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A new report has highlighted that while NHS trusts are well placed to drive the new Labour government's desired healthcare transformation, additional resources are essential to fully realise this vision. Published by NHS Providers, the report explored how trusts are innovating and adapting to deliver the three key shifts outlined by the government: from hospital to community-based cafe, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention. Titled "Providers Deliver: shifting care upstream," the report cited some successful approaches trusts have taken to ensure patients can get the care they need in the right place at the right time. Examples include: Tackling the wider determinants of health to improve patient flow - Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Reducing demand for emergency care by providing support at home - East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Improving mental health crisis care from the ground up - North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust Harnessing a culture of continuous improvement to deliver care in the right place - Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust Taking the next step from hospital at home to early intervention - Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

The government has received thousands of ideas to fix the NHS as the biggest ever conversation about the future of the health service reached the Midlands last week. More than 100 people from across the Midlands participated in the public debate in Wigston in Leicestershire on Saturday (23 November), sharing their experiences, views and suggestions for delivering an NHS fit for the future. Public health minister Andrew Gwynne and NHS England's national director for urgent and emergency care Sarah-Jane Marsh attended the debate, inviting attendees' opinions on NHS reform and how the government's 10 Year Health Plan can help tackle disparities in the region. Addressing the event, Gwynne said: "We can't change the NHS and make it better without you." "When we say that the NHS is broken but not beaten, it's not beaten because the staff are incredible, it is because the NHS is not where we need it to be."

The government has earmarked £200 million to enhance NHS resilience and expedite patient care during the upcoming winter season. This extra amount will bolster the health service during its busiest period, while protecting elective care so we can keep cutting waiting lists, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said. On August 13, the Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary met with clinical leaders and NHS Chiefs to strategise and refine planning for urgent and emergency care, while prioritising the preservation of waiting list targets for the upcoming winter season. "Patients can be reassured that I will always back the NHS, so that those who most need help and support will get the care they need," Sunak said. "Winter is the most challenging time for the health service, which is why we've been planning for it all year - with huge government investment to fund new ambulances, beds and virtual wards." "This £200 million investment, assured by the Department of Health and Social Care as new and additional funding, should aid NHS leaders in their preparations and mitigation for what will be a seriously difficult winter period," said Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of NHS Confederation. "The priority now is swift allocation of funding to local systems for optimal utilisation."

The NHS has made major improvements across long waits, urgent and emergency services, and cancer care, latest performance figures published on Thursday (11) have shown. The number of patients waiting more than 18 months fell to 10,737 by April - down by more than 90 per cent from 124,911 in September 2021 and by more than four-fifths since the start of January when there were 54,882. Around half of NHS trusts in England have no patients on their elective care waiting lists apart from those who have chosen to wait longer. More than one in five (21%) trusts had completely eliminated 18-month waits. However, the overall waiting list has risen to over 7.3 million entries in England. "I promised I would cut NHS waiting lists and we are delivering," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. "Reducing 18-month waits by over 90 per cent is huge progress, and it is testament to the hard work of NHS staff who have achieved this despite one of the busiest winters on record. "We still have work to do, but backed by record government investment and the ongoing efforts of the NHS, I am confident we will get patients the care they need more quickly." Ambulance response rates have improved to their fastest in two years, with average category two response times now at 28.5 minutes and category one at 8 mins. The 62-day cancer backlog has fallen for the first time since before the pandemic, with those waiting two months or more down from 21,823 at the end of the last financial year (March 2022) to 19,248 at the end of this March (2023). This is down almost 15,000 from a peak of 34,000 in July 2022.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a public consultation to gather feedback on government proposals to eliminate modern slavery from the NHS supply chain. This initiative follows a recent government review which revealed that over 21 per cent of NHS suppliers are at high risk of involving modern slavery in the procurement of medical equipment, particularly surgical instruments, gloves, gowns, uniforms, and face masks. The proposed measures would require public bodies procuring goods and services for the NHS to work with suppliers to identify risks and put forward solutions. These new regulations would apply to all public bodies procuring health goods and services, including NHS trusts, integrated care boards, and local authorities. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "The NHS is a public service built on compassion and equality, values which are completely antithetical to the heinous evil of modern slavery." "These new measures will ensure vital checks are made and public bodies act to stamp out the crimes of slavery and human trafficking." He also stated that his government will ensure the NHS leads the fight against modern slavery.

The UK government on Wednesday (7 February) announced a new plan to ensure faster, simpler and fairer access to NHS dental care across England. Supported by £200m of funding, the plan aims to deliver more than 1.5 million additional NHS dentistry treatments or up to 2.5 million NHS dental appointments for patients over the next 12 months NHS dentists will be offered a 'new patient' payment of between £15-£50, depending on treatment need, to treat new patients who have not seen a dentist in two years or more. Additionally, one-off payments of up to £20,000 will be given to around 240 dentists for working in under-served areas for up to three years. This is to "attract new NHS dentists and improve access to dental care in areas with the highest demand," NHS England said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The National Health Service said that over 425,000 patients have utilised its new national online service to complete GP registration within its inaugural year. The GP surgery registration service, managed by NHS England, has granted NHS patients efficient and user-friendly access to GP registration since its inception in August 2022. According to the NHS, more than 1,400 GP surgeries, a fifth of the national count, have joined the NHS online registration service as part of a new plan to improve access to primary care. "This aligns with a new strategy to enhance primary care access, with a target of enrolling 2,000 practices in the Register with a GP surgery service by December 2023." Many GP surgeries still use paper forms, requiring patients to visit surgeries to collect paperwork. However, the new online service has been shown to save GP surgery staff up to 15 minutes per registration by helping to reduce paperwork and admin time, the NHS said. The NHS said that this service enables patients to register with a local GP online at any time, eliminating the need for in-person visits and simplifying the process for both patients and GP surgeries.

The new data from NHS England has revealed that more than 100,000 patients were treated for minor illness by their high street pharmacist in just one month. According to new NHS figures, in June, 118,123 people with minor illnesses such as a sore throat or constipation, or those in need of medicine urgently, received a same-day consultation with their local pharmacist after calling NHS 111 or their GP practice - an increase of more than four-fifths (83%) on the number in the same month last year (64,512). The data comes alongside expanded roles for community pharmacies ahead of winter, announced at the NHS England board meeting today. "From this week, NHS 111 online can directly refer people to their high street pharmacist for a same-day consultation, rather than patients needing to call the phone line," said NHS England. Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: "Our local pharmacies ensure hundreds of thousands of people every week get the support and medication they need and today's figures show that in just one month, over 100,000 patients have also had consultations with their local pharmacist for minor illnesses - this means patients are getting the care they need quickly but also in a convenient way that can fit in with their busy lives.

The NHS claims that it's been able to save taxpayers £1.2 billion in just three years by procuring hundreds of hospital medicines at a better price. The adoption of cheaper versions of a single drug - adalimumab - which is used to treat more than 45,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, has accounted for about one third of the savings. After the exclusive patent on the drug - originally known as its brand name Humira - expired in 2018, the NHS struck cost-saving deals to bulk-buy generic versions, which have the same quality, safety and efficacy of a branded one. Since then, tens of millions of pounds have been saved by buying cheaper generic versions of other medicines for conditions ranging from severe skin infections to aggressive blood cancers. Four in five medicines prescribed in the NHS are now non-branded, helping the NHS to achieve significant savings while ensuring the continuity of high-quality patient care. NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: "Smart deals by the NHS mean patients are getting the best medicines and taxpayers are getting best value.

Tase Oputu, Chair of the RPS England Pharmacy Board, has been appointed to the NHS Assembly, to represent the pharmacy profession. The NHS Assembly is a national forum that brings together stakeholders from across the health and care sectors to advise the NHS England board on implementing the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP). Members include national and frontline clinical leaders, patient leaders, staff representatives, health and care system leaders and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector leaders. The NHS Assembly meets four to five times a year. Tase will officially join the Assembly during its meeting on 11 September. Tase highlighted the crucial role of pharmacists and pharmacy teams in the healthcare system while expressing her anticipation of representing the pharmacy profession at the NHS Assembly.

The Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) has been running as a national advanced service since October 2019 to relieve pressure on the National Health Service which aims to help with on the day demand in relation to minor illness and medicines. The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service CPCS (NHS CPCS) aims to meet the objectives of the NHS Long Term Plan to use community pharmacists' skills to advise patients, and to build relationships with GP surgeries, primary care teams and wider NHS providers and to assist with urgent care system repeat prescription requests. Referrals from the GP referral pathway and urgent care systems and urgent treatment centres are digitally routed to community pharmacies so that patients can receive same-day appointments and have their queries resolved. The numbers Based on the estimated annual number of minor ailment GP appointments, the service was expected to save the NHS up to £640 million per year . Three years later, the nation has weathered the Covid 19 pandemic, which had widespread effects and put further strain on already overstretched NHS staff. The pandemic impact has resulted in higher numbers of GP appointments than initially anticipated. Nevertheless, this may offer an opportunity to proactively engage pharmacy teams in patient contact help ease strain across the wider NHS.

