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NHS England has welcomed moves by football clubs to improve the nation’s health including cookery classes for bereaved men, exercise sessions for people with cancer and sport to help tackle mental ill health. A nation-wide day of action saw 72 football clubs from the English Football League put their full weight behind nationwide community health activities.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to ramping-up personalised care, including placing 1,000 social prescribing link workers in GP surgeries, giving more time to help patients with issues that can have a knock-on effect on health, like loneliness or isolation, and connecting them to suitable local activities.
Social prescribing can offer alternative ways of treating people in their community, with one-in-five of GPs regularly referring patients to these schemes, as studies show 28% fewer GP consultations and 24% fewer A&E attendances where social prescribing ‘connector’ services are working well.
Read more: NHS applauds plans by English Football League to improve nation’s health
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Female healthcare scientists are invited to apply for NHS England’s prestigious leadership development scheme, aimed at mid-career healthcare scientists to develop leaders and increase their impact within their Trusts and beyond.
Led by NHS England’s Chief Scientific Officer, the CSOWISE Healthcare Science Leadership Development Programme for NHS England scheme provides support for 32 healthcare scientists over 12 months through a leadership development programme that includes mentoring alongside communication and leadership skills training. In addition, successful applicants will have the opportunity to attend the Chief Scientific Officer conference and become WISE role models, helping to inspire the next generation to follow in their footsteps.
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Lung cancer scanning trucks that operate from supermarket car parks are being rolled out across the country in a drive to save lives by catching the condition early, NHS has England announced. Around £70 million will fund 10 projects that check those most at risk, inviting them for an MOT for their lungs and an on the spot chest scan that include mobile clinics.
The targeted screening will help improve survival rates by going first to the some of the areas with the highest death rates from lung cancer.
A recent study showed CT screening reduced lung cancer mortality by 26% in men and between 39% and 61% in women. The roll out has the potential to reach around 600,000 people over four years, detecting approximately 3,400 cancers and saving hundreds of lives across the country.
Read more: NHS to rollout lung cancer scanning trucks across the country
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A 15-year-old boy with a rare brain tumour will today begin world leading treatment at the NHS’s new Proton Beam Therapy centre at The Christie hospital in Manchester.
Mason Kettley, from Angmering, West Sussex, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in October.
Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) is a specialist form of radiotherapy that targets cancers very precisely, increasing success rates and reducing side effects, which makes it an ideal treatment for certain cancers in children who are at risk of lasting damage to organs that are still growing. The state-of-the-art treatment is only available in a handful of countries around the world.
The Christie’s Proton Beam centre is the newest and most up to date centre in the world. Mason is currently still attending school and is in the middle of preparing for his GCSEs next year. His experiences as a patient have made him decide he would like to train as a doctor. Mason said: “I’m nervous about what is going to happen, but I’m also excited to start this treatment. I’m so grateful to all the doctors involved in my care and I’d love to do what they do one day – it will be my way of giving something back.”
Read more: Boy with rare brain cancer to be treated at new NHS £125 million centre
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Thousands more veterans who struggle with civilian life will benefit from new and expanded NHS services, including mental health support, as part of the NHS’ long term plan.
A new dedicated crisis service will provide intensive support to scores of the most vulnerable former soldiers, sailors and air men and women battling alcohol, drugs and mental health problems, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens announced. It is part of a series of measures to ramp up bespoke services for veterans, backed by £10 million of investment, to ensure that specialist health support for veterans is available across the country.
The NHS will expand the new ‘Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service’ (TILS) and roll out veteran-friendly GP surgeries and hospitals as part of efforts to make sure those who have served their country get specialist help they deserve in every part of the health service. There are around 2.6 million veterans living in the UK and around one in 20 will suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A smaller number will have severe and complex mental health needs. Intensive support will be available around the clock to help them throughout their use of NHS services and will help address rising demand for care.
Read more: NHS long term plan to create ‘national heroes service’ for veterans
