United Kingdom: National Health Service (NHS) news

Maat said:
"The chairman of NHS England has announced he is resigning, saying it was a “very difficult decision”. Richard Meddings, who has been in the role for almost three years, said he had notified Health Secretary Wes Streeting that he would stand down as chairman at the end of March.

It comes after reports that Labour was planning on asking Mr Meddings to leave after the election, possibly to be replaced by former health secretary Alan Milburn or ex-home secretary Jacqui Smith."


NHS England chairman Richard Meddings resigns (msn.com)
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Aw gawd both seem personable outside our arena but historically regarding me/cfs these seem two very different beasts not that I know for sure what Jacquu thinks on all the tendrils that massively affect us?

but then I don’t know much about Meddings or whether it’s normal for that role to have ex politicians near it

chairman is always a funny one that can depend on the person the the role about how ‘hands on’ it is as a position in some places
 
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Jonathan Edwards said:
With luck they will realise that appointing Milburn would make it apparent just how little grasp Streeting has of anything and make Streeting look and feel like the junior partner. For all I know Jacqui Smith might actually be quite sensible.
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Am I remembering wrongly in thinking millburn was very pro CBT and iapt etc back in the day? Of course I’m very open to someone having read the results and changed their mind on things over such a time period and if so that insight being more useful than a naive kind to persuade with the same sakes spiel etc
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
The long term value for money was appalling.
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If they're anything like the local schools built under it, their useful lifespan isn't much longer than the rental contract. We'll soon be back to square one, with the only durable asset gained being a ready-levelled building plot and an asphalt drive.

In the case of the NHS, the building plot's probably more likely to be the wrong size and in the wrong place as well.
 
Still just reading through this and not opened the reports and plans and research it refers to. It’s from 2002/3

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2002-01-22/debates/a75516dc-531d-4229-8959-33b20f9081ae/CfsMe

So no idea yet if this is where it went from a good medical officers report to a different path, or if this is good and the rest happened later and where and how?

couldn’t help but note the same conundrums we still deal with now where on prevalence Jacqueline smith has had to say they don’t have central figures but are basing need on the estimate if 4,000 per million of population.
 
bobbler said:
Am I remembering wrongly in thinking millburn was very pro CBT and iapt etc back in the day? Of course I’m very open to someone having read the results and changed their mind on things over such a time period and if so that insight being more useful than a naive kind to persuade with the same sakes spiel etc
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Yep

I think this one needs looking into carefully

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improving_Access_to_Psychological_Therapies

I also have a memory of a tv programme that looked back on new labour where he is an architect of strong views on certain things
 
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Health officials are to publish guidance for NHS trusts on Thursday. However, a previously included target to roll out women’s health hubs in all parts of the country will be missing.

The Government’s women’s health ambassador criticised the move. Dame Lesley Regan urged the Health Secretary to think again and said it would be “very disappointing” if the NHS planning guidance abandoned the target, saying “we can’t afford not to do it”.

Charities said women’s health was being “sidelined and shunted back”.

Since Labour won the election, Mr Streeting has committed to publish a men’s health strategy.

Dame Lesley, who was appointed in 2022 as the government’s first women’s health ambassador for England, suggested that ministers and health officials were in danger of forgetting about women, despite the fact they constitute 51 per cent of the population.

“There already is a men’s health strategy: it’s called the NHS; it’s already designed by men for men,” she said.
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Wes Streeting dumps women’s health target from NHS plan
 
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“There already is a men’s health strategy: it’s called the NHS; it’s already designed by men for men,” she said.

I find that sort of remark offensive. I spent most of my life looking after women. The more that people make such simplistic comments the more justification there is for sticking to equality not special pleading.

'Women's Health' in the US became a dumping ground for complementary medicine and psychologising. What's the point?
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
The more that people make such simplistic comments the more justification there is for sticking to equality not special pleading.
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Maybe it should be equity? Tackling barriers faced by groups of people should be prioritised according to potential for harm and budgeted in line with the solutions most likely to work, not influenced by political expediency or the relative amounts spent on the groups.

Money for facilities might actually help with the problem of some men being diagnosed with life threatening diseases so late it affects their outcomes—there've been successes with community and workplace-based screening. But the issue of serious reproductive health problems in women being trivialised or denied is more about attitudes than it is about clinics. As is the history of transgender people not being offered health screening appropriate to their post-transition bodies.

What it definitely shouldn't be is a competition.
 
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BBC reporting live from Royal Free Hospital, London. Asking for patient experiences

Today in the news:
“The BBC is spending a day inside the Royal Free Hospital in north London, finding out how the NHS is coping after intense, annual winter pressures.”

Link HERE

They have been reporting live and are also asking for patient experiences of the NHS:
Get in touch about your experiences:
Email bbcyourvoice@bbc.co.uk, WhatsApp +44 7980 682727 or click here
 
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I think it’s a good idea to highlight the crisis of treating people on corridors etc, but you’re never going to get a true picture when staff are aware that journalists are reporting on their work.

I personally don’t feel the experience of people with ME (and chronic illness in general) are at all represented in this live reporting. I found it quite hard to scroll through the praise for how well staff have treated people with acute issues that are recognised as physical problems, when so many of us in the ME community have had a different experience.
 
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The body responsible for the day-to-day running of the health service in England is being scrapped.

The government plans to abolish NHS England and bring it into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in a radical overhaul of the management structure of the NHS.

Why? The government argues it will save money, cut red-tape and give ministers more control. But the move is not without risk.

With more than 14,000 staff, NHS England is around four times the size of the DHSC itself.

But that is only because in recent years NHS England has absorbed Health Education England, which oversees staff training, and NHS Digital, which is responsible for data collection and technology.

NHS England also plays a role in organising some key frontline services, including GPs and specialist hospital care, while overseeing the day-to-day running of the health service alongside distributing the money made available by ministers.

Much of this will now fall under the control of the health department. But not all. Expect some to be devolved down to regional health boards.
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NHS England: Why world's biggest quango is being axed - BBC News
 
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