Health leaders have said that delivering faster and more productive patient care would be difficult unless NHS capital budgets are nearly doubled to at least £14.1 billion from the current spending of £7.7 billion. The NHS Confederation has highlighted the impact that low levels of capital investment have had over the last decade in its report published today (29 November). The report, 'Investing to save: The capital requirement for a more sustainable NHS in England', revealed that the UK has lagged behind other comparable countries in terms of health capital investment for more than five decades, resulting in less productivity. It revealed that the NHS now has the sixth lowest number of CT and MRI scanners per million people of the OECD countries.

The latest NHS data showed that 487,432 individuals in England were diagnosed with dementia in June, the highest since the start of the pandemic. Although dementia diagnosis rates have reached 65 per cent, the NHS still aims to meet its target of diagnosing 66.7 per cent of the estimated total number of people living with a form of the disease. NHS stated that their staff across the country are actively assessing care home residents to identify more individuals who may have dementia. Dr. Jeremy Isaacs, National Clinical Director for Dementia at NHS England, praised the efforts of NHS staff in increasing diagnosis rates but acknowledged that more work is needed. "Getting a diagnosis of dementia is the first step in supporting people, with a wide range of NHS services able to help.

The Self-Care Strategy Group (SCSG), comprising of leading pharmacy groups, professional organisations, trade associations and charities committed to self-care, has written to Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, urging the government to fully realise the benefits of self-care and work collaboratively to build an NHS fit for the future. In its letter, the SCSG has outlined several key proposals including: Expansion of prescribing rights. Optimisation of digital health tools such as the NHS App. Enabling direct referrals between primary, diagnostic and specialist care services Widening access to self-care medicines in pharmacies. Training Primary Care Network (PCN) staff to support patients in navigating the care system. Promoting credible health information on self-care and expanding public awareness campaigns Dr Graham Jackson, a GP and Chair of SCSG, expressed concerns over the unprecedented pressures on the NHS and primary care, cautioning that these challenges are likely to increase without urgent action.

Community pharmacists involved in the Independent Prescribers Pathfinder Programme will be able to generate NHS prescriptions through the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). NHS England has secured a new clinical system, CLEO SOLO from Cleo Systems, to facilitate this service. The system is being rolled out to 'pathfinder' sites so they can start delivering their proposed prescribing models and pathways. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across England have been informed of this development and are asked to provide support and leadership to their sites throughout the programme, which will run until March 2025. NHS England will also conduct a series of webinars with ICBs to discuss the CLEO SOLO rollout. David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, highlighted that the Pathfinder Programme will enable community pharmacist prescribers at 'pathfinder' sites to issue NHS prescriptions for conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. "This will help us develop a framework which will support the commissioning of independent prescribing as part of clinical services in community pharmacy in the future," Webb said.

Pharmacies and other spaces should be able to facilitate the provision of health care to bring services closer to patients and reduce demands on general practice, suggested a report by Tony Blair Institute. In a paper 'Modern and Sustainable NHS Providing Accessible and Personalised Care for All', it has propose six areas for reform where radical-but-practical policy action will begin to transform the future of the NHS and deliver better patient care. It has proposed to create new access routes for services and providers. It added: "The range and availability of health-care services must increase to reflect citizens' demands and their increasingly complex needs. "Pharmacies, gyms, supermarkets, workplaces and other spaces should all be able to provide or facilitate the provision of health care, bringing services closer to patients and reducing demands on general practice. It suggested: "We must move towards greater community-based care and the creation of a neighbourhood health service, with more routes for direct patient access, to ensure services are available when and where people need them. These should all be accessible through a single, simple digital front door to the NHS."

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."

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.

In what could be the longest consecutive strike action ever taken in the history of the National Health Service (NHS), junior doctors are set to begin their six-day walkout from tomorrow (Wednesday 3 January) at 7am, until 7am on Tuesday 9 January. As the record industrial action has come in the middle of growing winter pressures, the NHS England has warned that this week could be one of "the most difficult starts to the year" for health services across the country. With consultant busy covering urgent and emergency cases, the strikes could have a significant impact on almost all routine care. NHS National Medical Director, Professor Stephen Powis said: "This January could be one of the most difficult starts to the year the NHS has ever faced.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting reiterated his commitment to reducing NHS waiting lists during his visit to Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust's Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot on Friday. Streeting toured the Berkshire hospital, which is helping tackle backlogs of planned operations with dedicated surgical services, thereby cutting local waiting lists. The health secretary spoke to staff and patients at the hospital before meeting regional health representatives to discuss the issues facing services at a town hall event. His visit follows his recent call for an independent investigation into the NHS, pledging to be honest about the state of the health service and serious about fixing it. "The NHS is broken. Millions of patients are waiting too long for treatment, often in pain and discomfort," Streeting said.