Tag: DHSC

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022: JCVI advice, 15 August 2022.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
(Statement setting out the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022.)

NHS prescription charges in England.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
(The cost of an NHS prescription, who is entitled to free prescriptions and how to get help with prescription costs.)

Homeless hostel residents and staff struggle to access health and social care services.
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(In her debut blog, Ava Phillips summarises a paper that finds both people living in homeless hostels, and staff working there, feel marginalised and struggle to access the health and social care they need.)

As waiting lists grow for anxiety disorders, should we be turning to digital interventions?
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(Theo Kyriacou and Andie Ashdown explore a recent systematic review that brings together two decades of research, which suggests that digital health interventions for anxiety disorders may be a more effective alternative to inactive controls, such as waiting-list groups.)

No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(Pricing policies and taxation are among the most effective measures that policy-makers can use to address these harms, but they remain underutilized across the Region. This report reviews the status of implementation of minimum pricing globally, provides an overview of the most recent evidence behind the policy, addresses its main strengths and limitations and offers practical considerations for countries.)

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

Developing the nursing research agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Froilan P. British Journal of Nursing 2022;31(5):294-295.
[The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the indispensable role of nurses in providing professional care and technical help to patients and their families. However, nursing science’s contribution to the body of knowledge in COVID-19 management, from its unique perspective, is not fully reflected in the existing literature. A preliminary review of studies noted that nursing seems to be subsumed into the knowledge of other disciplines.

Coronavirus Act report: March 2022.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[The twelfth two-monthly report on which powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 are currently active.]

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

JCVI update on advice for COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 5 to 11.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[JCVI advises a non-urgent offer of two 10 mcg doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) to children aged 5 to 11 years of age who are not in a clinical risk group. The intention of this offer is to increase the immunity of vaccinated individuals against severe COVID-19 in advance of a potential future wave of COVID-19. Published 16 February 2022]

Growing problems, in depth: The impact of Covid-19 on health care for children and young people in England.
Quality Watch; 2022.
[“…The sharp increase in children and young people with mental health problems is a serious concern. Services are facing unprecedented levels of demand, and young people are waiting longer to receive mental health care. In particular, there has been a surge in eating disorder cases, and conditions are deteriorating to the extent that a greater number of children and young people are attending A&E departments…”]

Social care reform: an independent review by Baroness Cavendish.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[A report looking at how the government can lock in the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic to build a more robust, sustainable and joined-up system of social care.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Physical activity in disabled children and disabled young people: evidence review.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[Findings of a rapid evidence review into the health benefits and potential risks of physical activity for children and young people who have disabilities.]

d-Nav insulin management app for type 2 diabetes.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2022.
[d‑Nav is an app used for guiding insulin dosing for adults with type 2 diabetes. The innovative aspects are the insulin dose can be calculated and adjusted based on a person’s current and historic blood glucose levels on a weekly basis and without healthcare professional approval. The intended place in therapy would be to help optimise insulin dosage in people with type 2 diabetes.]

Is there an effective dose of aerobic exercise associated with better executive function in youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?
Khodaverdi Z. Child Neuropsychology 2021;:doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2021.1992378.
[Conclusion: Different dosage of aerobic exercise might differently influence aspects of executive function; however, this finding rests on preliminary evidence at this stage and thus should be treated with caution.It is necessary to establish suitable interventions with regard to the dosage of aerobic exercise types to improve executive function in young people with ADHD.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

10-Year Cancer Plan: Call for Evidence.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[The NHS Long Term Plan, published in 2019, set an ambition to save thousands more lives each year by dramatically improving how we diagnose and treat cancer. The DHSC is seeking the views of individuals, professionals and organisations to understand how we can do more to make progress against this ambition, and to build on lessons learned from the pandemic. You can respond as an individual, or on behalf of an organisation by completing the online survey (Closes 23:45, 01 April 2022)]

