The Royal College of GPs heaps more pressure on the Government over the planned reform of the NHS.

The healthcare reforms have had a turbulent time through the passage of Parliament, and the latest calls for the Bill to be scrapped, comes on the back of a series of amendments opposed to the Bill on Wednesday of this week.   Part of the changes include the fact that the Health Secretary should retain ultimate control over the NHS, rather than handing control to General Practitioners.

The Royal College of GPs joins the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives, in calling for a substantial overhaul of the proposed legislation.

UPDATE: since my original post on the morning of 3 Feb 2012, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists have joined the Royal College of GPs in calling for the reforms to be scrapped

A report has indicated that patients are much more likely to die if they are admitted to hospital at weekends, rather than in the week.

The Times reports that Professor Domenica Pagano of University Hospital Birmingham, is quoted as saying, “These results are conclusive evidence that confirm previous reports of increased 30 day mortality risk for patients admitted to hospital with emergency conditions at the weekend, compared with the rest of the week.  Previous reports however, have not accounted for the difference in patient characteristics associated with admissions on different days”.

The reports put increasing pressure on a Government who is under siege in relation to the healthcare reforms, and under considerable pressure to improve NHS services out of hours.

The report stated that for every 100 deaths that occurred on a Wednesday, 116 similar patients admitted on a Sunday would die.  This covered both emergency and planned admissions, according to the Times.

The term “Rickets” perhaps pictures up a bygone age of children in poor conditions from the Victorian era. 

However it is alarming to read in the press that the incidence of this condition is on the rise.  The condition, leading to softening of the bones through lack of vitamin D, has been increasing over the past 15 years according to medical research.  It has been recommended in some instances that daily supplements are taken for children aged under five years.  Unlike other vitamins, which can be absorbed from food, vitamin D is mainly obtained from the sunlight.  The reason for the increase is of course debatable, but such is the concern amongst healthcare professionals that the Chief Medical Officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, is to raise her concerns with medical staff and to encourage the use of the supplements as stated bythe Department of Health guidelines.

It has today been reported that tragically a third baby has died at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast, following an outbreak of Pseudomonas infection.

The Chief Executive of the Belfast Health Trust, is launching a full investigation.

This bacteria has been reported in hospitals in the United Kingdom previously, sometimes linked to contaminated water in sinks and drains.  It has the ability to survive in moist conditions.  Whilst infections cannot be eradicated completely, the outbreak of this in a hospital is bound to cause extreme concern.

In the past, I have highlighted a number of reports which have been critical of nursing care at various Trust up and down the country, most notably in relation to that of the elderly.

The Prime Minister has announced that nurses will be re-deployed in essence, to focus upon patient care, rather than paperwork.  Known as the “Time to Care initiative”, which is aimed to be implemented by 2013, nurses will be encouraged to carry out hourly ward rounds to check on patients at their bedside, and importantly to communicate with them.  Pressure sores, falls, blood clots and hospital infections are likely to be under the spotlight.

Of course, in theory this sounds a positive measure, and indeed in some respects will be seen as nothing more than common sense, but the moves have yet to be implemented, and nursing representatives, including the Royal College of Nursing, have highlighted concerns in implementing these measures when set against staffing levels.  Of course the Government’s plans to implement such patient focused care will depend upon adequate numbers of nurses being available, and it remains to be seen how these measures will be implemented.

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has announced an “Outcomes Framework” for the NHS to measure standards of care.   The scheme promises to listen to patients to ask them about their experience and service that they receive whilst they are in hospital.

Andrew Lansley in quoted in the Telegraph as stating “people will say, in three and a half years time in 2015, at the next election, how will we know whether you have succeeded or not?  The answer is, have the outcomes improved?”

The issue of outcome focused regulation is especially topical at the moment, given the recent review of how Solicitors are regulated in England and Wales.  Whether the same type of scheme will translate to the Health Service, remains to be seen.   The plans have been criticised by the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, who highlighted that the Government promised to scrap NHS targets, but now imposes this type of regulation on an already stretched Health Service.