Abstract
Nationwide roll-out of NHS high street heart checks
This month, every NHS pharmacy in England will be able to provide lifesaving blood pressure checks to people aged 40 and over thanks to a new deal between pharmacies and the NHS.
Over the next five years, estimates show that 3,700 strokes and 2,500 heart attacks could be prevented as a result of the tests and around 2,000 lives could be saved.
Predictions also show that if 2.5 million people get their blood pressure checked in this way, an additional 250,000 people could receive lifesaving treatment for hypertension.
The NHS began piloting the checks in autumn 2019 with full rollout commencing this month.
This action is the latest step to find thousands more people living with cardiovascular disease earlier and to prevent over 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases – a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
Pharmacists will case-find and offer blood pressure tests to people showing symptoms, provide clinical and lifestyle advice or referral, and record the data, joining up services and treatment with GPs and other local services, to speed up access to care.
As part of the new contract, local chemists will also play a part in NHS smoking cessation services by offering advice and care to smokers who have recently been discharged from hospital. Patients will be able to receive support sessions over 12 weeks with a trained member of the pharmacy team.
The roll-out of these services is part of the 2021–22 community pharmacy contractual framework covering England’s pharmacies announced in August and agreed by NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Encouraging response to review of post-registration nursing standards
The Nursing & Midwifery Council’s (NMC) consultation, Building on ambitions for community and public health nursing, sought views on proposed new standards of proficiency for the future of specialist community and public health nursing. It has now closed after receiving a total of 2,362 responses from a huge range of people which included professionals, employers, educators, students and the public from across the UK.
The extended consultation ran for more than 16 weeks and involved more than 60 virtual events attended by hundreds of people. Through it, the NMC invited views on three sets of draft post-registration standards: those for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN), those for specialist practice qualification (SPQs) and the associated programme standards.
At the heart of these proposals is a suite of new standards that better reflect the modern work that many professionals are already doing, including delivering complex clinical care for people in their own home or local community, leading and managing teams, shaping local services and prioritising public health and wellbeing – now and for the future.
Over the next few months teams of individuals – including practising professionals, post registration students and educators – from across the health and social care sectors of the four nations will work alongside NMC colleagues to make final recommendations on changes to the draft post-registration standards.
These recommendations will then be considered by the post registration steering group, made up of partners from across the UK before the NMC’s governing Council reviews the standards and a decision on their adoption at a public meeting.
For more information visit: https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/consultations/past-consultations/2021-consultations/future-community-nurse/
All Our Health programme toolkit available
Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) has worked with Public Health England to develop an engaging, interactive communications toolkit to encourage professionals to raise awareness of the All Our Health programme.
In the last year colleagues within health and care, local government and emergency services have accessed the All Our Health resources more than 268,000 times and completed more than 91,000 hours of learning. The programme covers key public health issues including obesity, dementia, air pollution and county lines exploitation.
The communications toolkit has been designed to help those working across communities and places to raise greater awareness of the sessions and call on more professionals to improve their knowledge and confidence in tackling health inequalities.
The toolkit includes the following useful promotional materials:
Written summary of the programme Email signature template Introductory video Poster Social media assets including animated GIFs Testimonials.
Currently there are 26 bite-sized elearning sessions on different public health topics plus three interactive townscapes on breastfeeding, childhood obesity and smoking in pregnancy. Further sessions and townscapes will be available later this year to help professionals prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing.
To learn more and access the programme, go to: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/all-our-health/
NICE guideline for children and young people recommends ‘more informed’ healthcare experience
A new guideline from NICE recommends ensuring children and young people are fully informed about their health so that they are empowered to take an active role in their healthcare.
The healthcare system can be intimidating to younger patients, and poor experiences may lead to anxiety around engaging with the system later in life and poorer health outcomes. This new guideline aims to improve the healthcare experience of babies, children, and young people (aged up to 18 years) with the hope that this can improve their health outcomes and wellbeing.
The guideline emphasises the need to provide children and young people with clear and accurate information which can be tailored to an individual patient’s level of maturity and understanding. Information materials should be developed in partnership with young people and presented in a range of formats using words and images.
The guideline also recommends that young people and their carers should be warned that some medical information available online may be inaccurate. They should be advised where they can access additional sources of information about their care or condition that is accurate, credible, and evidence-based.
The recommendations also state that children and young people should be involved in shared decision making over their care, and should fully understand their rights and responsibilities about privacy, confidentiality and when consenting to treatment. Conversations should be two way and appointments may need to be lengthened to provide the time to do this.
The guideline recognises the important role parents, carers, and advocates play in ensuring younger patients feel supported during appointments, although patients should be offered the opportunity to speak to a healthcare professional in private where appropriate in line with current practice.
You can access the guideline at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG204