Looking after a child or young person’s mental health

As parents and carers, there are ways we can support our children to give them the best chance to stay mentally healthy. Encouraging and guiding a child to think about their own mental health and wellbeing are vital skills you can teach them from a young age. Ways to support a child or young person … Continue reading Looking after a child or young person’s mental health

How human organs grown in labs are helping to develop the vaccines of the future

In a lab in Porton Down, scientists are growing human organs on tiny cassette-like chips to help accelerate the development of new drugs, therapeutic medicines and vaccines. These replica organ systems were first pioneered for human drug toxicity assessments, but are now being developed for use in cancer, radiation, chemical exposure and infectious disease research. … Continue reading How human organs grown in labs are helping to develop the vaccines of the future

Blood donors

Recently we reported the dangerous shortage of stocks of donated blood. We visited the most recent blood donation session on a Sunday in William de Ferrers School. We saw a stream of people queuing to donate their blood. The staff told us they get a tremendous regular response for donors from SWF and surrounds. We … Continue reading Blood donors

Health update

Hospitals hit by 'tidal wave' of flu and winter illness. About 1900 hospital beds were occupied by flu patients last week, up 70% on the previous week. That’s 3+ times higher than this time last year. Hospitals are struggling to stop the spread of the virus within hospitals as well as admitting new patients. Covid, RSV … Continue reading Health update

An update from SWF Health & Social Care Group

The end of November saw two separate cyber attacks on Merseyside hospitals. Such attacks are hugely disruptive. The NHS has to be vigilant against cyber threats and this is regularly considered by NHS Digital, NHS England and all NHS organisations. Keeping hackers and malicious software out of NHS systems is one of several financial costs … Continue reading An update from SWF Health & Social Care Group

Help us improve access to hospital test information

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust is introducing a new feature that will allow patients to access some hospital test results online. This will include radiology reports (such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans) and pathology results (such as blood tests, biopsies, and urine analyses).  To allow clinicians time to review and discuss … Continue reading Help us improve access to hospital test information