Coronavirus guidance for employees, employers and businesses

Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for employees, employers and businesses |
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Department of Health and Social Care, and Public Health England

This guidance is intended to assist employers and businesses in providing advice to staff regarding COVID-19.  It covers how to help prevent spread of respiratory infections including COVID-19; what to do if someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 has been in a workplace setting; what advice to give to individuals who have travelled to specific areas; and advice for the certification of absence from work.

The NHS nursing workforce

This report aims to set out the facts on: the scale of the NHS nursing workforce challenge; the challenges to the main entry routes to NHS nursing and more general workforce-related challenges that any future plans will need to address; and the progress made on the People Plan.

Nurses are critical to the delivery of health and social care services, working across hospitals, community services, care homes and primary care. In 2019, around 519,000 people in England were registered to practise as a nurse, while the NHS employed 320,000 nurses in hospital and community services, making up about a quarter of all NHS staff.

In January 2019, the NHS Long Term Plan acknowledged the need to increase staff numbers, noting that the biggest shortfalls were in nursing. The NHS set up the People Plan programme to decide how it would secure the workforce it needed to meet its future service commitments. This report defines workforce planning as the analysis and plans required to ensure that the NHS has the number and type of staff it needs, now and in the future.

This report sets out the facts on:

• the scale of the NHS nursing workforce challenge;
• the challenges to the main entry routes to NHS nursing and more general workforce-related challenges that any future plans will need to address; and
• the progress made on the People Plan.

Full report: The NHS Nursing Workforce

NHSX tech plan for health and care

NHS Providers | March 2020 | NHSX tech plan for health and care on the day briefing

NHSX has published its tech plan for health and care, setting out its vision for how technology will support the ambitions of the long term plan. 

 The tech plan builds on the principles set out in the secretary of state’s statement on the future of health care, published in 2018 as well as the NHSX mission statement published last year. The aim of the tech plan is to describe how the deliverables in the long term plan will be achieved through digitisation. The long term plan committed every NHS provider to have achieved a core level of digitisation by 2024.

The tech plan defines this level of digitisation as:
• Decent hardware (e.g. replacement of old laptops)
• Adequate networks (powered by full fibre and 5G)
• Integrated systems that allow flexibility in managing clinical and operational workflows

The briefing is available from NHS Providers

Have your say on the Tech Plan for health and care (NHS Join the conversation)

UK strategy for rare diseases: 2020 update to the implementation plan for England

Department of Health and Social Care | February 2020 | UK strategy for rare diseases: 2020 update to the implementation plan for England

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has updated its strategy for rare diseases. This year’s update on the strategy’s progress over the last year covers 5 main areas:

• empowering those affected by rare diseases
• identifying and preventing rare diseases
• diagnosis and early intervention
• coordination of care
• the role of research

It also sets out the actions that DHSC and partner organisations will take in 2020 to implement the commitments of the strategy.

The UK strategy for rare diseases: 2020 update to the implementation plan for England

Should a chronic condition, such as type 1 diabetes, prevent regular exercise?

NICE |nd| Should a chronic condition, such as type 1 diabetes, prevent regular exercise?

In the latest episode of NICE’S podcast NICE Talks, the topic is whether a long term chronic condition such as type 1 diabetes should prevent regular exercise.

The hosts of the podcast speak with Chris Bright, a Welsh International Futsal player, who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 20 years; Professor Partha Kar a Consultant Endocrinologist at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and aNational Specialty Advisor, Diabetes, for NHS England; and chiropractor Peter Dixon, President of the Royal College of Chiropractors and NICE Fellow. They discuss the NICE recommendations on physical activity for those with type 1 diabetes, available from NICE.

Listen via Soundcloud

Coronavirus action plan

What the health and social care system across the UK has done to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and what it plans to do next.

This document sets out what the UK as a whole has done – and plans to do – to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, based on experience dealing with other infectious diseases and influenza pandemic preparedness work.  The exact response to COVID-19 will be tailored to the nature, scale and location of the threat in the UK, as understanding of it develops.

The document sets out:

• what we know about the virus and the disease it causes
• how we have planned for an infectious disease outbreak such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
• the actions taken so far in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
• what we are planning to do next, depending on the course the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak takes
• the role the public can play in supporting this response, now and in the future

Full detail: Coronavirus action plan |  The Department of Health and Social Care 

NICE Consultation: Acute coronary syndromes

NICE |  February 2020| Acute coronary syndromes

NICE is consulting on its draft guidance on Acute coronary syndromes, the consultation is open until 27 March 2020.

Full details from NICE 

Violence against NHS staff: letter to the workforce

Department of Health and Social Care | February 2020 | Violence against NHS staff: letter to the workforce

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock has written a letter to all NHS staff about the problem of violence faced by those working for the NHS.

The letter can be read at NHS England 

Sky News NHS staff can refuse to treat racist or sexist patients under new rules

Metro Racist and sexist patients to be barred from non-emergency care   

BMA: Supporting a healthy childhood

BMA | February 2020| Supporting a healthy childhood: the need for greater investment in services in England 

BMA has published its report Supporting a healthy childhood: the need for greater investment in services in England. The BMA’s analysis of recent data highlights insufficient investment in England across a range of services to support a healthy childhood, with funding for a number of different services being cut in recent years. This lack of resource is likely to have an adverse impact on child health in England.

Image source: bma.org.uk

The report includes:

• Analysis and findings of spending on children’s social care in 2019/20
• Recommendations for a cross-government ‘healthy childhood strategy’
• Recommendations to reverse budget cuts to children’s services in England

Supporting a healthy childhood (PDF)

Number of people with dementia in Europe set to almost double by 2050

Alzheimer Europe | February 2020 |Dementia in Europe Yearbooks 

A new report from Alzheimer Europe predicts that the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease-based on current trends- will increase twofold by 2050. The report emphasises that this is despite a reduction in the prevalence of dementia. 

The 2018 Alzheimer Europe Yearbook focuses on the current status and development of national dementia strategies in Europe, detailing the content of the existing strategies, thereby providing a comparison between countries. There are currently 21 countries and regions with a dementia strategy, 2 countries whose governments have formally committed to the development of a strategy, two neurodegenerative strategies published and further work underway in other countries (Source: Alzheimer Europe)

The full publication is available to purchase from Alzheimer Europe

In the news:

OnMedica Number of people with dementia in Europe to almost double by 2050