Academies Asked to Commit to Healthy School Meals

England's new academy schools are being urged to commit to serving healthy food to pupils. The School Food Trust, is to write to all 1400 academies asking them to confirm their adherence to national school meal nutrition standards. Last month TV chef, Jamie Oliver, voiced concerns that food quality was slipping in academies which are not subject to the regulations.

The names of academies which pledge to follow the national standards for healthy school meals will be published on the School Food Trust website. The trust will use the data in a report to government on meals in the state-funded but privately run schools due to be published by March.

'Huge Gulf'

In the letter trust chief executive, Judy Hargadon, writes: "You may be aware of recent questions raised by campaigners about the commitment of academies to the national school food standards... We are seeking to clarify the situation."

Lynda Mitchell, chair of the Local Authority Catering Association, which has campaigned closely with Jamie Oliver, welcomed the trust's new focus on meals in academies but said she would prefer one single standard applicable to all schools. She said: "There is the potential for a huge gulf. I think a two tier system takes away parents' confidence that their children are being well fed at school. It leaves schools able to hide behind their academy status and avoid signing up to the standards. What an academy bursar or head may determine to be healthy food may not actually adhere to proper nutrition standards because people's ideas on healthy food are not of one accord."

Turkey Twizzlers

Children's food campaign coordinator Christine Haigh also said government should require all schools to meet the standards. She said: "The fact that the school food standards, which ensure that children are served healthy food at school, no longer apply to academies and free schools is a scandal. Already there is evidence that standards are slipping, risking a return to the grim days of turkey twizzlers for the million children who now attend academies."

The move was welcomed by a group representing academies. Andy Schofield, principal of the Wellington Academy and chair of The Schools Network's academies steering group, said: "Academies have long recognised the importance of a healthy diet, alongside participation in sports and emotional wellbeing to ensure young people are healthy and engaged in their education. The raison d'etre of the academies programme is to allow schools to look at the child as a whole and to cater for all their needs."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16221027

© BBC Health News 16th December 2011

Sun 'Stops Chickenpox Spreading'

A University of London research team found chickenpox less common in regions with high UV levels, reports the journal Virology. Sunlight may inactivate viruses on the skin, making it harder to pass on. However, other experts say that other factors, including temperature, humidity, and even living conditions are equally likely to play a role.

The varicella-zoster virus is highly contagious, while it can be spread through the coughs and sneezes in the early stages of the infection, the main source is contact with the trademark rash of blisters and spots.

Pollution

UV light has long been known to inactivate viruses, and Dr Phil Rice, from St George's, University of London, who led the research, believes that this holds the key why chickenpox is less common and less easily passed from person to person in tropical countries.

It could also help explain why chickenpox is more common in the colder seasons in temperate countries such as the UK - as people have less exposure to sunlight, he said. He examined data from 25 earlier studies on varicella-zoster virus in a variety of countries around the world, and plotted these data against a range of climatic factors. This showed an obvious link between UV levels and chickenpox virus prevalence.

Exposure to Sunlight May Help Impede the Spread of Chickenpox, Claim Researchers.

Even initially confusing results could be explained - the peak incidence of chickenpox in India and Sri Lanka is during the hottest, driest and sunniest season. However, Dr Rice found that, due to atmospheric pollution, UV rays were actually much lower during this season compared with the rainier seasons. He said: "No-one had considered UV as a factor before, but when I looked at the epidemiological studies they showed a good correlation between global latitude and the presence of the virus."

Professor Judy Breuer from University College London said that while UV could well be contributing to the differences in the prevalence of chickenpox between tropical and temperate regions, there were other factors which needed to be considered. She said: "Lots of things aside from UV could affect it - heat, humidity and social factors such as overcrowding."It's quite possible that UV is having an effect, but we don't have any firm evidence showing the extent this is happening."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16217303

© BBC Health News 19^th December 2011

Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year - over 130,000 in total - are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals. Tobacco is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report.

Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men's diets, while for women it is being overweight. The report is published in the British Journal of Cancer. Its authors claim it is the most comprehensive analysis to date on the subject.

Lead author Prof Max Parkin said: "Many people believe cancer is down to fate or 'in the genes' and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it. Looking at all the evidence, it's clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change."

For men, the best advice appears to be: stop smoking, eat more fruit and veg and cut down on how much alcohol you drink. For women, again, the review says the best advice is to stop smoking, but also watch your weight.

Prof Parkin said: "We didn't expect to find that eating fruit and vegetables would prove to be so important in protecting men against cancer. And among women we didn't expect being overweight to be more of a risk factor than alcohol."

In total, 14 lifestyle and environmental factors, such as where you live and the job you do, combine to cause 134,000 cancers in the UK each year.

