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A pair of pharmacist brothers, who also own a popular restaurant in Kent, have started an innovative initiative 'Jabs with Kebabs' to encourage their community in England to come forward and take their Covid-19 vaccines. Rav and Raj Chopra, who own V's Punjabi Grill, an Indian restaurant in Gravesend, established the walk-in vaccine site after their father, Jagtar Chopra, became unwell with Covid-19 last year. The duo is among thousands to volunteer for the National Health Service (NHS) vaccine programme. Talking to the PA news agency, Raj said he was inspired by the experience of his father, who got infected with the virus and has fully recovered since then. "From a personal point of view, it was very debilitating to see Dad like that," said Raj Chopra. "It got everyone's emotions in play.

People infected with monkeypox can isolate at home if they remain well enough, whilst following measures to limit close contact with others, the UK's health security agency (UKHSA) said on Monday (May 30), part of guidance designed to curb the country's rise in cases of the viral illness. More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in May, outside of Africa where the virus is endemic. The usually mild illness spreads through close contact and can cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions. An additional 71 cases of monkeypox have been identified in England, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the UK as a whole to 179 since early May. Scientists are looking into what might explain the unusual surge of cases, given most are not linked to travel. The UKHSA indicated community transmission was occurring in the UK and said infected people should avoid contact with others until their lesions have healed and the scabs have dried off.

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 is rolling out a range of tech and data solutions, including an artificial intelligence (AI) system, across the health service to tackle winter pressures. The AI system will be used to identify patients at risk of hospital admission so community NHS teams can get to them first and reduce pressures on A&E departments. On a trial basis, four GP practices in Somerset have started using the innovative technology which can highlight registered patients with complex health needs. Health coaches, nurses, or GPs will then reach out to the people most at risk, and provide them with a range of preventive care such as monitoring, food parcels, cleaning, shopping, as well as escalating care to specialist doctors.

The National Health Service will begin its autumn Covid vaccine program next week, a month earlier than planned in response to the spread of a new variant dubbed Pirola. Covid vaccines will be administered to care home residents and housebound individuals from Monday onwards, while over-65s and other vulnerable groups will receive their appointments the week after. On Aug. 30, NHS England shifted the autumn vaccination drive to start on September 11 in response to the new Covid-19 variant, BA.2.86, detected on August 18. The primary groups can book through a national system upon receiving an invitation from the NHS. Some people may get an earlier call from their GP, and a few have already scheduled Covid vaccinations alongside their flu jabs. The NHS will begin inviting other eligible groups from Sept. 18. However, it is important to note that not everyone will receive a call at the same time. These groups will include individuals aged 65 and over, those aged six months to 64 years in a clinical risk category, frontline health and social care workers, and individuals aged 12 to 64 who are carers or household contacts of those with immunosuppression.

A new Attention-Deficit-Hyperactive disorder (ADHD) taskforce has been launched by National Health Services England (NHSE) to counter the challenges faced by many suffering from the neurodevelopmental condition. The ADHD taskforce aligns with the NHS Long Term Plan's vision to revolutionise mental health services, with a specific emphasis on bolstering community-based care and reducing reliance on inpatient services. The NHS has partnered with the government to tackle the escalating demands including increasing funding, improving system efficiency, altering the service provision model, and clinical prioritisation by bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand. Over the past two decades, there has been a significant expansion in the acknowledgement and successful medical interventions for ADHD, leading to a steady rise in clinical requests throughout the UK.

Responding to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report that indicated that NHS England's Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) needs improvements, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has expressed concerns that the plan may not adequately address the needs of GPs. Published in June 2023, the workforce plan estimated that the NHS's health workforce will need to grow from 1.4m full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in 2021-22 to between 2.3m and 2.4m FTE workers in 2036-37, an increase of 65 per cent to 72 per cent. However, the NAO report highlighted that the workforce modelling has significant weaknesses, including a complex design; manual adjustments; optimistic future assumptions and limited public communication of their uncertainty; and modelling outputs that could not be fully replicated. To improve the modelling, the report recommended exploring the uncertainty of these assumptions and considering potential outcomes if they do not materialize as expected. Additionally, it suggested including full integration of the different parts of the modelling pipeline to minimise manual adjustments.