NHS at breaking point, according to British Medical Association

The NHS is at “breaking point” with a decline in the number of hospital beds leading to delays and cancelled operations, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned.

Analysis by the BMA found the number of overnight beds in English hospitals fell by a fifth between 2006-07 and 2015-16. The report found that in the first week of January this year, almost three-quarters of trusts had a bed occupancy rate of 95% on at least one day.

According to the analysis, in 2000 there were an average of 3.8 beds per 1,000 people, but this had dropped to 2.4 beds by 2015. The report said that in November 2016 14.8% of patients spent more than four hours waiting for a hospital bed, having been seen in an A&E department.

“The data demonstrates the increasing pressures on the system. It provides evidence of the underlying cracks within the NHS, such as funding constraints, changes and increases in demand, disjointed care and workforce pressures,” the BMA report said.

It noted that pressures on mental health services were particularly acute, with a 44% decrease in the number of mental health beds since 2000-01.

The document was seized on by opposition politicians, with Labour saying it was a “wake-up call [that] Theresa May must not ignore” and the Liberal Democrats warning the situation was becoming “intolerable”.

The BMA’s chairman, Mark Porter, said: “The UK already has the second lowest number of hospital beds per head in Europe and these figures paint an even bleaker picture of an NHS that is at breaking point.

“High bed occupancy is a symptom of wider pressure and demand on an overstretched and underfunded system. It causes delays in admissions, operations being cancelled and patients being unfairly and sometimes repeatedly let down.

“The delays that vulnerable patients are facing, particularly those with mental health issues, have almost become the norm and this is unacceptable. Failures within the social care system are also having a considerable knock-on effect on an already stretched and underfunded NHS.

“When social care isn’t available, patients experience delays in moving from hospital to appropriate social care settings, which damages patient care and places a significant strain on the NHS.

“In the short term we need to see bed plans that are workable and focused on the quality of care and patient experiences, rather than financial targets. But in the long term we need politicians to take their heads out of the sand and provide a sustainable solution to the funding and capacity challenges that are overwhelming the health service.”

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, said: “Thanks to Tory mishandling of our NHS, patient numbers in hospitals are now routinely above the levels recommended for safety. The shameful reality is this overcrowding puts patients at risk and blows apart ministers’ claims to be prioritising safety.

“The number of overnight hospital beds has decreased by over a fifth and combined with Tory neglect and underfunding this has left nine out of 10 hospitals dangerously overcrowded this winter.

“Almost all hospitals have been running over the safe 85% mark for bed occupancy while 60 hospital trusts are over 95% this winter. The response from ministers is to blame others and bury their heads in the sand.

“This government’s mismanagement is failing our NHS and failing patients. The prime minister must wake up to this crisis and ensure that the NHS and social care have the funding and support needed in the budget next month.”

Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem spokesman and former health minister, said: “Chronic bed shortages should be the exception not the rule. The situation is getting intolerable, with more cancelled operations, longer delays and those with mental health issues being systematically let down.

“Ultimately we could reduce the need for hospital beds by improving preventive care. But cutting both preventive services and beds leads to disaster. That is what we are now witnessing.”

An NHS Improvement spokeswoman said: “The NHS has been under real pressure this winter, as it copes with a surge in demand for emergency services the knock-on effects are felt throughout our hospitals.

“Our hospitals are extremely busy but we are working tirelessly alongside providers to help them manage and to support more efficient use of the number of beds available.”

The BMA’s report is published before the NHS Improvement’s figures for the third quarter of 2016-17, which are expected to show the parlous state of trusts’ finances.

NHS Improvement’s chief, Jim Mackey, has acknowledged trusts will miss the £580m deficit “control target” and forecasters have predicted the combined black hole in their finances could reach nearly £1bn by the end of the year.

The Department of Health disputed the BMA’s analysis, insisting figures from before 2010-11 could not be compared with those afterwards; the earlier figures included NHS-provided residential care beds and were compiled on an annual basis, while the more recent figures were published quarterly and only included beds under the care of consultants.

A spokesman said: “This analysis is inaccurate, the figures come from two different time periods when the way of counting beds was different, and so they aren’t comparable.

“Our hospitals are busier than ever but thanks to the hard work of staff, our performances are still amongst the best in the world. We have backed the NHS’s own plan for the future with an extra £10bn by 2020.”

NHS at breaking point, according to British Medical Association

Australian Health care Association accuses The Australian of selling smoking

The Australian Medical Association has accused Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper of marketing smoking and “big tobacco” by publishing a series of articles undermining the nation’s plain packaging legislation.

The Australian, owned by News Corp, has previously argued that plain packaging deprives tobacco firms of their intellectual house rights, and earlier this month went additional and claimed that plain packaging had led to an improve in tobacco product sales.

“The AMA urges the government to restate its support for the plain packaging laws and tobacco control typically, and we urge the Australian and other media to stop offering Large Tobacco a totally free ride in marketing its killer merchandise,” the AMA president, Associate Professor Brian Owler, mentioned.

