Top stories
All GP practices to be incentivised to merge or federate to cover 30-50k patients
Only 100 GPs added to workforce as part of £500m rescue package
16:00 NHS England is launching ‘Nurse First’, a ‘fast-track’ nurse recruitment programme modelled on the existing Teach First programme to attract people to switch from other careers to become school teachers.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens told the Guardian: ‘We are announcing a new programme called Nurse First, which is the equivalent of the Teach First programme, whereby new graduates can fast-track into nursing alongside other apprenticeship routes… so that we can expand the number of nurses we have.’
The programme, which comes as the Government is expanding the number of nurse training places paid for by abolishing their training bursary, is expected to increase the number of newly qualified nurses by up to 2,200 a year in 2019, said the paper.
14:00 Londonwide LMCs have hit out at Government plans to focus on reducuing pressures in secondary care.
Chief executive Dr Michelle Drage said: ‘London general practice remains in a state of emergency. We are running on empty with 42% of our practices unable to fill long-term vacancies for GPs and nurses.
‘With most NHS work being done by GPs, focusing on A&E totally misses the point – it’s at the front door of our general practices where demand needs to be met as a priority.’
12:30 Patients who received high doses of vitamin C may be more receptive to cancer treatment, a study has suggested.
A trial including patients with brain cancer found that those injected with the vitamin lived up to six months longer than those who did not, reports the Daily Mail.
11:45 Want to look through the 75 pages of plans NHS England has cooked up for the remaining time up until 2020 yourself? Here’s a helpful resource.
Find something of interest? Please email newsdesk@pulsetoday.co.uk with your thoughts.
09:30 The BBC’s report on NHS England’s Five Year Forward View update says Simon Stevens, the NHS England’s chief executive, will be downgrading knee and hip operations in order to improve A&E waits and cancer survival.
He said: ‘There is a trade-off here – we do expect there will be some marginal lengthening of waiting lists, but this will still represent a strong, quick experience compared to 10 years ago, let alone 20.’
Read our main story on the 75-page update here, which focuses on how GPs will be incentivised to work around patient groups of 30,000-50,000.
