13th November 2015
- BMA announces strike plans
- Stevens says 'considerably more progress is needed' on spending review negotiations
- Healthier Together to face judicial review
- All surgical specialties missed targets in September 2015
BMA announces strike plans
The BMA has revealed its plans for industrial action in the event of a vote by junior doctors in favour of a strike. Ballots were sent to junior doctors in England last week, and the result is expected to be announced on 19 or 20 November.
The first planned day of industrial action will implement the emergency care model in hospitals and GP practices. This is proposed to take place between 8am on Tuesday 1 December and 8am on Wednesday 2 December. The following two weeks will see potential full walk-outs of junior doctors from 8am to 5pm on Tuesday 8 December and 8am to 5pm on Tuesday 16 December.
BMA Council Chair, Dr Mark Porter, said that the announcement has been made ahead of the ballot closing in order to ‘minimise any disruption to other NHS staff, and, above all, to patients’. Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, responded by saying that strike action is “totally unwarranted”, and “will harm vulnerable patients”.
Stevens says ‘considerably more progress is needed’ on spending review negotiations
NHS England Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, this week called for more progress on discussions with the Government on its comprehensive spending review in order to find a ‘genuinely workable NHS funding solution’ for 2016-17 and 2017-18. Mr Stevens has repeatedly called on the Government to frontload the additional £8 billion NHS funding promised in the summer Budget.
Last month, Mr Stevens set out five tests for the spending review to meet to comply with the Five Year Forward View, including frontloaded investment, protected social care and public health funding. Mr Stevens said that he hopes the Government’s plans will meet these tests by the outcome of the spending review on 25 November. He said that with a ‘realistic funding settlement’, reduced use of agency staff, and efficiency savings made, providers’ deficits could be expected to fall next year.
Clare Marx, President of the RCS, commented on the interview, saying, “With this Comprehensive Spending Review the government have the opportunity to signal to the NHS that the next five years are about transforming and improving the NHS, not just continuing the struggle to maintain existing standards of care.”
Healthier Together to face judicial review
This week, the High Court agreed to a judicial review of the Healthier Together programme in Greater Manchester. Healthier Together has received backlash over recent months in response to proposals for reconfiguring emergency services in Greater Manchester.
The campaign for judicial review was led by a group of clinicians following the decision not to allocate University Hospital South Manchester Foundation Trust’s Wythenshawe hospital as one of the four specialist centres for emergency general surgery. The High Court agreed to hear the case from 9-10 December.
All surgical specialties missed targets in September 2015
Statistics on key care areas for September 2015 have been released by NHS England. They illustrate a long-term trend of increasing volumes of both urgent and emergency care and elective activity, and show that all surgical specialties missed referral to treatment targets.
The number of patients starting consultant-led treatment over the last 12 months was 4.4 per cent greater than in the preceding 12 months. Standards for referral to consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks were met, with 92.5 per cent of patients on the waiting list at the end of September waiting less than 18 weeks (the target is 92 per cent). However, all of the surgical specialties missed this target. The percentage of patients seen within 18 weeks was 91.9 for ENT, 91.8 for oral surgery, 91.3 for urology, 90.7 for trauma and orthopaedics, 90.3 for general surgery, 90.1 for cardiothoracic surgery, 89.9 for plastic surgery, and 89.6 for neurosurgery.
The number of A&E attendances for September 2015 was 0.2 per cent lower than that for September 2014, and over the last 12 months the number of attendances has increased by 0.8 per cent, with emergency admissions up by 2.4 per cent. A&E waiting time targets were missed, with 93.4 per cent of patients admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within four hours.
Six of the eight cancer standards were met, but only 81.5 per cent of patients were treated within 62 days of urgent GP referral (the target is 85 per cent). Delayed transfers of care were up 6.8 per cent compared to September 2014, with 148,000 delayed days during September 2015.