PM BoJo turns the heat up on health and social care
Yesterday our new prime minister, Boris Johnson delivered his first speech. As part of this, there notable mentions for the NHS and social care.
During the week there have been several predictions made about BoJo’s biggest health and social care challenges, as he replaces Theresa May at No.10.
Matt Hancock to remain as health and social care secretary
The new prime minister has kept Matt Hancock as health and social care secretary despite making major changes to the rest of the Cabinet.
We’ve been discussing what this could mean for the NHS and social care at ZPB.
Doctors and health experts criticise government’s green paper
The government published a green paper on preventing ill-health late on Monday night just before the new prime minister was appointed.
The document included proposals to end smoking by 2030, make food healthier and stop under-16s buying energy drinks and outlined an ambition for everyone England to have gained five more years of healthy life expectancy – free of disease or disability – by 2035.
However, doctors and health experts criticised the paper, saying that the government plans are too weak to deal with major issues such as obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse.
Read more at BBC News.
GPs are misdiagnosing patients because appointments are too short
A survey has found that one in three GPs have misdiagnosed patients because they did not have enough time to assess them.
Typically, GPs are given 10 minutes per consultation. However, 95 per cent of GPs have said that this time allocation is too short for them to do their jobs properly.
Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the RCGP has emphasised that consultations need to be longer but this would not be possible unless the shortfall of doctors was addressed.
Read more in the Telegraph.
Quote of the week
In her final annual report as Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies highlighted that countries need to work together to tackle rising global health threats, such as Ebola, antibiotic resistance and non-communicable diseases.
“A threat in one corner of the world is a threat to anywhere else,” Professor Dame Sally told The Telegraph. “We are only as strong as our weakest link when it comes to health.
Read more in The Telegraph .