National Health Service

[SteveH]

Fees will see more people pull teeth out - dentist

More people might pull out their own teeth because they cannot afford a hike in NHS dental fees, a dentists' leader has said.

Welsh general dental practice committee chairman Russell Gidney fears lower-income patients will face "real choices" about whether to get treated.

Checks-ups, fillings and urgent appointments will cost more in Wales from 1 April.

The Welsh government said there were "pressures on our budgets" and it would spend money raised by higher charges on dentistry.

Charges will remain lower in Wales than England, but the British Dental Association (BDA) believes the hike is the biggest in the NHS's 75-year history.

Children get free appointments, and people under 25 or over 60 get free check-ups.

Some adults on low incomes do not have to pay, but the BDA warned about the impact on families with incomes just above the threshold for free care.

Graphic showing costs of dental care......... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd3vvp94dlo

[SteveH]

Interesting article from... Health Board Chair Dyfed Edwards on recognising when social factors might impact on a person?s health

'Support for improving our health and well-being is wider than the NHS and often lies in our communities'

One of the significant developments that has interested me, since I became the Health Board?s Chair, has been the breadth and scale of preventative work we conduct within communities across the region.

read more  https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/health/health-board-chair-dyfed-edwards-28994218?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

[SteveH]

Wales Air Ambulance to close helicopter bases in Caernarfon and Welshpool
Health board bosses have voted to replace them with a site near Rhuddlan

Health boards have given the green light to close two Wales Air Ambulance bases after 2026. The Welsh NHS ' Joint Commissioning Committee voted that the Welshpool and Caernarfon bases will shut.

The sites will be merged into a new site in North Wales - with a site identified around the Rhuddlan area. But more details will need to be provided about two potential Rapid Response vehicles (RRV) being put in the north west of Wales and potentially western Powys.

cont https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/wales-air-ambulance-close-helicopter-29044573

[SteveH]

A PIECE of equipment is being used at a hospital in order to improve the experience for patients with hard-to-find veins.

This is at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.
Having noticed the need to improve the experience for patients with difficult veins, Junior Doctor Lois Williams secured a ?3,000 grant from Health Education and Improvement Wales and around ?600 from Menter M?n to purchase the equipment - known as a vein finder, through the Trainees Transforming Training initiative.

Dr Williams said: ?We?ve been very lucky to obtain a grant to purchase a vein finder and we hope this will empower nurses, phlebotomists, medical students and junior doctors to take blood and cannulate from patients who are difficult to obtain access.

cont https://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/24289784.new-equipment-help-patients-hard-to-find-veins/?ref=rss&IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

[SteveH]

Aneurin Bevan must be turning in his grave...................

The NHS needs more doctors, and this year saw a record number of applications from medical students to start junior doctor training. But problems behind the scenes have meant many have not yet been found jobs. What has gone wrong?

When the email of congratulations arrived in her inbox last month, Emma could not have been any more excited. Inside was meant to be the details of her first job as a junior doctor.

On the brink of graduation from Warwick Medical School, the 29-year-old was due to find out about where she would working for the next two years.

But despite the email being titled congratulations, next to each of her placements for her two-year foundation course, the first rung on the doctor training ladder, was the abbreviation TBC.

cont https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68849847

[SteveH]

Betsi health board issues red alert as emergency departments under 'extreme pressure'
People asked to ensure they choose the 'most appropriate place to access care and support'

People are being urged to 'choose the most appropriate place to access care'. Waits of up to 10 hours are currently being reported at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan on the online NHS checker.

"If you can, use NHS Wales 111 online symptom checker for advice. If you or a friend or loved one have a life-threatening condition, or are seriously injured you must go to your nearest emergency department as soon as possible."

Read more https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/betsi-health-board-issues-red-29122612

[SteveH]

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.

He says it is "profiteering" from an overstretched NHS, but Thornbury says it offers a valuable, flexible service.

The government says new measures will end the use of expensive agencies.

cont https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68900203

[Ian]

Indeed. The Tory belief in capitalism ensures that the legislative framework is constructed with three aims:

• 1.  To prevent government creating a fairer supply system
• 2.  To allow and encourage private companies to charge anything they want
• 3.  To further enrich those who vote Tory.

[SteveH]

Ambulance crews are often only seeing one patient each shift, with up to 30,000 hours of emergency capacity lost every month to handover delays, a committee heard.

