Top headlines
16:00 Earlier today, health secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted that the ‘Government’s door has always been open’ to negotiate the outstanding issues in the junior doctor contract.
This comes after talks between the Department of Health and the BMA’s junior doctor committee commenced again this week, while Mr Hunt consequently agreed to ‘pause’ the junior contract imposition for five days from yesterday, during the period which negotiations would take place.
But in reply to Mr Hunt’s tweet today, Dr Phil Hammond, a well-known NHS doctor, tweeted back saying that it was down to the fierce pressure from the profession which resulted in the Government going back to the negotiation table.
No, it took impending legal action, #juniordoctors camped at DH & pressure from a united profession to restart talks https://t.co/SA7I7G6kMs
— Dr Phil Hammond (@drphilhammond) May 10, 2016
14:20 The full list of new members on the sessional GP subcommittee, part of the BMA’s GPC committee, for 2016-19 have been revealed.
Among the GPs making it on the subcommittee include Pulse blogger and media lead for the campaign group GP Survival, Dr Zoe Norris.
Read the full list of members here
12:30 Elsewhere, a new report has revealed that self-harm is one of the biggest killers among young adults, the Telegraph reports.
According to data in the report, approximately 330 UK young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 died due to self-harm in 2013.
The data, taken from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at Washington University, has prompted experts to call for a more ‘proactive approach’ in protecting young adults.
The authors of the report added: ‘this generation of young people can transform all our futures. There is no more pressing task in global health than ensuring they have the resources to do so.’
11:50 And we have just published our latest video interview with the new co-chair of CCG representative group, NHS Clinical Commissioners.
Dr Graham Jackson talks to Pulse about his reasons for binning QOF, concerns over conflicts of interest and why GPs need to take responsibility for the funding of their own services.
Read the full interview here
10:15 Tens of thousands of deaths across England and Wales are being caused by a failure to follow after-care treatment recommendations following a heart attack, a new study has revealed.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the National Institute for Health Research, analysed 389,057 cases of non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in patients treated across 247 hospitals in England and Wales between January 2003 and January 2013,ITV reports.
It found that 90% of patients are not receiving the full range of 13 treatments they should be given, including dietary advice, advice to help people to stop smoking, the prescription of a type of anti-clotting drug known as P2Y12 inhibitors and receiving a coronary angiography.
It was published in theEuropean Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care.
9:15 In case you missed it yesterday, a second study in the last few days refuting the so-called ‘weekend effect’ has been released.
The new University of Oxford study found that previous studies of the ‘weekend effect’ failed to check the accuracy of coding data, which meant low-risk patients admitted during the week were wrongly being recorded as having been admitted for stroke.
The lead author said that the ‘weekend effect’ was an ’illusion created by poor data’.
