SWF Health & Social Care Group’s 2024 AGM and public meeting will be held virtually from 1830-2030 on the evening of Thursday 29 August; details nearer then.
Nominations for the offices of Chair, Task Force Chair, Minutes Secretary and Committee Members must be sent to our Administrator by email or voicemail by 15 August 2024 to swfhealthsocial@outlook.com or 01245 322079.
UKHSA has produced “How Heat-Health Alerts contribute to keeping the vulnerable safe this summer”. The sun is shining and many of us are happy to see the arrival of warmer and drier weather after the wet and cool summer we’ve had so far. This week’s higher temperatures have triggered a yellow Heat-Health Alert, issued for England by the Met Office and UKHSA. While some may question the necessity of such warnings, it’s crucial to understand the significant health implications that accompany changes in temperature. Over the past decade, England has experienced an increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of heatwaves. The once-unthinkable prospect of a 40°C day in the UK became a reality in 2022
Following the cessation of Dart and Arrow local transport services, Essex County Council has worked with other bus operators in the county to ensure the services affected are back up and running as quickly as possible. The following services will start to run as follows:
- Service 12 Wickford to Billericay – with Vectare commencing on 31 July 2024 (with a reduced timetable until 5 August 2024).
- Service 45 Bradwell-on-Sea to South Woodham Ferrers – with NIBs Buses. NIBs had capacity to run this service from 29th July 2024, and so this is already running.
- Service 10 Temple Grove to Pleshey – with Vectare commencing on 5 August 2024 – please note this service will now have a new service number of 48
- DaRT 3 North Braintree – with Flagfinders (CTB) commencing on 31 July 2024
An update on service 99A Chelmsford to Maldon will be provided as soon as possible; ECC apologises that it has been unable to provide an update on this service as quickly as it has with the other routes. They are doing everything they can to find a suitable solution.
Travel will be free of charge on these services as they are currently ‘unregistered’ because of the speed at which they have been arranged.
ECC announces Park and Ride returns to Broomfield Hospital. The Chelmer Valley Park and Ride shuttle will return to Broomfield Hospital on Thursday 1 August. It will run every half-hour from 6:30am to 8:00pm, Monday to Friday. This very welcome story is at https://www.essex.gov.uk/news/2024/park-and-ride-returns-broomfield-hospital .
On 29 July it was announced that the government and the BMA trade union have struck an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee has agreed to put the offer to its members.
If accepted it would spell an end to long-running strike action which has led to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of appointments since March 2023. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the offer marked “the start of a new relationship” between the government and NHS staff.
There’s concern about the future of the New Hospitals Programme. No pre-determined savings from this programme have been decided. The NHS and Department of Health and Social Care are undertaking a thorough review of projects and decision-making.
The Health Secretary is reviewing the “broken” NHS. He’s taking emergency measures to start to make the health and care services regulator CQC fit for purpose. With Blood Stocks at ‘critically low levels’ there are urgent appeals for people with O-type blood to donate, whilst an amber alert restricts hospital use of that blood-type to essential cases only. https://www.blood.co.uk/news-and-campaigns/campaigns/blood-donor-appeal/
Professor Lord Darzi has been appointed to establish the state of the NHS. His 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’. 3 key steps in the 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.
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 ‘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.
We’ve 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 and be publicised from the evening of 5 August. More then. 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”.
There’s a summer wave of Covid. UKHSA is also warning about Whooping Cough, Measles, STIs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), Farm Visits, Flu & respiratory illnesses, ticks & Lyme disease, travel health, & Festivals. We’ve written about all these previously. 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 https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/
SWF Health & Social Care Group 