Health and care sector latest developments

Hunt says infected blood compensation plans will be announced ‘very shortly.’

Following Tuesday's session of the victims and prisoners bill, where ministers accepted a three-month deadline for the infected blood scheme, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt spent Wednesday night telling ITV's Robert Peston that plans for compensation will be announced ‘very shortly’ after the report because ‘the time for talking is over.’
 
The government concession on imposing a timeline for the compensation scheme came after the administration was accused of trying to ‘wriggle out’ of a Commons-backed move to speed up payouts.
 
Hunt declined to give an exact timescale but said: “I think we have made a commitment that within 20 parliamentary days or something like that we will do it, but we're not going to hang around for as long as possible, we want to do this as soon as possible.” Hunt stopped short of promising to pay out before a general election.
 
ITV News is reporting that some victims of the infected blood scandal have been told they will soon be able to apply for compensation for the first time.
 
With the final report coming out on 20 May, it is looking likely that ministers will accept the inquiry's recommendations and set out next steps.

£147 million of NHS England dental budget unspent

Financial Times analysis has found that NHS dentists in England returned £147 million of government funding last year after failing to meet their treatment targets.
 
The sector blamed the underspend on a ‘broken’ NHS dental contract system that was forcing dentists into private practice, against a backdrop of staffing shortages and long appointment waiting lists. British Dental Association chair Eddie Crouch has said ‘Underspends do not reflect any lack of demand for NHS dentistry — but are the result of struggling practices unable to hit their punitive targets.’
 
The Health and Social Care Committee has denoted the UDA contract system as ‘not fit for purpose’ and called for ‘urgent reform’ to boost recruitment and retention in NHS dental services. Responding to analysis, an NHS spokesperson said it had this year announced fresh support for practices to deliver on contractual obligations and improve delivery.

Decline in cigarette consumption has ‘plateaued’, study finds

A study by University College London has found that the decline in the number of cigarettes being smoked in England has ‘plateaued.’ The study found that while cigarette consumption fell by 22 per cent between 2008 and 2019, the decline paused between late 2019 and 2023.
 
Researchers have warned that there has been ‘virtually no change’ in cigarette consumption in recent years, suggesting that this could be attributed to more people working from home since COVID-19. Researchers also found that more people were instead opting for the cheaper alternative of hand-rolled tobacco.
 
In response to the findings, experts called for legislation aiming to create a smoke-free generation to pass through parliament ‘swiftly.’

Women live longer with poor health, study finds

Women live longer than men but experience more years in poor health, according to a study published in the Lancet Public Health journal. Researchers found that conditions such as musculoskeletal problems, mental health issues and migraines particularly affect women.
 
Men were found to be disproportionately affected by conditions that cause premature death, such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory and liver diseases and COVID-19. The report highlighted that health differences between women and men continue to grow with age, leaving women with higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives.

Immune cell discovery ‘could lead to personalised treatment for breast cancer’

Some immune cells can target cancerous tumours in the body, scientists have discovered. 

Researchers have developed a tool to identify these anti-cancer cells which could lead to improved, personalised immunotherapies.

ICBs seek new operating model for GP provision in new national programme

Seven integrated care boards are to test new ‘operating models’ for GP provision under a wide-ranging programme backed by NHS England, they announced today.

The scheme will ‘determine the operational changes and improvements’ and ‘optimise the general practice operating model’, working with selected primary care networks, community services and others, according to a letter from NHS Engalnd and a lead integrated care board.

It will determine how to further deliver on the Fuller Stocktake report 2022, the letter says, which was the last major NHSE-backed review of the primary care model. It proposed developing integrated neighbourhood-level teams but there has since been little progress on delivering it.

One of the ICBs taking part is Suffolk and North East Essex, whose CEO Ed Garratt will lead the programme, but the others involved have not yet been named.

ICBs challenged over ‘untenable’ GP workload

Integrated care boards must do more to tackle the operational failings that saddle GPs with ‘untenable workloads’, a group of local medical committees (LMCs) have warned.

London-wide LMCs called on the five London integrated care boards, in a letter sent last week, to tackle ‘system operational failings’ that lead to wasted appointments, inappropriate clinical requests and needless bureaucracy.

The LMCs wrote that ‘rationing’ other services to save money puts extra pressure on GPs and warned this must be addressed to stem the ‘spiralling attrition’ [of GPs] in London, where the number of patients per GP is the highest in the country.

ICS stops referrals to largest private provider

A health system has stopped sending mental health patients to the country’s largest single provider of out-of-area placements.

Southern Hill Hospital in Norfolk provided more than 18,000 bed days classed as OAPs for NHS patients last year, with Greater Manchester Integrated Care System being the main contributor to that total.

However, HSJ has learned that GM’s integrated care board and mental health providers have decided not to send any more patients to the provider.

The move comes after a recent visit to and review of the service at Southern Hill by GM commissioners. This, in turn, followed concerns about the ‘co-ordination’ of patient care at Southern Hill received by GM. The exact nature of the concerns is unclear, and the ICB said in a statement ‘no significant safety or quality concerns were found and feedback from patients was positive’, when it carried out its review.

The ICB said the decision to cease placements at Southern Hill shortly after the concerns were raised was a coincidence, and that the move was part of its strategy to reduce OAPs.

Radical rule changes would boost NHS recovery, say chiefs

The vast majority of ICB chiefs believe ‘drastically reducing data sharing restrictions’ would help them achieve their aims, according to HSJ’s survey.

More than 80 per cent of respondents said it would either be helpful or very helpful if data sharing rules were reduced, with those surveyed also backing several other suggested radical shifts in policy.

There were 43 responses to the survey across 39 of the total 42 integrated care boards between January and March. We excluded some typically popular but expensive asks, like reforming adult social care funding or big increases in capital, primary care, or pay spending.

Other ideas put forward by ICB CEOs included ‘more change capacity’; ‘at least half the size of NHS England nationally’; ‘greater access to innovation [through] the NHS App’; better health support for female staff; revising the nursing bursary; and ‘a pay deal for social care — putting them on NHS terms and conditions’.

Meanwhile also according to an HSJ survey, strict pay controls and more provider centralisation are key to recovery plans in most integrated care systems.

A third of integrated care board leaders even said they expect cuts to substantive clinical staff numbers in their system, while 85 per cent are imposing controls and rules to reduce temporary staff spend.