Improving annual albuminuria testing for individuals with diabetes. [Abstract]
Kam S. BMJ Open Quality 2022;11(1):doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001591.
[Conclusions: This project demonstrates that a series of simple interventions can significantly impact annual albuminuria testing. This project’s success likely hinged on using an existing workflow to systematically determine if a patient was due for testing and prompting the provider to sign a pended order for an albuminuria test. Other diabetes/endocrinology and primary care clinics can likely implement a similar process and so improve testing rates in other settings…]

Atrial fibrillation detection using a automated electrocardiographic monitoring in a transient ischaemic attack service. [Abstract]
D’Anna L. BMJ Open Quality 2022;11(1):doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001433.
[Conclusions: In conclusion, the present study suggests early initiation of automated continuous ECG monitoring (ACEM) in a rapid outpatient transient ischaemic attacks (TIA) clinic improves atrial fibrillation (AF) detection and is associated with a reduced risk of recurrent TIA/stroke. Further studies are required to confirm the enhanced rate of AF detected using ACEM]

Autism – overview of policy and services.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
[This briefing provides an overview of policies and services for people with autism spectrum disorder in England.]

Measuring the economic value of community nursing: scoping the challenge.
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA); 2022.
[NHS community services are an essential part of national ambitions to support people to manage their conditions, prevent ill health and deliver care closer to home. Community nurses are central to the care delivered for many people, across a broad range of conditions and needs. This briefing considers the challenge of understanding the economic value of community nursing, building on a roundtable discussion in March 2021 and drawing in other sources of evidence.]

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

Designated settings for people discharged to a care home.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
[Guidance on the designated settings scheme for people discharged from hospital to a care home with a positive coronavirus (COVID-19) test (UPDATED: 07 February 2022 The ‘designated settings’ guidance has been updated throughout in line with the latest clinical advice from UKHSA. This update reflects the change in isolation period in care settings from 14 to 10 days for cases of COVID-19. It also provides information on how individuals can end their isolation before day 10)]

Patient experience before the omicron wave: the storm before the storm.
Patients Association; 2022.
[This report, based on a survey of more than 1,000 UK patients conducted over a month just before Christmas 2021, finds the disruption to health and care services caused by the pandemic is profound and long-term.]

COVID-19 Schools Infection Survey, England: attitudes to vaccines and preventative measures, November to December 2021.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2022.
[Initial insights from the first round of questionnaire data collected as part of the Schools Infection Survey. Questionnaires are completed by parents of participating children, secondary school aged children and headteachers. Topics cover vaccine sentiment, ventilation in schools and preventative measures implemented in schools.]

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

Interim Clinical Commissioning Policy: Neutralising monoclonal antibodies and intravenous antivirals in the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[This rapid policy statement from 24th December outlines the eligibility criteria for the use of casirivimab with imdevimab or sotrovimab for patients hospitalised with COVID-19, and those with hospital onset COVID-19.]

The European clinical research response to optimise treatment of patients with COVID-19: lessons learned, future perspective, and recommendations.
Goossens H. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2021;:doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00705-2.
[We discuss how the clinical research community responded to the pandemic in Europe, what lessons were learned, and provide recommendations for future clinical research response during pandemics. We focused on two platform trials: RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP.]

Remote general practitioner consultations during COVID-19.
Green MA. The Lancet Digital Health 2022;4(1):E7.
[[Letter.] Advances in digital technology had already stimulated debate on consultation methods; despite offering convenience for some patients, there were concerns about widening inequalities for others. Given that the pandemic offered a natural experiment to assess the potential implications of remote consultations, we analysed data from NHS Digital to better understand these implications. Our analyses showed that any suggestion that GPs were not seeing patients in person was not true.]

