Health and care sector latest developments
One health factor ‘triples risk of eye disease’ in later life
People with diabetes who do not keep their blood sugar under control are three times more likely to develop eye disease in later life, research suggests. Experts looked at the health of more than 5,600 people in England, with an average age of 66, across 14 years.
Those with uncontrolled diabetes, whose blood sugar levels were too high at the start of the study, had a 31 per cent risk of developing diabetic eye disease. This compared to a risk of just 9 per cent for participants with diabetes whose glucose levels were in the normal range. Diabetic eye disease commonly involves diabetic retinopathy, where high blood sugar damages the retina at the back of the eye.
Study co-author Dr Stephen Jivraj, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, said the findings were important as rising numbers of people are being diagnosed with diabetes.
Scientists pinpoint reason why more boys than girls have autism and ADHD
Scientists believe they might have found a reason why boys are three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) than girls.
Researchers from the University of Rochester have suggested that boys may be more vulnerable to environmental stressors, such as toxic 'forever chemicals', as their brain develops.
These chemicals are believed to warp brain signals, causing long-term behavioural changes in boys, such as social anxiety, difficulty sitting still and finding it hard to follow instructions.
The local services praised in the Ten-Year Health Plan
A piece in the Health Service Journal analyses how the Ten-Year Health Plan highlights more than a dozen local examples of work showing where government wants to take the NHS, and eight from overseas.
The deadlines and targets in the Ten-Year Plan
A private funding business case for health centres, and publishing minimum employment standards, are among the first dated objectives in the Ten-Year Health Plan.
The plan was published yesterday without a chapter which had been expected to set out delivery details. However, the Health Service Journal has analysed the document and presented many of the significant dated targets and deadlines.
This year, patients can expect publication of league tables of NHS trusts and foundation trusts. Officials must prepare a business case ahead of the Autumn Budget to get permission to start agreeing private funding deals for new “neighbourhood health centres”.
Trusts to be monitored on local recruitment
Trusts will be monitored on how many staff they recruit who live locally and are unemployed, under Ten-Year Health Plan proposals.
The plan said the NHS often “expects the proceeds of growth, without delivering on its means to create it”, and “has a unique responsibility to catalyse growth and economic prosperity”.
It said: “Providers will recruit locally, supporting those who are unemployed or economically inactive to take up appropriate roles and expanding apprenticeships and accessible training, so that people can earn while they learn.”
The plan added: “We will publish employer level data on staff employment and recruitment, broken down by socio-economic status, sex and ethnicity, so progress can be monitored.”
