Monthly Archives: January 2014

Integrated urgent care needs funding overhaul, NHS leaders tell MPs

By Neil Roberts, 22 January 2014

NHS England officials plan to overhaul funding arrangements for the whole urgent care system, but admitted to fears that councils could misuse health service funding intended to promote integration.

House of Commons: MPs questioned NHS England officials

House of Commons: MPs questioned NHS England officials

Part of NHS England’s ongoing urgent care review will look at ways to allow integrated funding of urgent care pathways across primary and secondary care, its acute care director Professor Keith Willett told MPs on the House of Commons health select committee.

The current fragmented system of different funding and commissioning systems for general practice, hospitals, ambulances and community care services meant even when the sectors were brought together to commission integrated urgent care pathways caused problems, said Professor Willett.

Professor Willett, who is leading the review of urgent care under NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, said: ‘When we come to allocate the money, again, we are still stuck with those methods.

Million sickness benefit applicants 'fit for work'

 

Nearly a million people who applied for sickness benefit have been found fit for work, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions.

The DWP claims 980,400 people – 32%, of new applicants for Employment and Support Allowance – were judged capable of work between 2008 and March 2013.

More than a million others withdrew their claims after interviews, it adds.

But disability campaigners said the work tests were “ridiculously harsh and extremely unfair”.

A spokesman for Disability Rights UK said many of those passed fit will not, in fact, be capable of entering the workplace in any meaningful sense due to physical or mental health problems.

“They are finding people fit for work when they aren’t and they are not even giving them the support they need to get a job. It is a disgrace,” he told BBC News.

New app to help carers juggle tasks

25 January 2014

A new app has been developed for people who care for elderly or sick relatives.

The Jointly app, created by charity Carers UK, helps those looking after loved ones by keeping track of medication, appointments and tasks.