The Senedd?s health committee quizzed representatives of the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust amid concerns about response times and delayed transfers of care.

Colin Dennis, chair of the trust?s board, said ambulance crews report they would regularly see five to eight patients in a shift five years ago but today it is one or, occasionally, two.

cont https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/24324756.welsh-ambulance-crews-seeing-one-patient-per-shift/

[SteveH]

Politicians are often accused of blurring the lines about who is responsible for what - especially when it comes to the health service.

But whoever wins the UK general election will not be responsible for the NHS in Wales.

That's because health is devolved in Wales, meaning it is the responsibility of the Welsh government.

So why has the Welsh health service become an issue during the general election campaign?

cont https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22vl1xkmlo

[SteveH]

Some qualified GPs cannot find enough work even at a time of high patient demand for appointments, according to a doctors' union.

The British Medical Association (BMA) says it has heard from locum doctors in England who are struggling to get shifts at practices.

Locums are used by practices to cover sickness or other absence among partners or salaried GPs.

The BMA says the situation is "ridiculous".

Prof Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA Council, said: "How is it possible to have thousands of patients needing treatment and GPs available to give that care, but prevented from doing so by a system unable to pay them?"

Some doctors choose to become locums so they can have flexible working patterns, including those who want to do a full working week.

Dr Hina Siddiqi, from Manchester, started doing locum shifts in 2019 after being a partner for nine years.

She said she almost burned out, and becoming a locum helped control her workload.

But this year she says locum shifts are almost non-existent and instead she has taken a two-day-a-week contract at a practice, although she would like to work a four-day week.

cont https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx77zg1d4q7o

[SteveH]

The prime minister said work will start "straight away" to fix the NHS after Labour's general election victory.

Sir Keir Starmer told a news conference on Saturday that the party had spoken to two NHS trusts to discuss how the party can deliver its election pledge of an additional 40,000 appointments.

Responding to new Health Secretary Wes Streeting describing the NHS as "broken", Sir Keir refused to lay blame at the door of NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard, saying the Conservatives' "failure of leadership" was responsible.

It comes after Mr Streeting said he spoke with the British Medical Association (BMA) on Friday ahead of fresh talks in an attempt to end the long-running pay dispute with junior doctors.

cont https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng03792gqo

[DVT]

Wales NHS has been under the control of Labour for many years, and is worse than England.  Yet Starmer is going to use Wales as the template for the UK.

Earlier this year I had to have a kidney removed due to large cancer in it.  The surgeon at YGC told me that he was able to do the job but did not have the support staff, he told me this was due to Wales NHS and I should write to the management.  I had to go to London for the operation, which was carried out very efficiently.

I had to go down for a pre-op beforehand, then travel down the day before the op, and returned a couple of days later - that was three taxi trips, presumably paid for by the Wales NHS.  The London hospital told me that they had 3 or 4 Welsh patients every week.

Surely the cost involved would have been better in spending on staffing the NHS in Wales.

I wonder where the extra 40,000 NHS personnel are coming from - I have no problem with them coming from abroad, it was like the United Nations in the London hospital! - but how long will the training take.

Just highlights how wasteful the £30M+ spent on 20mph has been, along with the many other extravagant spends of Drakeford, Gething and the rest of them.

[SteveH]

More money and staff – so why isn't the NHS more productive?

The new government has made tackling NHS waiting times a key priority - and this week appointed NHS surgeon and former health minister Lord Ara Darzi to investigate what is going wrong. Is productivity the place to start?

cont plus stats.............  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0dmvdmmv80o

[SteveH]

Health board explains why operations at North Wales hospital have been cancelled
It comes after a Senedd member claimed a broken lift was to blame

A health board has addressed concerns a "broken lift" is leading to operations being cancelled at a North Wales hospital. Patients have had the location of operations switched from Llandudno Hospital to Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor during recent months.

And Welsh Conservative MS Janet Finch-Saunders, for Aberconwy, claimed a broken lift was the reason for the cancellation of operations in Llandudno. Earlier this week Ms Finch-Saunders had claimed it was "ludicrous" that a broken hospital lift had led to patients being transferred to other units which are "overwhelmed".

She raised the matter in the Senedd, with Welsh Government Minister Jane Hutt saying it was a matter for the health board. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has now addressed the claims, and said the operations are actually being moved due to work to prepare Llandudno for more procedures.

cont https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/health-board-explains-operations-north-29558567?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589