Health and Wellbeing Policy Update: July-September 2018

This is a list of key policy items relating to health and wellbeing (mainly in England), updated every week or so.  It is in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top).  It is grouped in three month blocks: click here for other quarters.

12 July 2018

The NHS still has nearly 9,000 fax machines in use, the Royal College of Surgeons has found, based on freedom of information request responses from 95 trusts, three quarters of trusts in England.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44805849

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11 July 2018

An association between pollution levels and hospital visits has been found in research by the University of Dundee comparing the medical records of 450 with bronchiectasis against 15 years of pollution data.  The research was published in the European Respiratory Journal.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-44776741
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/10/air-pollution-linked-to-spikes-in-hospital-and-gp-visits

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10 July 2018

The transition from child to adult mental health support should be more flexible, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch has recommended.  25,000 people make this transition each year.  Services can be interrupted and reduced during the transition.  One of the recommendations is to move from age-based to a needs-based criteria for transition
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44718406
(£) https://www.hsj.co.uk/quality-and-performance/young-people-stuck-in-mental-health-services-void-says-hsib/7022868.article

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09 July 2018

Matt Hancock is appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, replacing Jeremy Hunt who becomes Foreign Secretary.  Jeremy Hunt was the longest serving health secretary.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44774702
(£) https://www.hsj.co.uk/acute-care/new-health-secretary-named-as-hunt-goes-to-foreign-office/7022890.article?
(10/07/18) https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2018/07/10/new-health-social-care-secretary-announced/

One in four junior doctors suffers from burnout, according to the GMC’s annual national trainee survey of 70,000 doctors.  Almost a half said they regularly worked more than their rostered hours and nearly a third said they are exhausted in the morning at the thought of another shift.
(£) https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/revealed-one-in-four-junior-doctors-report-burn-out/7022873.article

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08 July 2018

Spending per head on public health will have fallen by 23.5% over five years by next year, according to analysis by the Health Foundation.  The health grant given by the government to local councils was £2.86bn in 2014-15, is £2.44bn this year and is due to fall to £2.27bn in 2019-20.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/08/fears-of-future-strain-on-nhs-as-councils-slash-health-programmes