Delivering outpatient virtual clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic: early evaluation of clinicians’ experiences.[Abstract]
Vas V. BMJ Open Quality 2022;11(1):doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001313.
[Conclusions: In response to the pandemic, outpatient services across the trust were rapidly redesigned and virtual clinics implemented. As a result, services have been able to sustain some level of service delivery. However, clinicians have identified challenges in delivering this model of care and highlighted enablers needed to sustaining the delivery of virtual clinics longer term, such as patient access to diagnostic tests and investigations closer to home.]

CG Report 6: Effects of COVID-19 In Care Homes: A Mixed Methods Review.
Collateral Global; 2021.
[The report, using national datasets for 25 countries on mortality, provides an up-to-date review of global effects of COVID-19 pandemic in care homes, assessing care home mortality by country, how the deaths compared with previous periods, and how excess deaths may be explained.]

Regulation and use of confidential patient information for genomic and medical research during and post Covid-19.
PHG Foundation; 2021.
[At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the government in England introduced measures to enable the use of confidential patient information for Covid-19 purposes without consent or another form of approval that would normally be required. This report considers how these regulatory changes to the governance of confidential patient information have impacted genomic and medical research, and whether these changes should be integrated into the regulatory framework longer term.]

Frequently asked questions: Demonstrating Covid-19 and vaccination status.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[This briefing sets out responses to FAQs about demonstrating Covid status (otherwise called Covid status certification or vaccine passports) and use of the NHS Covid Pass in England.]

Clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic: ninth report of Session 2021–22.
House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee; 2021.
[This report finds that elective recovery plans are threatened by pressure on emergency care with a record number of 999 calls and waiting times in emergency departments at record levels. It concludes that tackling the wider backlog caused by the pandemic is a major and ‘unquantifiable’ challenge. It calls for a broad national health and care recovery plan to include mental health, primary care, community care and social care as well as emergency care.]

Telephone survey two: PCNs and Covid-19.
PRUComm; 2021.
[The purpose of the telephone survey was to try to understand the role primary care networks (PCNs) had played in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on whether the pandemic had influenced and shaped the development and operation of PCNs and whether PCNs had worked collectively or as individual practices in their Covid-19 response. This short report comprises data collected between August and December 2020.]

Inequality and the Covid crisis in the United Kingdom.
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); 2022.
[IFS Working Paper W22/01. This report reviews the effects on the Covid-19 pandemic on inequalities in education, the labour market, household living standards, mental health and wealth in the UK.]

Effects of COVID-19 lockdown on eating disorders and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.[Abstract]
Sideli L. European Eating Disorders Review 2021;29(6):826-841.
[The majority of individuals with EDs and obesity reported symptomatic worsening during the lockdown. However, further longitudinal studies are needed to identify vulnerable groups, as well as the long-term consequences of COVID-19.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Prostate cancer.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This quality standard covers managing prostate cancer in people referred to secondary care or having follow-up for prostate cancer in primary care. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement. In December 2021, changes were made to align this quality standard with the updated NICE guideline on prostate cancer.]

Combined adult and paediatric respiratory clinical assessment service (RCAS) hubs for acute respiratory infection.
NHS England and NHS Improvement; 2021.
[This document supports systems to plan for a likely rise in respiratory infections (for example, Covid-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and other infections) this winter.]

Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy for England.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Analysis of call for evidence consultation response has informed development of this document, which is published alongside the consultation response. This document sets out the government’s vision and the publication of the strategy will follow in 2022.]

Children and young people’s mental health:eighth Report of Session 2021–22.
House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee; 2021.
[This report calls for urgent action to prevent mental health services slipping backwards as a result of additional demand created by the pandemic and the scale of unmet need prior to it. MPs found that despite progress in numbers of young people receiving treatment, it was unacceptable that more than half with a diagnosable condition pre-pandemic do not receive the mental health support they need.]

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

COVID-19: infection prevention and control (IPC).
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[November 2021 Updates: 1) Guidance broadened to include seasonal respiratory infections; 3 COVID-19 specific pathways removed; section on the hierarchy of controls added; physical distancing advice updated. 2) Updated to clarify text on aerosol generating procedures. 3) Dental appendix broadened to include seasonal respiratory infections; 3 COVID-19 specific pathways removed and replaced with respiratory and non-respiratory pathways.]

COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing COVID-19
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[In November, NICE added a new recommendation on ivermectin.]

Daily Insight: Another test for NHS staff.
HSJ: Health Service Journal (Daily Insight) 2021;:7031436.
[A letter sent by Chris Whitty, Ruth May and Susan Hopkins has strengthened expectations on NHS staff who have just returned from abroad. NHS workers returning from any non red-list country must have a negative PCR test before returning to work. Also: New guidance has recommended that trusts relax the segregation of patients according to covid-19 risk. There is likely to be a developing picture on infection control guidance over the next few weeks in light of the Omicron variant. 30 November.]

Frequently asked questions: Demonstrating Covid-19 and vaccination status.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[This briefing paper provides answers to frequently asked questions about demonstrating Covid-19 status (otherwise called Covid-19 status certification) and use of the NHS Covid Pass in England.]

Covid-19 status certification.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[Covid-19 status certification (also referred to as a “vaccine passport”) has been proposed as a means of reducing the risk of transmitting the Covid-19 virus in a number of settings. This briefing explores the Government’s policy on certification. It also provides discussion on the scientific evidence and other issues associated with the use of certification.]

Responding to violence against women and children during COVID-19: impact on service provision, strategies and actions in the WHO European Region (2021).
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[A new report published by WHO/Europe shows that helplines providing support to women and children experiencing violence saw a spike in calls during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data in the new report was collected between January and September 2020, a time in which millions of people in the WHO European Region were confined to their homes because of lockdowns or other restrictive measures.]

UK vaccine response to the Omicron variant: JCVI advice.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. This statement sets out the JCVI’s advice on extending the UK COVID-19 vaccination programme to offer booster doses to adults aged 18 to 39 years, and second doses to children and young people aged 12 to 15 years.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Avian influenza: guidance for managing human cases.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[Information to assist with the management of possible and confirmed human cases of avian influenza.]

Heart valve disease presenting in adults: investigation and management.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This guideline covers investigation and management of heart valve disease presenting in adults. It aims to improve quality of life and survival for people with heart valve disease through timely diagnosis and appropriate intervention.]

Acute heart failure: diagnosis and management.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This guideline covers diagnosing and managing acute heart failure or possible acute heart failure in people aged 18 and over. Heart failure may indicate acute myocardial injury in patients with COVID-19. See the recommendations in NICE COVID-19 rapid guideline on managing COVID-19. In November 2021, NICE withdrew the recommendations on valvular surgery and percutaneous intervention because they have been replaced by the NICE guideline on heart valve disease.]

Public health commissioning in the NHS: 2021 to 2022.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Information about NHS England’s objectives and funding arrangements as it commissions public health services in the ongoing context of coronavirus (COVID-19).]

Cause for concern: Australian youth engaged with alcohol and other drug services are falling behind our community progress in reducing tobacco use.[Abstract]
Hallam KT. Early Intervention in Psychiatry 2021;15(6):1789-1792.
[Tobacco use is decreasing in the general youth population yet little evidence is tracking changes in young people who are engaged with youth alcohol and other drug (AOD) services that are often disengaged from school and work settings. Conclusion: The results highlight a need for the adoption of evidence-based tobacco early intervention programs in youth AOD services to address this significant health risk.]

Quality improvement project to decrease unnecessary investigations in infants with bronchiolitis in Cork University Hospital.[Abstract]
Jansen L. BMJ Open Quality 2021;10(4):DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001428.
[Conclusion: An evidence-based protocol improved physicians’ ability in diagnosing and managing infants with bronchiolitis. This led to a reduction in unnecessary and potential harmful investigations, thereby improving patient quality of care. This improvement will contribute to decreased healthcare cost and appropriate use of resources during the high-pressured winter period.]