View this email in your browser ([link removed])


** 03 August 2020
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** Matt Hancock: The future of healthcare (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------


** NHS told to return to “near-normal” performance before winter (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------


** East Midlands: Smoking rate in one part of Lincolnshire is third-highest nationally (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** Austria: Tulln battles with smoking and its environmental impact (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock spoke at the Royal College of Physicians about the future of healthcare. He illustrated the significant achievements and seven key lessons to be learnt within our healthcare system response to COVID-19 and what he wants to see retained.

In lesson 5, he highlighted that the future is “collaboration, not competition”. He stressed that the future of health and social care would be built by those striving to keep the population healthy - just as is spelled out in the NHS Long Term Plan, and in the social care reforms. This type of care will be built on systems which will become the foundation stone of the NHS and social care. One key aspect of the future system will involve collaboration which is not just within the NHS. “The NHS must be connected to the places they serve, coterminous with local authorities where the crisis has shown that councils and the NHS can work wonders when they work together.”

In lesson 7, he emphasised that the whole burden of keeping the nation well should not only be the responsibility of the NHS. Prevention matters and should be the nation’s priority. Inequality continues to be a burden in the health of our country. He said, “…your chances of dying with coronavirus are tragically markedly higher in a more deprived area, much higher for the obese, and much higher for people from an ethnic minority background.”

“The Prime Minister’s mission is to level up. And there is no more critical levelling up than levelling up your health.”
“…One of my main priorities is making sure more people stay out of hospital, as well as providing the best possible care when they come in. And the NHS has a vital part to play in that. And we must keep striving to add life to years as well as years to life. Not giving in to the defeatism that says you can’t have a healthy old age.”

His speech concluded with a simple call to action for the health sector: “We need a healthcare service that’s built on collaboration, not competition. On trust in professionals and not box-ticking bureaucracy and protects the most vulnerable and helps people live longer healthier lives.”

“…We protected the NHS in the peak of this epidemic. And out of its ravages, let us build a health and social care system of the future.”

Source: DHSC, 30 July 2020
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** Trusts have been set a series of “very stretching” targets to recover non-COVID services to nearly normal levels in the next few months, in new guidance from NHS England (NHSE). The letter from NHSE said the NHS must “return to near-normal levels of non-COVID health services, making full use of the capacity available in the ‘window of opportunity’ between now and winter”, when further emergency and COVID pressures are anticipated.

In recent weeks providers have found it challenging to resume many services, with many running at well below normal capacity, due to infection prevention measures, staffing gaps, and other COVID-related barriers. The letter indicates that — while a form of block contract will remain in place for trusts — payments to providers will now “be adjusted depending on delivery against the activity restart goals”. It confirms a “modified national contract” with independent providers will be in place into the autumn. At this point, it will be replaced with a new framework deal for a return to local commissioning of private procedures, running to March next year. It adds: “To ensure good value for money for taxpayers, systems must produce week-by-week independent sector usage plans from August and will then be held directly to account for delivering against them.”

The letter says ministers have agreed for the NHS to move from a “Level 4 (national) to Level 3 (regional)” emergency incident management “with effect from tomorrow (1 August 2020)”, suggesting a loosening of national control. On discharge, it confirms there will be central funding for care after patients leave the hospital, to continue accelerated discharge, but from September this will only extend for six weeks.

The guidance also confirms no deal has been reached between NHS England and the Treasury on the NHS funding envelope and finance arrangements for the rest of the year.

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “We can’t really judge the approach as a whole until we know what the financial envelope is for the second half of the year and how that translates into individual allocations for organisations. That’s still being negotiated with the Treasury and probably won’t be finalised for at least another month.” He urged caution around the expectations that should be placed on the NHS given the ongoing constraints from coronavirus, and the impact the re-introduction of continuing healthcare (CHC) assessments could have on occupancy.

The NHS Confederation also warned meeting the expectations in the letter “may not be possible [with many NHS hospitals and organisations] constrained and operating at significantly reduced capacity”.

Source: HSJ, 31 July 2020

See also: Letter - Third phase of NHS response to COVID-19 ([link removed])

------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )


**

New research has found that the percentage of people who smoke in one Lincolnshire region is the third-highest rate in England, and far higher than the national average of 13.9%. According to the latest PHE data, almost a quarter (24.8 %) in Lincoln smoke. When ranked against other counties and authorities, Lincolnshire has a smoking rate of 15.3%.

------------------------------------------------------------


** The figures were collated by Vape Club in a campaign to encourage smokers to switch to vaping and sourced from official Public Health England figures released on 7 July 2020. The data reveals a detailed look at where smoking remains an issue and how successful NHS services have been able to encourage smoking cessation − the ‘quit rate’. NHS services across the East Midlands recorded a 1.95% ‘quit rate’ – above the average achieved across England (1.89%).

Dan Marchant, founder of the tobacco industry funded UK Vaping Industry Association and director of online e-cigarette shop Vape Club, said: “Figures show that vaping is actually twice as effective as other nicotine replacement products, and it is fantastic to see organisations such as Public Health England and the NHS embracing this public health breakthrough. However, there is clearly still a long way to go in getting the vaping message out to the millions of people still smoking in England.”

Source: Lincolnshire Live, 2 August 2020
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------


**
Tulln wants to do everything in its power to help people stop smoking or to at least stop them from dropping their cigarette butts everywhere. As part of a concentrated effort, authorities in the city have been equipping local bins with ashtrays.

They also aim to expand this practice by integrating even more ashtrays into the future and newly installed trashcans. So far, the local waste management company has made available 300 bins with ashtrays freely available to the city’s authorities, aiding them in their quest of keeping the area clean and healthy.

Peter Eisenschenk’s Major of Tulln, said: “Smoking is harmful, and we offer advice and the right contact addresses for everyone who wants to [quit]... At the same time, we appeal to all smokers: Please dispose your cigarette ends in the trashcans and not on the floor for the benefit of the environment and others!”

Source: The Mayor.eu, 02 August 2020
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])

For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [email protected] (mailto:[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.

============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
6th Floor New House
Hatton Garden
London
EC1N 8JY

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])