The intervention of the peak health care physique came after The Australian published an additional five content articles on Wednesday essential of public health initiatives to lower smoking costs, such as plain packaging.

The series of news reviews and view pieces have been in response to the ABC’s Media View plan, which slammed The Australian’s earlier exclusive story claiming that there had been an increase in consumption as “garbage”.

On six June The Australian ran a front-page story headlined “Labor’s plain packaging fails as cigarette income rise”.

“Labor’s nanny state push to kill off the country’s addiction to cigarettes with plain packaging has backfired, with new sales figures exhibiting tobacco consumption expanding throughout the 1st complete year of the new laws,” the newspaper reported.

But the accuracy of the proof presented in the report was instantly called into question by some economists and well being experts, as it right contradicted government figures.

A single of the economists who condemned the story, Stephen Koukoulas, stated tobacco consumption in the 1st quarter of 2014 was the lowest ever recorded.

The professor of health policy at Curtin University, Mike Daube, also condemned the report: “Every bit of the report is dodgy, from the way it was set up, to what’s in it, to the lack of analysis.”

Media Watch quoted the two experts in its story, and recommended The Australian had been influenced by the views of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a proper-wing thinktank.

Undeterred by the Media Watch report, The Australian returned fire, publishing a total broadsheet web page of stories on Wednesday.

One particular of the viewpoint pieces was written by Professor Sinclair Davidson, an economist at RMIT and a senior fellow at the IPA, which has reportedly obtained money from the tobacco business. British American Tobacco Australia informed the Sydney Morning Herald in 2012 it was a member of the IPA.

Davidson wrote that plain packaging policy introduced by the earlier Labor government was “state-sponsored persecution of that minority who eat tobacco”.

Davidson was also quoted in the newspaper as saying: “I have no doubt that the consumption of cigarettes has risen because plain packaging was introduced we just can not be positive regardless of whether it is by current smokers or new smokers.”

But according to the division of well being, recent figures launched by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) demonstrate that complete consumption of tobacco and cigarettes in the March quarter 2014 is the lowest ever recorded.

It has dropped from $ three.508bn in December 2012 to 3.405 billion in March 2014.

The Guardian’s Information Blog analysed the figures used by The Australian on June 6 and located there was indeed a little .28% boost in sales 12 months on yr but the paper had failed to account for the improve in the population between 2012 and 2013.

“Adjusted for population, tobacco income per particular person have truly continued to reduce from 920.four in 2012 to 906.9 in 2013,” the Data Site reported.

The AMA was joined by the Cancer Council in pointing the finger at the tobacco industry for driving a misinformation campaign to undermine the effectiveness of plain packaging, but stopped brief of naming the Australian.

The Cancer Council CEO and healthcare oncologist, Professor Ian Olver, cited new Treasury figures which he said had been a more indication of a decline in smoking, with tobacco clearances (like excise and customs duty) falling by three.four% in 2013 relative to 2012, when tobacco plain packaging was launched.

“The so-called data becoming spun by the tobacco market to declare that plain packaging has not worked is plain wrong,” Olver stated in a statement.

“If we utilised tobacco market claims to guidebook wellness policy, existence expectancy in Australia would be much reduce than it is today.”

The Cancer Council mentioned the tobacco industry’s misinformation campaign was “aimed at undermining the introduction of plain packaging in the UK”.

“In a nation of 63 million people, plain packaging would be a main blow to the tobacco industry’s earnings,” Prof Olver said.

In Wednesday’s report The Australian claimed that the government’s anti-smoking measures had been driving a boom in low cost cigarettes because smokers were “purchasing far more cigarettes from the lowest marketplace section”.

“Neilsen data signifies that 42.three per cent of all cigarettes now purchased are priced at significantly less than $ 15 a pack, a rise from 25.6 per cent of the market in 2011 and 35.2 per cent at the end of final yr,” the report explained.

The report quoted tobacco industry executives to back this claim. The managing director of Philip Morris, John Gledhill, informed The Australian: “As market and market authorities have previously warned, the government’s forced removal of tobacco manufacturers and trademarks has triggered intense cost competitors.”

Australian Health care Association accuses The Australian of selling smoking

American Heart Association Launches Accelerator To Locate Inner Game Changers

Accelerator plans and incubators are expanding quickly in variety inside the overall health care business, with most replicating standard tech incubator models. But a single organization has worked to redefine what an accelerator system can appear like in the wellness space by joining a single of the country’s largest and most influential associations in its landmark effort to court healthcare innovation. Dr. Ross Tonkens, a cardiologist and Chief Medical Officer in Cary, North Carolina has directed the creation of the Science and Technology Accelerator Plan inside the American Heart Association (AHA), that targets and supports ground-breaking tips from residents to senior clinicians.

