Health and care sector latest developments

Sunak says it'll take time for people to feel better

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that it will ‘take time’ for people to ‘really feel better’ as figures revealed the UK had emerged from recession.

The economy grew by 0.6 per cent between January and March after shrinking in the second half of last year. Mr Sunak told the BBC that the UK economy has ‘real momentum’ but admitted there was ‘more work to do’.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats said there was little to celebrate. ‘After 14 years of economic chaos, working people are still worse off,’ said Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.

NHS Launches Dentist Recruitment Scheme

The NHS is encouraging local dental practices with the highest demand to hire new dentists using a new recruitment incentive scheme.  

Around 240 dentists will be offered bonus payments of up to £20,000 to work in under-served areas for up to three years, with NHS guidance issued to practices today to encourage them to sign up to the ‘golden hello’ scheme.

The initiative is part of the NHS and the government’s dental recovery plan, published in February 2024, with the goal of ensuring easier and quicker access to NHS dental care across the country and could see up to 1.5 million additional NHS dental treatments delivered for patients in the first 12 months.

The plan also set out new measures to encourage dental practices to treat patients who had not been seen by a dentist in two years, with contractors able to receive an additional payments.

Agency charging hospitals nearly £2,000 for specialist nurse shift

An agency providing last-minute freelance nurses to NHS hospitals is routinely charging up to £2,000 a shift, BBC News has discovered.

Glen Burley, chief executive of an NHS trust, said that Thornbury Nursing Services is targeting areas in England where nurses are in short supply as the government says that new measures will end the use of expensive agencies.

Commenting in the article, chief executive of NHS Employers Danny Mortimer said there had been ‘mounting concern’ that a small number of staffing agencies were exploiting the pressures facing the NHS.

“The BBC raises serious questions about how much public money flows to these 'last resort' agencies and their owners. The NHS is making real strides in retaining NHS staff, and reducing reliance on agency staff,” Danny added.

Complaints of antisemitism among doctors have increased

The General Medical Council (GMC) has reported that complaints of antisemitism by doctors have increased significantly since October 7. 

Before the Israel-Gaza war broke out, there had been just eight reported cases since the start of the year. In the four months following the outbreak of the war, there were 60 reports made. 

The GMC has stated that complaints of Islamophobia amongst doctors have also risen.

Building a hospital ‘not difficult’, says re-elected mayor

A mayor is planning to launch a consultation to build a new hospital the government says he has no powers to build, claiming the project ‘doesn’t seem difficult’.

Ben Houchen, who was re-elected as Tees Valley Mayor last week, has promised to build a replacement for the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton and has said he will launch an ‘extensive’ public consultation over the location.

That’s despite the Department of Health and Social Care saying Mr Houchen does not have the powers to build a new hospital.

Prestigious trusts sought to ‘circumvent’ spending limits, Treasury rules

Two specialist trusts have been threatened with regulatory action after the Treasury ruled they had attempted to ‘circumvent’ capital spending limits, a letter recently sent to trusts has revealed.

The Royal Marsden and the Christie foundation trusts both donated millions to their associated charities without permission from NHS England or the Treasury.

The pair sought retrospective approval, but this was denied by the Treasury, which said they had fallen foul of government spending rules.

NHS England has now written to all trusts saying ‘we are not expecting these transactions to occur’.

UK Health Security Agency’s financial controls remain unacceptably weak

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are getting the basics unacceptably wrong in their financial management and accountability for public spending – for the second year running. 

In a report published today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) finds that weaknesses in UKHSA’s financial controls mean it remains impossible to establish if taxpayers’ money has been spent to the purposes intended by parliament.

This is due both to spillover effects from the state of last year’s accounts, and to government mistakenly failing to tell auditors in time about changes made to forecasts for COVID-19 vaccine demand, underpinning several significant sums in UKHSA’s accounts.

The report also finds that £2.6 billion was paid out to claimants in 2022-23 for clinical negligence by government, which has no effective plan to minimise these costs.

Infected blood was still used in UK after virus screening began

The NHS continued to give patients infected blood after virus screening had been introduced.

Screening, including for hepatitis C, began in September 1991 but there was no process to stop old, contaminated blood being used.

BBC News has learned untested and potentially contaminated blood could have been stored for up to ten years and have identified patients infected after 1 September 1991, who are currently unable to claim compensation.

Schemes for victims to claim financial compensation are only open to those treated with infected blood prior to the introduction of routine virus screening. 

Vaccine expert 'very worried' by whooping cough deaths

A leading vaccine expert says he is ‘very worried’ by the large increase in whooping cough cases which have led to the deaths of five babies in England this year.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, head of the UK's vaccine committee, said the youngest were at greatest risk and more pregnant women should be vaccinated. If the disease continues to spread, more babies will die, he warned.

Bowel cancer test developed for the visually impaired

A new tool developed by NHS England and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) will make it far easier for those who are blind or partly sighted to test for bowel cancer. 

The tool adapts the at-home stool sample test by adding instructions in braille and providing a channel which allows the stool sample to be guided into the bottle in which it is collected.

Former hospital chief to chair second trust

A former trust chief executive has been appointed chair of a second trust in the South East.

John Goulston will take over as chair of Medway Foundation Trust, which has had long-running performance problems and remains subject to NHS England recovery support, in the summer.

He is already chair of Kent Community Healthcare FT, where his term ends next year.

Directors ‘should face disciplinary action’ over unfair dismissal, judge says

Former Norfolk and Waveney system leaders should face ‘further investigation and those responsible face disciplinary action’, as they ‘conspired’ to unfairly dismiss an assistant director, a judge has concluded.

Employment Judge Postle ruled that Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commisioning Group – now succeeded by Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board – constructively dismissed the claimant, Clive Rennie.