16th January 2015

• Labour promises tough action on fat and sugar in public health plans
• Children hospitalised unnecessarily from tooth decay, warns FDS report
• Latest A&E stats: fewer attendances but strain remains as target missed and cancelled operations rise
• Slight majority of the public support publication of individual surgeon and hospital performance data
• Number of people waiting longer for surgery increases compared to last year
• CCG body warns NHS England against transferring obesity services
• NHS England announces new cancer taskforce

Labour promises tough action on fat and sugar in public health plans

A Labour government after May would take robust action to strengthen public health policy, including new initiatives to tackle obesity and physical inactivity as well as empowering individuals to make their own healthier choices, according to the party’s new public health plans.

The strategy includes a number of proposals aimed at protecting children, including plans to reinstate the national goal of all children undertaking at least 2 hours PE per week. Other ambitions include asking the Committee on Advertising Practice and the Advertising Standards Authority to examine how children can be protected from targeted advertising of unhealthy food products. Labour would also consider setting limits on the amount of sugar, fat, and salt in certain foods.

To help individuals lead a healthier life the plans support Local Authorities having an expanded role in encouraging their local communities to have a more active, healthy, lifestyle. This may include facilitating greater use of local sports facilities by the public or giving councils powers to restrict the number of fast food outlets in certain areas.

Labour also promised to pursue reforms to EU food labeling regulations so consumers are able to make more informed choices on their purchases. However, a “sugar” or “fat” tax on unhealthy foods has been explicitly ruled out. The party said that such a levy would be unfair at a time when families are contending with a cost of living crisis.

Children hospitalised unnecessarily from tooth decay, warns FDS report

A new report from the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons has warned that action must be taken to reduce the high numbers of children being admitted to hospital for tooth decay, in some cases for multiple tooth extractions under general anaesthetic. The situation is particularly alarming considering approximately 90% of tooth decay is preventable.

The report urges the government, political parties and stakeholders to take forward a number of recommendations to improve children’s oral health and standards of care. This includes addressing children’s access to NHS dental services; improving oral health education; raising awareness of the impact of sugar on tooth decay; ensuring adequate priority for paediatric dentistry; and promoting water fluoridation schemes.

The report was covered in The Guardian, which led with the call for water fluoridation to reduce regional inequalities in oral health, and included a quote from the Dean. Water fluoridation schemes have been shown to reduce the rate of tooth decay with as many as 45% fewer children aged 1 to 4 in fluoridated areas admitted to hospital for tooth decay than those in non-fluoridated areas.

The report is available to read here.

Latest A&E stats: fewer attendances but strain remains as target missed and cancelled operations rise

Pressures on A&E departments lessened slightly this week as attendances fell to their lowest level in over a year. Despite this the percentage of patients treated within 4 hours was still short of the 95% Government target. For all attendances 89.8% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours of arrival representing a slight improvement on the 86.7% from the week before.

The latest data also demonstrates continued pressure on elective and urgent surgery. For 2014/15, in the period from the first Monday in November to the second weekend in January, the figures show that there has been 15,483 cancelled operations. This represents a 38% increase on the corresponding period last year. The number of cancelled operations spiked on Monday 5th January at 809, compared to 387 for the preceding weekend and 590 for the following Tuesday.

 Slight majority of the public support publication of individual surgeon and hospital performance data

Polling by Lord Ashcroft’s political research and polling agency has found that, in a sample of 20,011 people, a slight majority said they value publicly available information, such as outcomes data, in improving standards. Just over half (54%) of respondents to a poll indicated that they believed detailed information about the performance of individual hospitals or surgeons would raise standards and enable them to make more informed choices. By contrast, 46% of the poll believed such information could be misleading.

Number of people waiting longer for surgery increases compared to last year

The total number of patients waiting longer than the 18 week target for referral to treatment waiting times has increased compared to the same period last year, with 87.5% of patients within the target in November 2014 compared to 91% the year before. The target specifies that no less than 90% of patients should be waiting longer than 18 weeks.

Neurosurgery was the specialty most in breach with 81.6% of patients seen within the target. Trauma and Orthopaedics (83.5%), ENT (82.7%), Cardiothoracic Surgery (85.2%) and General Surgery (86.5%) were also in breach.