Health Management and Policy Alert

Medical emergencies in eating disorders: guidance on recognition and management

Royal College of Psychiatrists -
This report finds that signs that someone with an eating disorder is dangerously ill are often missed by healthcare professionals due to lack of guidance and training. The research finds that hospital admissions for eating disorders have increased by 84 per cent in the last five years reaching a total of 24,268 admissions. Children and young people with eating disorders are the worst affected with a rise of 90 per cent in the five-year period. This guidance is aimed at frontline staff so that people with eating disorders needing urgent care can be identified and treated earlier.

• Guidance
• Appendices
• Royal College of Psychiatrists - press release

Impact of Covid-19 on fertility treatment 2020

Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) - 

This report looks at changes in UK fertility treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic, including treatment numbers, funding, and donation. The report reveals that NHS-funded IVF treatments fell by seven per cent across the UK (35 per cent, 2019 to 28 per cent, 2020), with almost 26,000 patients over 35 receiving IVF treatments; a group prioritised by clinics as the chance of having a baby following fertility treatment decreases with age. The HFEA say this latest data confirms that fewer patients experienced delays during the pandemic than initially feared. This actually shows, a very small drop in treatments given the far-reaching impact of the pandemic across healthcare.

• Report
• Press release

The government’s response to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee’s ninth report of session 2021-22, 'Clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic'

Department of Health and Social Care -
This report sets out how the government is working with its arm’s length bodies to help the NHS clear the waiting list for elective care.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Making wound care work: rebuilding services for the 3.8 million people living with a wound in the UK

Patients Association - 

This report, published jointly with the company Mölnlycke, found that around 28 per cent of patients are managing their own wounds due to the pandemic. The report (based on a survey and interview with patients, and a survey of wound care nurses) also found that the majority (88 per cent) of nurses fear that Covid-19 has had a negative impact on wound care services and eight out of ten are worried about the delays it has caused to appointments, and the knock-on effect of delays to patient outcomes.

• Report
• More detail

International health care outcomes index 2022

Civitas -
This comparison of global health systems places the UK second to bottom across a series of major health care outcomes, including life expectancy and survival rates from cancer, strokes and heart attacks. The comparative study ranks the performance of the UK health care system with that of 18 comparable countries since 2000 or the earliest year for which data is available. It covers the level of health spending, overall life expectancy, the health care outcomes of the major diseases and the outcomes for treatable mortality and childbirth.

• Report
• Civitas - publications

Approaches to projecting future healthcare demand

Centre for Health Economics - 
To plan services and staff for the NHS, the government needs to know how much demand for services will rise and how much to spend on the NHS in future. These future estimates are known as projections: they indicate how much demand might rise or how much might be spent if certain assumptions hold true. This research paper aims to describe and critically assess alternative statistical methods for projecting future health care demand and expenditure.

• Research paper
• Centre for Health Economics - publications

Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2021

The King's Fund -
This analysis of the 2021 British Social Attitudes Survey (undertaken by The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust) finds that public satisfaction with how the NHS runs has fallen sharply to 36 per cent – an unprecedented drop of 17 percentage points from 2020 and the lowest level of satisfaction recorded since 1997. Despite this, support for the principles of the NHS is as strong as ever. The overwhelming majority of people expressed high levels of support for the founding principles of the NHS when asked if they should still apply in 2021: that it is free of charge when you need it (94 per cent), primarily funded through taxation (86 per cent) and available to everyone (84 per cent).

• Read it now
• The King's Fund - blogs

 

Productivity of the English National Health Service: 2019/20 update

Centre for Health Economics - 

This report updates the Centre for Health Economics’ time-series of National Health Service (NHS) productivity growth for the period 2018/19 to 2019/20. NHS productivity growth is measured by comparing the growth in outputs produced by the NHS to the growth in inputs used to produce them. NHS outputs include all the activities undertaken for NHS patients wherever they are treated in England. It also accounts for changes in the quality of care provided to those patients. NHS inputs include the number of doctors, nurses, and support staff providing care, the equipment, and clinical supplies used, and the facilities of hospitals and other premises where care is provided.

• Report
• More detail

NHS backlogs and waiting times in England

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee -
This report finds that the NHS has not met the 18-week maximum waiting time standard for elective care since February 2016 nor the eight key standards for cancer care in totality since 2014. It concludes that any transparent and realistic assessment of what elective and cancer care services can achieve by 2024–25 needs to include an assessment of the number of staff that will be available, how staff who have been working under intense and consistent pressure will be supported, and how patients will be kept informed about their own progress through waiting lists.

• Report
• House of Commons Public Accounts Committee - news

Health system recovery from Covid-19: international lessons for the NHS

Nuffield Trust -
This report outlines the challenges confronting the NHS in recovering from the pandemic, such as the waiting lists created by the scaling down of elective services. It finds that the pandemic has left even the most well-equipped health systems vulnerable and looks across 16 countries to gain an understanding of the recovery challenge worldwide.

• Report
• Nuffield Trust - publications