Public Health

Current awareness updates

A Women’s Health Agenda: Redressing the Balance.
Public Policy Projects; 2022.
[This report highlights the importance of embracing a culture of change in the design and delivery of women’s health to achieve national systems and local services fit to meet the expectations and needs of the 21st century woman. It sets out recommendations, founded on common sense and rooted in the belief that women should be in control of their own bodies.]

Making self-harm everyone’s business: a consideration of the new national guideline.
Clough I. British Journal of Healthcare Management 2022;28(3):58-60.
[This article discusses the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s consultation and draft guideline on self-harm management, placing the recommendations in the context of ongoing pressures on NHS services and the UK’s growing mental health crisis.]

Guidelines for using online therapeutic interventions.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); 2022.
[A team of researchers at the University of Sussex have launched a set of guidelines to help practitioners provide better support to parents and children accessing mental health services online. The guidelines include: Advice on planning, ground rules and strategies for practitioners; Points on support, information governance & policy guidance; What clients need to consider when accessing online services; Guidance on working online with groups of people.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Weight management tier 2 interventions and their effectiveness.
Carried out by Frankie Marcelline from Sussex Health on 2/12/2021
[This evidence search report looks for recent evaluations and reports on the effectiveness of weight management tier 2 interventions for families, adults and children. A starting point might be Public Health England’s 2020 summary: Weight management services during COVID-19: phase 1 insights. Another source is Heggie’s: Tackling reporting issues and variation in behavioural weight management interventions.]

Brain tumours (primary) and brain metastases in adults.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This quality standard covers diagnosing, monitoring and managing any type of primary brain tumour or brain metastases in adults (aged 16 or over). It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.]

Urinary incontinence in women.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This quality standard covers managing urinary incontinence in women (aged 18 and over). It covers assessment, care and treatment options. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.
It does not cover urinary incontinence in women with neurological disease. In December 2021, changes were made to align this quality standard with the new NICE guideline on pelvic floor dysfunction.]

Pelvic floor dysfunction: prevention and non-surgical management.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This guideline covers the prevention, assessment and non-surgical management of pelvic floor dysfunction in women aged 12 and over. It aims to raise awareness and help women to reduce their risk of pelvic floor dysfunction. For women who have pelvic floor dysfunction, the guideline recommends interventions based on their specific symptoms]

Management of acute respiratory illness in prisons and places of detention.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[This guidance will assist in the management of outbreaks of acute respiratory illness in prisons and places of detention. The guidance covers risk assessment, testing recommendations, antiviral therapies and when an outbreak can be declared over. An associated flow chart gives information for management depending on whether COVID-19 and/or influenza have been detected.]

BCG vaccination and SCID screening: patient pathway.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[Flowchart showing the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination and SCID screening patient pathway (updated 09 December 2021)]

Optimising chronic wound care: a human and financial necessity.
Penfold J. British Journal of Healthcare Management 2021;27(11):269-271.
[Comment highlights the importance of evidence-based practice in wound care to reduce the burden on patients and healthcare services.]

Active Lives Children and Young People Survey: Academic year 2020-21.
Sport England; 2021.
[This report contains a full year of coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions, including comparisons back to summer term 2020, when school sites were closed to most pupils for much of the period. The proportion of children and young people in England who are active remains unchanged compared to 12 months ago. However, inequalities have increased and for some groups of children and young people, in particular teenage girls and Black children are the least likely to be physically active.]

What science has shown can help young people with anxiety and depression.
Wellcome; 2021.
[This report summarises what we’ve learned about the evidence for ‘active ingredients’ of effective interventions for youth anxiety and depression – these are the aspects of interventions that make a difference in preventing or managing anxiety and depression.]

Project ADDER.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Information on Project ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery), the government’s pathfinder programme combatting drugs misuse.]

Global Drug Survey (GDS) 2021 Global Report.
Global Drug Survey (GDS); 2021.
[The focus is on how COVID-19 changed people’s drug using behaviours especially with regard to alcohol, cannabis and cocaine, how people balance reducing harm and maximizing pleasure when using drugs, and whether microdosing has moved beyond those seeking to improve creativity and work performance to self-treatment for mental health issues.]

Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2020.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2021.
[Deaths caused by diseases known to be a direct consequence of alcohol misuse by sex, age, region and deprivation.]

From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives.
Home Office, Department of Health and Social Care, Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; 2021.
[This policy paper sets out the government’s 10-year plan to cut crime and save lives by reducing the supply and demand for drugs and delivering a high-quality treatment and recovery system. Commitments are made across the government to break drug supply chains while simultaneously reducing the demand for drugs by getting people suffering from addiction into treatment, and deterring recreational drug use.]

Child of the North: building a fairer future after Covid-19.
NIHR Northern Health Science Alliance; 2021.
[This report paints a stark picture of inequality for children growing up in the north of England post-pandemic compared with those in the rest of the country. It looks at a wide range of factors, from child poverty to children in care, to build up a picture of ‘The Child of the North’. It sets out 18 clear recommendations that can be put in place to tackle the widening gap between the north and the rest of England.]

Children and young people’s mental health: Eighth Report of Session 2021–22.
House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee; 2021.
[Report highlights that the problems identified can only be addressed by government departments, local government and the health system acting together to promote good mental health and prevent new crises emerging. It recommends setting up a Cabinet sub-committee.]

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures: what’s the impact on youth mental health?
The Mental Elf; 2021.
[Douglas Badenoch appraises a recent cross-sectional survey study, which looks at COVID-19 partial school closures and mental health problems.]

Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: variant risk assessments.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[Risk assessment dated 09 December for Omicron variant added.]

Consensus statements on COVID-19.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[Updated 10 December 2021: UKHSA has added the EMRG’s consensus statement for 24 November 2021 to its website.]

Resilience and recovery following COVID-19.
McIntosh B. British Journal of Healthcare Management 2021;27(11):263-264.
[The healthcare sector has a crucial role to play in the wider economic and social recovery of society following COVID-19. Events since March 2020 have highlighted the need to see health and public services as a crucial investment, not an afterthought.]

An evaluation of a virtual COVID-19 ward to accelerate the supported discharge of patients from an acute hospital setting.
Swift J. British Journal of Healthcare Management 2021;27(12):1-9.
[The virtual ward appeared to assist with earlier discharges, had a low rate of clinically necessary re-admissions, and seemed to reduce costs without compromising patient safety. The authors believe that this intervention could be applied across other NHS trusts facing similar capacity issues as a result of COVID-19.]

Nudging healthcare professionals to improve treatment of COVID-19: a narrative review.[Abstract]
Vilhelmsson A. BMJ Open Quality 2021;10(4):doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001522.
[Conclusion: Evidence suggests that different nudging techniques can be used in clinical settings as simple, cost-effective strategies to fight COVID-19, reduce complications for intubated patients, improve hand hygiene, increase vaccination rates and avoid unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. These strategies could be important in the continued handling of the pandemic, which will not be over until the whole world reaches herd immunity from vaccination…]

COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing COVID-19 NICE guideline.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[This guideline covers the management of COVID-19 for children, young people and adults in all care settings. In December, NICE added new recommendations on COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis. NICE revised their statement about the Omicron variant in the recommendation on casirivimab and imdevimab.]

COVID-19 vaccination: resources for schools and parents.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[17 December 2021: Added version 3 of the guidance for schools and guidance for parents.]

COVID-19: guidance for first responders.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[Updated advice for first responders (as defined by the Civil Contingencies Act) and others where close contact may be required as part of their normal duties.]

COVID-19: infection prevention and control (IPC).
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2021.
[17 December 2021: Added UK IPC Cell consensus statement in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Added paragraph to main IPC guidance on risk assessment and use of RPE in response to Omicron variant.]

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.]

Toolkit

Deafness and Hearing Loss

Source: KnowledgeShare

Produced by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP); 2021; the resources developed aim to educate GPs and GP trainees on deafness and hearing loss, help reduce variations in accessibility to GP practices and ensure deafness and hearing loss are considered across all aspects of primary care activity including consultations and continued care. The toolkit supports GPs and GP trainees to implement the latest NICE guidelines and NHS Accessibility Quality Standard and guidance across the UK.

To access the toolkit click here.