Source & full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16031149

© BBC Health News 7^th December 2011

Care regulator 'struggled to deliver'

The health regulator which inspects hospitals and care homes in England has "struggled" since its creation two years ago, a report says. The National Audit Office found the Care Quality Commission had carried out just 47% of planned reviews between October 2010 and April this year. The CQC took over the work of three previous regulators in 2009 and has had to implement new monitoring systems. It said it had been a "challenging period" but that it was now "on track".

The commission is responsible for checking if hospitals and care homes meet minimum standards. It took over from the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission. The NAO said this shift had "created disruption for providers and confusion for the public." An additional problem was a lack of staff. As of the end of September, 14% of posts were unfilled - including 100 inspectors' posts, with the CQC affected by government recruitment constraints, which have now been relaxed. In its report, the NAO added that the process for registering care providers - one of its core jobs - "did not go smoothly."

The CQC did not meet the timetable for two of the three tranches of registrations, it said. And inspectors were diverted from assessing providers in an attempt to meet that timetable. This and the staff shortage meant that the commission had completed just 47% of its planned assessments between October 2010 and April 2011. The NAO concluded that the CQC had not, so far, achieved value for money - and said both the commission and the Department of Health were responsible. It is not the first time the CQC has faced criticism. In September, MPs said patients had been put at risk by the fall in the number of inspections of hospitals and care homes. At the time, Prime Minister David Cameron urged the regulator to act on the MPs' criticisms.

THE CQC IN NUMBERS

•    £139m spent in 2010-11
•    21,600 organisations currently registered
•    14% of vacancies unfilled as of 30 September 2011
•    47% of registrations not completed on time
•    47% of planned inspections not carried out October 2010- April 2011

Publishing this latest report, Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "Against a backdrop of considerable upheaval, the CQC has had an uphill struggle to carry out its work effectively and has experienced serious difficulties. It is welcome that it is now taking action to improve its performance.” "There is a gap between what the public and providers expect of the Care Quality Commission and what it can achieve as a regulator. The commission and the Department of Health should make clear what successful regulation of this critical sector would look like."
CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower said: "Not everything has gone smoothly, but we have learned, reviewed what we do and made changes. We are a young organisation and we are still evolving - but I firmly believe that we are making real progress."

A Department of Health spokesman said it was currently reviewing the CQC, and the findings of its review would be published in 2012. But Margaret Hodge, chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, said the NAO report raised concerns about whether the CQC was "up to scratch". She added: "The findings are deeply worrying and highlight significant failures that put patient care at risk. There has been too much focus on box-ticking and not enough on crossing the threshold and assuring the quality of care."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15985922
© BBC Health News 2nd December 2011

Strike 'not expected to affect urgent NHS care'

The NHS is confident emergency and urgent care will be mainly unaffected by the strikes, managers believe. The walkout will be the biggest in the health service for more than 20 years, with the government expecting a fifth of the workforce to take action. But contingency measures have been put in place to protect services such as A&E units, cancer treatment and end-of-life care, NHS Employers said.

Health workers who are members of Unison and Unite will take part in the strikes on Wednesday. Between them they have more than 500,000 health staff, including nurses, health care workers, admin staff, porters and cleaners. But not all of these will take part, because unions have agreed urgent care should not be affected. For example, ambulance staff will be on strike but they will still be on hand to answer 999 calls.

Radiographers, physics, podiatrists and chiropodists are also walking out. However, the British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives are not taking part. Dean Royles, director of NHS Employers, said: "I want to be clear that the over-riding priority of the NHS on the day of action will be the safety of our patients. "Many services will be working in much the same way they do at a weekend or on a bank holiday."

Alongside urgent care, GP services and maternity care should be largely unaffected. Nonetheless, the scale of industrial action will still be greater than the disputes of the late 1980s when nurses and ambulance crews walked out. In England, the Department of Health is expecting more than 5,000 elective operations to be cancelled and 12,000 diagnostic tests delayed - about a fifth of the total in each case. Routine treatment will also be affected elsewhere in the UK.

However, the impact is being minimised by the fact some hospitals did not book as many patients in on Wednesday as they normally would because they knew the strike was being planned.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15947778
© BBC Health News 30th November 2011

Cold snap alert plan 'will save lives'

Winter weather alerts aimed at helping vulnerable people during cold snaps are to be introduced in England. Agencies such as the NHS and social services will get the Met Office alerts and will then have to take action to ensure people are safe in their homes. Extra cash is also being used to help people keep homes warm, but some question whether this will be enough. Instead, they have called on the government to do more to tackle the underlying problem - the rising cost of energy. Schemes, such as Warm Front, have been running for a number of years to help pay for people to insulate their homes or make heating improvements.

'Not enough'

The Department of Health has pledged an extra £10m for this initiative - on top of the £110m. However, even with the extra money, the fund has still been cut compared to previous years. A new fund, worth £20m, is also being set up to encourage councils and charities to come up with new ways of helping the most vulnerable.

The cold weather plan has been drawn up in partnership with the Met Office and Health Protection Agency.

How the cold kills

•    Death rates rise by about a fifth during the winter
•    That is the equivalent of an extra 27,000 deaths on top of the normal number of deaths that would be expected
•    About 40% of these are from heart attacks and strokes, while another third are related to respiratory problems
•    It is recommended that indoor temperatures of 21C are maintained during the day and 16C at night
•    Below 16C the body's resistances to respiratory disease is diminished.
•    Below 12C blood pressure starts to rise

Under the new arrangements, the Met will issue alerts depending on the severity of the conditions. In total, there will be four alerts, each of which will ask local agencies, including NHS trusts and councils, to carry out certain duties. For example, at level three, which would have been reached last winter, health and social care staff should consider daily visits to the most vulnerable. In previous years it has been up to local areas to decide how to react to cold snaps.

The plan also contains advice to individuals and carers, such as ensuring at-risk groups get vaccinated against flu and what temperature to keep homes heated to. A minimum of 21C is being recommended during the day and 16C at night, as below that the risk of heart problems, strokes and respiratory illness increases.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "We want everyone to get ready for winter and be prepared before temperatures drop. By working together, this co-ordinated plan will help protect those most in need."
And chief medical officer Prof Dame Sally Davies added: "Keeping our homes warm is important - but it's not necessary to heat the whole house. "We just need to keep the main rooms we occupy - such as the living room and bedroom - warm. Warm clothing and hot drinks should help prevent our most vulnerable people falling ill this winter."

But Mervyn Kohler, a special adviser for Age UK and member of the government's fuel poverty advisory group, said while it was pleasing the NHS was now recognising the problem, much more needed to be done. "The extra resources being put in is not enough. We also have to do more to tackle the big problem everyone is facing, the rising cost of energy bills. We need action across government if this is to be achieved."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15526477
© BBC Health News 1 November 2011

Trials show skin cancer treatments extend life

Why are many cancer specialists so excited about the results of trials of two new treatments?

One said this was "an unprecedented time of celebration for our patients". I've also seen the results described as a turning point, a breakthrough, a major advance and vitally important.

To read more about this article please go to the BBC Health News website.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13677381

© BBC Health News – 7^th June 2011

Nurses' walking out of jobs'

The NHS is losing 'crucial' frontline staff who are quitting due to poor working conditions and threats to their jobs, it was warned today.

The country's top nurse said there is already evidence of nurses walking out on the health service unable to cope with 'unrealistic demands'.

In an interview with the Standard, Andrea Spyropoulos also issued a warning to the government saying strike action could be taken if ministers continue to treat the key workers unfairly.

The president of the Royal College of Nursing said: "There is a constant push on their time. I have spoken to one theatre nurse who retired early because she could no longer cope with the stress.

"There is a national shortage of theatre nurses, so we need these people but they are being driven out because they don't feel they can give patients the care they deserve because of the demands on their time.

"This is a pattern we are going to see. There are crucial people who will just walk because they just can't cope."

In the first time in the union's history she raised the prospect of strike action. She said: "The last time we were in this situation was in the 1970s when the government of the day was thrown out of power because we stood up and spoke out.

"Nurses see industrial action as a last resort but it can't be ruled out. What I would say to the Government is, we are serious, we cannot go on as we are and enough is enough."

Under plans being discussed at the RCN's annual conference in Liverpool, nurses would refuse to work more than their contracted hours, take all their allotted meal breaks and decline to fill in paperwork outside their normal job description.

The move puts further pressure on the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, who will meet nurses' representatives at the congress tomorrow. He is already under huge pressure over his controversial health reforms.

Cecilia Peters, a third year student nurse at King's College University, said: "I would like to say I am in this for the long haul but there are so many cuts and threats to the profession that nursing is just not patient-focused anymore. The costs of everything is rising and we graduates and also newly qualified nurses are not looking forward to what's in store."

The 20-year-old from Westferry, east London, added: "I wanted to become a nurse because I want to help people and care for people but if I can't do that and I'm constantly battling other things, there may be a point when I can no longer do it."

Andy McGovern, 43, a matron at an east London hospital, said: "The NHS is in danger of losing some of its best people. It's a very difficult job and with all the pressures at the moment, people are starting to think, there are alternatives."

