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14:05 If you had somehow missed it, today is Valentine’s Day.
The best thing about this? Healthcare workers have been tweeting poems with the hashtag #medicalvalentines.
Pulse favourites include:
Fingers are red.
Fingers are blue.
Fingers are white.
It’s Raynaud’s.#MedicalValentines— Max Thoburn (@MaxThoburn) February 14, 2017
Separately, we hope you have not been one of the one in ten (!) doctors who have received inappropriate Valentine’s Day gifts or cards from a patient.
Here’s some advice if you did.
11:50 Taking public transport is commonly hailed as the better option over taking your car when it comes to air pollution, but it turns out the protective shell of a car comes in handy for some.
A study from University of Surrey has found that although it is cars that fill the air with the most dangerous particles, it is the more responsible commuters who are inhaling up to eight times more harmful air into their lungs.
This ‘environmental injustice’ especially affect tube passengers travelling on trains with opening windows, followed by those travelling over ground on buses, reports Sky News.
The worst culprits were drivers of diesel cars, the study found.
Dr Prashant Kumar, who led the study, said: ‘We found that there is definitely an element of environmental injustice among those commuting in London, with those who create the most pollution having the least exposure to it.’
10:55 Further on STPs, NHS England has called for input on the published plans in a video (and tweet, with somewhat questionable grammar).
#STP Proposals are now published. #STPs are now at different stages.
Patients, public & #NHS staff must help to develop and them.#futureNHSpic.twitter.com/o9YkPXVEI1— NHS England (@NHSEngland) February 14, 2017
9:50 The Government needs to add more than £9.5bn of NHS funding to make services sustainable, an analysis by the BMA has found.
The BMA sent FOI requests to the 44 sustainability and transformation plan (STP) areas around England and although only 37 responded, their capital demands alone totalled £9.53m.
BMA chair Dr Mark Porter said: ‘These figures are especially concerning given that everyone can see a huge crisis unfolding within our NHS, with record numbers of trusts and GP practices raising the alarm to say they already can’t cope.
The NHS is at breaking point and the STP process could have offered a chance to deal with some of the problems that the NHS is facing, like unnecessary competition, expensive fragmentation and buildings and equipment often unfit for purpose, but there is clearly nowhere near the funding required to carry out these plans.
‘These plans are fast becoming completely unworkable and have instead revealed a health service that is unsustainable without urgent further investment, and with little capacity to “transform” in any meaningful way other than by reducing the provision of services on a drastic scale.’
