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Streeting ‘thinking deeply’ about overhauling NHS funding flows
The health and social care secretary, speaking at the Labour party autumn conference on Monday, was asked whether NHS trusts would get multi-year budget settlements in the upcoming spending review.
He said: “I’d love to be able to find that level of stability and certainty, I’m thinking also a bit more deeply, about financial flows and incentives, because we’ve got to drive the big reform agenda that’s fundamentally about three big shifts; the shift from hospital to community, from acute to digital and from sickness to prevention.
“It is a vast, enormous system, and we need to make sure we drive financial flows and incentives, drives people to the right care at the right place, at the right time. We’re thinking quite deeply about that question.
“The whole system is geared towards short termism rather than planning for the long term.”
A large share of trusts’ income is currently on block funded contracts, following on from covid arrangements, and many believe this is hampering productivity and should be phased out. Some would like a return to more activity-based “payment by results” tariffs, and the idea of extending this to preventative care interventions has been floated.
Others believe this could bankrupt commissioners and disrupt development of out-of-hospital care. Some have advanced proposals for mechanisms to force funding into primary and community care; for “year of care” tariffs made to integrated care providers; and delegating commissioning budgets and financial risk to providers under “accountable care”-style arrangements.
Under the plan, published last summer, the medical consultant workforce is set to grow by nearly half over about a decade, while GP numbers increase by just 4 per cent, according to evaluation of the modelling by the National Audit Office.
This month’s review of NHS performance by Lord Darzi criticised the service, and previous government, for a major increase in hospital staffing while community and primary care have been neglected.
Mr Streeting said at the Institute for Government (IfG) event that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was “looking with a fresh pair of eyes at the NHS workforce plan [and] thinking carefully about workforce reform”, including resident doctors’ working conditions.
In response to a question from HSJ, he said: “On the Darzi diagnosis [about workforce], that came as a bit of a surprise… We’re about to start a big engagement exercise for the new ten year [health] plan and, as that work is progressing, we will want to judge the workforce plan [against] the 10 year plan and the three big shifts we’ve identified, to reassure ourselves and the NHS that we’ve made the right assumptions with the long-term workforce plan.
“[For] now, it’s steady as goes, but we obviously want to take a look at the workforce plan in light of the 10 year plan and provide that stability and certainty.”
Source: The HSJ, 24 September 2024
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I’ll wipe out smoking & come down on youth vaping, Streeting promises at Labour Party conference
The new Labour Government has put a Tobacco and Vapes Bill back on the legislative agenda, which aims to impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes.
The Bill also carries through Rishi Sunak’s policy of eventually phasing out cigarettes by stopping anyone born after January 2009 from ever smoking.
And secret Whitehall papers seen by The Sun last month revealed ministers are also planning on extending the indoor smoking ban to beer gardens and outside football stadiums. While it is understood horse racing tracks will be spared from the ban.
Mr Streeting told our Political Editor Harry Cole: "On smoking, we have got a situation where, despite all the progress that's been made over the years, it's still the biggest killer.
"The cost to our economy and the health service is enormous, and it is a hard habit for people to break.”
"And we're determined to make sure that this generation of kids are the first ever smoke-free generation."
Pressed on the planned crack down on vaping, which is viewed as an effective tool to get smokers to quit, the Health Secretary said: "There's a serious point on vaping.”
"It can be and is a great tool for smokers to quit smoking.”
"What I am anxious about, though, is the generation of kids who've been hooked on nicotine through vaping.”
"We're going to come down on that like a ton of bricks."
Health minister Baroness Merron blasted vaping firms last month, insisting targeting vapes at children is "abhorrent".
Her comments came after Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) research revealed a million youngsters in Britain admitted to trying e-cigarettes this year.
Labour's proposed legislation will pave the way for measures to curb the attraction of vaping to children and young people, such as restricting the flavours, packaging and display of e-cigarettes.
A vape tax could deter “price sensitive” young people, said Lady Merron while the Government was also “actively considering” a retail licensing scheme.
Spot fines will be introduced to crack down on under-age sales by shops, while a ban is being looked at for disposable vapes, which remain the most popular choice of e-cigarettes among young people.
Source: The Sun, 24 September 2024
See also: ASH – Press Release: New data reveals continued concerns regarding youth vaping | Use of vapes (e-cigarettes) among young people in Great Britain
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Teenagers campaign for vape detectors in schools
Recent North Yorkshire Council figures suggest about one in three local children aged 13 to 15 had tried vaping, with 18 the legal age for buying vapes in the UK.
Members of Skipton Youth Council, a council-backed community organisation for young people, want to stop the harm vapes can cause to their friends’ health.
They hoped to raise about £6,000 to install 30 vape detectors at schools and colleges in their local area.
James Neill, youth council chair, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that unlike cigarettes, many young people do not realise the health risks involved.
"Many people think it’s like a sweet with 2,000 flavours, or it’s a cool thing you can do, there’s a lot of peer pressure," he said.
Their usage increased dramatically during his time in education, he said, with some fellow pupils vaping in toilets or while walking to and from school.
Nationally, some secondary schools have installed devices in toilets which pick up chemicals present in vape mist.
The youth council's campaign also included working with trading standards, writing newsletters to parents, petitioning the government and raising awareness within schools.
Source: BBC News, 23 September 2024
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Australia: There are way more smoke and vape shops than there used to be. Has the government crackdown had any effect?
People who live in Australia, have probably noticed there are a lot more tobacconists around than there used to be.
Despite the Australian smoking rate being in constant decline, now sitting at 8.3%.
So, what’s going on: are there actually more smoke shops?
There doesn’t appear to be a national register of tobacconists or vape retailers, and each state has different rules about whether tobacconists or vape retailers need to register.
To get an indication of the trends, Asic’s business register is used here as a proxy, identifying keywords in business names that relate to smoking, tobacco and vaping, and names of prominent tobacconist chains. This won’t capture all retailers, but gives an indication of how things compare from one year to the next.
The total number of smoking or vaping-related business names increased from 1,086 in 2016 to 1,467 in 2024 – about a 35% jump. A big part of this was vaping-related businesses – these more than doubled from 150 to 360.
The second part of the chart suggests the government’s vaping crackdown is actually having an impact. New business registrations with vaping-related keywords in the name were lower in 2024 than for any other year. These figures only count registrations from January to September to make the partial 2024 data comparable with other years.
For this analysis, Asic’s business names dataset was used, combining 2024 with previous versions in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Source: The Guardian, 25 September 2024
See also: ASIC - Business Names Dataset
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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