least half of all NHS secondary care trusts could be using EPS by 2026.
This digital service allows prescribers to send prescriptions electronically to a patient-nominated pharmacy. It is widely used in primary care, where over 95
per cent of prescriptions are now electronically generated. NHS recently extended the service to secondary care settings.
Hundreds of children in England are set to benefit from a treatment for cystic fibrosis - Kaftrio, after the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed an extension to its licence.
With the licence extension, more than 1,300 children in England with cystic fibrosis, aged six to 11, are newly eligible for this treatment, which improves lung function and improves overall quality of life of patients.
Earlier, Kaftrio was only licensed for those aged 12 and above.
British patients were the first in Europe to benefit from Kaftrio, when NHS England secured a landmark deal in June 2020.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: "Since NHS staff delivered one of the fastest rollouts of Kaftrio in the world just over a year ago, the lives of thousands of patients with cystic fibrosis have been transformed.
"Innovative treatments like Kaftrio are life-changing for patients and their families, and that is why the NHS has done all it can since we secured the deal for Kaftrio to ensure patients benefit as soon as possible.