Nurses 'walking out of jobs' - Copyright London Evening Standard Tuesday 12th April 2011 15:31

Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23940856-nurses-walking-out-of-jobs-due-to-pressure.do

Front-line clinical jobs 'under threat'

Front-line clinical jobs in the NHS are under threat in England, a union says.

A Royal College of Nursing analysis of 21 NHS trusts where cuts were taking place found more than half of posts under threat were in areas such as nursing and midwifery.

RCN leader Peter Carter said cutting thousands of doctors and nurses could have a "catastrophic" effect on care.

But deputy prime minister Nick Clegg maintained radical reorganisation of the NHS is needed.

While the health budget has been protected, savings still have to be made because of the rising demands linked to the ageing population, new drugs and lifestyle factors like obesity.

A target of £20bn has been set by 2014-15 - a saving of about 4% a year - which ministers have insisted can be achieved through cutting management costs and by front-line services becoming more efficient.

But the union, which released the findings at the start of its four-day annual conference in Liverpool, said its research showed this was not happening.

Some of the proposed changes that mark the biggest shake up of the NHS to date have been opposed by one of Mr Clegg's closest advisers.

Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb has said the plans pose a major "financial risk" to the NHS, and has threatened to quit unless ministers rethink some aspects, such as "the rush" to give GPs control of budgets.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Clegg insisted the changes, including some cuts, were necessary, but said the finer details of the plan were up for debate over the next couple of months.

The RCN has been gathering evidence about the number of posts under threat in the NHS for nearly a year.

It believes there are now 40,000 posts which could close in the next three years, a rise from 27,000 at the end of last year. Most of these will not be redundancies as the NHS tends to rely on natural turnover from people retiring or changing jobs.

As part of its latest research, the RCN took an in-depth look at 21 trusts to see what sort of posts were being targeted.

It showed that 54% of about 10,000 job cuts were clinical and, in total, more than a tenth of the nursing workforce could be lost in these areas.

The union also said it had found examples of services being closed, including rehab centres, detox units and talking therapies.

RCN general secretary Peter Carter said the reforms could "well turn out to be the biggest disaster in the history of our public services" if unions and other organisations were not listened to.

"Clinical staff are the lifeblood of the NHS and it is haemorrhaging at an alarming rate. Many trusts are not being transparent by admitting the proportion of clinical jobs being lost.

"From our research we now know the truth - the majority of job losses are front-line clinical jobs, the jobs that matter to patients.

Health Minister, Simon Burns, tells BBC Breakfast that there will be no huge cuts among front line health staff

"Cutting thousands of doctors and nurses could have a catastrophic impact on patient safety and care. Our figures expose the myth that front-line services are protected."

But NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson questioned the findings, pointing out that latest workforce figures up to December 2010 suggested that nurse posts were continuing to rise.

He added: "There is no excuse to cut back on services that patients need when the NHS will receive an extra £11.5bn of funding.

"The NHS does need to become more efficient, but savings must not impact adversely on patient care. We are clear that every penny saved from efficiencies will be reinvested in patient services."

Front-line clinical jobs 'under threat' - Copyright BBC Health News Thursday 14th April 2011 10:50

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13029534

Nurses 'need annual fitness checks'

Nurses should have annual physical and psychological testing to ensure they are up to the demands of the job, nurses say.

The check-ups could take place alongside the normal appraisal, the Royal College of Nursing conference in Liverpool heard.

Nurses said there were more checks on basic equipment than on NHS staff.

And they said the move would help the profession set a good example to the rest of the population.

Those found wanting should be given support by occupational health teams to tackle their problems, they said.

Claire Topham-Brown, a critical care nurse from Peterborough, said: "There is no denying that nursing is a physically demanding job. You do need a certain level of physical fitness.

"One of our activists observed that we take better care of wheelchairs than we do of the staff. Bizarre but true, we now risk-assess everything, yearly, monthly, weekly and sometimes daily. But when do we ever assess that vital, delicate and most valuable part of the machine?"

She was supported by other nurses, including Karen Webb, the RCN's director of the eastern region of England.

She suggested the testing and support was even more important given the expansion in nurses in training in recent years, which could lead to an increase in those that are unsuitable for a career in nursing.

"It is about making sure people have the right attributes."

The call comes amid a drive to tackle staff sickness in the NHS.

The government's NHS Health and Wellbeing report published a year ago said the health service needed to do more to improve the health of staff.

NHS staff take an average of 10.7 days off work a year - more than the public sector average and much higher than the 6.4 figure for the private sector.

In total, staff sickness costs the NHS £1.7bn a year.

Nurses 'need annual fitness checks' - Copyright BBC Health News Thursday 14th April 2011 10:45

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13047335