13:35 NHS England has invited local commissioners to bid for money from of a £200m pot to improve early cancer diagnosis rates.
It said this could include ‘supporting specific tools for GPs to use to help them recognise cancer, like the Macmillan decision support tool; setting up diagnosis services to be able to test and rule out a number of different things quickly; and improving local communications systems to ensure information is passed securely and quickly between hospitals and GP surgeries’.
It also announced which 15 hospitals would receive part of a £130m fund to ‘kick-start the upgrade of radiotherapy equipment’.
the hospitals which will receive new LINACs are:
- North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
- Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
- University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
- Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
- Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: ‘Across the country, the NHS is now making great strides in upgrading modern cancer radiotherapy equipment and ensuring faster access to the most promising new cancer drugs.
‘Because the quality of NHS cancer care has improved so much over the past year, an extra two thousand families will be able to celebrate the Christmas holiday with a loved one who has successfully survived cancer.
‘It’s an enormous tribute to dedicated nurses, doctors, scientists and patients organisations that we are on track to save 30,000 more lives a year from cancer.’
11:15 GP practices are increasingly struggling with the recruitment of locum GPs. The BMA has published a video where you can hear sessional GP subcommittee chair Dr Zoe Norris talk about the impact of this.
.@dr_zo talks about the impact on the #NHS when practices cannot recruit salaried and locum GPs #gpincrisis https://t.co/m9PCFzWc6k pic.twitter.com/gR7VNFlcPv
— General Practice (@BMA_GP) December 5, 2016
09:40 People who regularly trim their pubic hair run a higher risk of contracting STIs, according to a new study.
The findings, based on a survey of 7,500 American adults, further showed the most ‘extreme groomers’ – who removed all of their pubic hair at least once a month – ran the highest risk of infection.
The University of California, San Francisco, researchers said the most likely explanation was micro-tears in the skin as well as the frequent groomers having more sexual partners, and engaging in more ‘risky’ sexual behavious.
On the upside, grooming was found to protect against pubic lice, reports the BBC.
