Tag: Ageing Population

The Health Foundation

NHS Workforce Projections 2022

Source: The King’s Fund

This analysis shows that the NHS in England could face a shortfall of around 38,000 full time equivalent (FTE) registered nurses by 2023/24 relative to the numbers needed to deliver pre-pandemic levels of care. This is despite the expectation that the government could meet its own target of recruiting an additional 50,000 FTE registered NHS nurses by the end of the parliament. It argues that the government needs to acknowledge the growing demand for care driven by an ageing population and an increased number of people with complex health conditions. It also explores potential gaps in the nursing workforce over a longer time period beyond the next election.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Smaller hospitals are urged to increase collaborative working to meet the needs of an ageing population.
NIHR Evidence; 2022.

[Collaborative working among staff is likely to be the best way to improve performance in smaller hospitals, a new study concluded. It explored the approaches smaller hospitals take to organising emergency care for people admitted to hospital. There were huge variations, but no single way of working (‘model of care’) was more effective than others.]

Eating Disorders.
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN); 2022.
https://www.sign.ac.uk/our-guidelines/eating-disorders/
[This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the management of people with eating disorders of all ages and gender groups, in any health or social care setting. Eating disorders covered are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating-disordered psychopathology occurring in the context of type 1 diabetes mellitus.]

HPV vaccination brings the WHO European Region closer to a cervical cancer-free future.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/pages/news/news/2022/4/hpv-vaccination-brings-the-who-european-region-closer-to-a-cervical-cancer-free-future
[New data from one of the first countries in the Region to introduce HPV vaccination reveal just how well the vaccines work to prevent invasive cervical cancer. In England researchers found that the HPV immunization programme has almost eliminated cervical cancer in women born since 1 September 1995 (who were vaccinated at age 12−13). Incidence among these women of late-stage (grade 3) CIN that could later develop into cancer has also been significantly reduced.]

Community Network: ‘Hidden waits: The lasting impact of the pandemic on children’s services in the community’.
NHS Providers; 2022.

[The Community Network, which is hosted by the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, has today published a new briefing which brings together new evidence about backlogs and increasing demand for children and young people’s services. It also demonstrates what community providers are currently doing to meet demand, including how they are innovating, and makes a series of recommendations on the national support needed, both now and in the longer term.]

Will population ageing spell the end of the welfare state? A review of evidence and policy options

European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, September 2019

This brief serves as an overview and introduction to the Economics of Healthy and Active Ageing series. It reviews the main evidence on the health and long-term care costs associated with ageing populations to better understand the expected cost pressures due to changing demographics. At the same time, the brief explores how older populations can and do contribute meaningfully both in economic and societal terms, particularly if they are able to remain healthy and active into later life. The brief concludes by reviewing selected policy areas that have been shown to either support the health and activity of older people or which otherwise reinforce sustainable care systems more broadly in the context of population ageing.

Click here to view the full report.

Navigating the uncharted waters: population ageing in the UK –

International Longevity Centre: UK, August 2019

International Longevity Centre – UK report that argues that the UK’s unprecedented population ageing poses a set of daunting, yet not insurmountable, challenges for policymakers, institutions and health care providers to design better solutions fit for an ageing society. It calls for health policy reforms that focus on preventing, rather than curing disease to enable people to stay active and healthy for longer. It also calls for programmes to enable older workers to remain in the labour market for longer through retraining opportunities and more flexible working patterns, and highlights the pivotal role innovation could play, including, for instance, robotics to help fill production demands for manual labour, or better housing and transport design to facilitate independence and continued employment for older people.

Click here to view the full report.