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Larger GP practices lead to lower patient satisfaction, finds report
Investing in GP core funding would make savings in long-term, finds study
16:45 Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has tweeted a picture of his ‘fantastic new minsterial team’.
The fantastic new ministerial team @DHgovuk: pic.twitter.com/e9f9nyaXXP
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 19, 2016
Pulse recently reported that the GMC has appointed Charley Massey, a director general at the Department of Health, as its new chief executive.
15:20 A rather bold statement from NHS chief executive Simon Stevens has emerged on Twitter this afternoon.
Mr Stevens has reportedly said that the Vote Leave campaign’s bus that said on the side a vote for Brexit would mean an extra £350m a week for the NHS, should not be resprayed – and instead ‘impounded as Exhibit A’.
Simon Stevens says of Vote Leave promises of £350m pw for NHS. “Rather than respraying the battle bus they should impound it as Exhibit A”
— Chris Smyth (@Smyth_Chris) July 19, 2016
14:25 Pulse blogger Dr Zoe Norris has been elected as the chair of the BMA’s sessional GP sub-committee. Well done Zoe!
Congratulations to @dr_zo who has just been elected as the chair of @TheBMA Sessional GP Subcommittee – great advocate for grassroots GPs
— Krishna Kasaraneni (@Dr_Kasaraneni) July 19, 2016
12:25 New figures have revealed that patients over the age of 75 are responsible for more than half of physical assaults on staff in hospitals across England.
NHS Protect, who collected the figures, found that over-75s accounted for 57% of violent incidents on wards between 2010 and 2015, the BBC reports.
As part of the research process, NHS Protect looked at thousands of incidents – including ‘bites and pinches to the most serious attacks on medical staff.’
10:50 NHS boss Simon Stevens has written an article in the Telegraph today outlining what the NHS needs to survive post-Brexit.
Mr Stevens said the future of the NHS should not primarily be centered around the arguments over funding the health service, which was often at the heart of the referendum battle.
He added that ‘the challenges facing the health service go far wider,’ and that they require ‘bold and broad reforms.’ This, he said, should involve acting on ‘prevention and health inequalities’ – including tackling obesity and smoking.
Mr Steven’s went on to discuss the public’s access to GPs, adding that it was key part of the referendum campaign, highlighting the ‘public concern’ over being able to readily see a GP.
He told the Telegraph: ‘Access to GPs was a repeated public concern during the referendum campaign. We make 300 million visits to GP practices each year, compared to fewer than 25 million A&E attendances. So if GP services fail the NHS fails.
‘Yet headlines about hospital deficits obscure the fact that over the past decade their share of funding has grown rapidly at the expense of primary care, and hospital consultant numbers have expanded three times faster than GPs.’
9:40 Good morning and welcome to Pulse’s live blog.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has broken pledges on NHS funding and is misleading the public over how much money it is investing in the health service, a new report has concluded.
The report, published by the House of Commons health committee, claims the Department of Health is giving the cash-strapped NHS ‘less than would appear to be the case from official pronouncements,’ the Guardian reports.
The highly critical report also questioned how the Government intends to pay for seven-day routine GP services, as reported by Pulse.