Breaking The Mold

Despite the fact that the AHA is most well identified for its Heart Walks, Heart Ball and different awareness efforts such as the Go Red campaign, with a developing accelerator system, the Association could soon be recognized for altering how overall health associations and organizations believe about growing all round effect. Not only do new suggestions, technologies, and products improve the branding and public relations of an association, but it also leads to innovation that improves value-efficient practices, patient knowledge and specifications of care.

In accordance to Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at Northwestern University, “When the prevalence of atrial fibrillation is presently estimated among 2.5-6 million Americans, but also estimated to be six-sixteen million by the finish of 2015, we know invention and innovation are essential.”

The AHA’s 2020 Influence Targets are to decrease deaths from cardiovascular illness and stroke by twenty% as properly as improve cardiovascular health of all American’s by twenty%. Lloyd-Jones explained the kind of disruption and adjust essential to make these goals achievable will have to come from newer and a lot more effective concepts and products by means of the Accelerator plan in addition to continued research funding.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones set the tone of the AHA’s “Get Pumped” efforts by highlighting that, “continuing to fund investigation efforts will ensure tomorrow’s overall health and science discoveries make it from bench to bedside.”

Dr. Tonkens adds that investments by way of the Accelerator program can motivate sector and venture capital interests to “pick up the baton and carry it to the finish line following we fund proof of notion clinical analysis.”

Funding

Presently, the AHA is the 2nd biggest funder of cardiovascular study soon after the federal government. AHA has invested above $ three.five billion in supporting fundamental science study, and continues to do so. The Accelerator on the other hand is targeted on identifying the game changers that can be propelled to industry as swiftly as possible, and assisting the industry and investors come to feel confident in obtaining a reduced quantity of threat on modern items.

Whilst AHA gave an estimated  $ 134 million last fiscal 12 months in study, the AHA Science and Engineering Accelerator Plan is independent. To date it has not collected cash right from AHA, but instead, relies solely on donations directed to the Accelerator through awareness and fundraising efforts.

Although this can make funding challenging, it also means any return on investment by the Accelerator is utilized to drive game changers into the market place more rapidly the present that keeps on providing.

Tough The Standing Quo

The Accelerator program not only invests cash, but also expertise in regions such as scientific analysis, regulatory troubles, intellectual house and commercialization techniques. This is completed to make certain that all concepts are solicited, vetted and implemented to the greatest of their capabilities, even those from younger people in the AHA that could not have however been granted government funding or published in journals.

At the Heart Innovation Forum in Chicago last October, Jill Seidman of Healthbox agreed. During a panel discussion on accelerating discovery to patient knowledge she examined to audience that it was perfect for Chicago to host the AHA Forum due to the fact it was on the forefront of young innovation. She explained that, “bridging academic health-related centers (AMCs) with neighborhood centers and clinics is imperative to enhancing outcomes, and Chicago has much more AMC and health care colleges than any other area in the United States.”

Dr. Tonkens message was clear at that very same Forum. He mentioned that like Healthbox, the Science and Engineering Accelerator within AHA could fund – and has – wonderful concepts. As he place it, “small amounts of money can significantly boost daily life expectancy and lessen death from heart attack and stroke when leveraged by the international knowledge in science, medication, IP, regulatory and commercialization techniques which AHA is uniquely capable of bringing to bear.

American Heart Association Launches Accelerator To Locate Inner Game Changers

Medical doctors to blame for boost in elderly individuals taken to A&E, says Nationwide Care Association

“GPs are not prepared to come out to something like this and they will generally say get in touch with the support [NHS 111] and get this man or woman to hospital since that’s what they feel is the quickest and easiest way,” she additional.

Figures from the Overall health and Social Care Information Centre display that in 2012-13, one.sixteen million individuals in their 80s arrived in casualty units — a rise of 65 per cent in 5 many years, with a 75 per cent improve in the variety sent by ambulance. This exceeds the eight per cent rise in the population of above 80s for the duration of this time period.

Ms Ahmed said the alter in assistance has consequences for how elderly people can be cared for.

She extra: “There is the whole standpoint that folks can be looked after at residence as lengthy as feasible, but we’ve not got the right assistance since of a lack of funding.

“People are not acquiring the degree of support they require at a vital time of their lives.”

Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are now becoming taken care of as emergencies in hospitals, n what has been noticed as a lack of self confidence in out of hrs care.

Dr Cliff Guy, president of the University of Emergency Medication, mentioned this care was “very quite variable” dependent on in which folks live.

He said: “This indicates individuals who are residents of nursing houses, when they fall unwell as well often the default position is to take them to A&ampE.”

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, explained that also several elderly people had been ending up in hospital due to the fact of the flawed GP contract, signed below Labour in 2004, that allowed family medical doctors to abandon accountability for out-of-hours care.

From April, GPs will have to consider close to-the-clock accountability for the care of all sufferers aged 75 and more than as he said they are “bringing back suitable loved ones doctoring.”

Medical doctors to blame for boost in elderly individuals taken to A&E, says Nationwide Care Association