Health and care sector latest developments
Health and Social Care Select Committee new report published
The Health and Social Care Select Committee has today published a report following its inquiry into community mental health services.
It contains a number of recommendations to government, including to continue funding a pilot of six innovative 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres, with a view to opening one in every community. As things stand, the government has not guaranteed funding for the centres beyond next April.
Another major conclusion of the report is for the Department of Health and Social Care to guarantee that spending on mental health services will continue to rise as a proportion of the NHS’s overall budget, and for other funding streams to be ringfenced or provided in longer-term cycles. This, the report argues, would ensure progress continues to be made towards parity of esteem between mental and physical health.
Responding to the publication of the report, mental health director at the NHS Confederation Rebecca Gray welcomed the support shown for open access models like the new 24/7 pilots, as well as the call for greater transparency on and commitment to responding to long waits in community mental health services. She also welcomed the focus on how to increase the ability of NHS and voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector to work effectively in partnership, adding: “Our members know that with appropriate funding, these partnerships are key to delivering wraparound care in ways that work best for patients.”
The NHS Confederation previously submitted written evidence to the committee’s inquiry.
2025 set to be worst year on record for emergency care – Liberal Democrats
Analysis by the Liberal Democrats of NHS England data shows A&E waits are higher than ever so far this year, with over 452,000 (452,595) people waiting 12 hours or more for a bed from January to October.
The corresponding figure between January and October 2016 was just 1,590, while the current number is around 34,000 higher than the same period last year.
The Liberal Democrats are now calling for an emergency package of extra hospital and care home beds to protect patients as winter bites and to arrest the rise in delays.
Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, described the data as “extremely worrying”. He added that “health service leaders are working incredibly hard and making difficult decisions about how best to manage this, with corridor care only ever used as a last resort”.
MP appointed ‘violence against women and girls’ adviser
Jess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft, has been appointed as violence against women and girls (VAWG) adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Ms Asato has been tasked with reforming culture of the NHS and ensuring women experiencing violence are identified and supported at the earliest opportunity.
The next six months will her Ms Asato focus on three priorities:
- how to reduce the impact of alcohol on violence against women and girls
- embedding VAWG support into neighbourhood health services, so women and girls can be easily connected to specialist support
- improving how violence against women and girls services are commissioned, to ensure the right help is in the right place.
The government has said that the appointment will help drive forward its mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
MHRA approves new cervical cancer treatment
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved tisotumab vedotin (Tivdak) for the treatment of adults with cervical cancer that has come back or spread.
The MHRA will continue to closely monitor its safety as it becomes more widely used.
South east’s ‘sub-optimal’ specialist services face overhaul
The south east of England’s specialist burns units face re-organisation after a review by NHS England found the existing service configuration was ‘sub-optimal’.
The units are at the Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex, Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire and Oxford University Hospitals.
The review found that a ‘more strategic approach’ would involve commissioning a sole burns unit within a tertiary trauma centre, therefore consolidating expertise on a single site.
Chief executive search paused ‘to enable stability’ at trust
Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust has paused its search for a new chief executive following a period which has seen several senior departures and major leadership and care quality failings at the trust.
Chair of the trust, Anthony Kildare, has told its board that interim chief executive, Brendan Brown, will remain in post for an unspecified period “to enable a period of much-needed stability with continuity in the leadership of the trust to address the immediate improvement actions required by regulators.”
