Sunday 21 July 2024
The General Election is over. The new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, says the NHS is “broken”. He’s already started urgent talks with English Junior Doctors. Settling that dispute would be a good start.
Representing Ilford North, Mr Streeting should know something about the Essex and Northeast London health and welfare systems. He also said: millions of “patients are being failed on a daily basis”. Labour’s manifesto promises an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments per week in England, that’s 2million pa; this will be done by introducing more weekend services, as well as using slack in the private sector. Hopefully that will start soon.
Professor Lord Darzi has been appointed to establish the state of the NHS. The report will provide ‘raw and honest assessment of issues facing the health service and feed into a governmental 10-year plan to radically reform the nation’s health service. The 3 key steps in the government’s growth mission are: cutting waiting times to get people back to work; making the UK a life sciences and medical technology superpower; and, creating training and job opportunities through the NHS to deliver growth up and down the country.
Channel 4 Dispatches’ recent documentary on 24 June showed the utterly unacceptable care that’s a regular occurrence in some hospitals; thankfully not in ours. That part of the broken NHS needs urgent repair.
The draft report of the findings of the independent consultation about the future of community health services, in particular those at St Peter’s Hospital, Maldon, has been published. A virtual meeting was held on Thursday 18 July to present and explain this. The link to the recording of that meeting is at https://virtualviews.midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk/changes-to-services . This was really ‘just’ a summary of what has been published as their draft report. They (the independent consultants) request notification of any factual errors in the draft report by 31 July 2024. After that the report will be considered by Mid Essex Integrated Care Board (MSE ICB) as they deliberate about the future. The recommendations about the way forward will be presented at an extraordinary MSE ICB meeting in public to be held on 30 September 2024, subject to any delay if there is an intervention from the government. MSE ICB will consider all the factors involved including constraints put upon them by national policies.
Recently we recorded an interview with the outgoing Interim Chief Executive of our local NHS for publication at our forthcoming AGM. She’s delivered improvements, which were fully reported at Mid & South Essex Integrated Care Board’s meeting in public on 11 July, agenda papers at: file:///C:/Users/PeterBlackman/Downloads/Part-I-ICB-Board-Papers-11-July-2024-2.pdf . She agrees with the NHS CEO that: more care must move from hospitals into primary and community services; better use of technology and data is important; and preventative care is a key priority.
Our film, ‘The Impact of Covid on Dying, Death & Bereavement’ will be published on our website in the coming week and will be submitted to the national Covid Public Inquiry. There remains a terrible legacy from Covid for those who were bereaved in such awful, unusual circumstances. Our film aims to help unlock that and identify ways of improving things for the next inevitable pandemic.
The Covid Public Inquiry has published its Module 1: The resilience and preparedness of the UK Report. Its Report and Recommendations in Brief are at https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/…/UK-Covid-19-Inquiry… . The Inquiry has found that “the system of building preparedness for the pandemic – that is, our ability to deal with a pandemic – suffered from several significant flaws”.
Latest data indicates Covid cases are increasing again; A&E attendances have been at the highest level since February, hospital admissions were up to up to 2,797 in the week ended 28 June and there were 163 deaths in the week ended 5 July. The largest group of people hospitalised with Covid are those aged 85+. It’s difficult to get a full picture about Covid as there’s little testing. Data isn’t collected about Covid infections at home and is taken only in limited circumstances in hospitals. The legacy of long Covid remains worryingly large; the latest ONS data reported 1.5m English and Scottish cases at 31 March 2024; three quarters are affected with daily activities; 380,000 people are “limited a lot”. Flu and respiratory infections remain stable at low levels. We are now ‘living with Covid’.
The first post-election UKHSA bulletin warns: Whooping Cough cases continue rising with 2,591 cases in May; 7,599 cases and 9 infant deaths between January-May; Vaccination for pregnant women and infant babies is the necessary defence. 150 Measles cases were confirmed in June, with 2,154 laboratory confirmed cases since October 2023; MMR vaccinations are essential for young children. STIs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) continue increasing, with 401,800 new cases in 2023, up 4.7%. Adolescents, young adults and men having sex with men are at most risk. Nearly half of STIs occur in people ages 15-24. But others aren’t immune. The best way to avoid STIs is to use condoms “consistently and correctly” with new or casual sexual partners. Public health news is on our website and in weekly e-newsletters. SWF Library provides online services and help with internet access. For health & welfare information and subscription to our newsletter, email swfhealthsocial@outlook.com , or leave voicemails on 01245 322079
SWF Health & Social Care Group 