|
|
|
|
Major health legislation to give the government a tighter grip on the NHS is now very unlikely to reach Parliament this year, after a move to rapidly pass a bill this summer by health secretary Matt Hancock was rejected by No 10. It has been revealed.
They said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had worked on proposals to pass a bill through Parliament before its summer break rapidly. But this was blocked by 10 Downing Street after the prime minister’s advisers took soundings from stakeholders and weighed up the risk of trying to pass controversial legislation. At the same time, winter pressures and a possible COVID second wave buffeted the NHS. Instead, the DHSC will now work on proposals to be put forward next year, it is understood.
In September, NHS England asked the government to make legal changes which would effectively unpick large parts of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. They included removing competition and procurement rules; allowing NHS England and NHS Improvement to merge and enabling providers and commissioners to work closely together through joint committees. These could be used for governing integrated care systems.
The Conservative Party committed to enacting the proposed legislation in its 2019 manifesto. Before the pandemic, the assumption was that the draft legislation would be published over the summer before entering Parliament in the autumn. However, following criticism of both the NHS and the DHSC’s performance during the COVID crisis by Conservative MPs and commentators, Mr Hancock wanted to include a power of direction for the health secretary over NHSE.
A DHSC source said it was working with the NHS on preparing for winter, and on how to capture lessons and improvements from the changes in ways of working due to coronavirus. It remained to be seen whether this would include legislation, or what the timing of this might be.
Source: HSJ, 17 July 2020
|
|
The government has said it will not ban smoking outside pubs and restaurants following a bid by the House of Lords to extend restrictions to new outdoor seating. But ministers are expected to compromise and say establishments will instead have to make “reasonable provision” for no-smoking areas outside if they want a pavement licence.
Some councils across the UK have closed roads and widened pavements to allow more space for drinkers and diners outside pubs, cafes, and restaurants, to aid social distancing by providing more space. But an amendment by peers set to be considered this week would make all pavement licences issued by councils conditional on outside seating being smoke-free. The Local Government Association, which represents councils, also backed the move this week, but ministers say pubs, restaurants and bars will be allowed to choose to create their own no-smoking areas outside.
As part of its compromise, the government says designated areas will have no-smoking signs, no ashtrays, and a minimum two-metre distance between non-smoking and smoking areas “wherever possible”.
Source: Independent, 20 July 2020
See also: The Guardian - English councils call for smoking ban outside pubs and cafes
The SUN: HOLY SMOKE! Smokers will NOT be banned from lighting up outside pubs and restaurants, Government declares
|
|
The Observer publishes its opinion on UK obesity rates and the need for action, including via regulation: “The government’s new health strategy must take the fight to the food and drink industry, if necessary, by regulation.
“Britain is the sixth fattest country within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). For more than a decade, successive Conservative prime ministers have declared obesity a national emergency and pledged to take radical action, only to produce watered-down plans that fall far shy of what is required. It should not have taken a pandemic to ram home the awful consequences of the UK’s obesity epidemic: obesity, and its associated conditions of diabetes and high blood pressure, is strongly associated with a higher risk of death from COVID-19 and will have undoubtedly been a factor in the UK having the highest COVID death rate in Europe.
“Boris Johnson’s experience of catching the virus and being admitted to intensive care has reportedly resulted in a damascene conversion in a prime minister who has previously prided himself on his aversion to nanny statism. The government is expected to set out a new strategy this week, aimed at reducing obesity levels both in the next few months – ahead of a possible second wave of infections – and the longer term.
“This apparent conversion is welcome, but only if it results in a radical shift in the government’s approach, away from reliance on an ill-conceived notion of personal responsibility and towards recognition that much tougher regulation is required, as with tobacco and alcohol. There is robust evidence about what is needed to cut obesity and in recent years report after report, including from Public Health England and the former chief medical officer, have called for urgent action. Yet these calls were ignored by Conservative ministers who have seemingly prioritised the food and drink industry’s financial interests over the health of the nation.
“The continuing failure to act is consigning a generation of children to a lifetime of health problems. One in three leaves primary school overweight or obese, putting them at significantly greater risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes later in life.
“Increasing obesity levels are not the result of the nation becoming more wilfully irresponsible about its nutrition choices or parents deliberately choosing to load their children’s diets with unhealthy foods. They are primarily the result of an industry that stands to gain from packing processed foods with increasing amounts of cheap and addictive fat, sugar and salt, in a way that has reduced consumer choice by conditioning our palates to crave more over time.
“There is evidence of broad-based public support for tougher regulatory measures: the sugar tax is supported by more than 6 in 10 people, and the vast majority of voters think the government has at least a fair amount of responsibility for ensuring people stay healthy. But the food and drinks industry spends vast sums lobbying against changes that it fears will hit its bottom line – in the same way, the tobacco industry once did.
“So far, government briefings suggest that the new strategy, like the ones that went before, will be focused on weak measures such as public education campaigns and “nudges” such as the repositioning of unhealthy food in different parts of supermarket aisles. However, nudges and information campaigns will never be enough. The real test for an overweight prime minister said to be shaken by his own experience of COVID is whether he is prepared to take on an industry seems determined to extract as much profit as it can, regardless of the cost in premature deaths.”
Source: The Guardian, 19 July 2020
|
|
Patients displaying mental illnesses at St George's Hospital in South London are being asked to wait in areas where they are at risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, according to mental health workers.
At the start of the pandemic, the hospital split its A&E department into "red zones" and "green zones" for COVID and non-COVID patients, respectively, but left the mental health waiting room inside the former. St George's Hospital confirmed that its assessment room is inside the area described as the red zone but said it is "completely separate", despite shared toilets, access and exit points.
The health workers provided Sky News with a list of 15 patients who were not triaged, showed no COVID-19 symptoms but were made to wait in red zone areas. They say many were not aware of their risks of exposure.
The mental health charity Mind called the practice "shocking". Sophie Corlett, director of external relations at Mind, said: "We've gone to huge efforts to divide emergency departments up between the different zones for people who have symptoms and who don't have symptoms, and then to just automatically put people with mental health problems into the zone where they're at danger of catching the infection is just extraordinary. There cannot be an excuse for it. We know that they've been able to build whole hospitals during this emergency."
A mental health worker said the matter has been repeatedly raised with relevant authorities but that the practice continued. "I can't conceive of anything more discriminatory against people with mental health problems than forcing them against their will and against their knowledge in going into the most contaminated COVID place within the borough," they said.
Source: Sky News, 20 July 2020
|
|
PQ1: Smoking
Asked by Alex Norris, Nottingham North
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps Public Health England is taking to enforce the ban on menthol cigarettes.
Answered by Jo Churchill, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The ban on characterising flavours such as menthol in cigarettes came into force on 20 May 2020. In advance of the ban, several tobacco companies launched new brands marketed at menthol smokers.
Public Health England is the Competent Authority under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 responsible for testing and receiving notifications of tobacco products.
If any products are tested and found to be in breach of the United Kingdom regulations, then they will be removed from the list of notified products for sale.
Source: Hansard, 17 July 2020
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-07-03/68784/
PQ2: Tobacco: Sales
Asked by Sir Greg Knight, East Yorkshire
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that tobacco companies are complying with the prohibition on the sale of menthol cigarettes under the EU Revised Tobacco Products Directive; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
We expect the tobacco industry to comply with the requirements of The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR), and this includes the recent ban on the sale of menthol flavoured cigarettes. A breach of the regulations could result in enforcement action taken.
The Government has a commitment to review TRPR as part of its post-implementation review process by May 2021.
Source: Hansard, 17 July 2020
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-07-02/68288/
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
