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The government’s NHS health plan at a glance
Therese Coffey outlined yesterday the government’s priorities for the new NHS health plan, which included:
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Prevention: The plan aims to “support healthier lives” through initiatives such as mobile breast-screening units and home blood-pressure monitoring. It says the government will “help people reduce the risk of common conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes”. But there is little detail. Coffey committed only to continuing with “aspects” of the government’s obesity strategy. Ministers are understood to be planning to roll back the sugar tax on soft drinks and abandon plans to limit promotional offers on unhealthy foods.
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GP appointments: The government has set a new target for everyone who needs an appointment at a GP surgery to be seen within two weeks. It may be with a nurse or other staff member, rather than a doctor, and can be delivered over the phone.
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GP league tables: The government says it will “inform patients by publishing data on how many appointments each GP practice delivers, and the length of waits for appointments, to enable patient choice”.
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Social care: A new £500 million adult social care fund will help tackle delayed discharges, while a recruitment drive will bring more people into the sector. There will be £15 million of investment in international recruitment.
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Pharmacies: Community pharmacies will have a bigger role, taking referrals from NHS 111 or A&E services.
Source: The Times, 23 September 2022
See also: Department for Health and Social Care – Our plan for patients
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Kwarteng scraps planned duty increase for beer and wine
Kwasi Kwarteng has today scrapped a planned increase on alcohol duty in his mini-Budget today as he set out plans for billions of pounds worth of tax cuts and more borrowing.
In a statement to parliament, the chancellor said planned tax rises on beer, cider, wine, and spirits will all be cancelled. It comes after Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, announced in February that he would tax beverages based on their alcohol strength. The changes had been due to come into effect from 1 February next year.
Alcohol duty usually rises in line with RPI, which sits at 12.3 per cent and is linked to inflation, currently running at 9.9 per cent but expected to rise. The current level of RPI is the highest since the 1980s.
According to Treasury analysis, the move amounts to £600m in tax cuts, with the consumer saving 7p on beer, 4p on a pint of cider, 3p on a bottle of wine and £1.35 on a bottle of spirits.
Source: The Independent, 23 September 2022
See also: HM Treasury – The growth plan 2022
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No new money in Coffey’s £500m winter social care fund
The £500m winter “adult social care discharge fund” announced by government will be funded from existing health and care budgets – including money freed up for NHS employers by ministers’ cancellation of this year’s national insurance rise.
Therese Coffey said the money was to be used by the NHS and local authorities on “targeted plans on specific care packages” to support hospital discharges.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, the new health and social care secretary described the fund as a “down payment” in a planned “rebalancing” of funding across health and social care, which the DHSC said would begin next year. It follows prime minister Liz Truss suggesting during the Conservative leadership campaign that the health service budget could be raided to fund social care.
A DHSC spokeswoman told HSJ the £500m was being found from within existing department and NHS budgets, including by recycling funding originally intended to cover higher national insurance contributions to the health and social care levy, by NHS employers. Today, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed the NI rise would be cancelled from November, with planned health and care funding to be sourced by other means instead.
Key details about the new £500m fund, such as regional allocations, which organisations the cash will go to, and where it can be spent are not yet clear.
Source: HSJ, 22 September 2022
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Illegal tobacco worth £29k seized from shop and flat in Cheltenham
Thousands of packs of cigarettes and illegal tobacco worth £29,000 have been seized from a shop and a flat in Cheltenham. Gloucestershire County Council’s trading standards officers executed warrants on the premises on Wednesday 7 September.
4,834 packs of cigarettes and 483 pouches of hand rolling tobacco estimated to be worth £29,000 were found.
No duty had been paid on the tobacco, evading £40,950 in tax. The warrants followed a lengthy investigation into the sale of illegal tobacco from a shop in the town.
Source: ITV News, 23 September 2022
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US: Smoking ban talk nixed, but workers protest outside casino
Casino workers and patrons opposed to smoking in Atlantic City’s gambling halls held a protest on Thursday, following the cancellation of a discussion on the proposed Atlantic City casino smoking ban.
About 100 people rallied in the rain underneath a walkway outside the Hard Rock casino, demanding that the state Legislature act on a bill to ban casino smoking that has the support of more than half of state lawmakers and Governor Phil Murphy. The bill has been stalled without a hearing in a state Senate or Assembly committee, and a similar measure also died without a vote last year.
On Thursday afternoon, the East Coast Gaming Congress was to have included a panel discussion on casino smoking, an issue that is roiling workers, customers and lawmakers not only in New Jersey but in states including Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and others. However, the discussion was scrapped when the casino industry representative, Resorts Casino President Mark Giannantonio, withdrew. He recently became president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, the Atlantic City casinos' trade association which vehemently opposes a smoking ban.
Source: Daily Mail, 22 September 2022
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Parliamentary questions
PQ1: Litter - Tobacco
Asked by Andrew Rosindell, Conservative, Romford
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the littering of cigarette butts; whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of promoting wall-mounted ashtrays in public spaces; and if his Department will hold discussions with Havering Council on potential steps to decrease littering in that area.
Answered by Trudy Harrison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government wants to see the tobacco industry taking more responsibility for the litter created by its products. We are therefore working with Waste and Resources Action Programme to actively explore regulatory options for tackling littering of cigarette butts, including extended producer responsibility. We expect this work to complete in the coming months.
We have provided guidance for councils on the provision of litter bins, which includes a section on discarded cigarettes, and nearly £1m across 44 councils to help them purchase new bins. Bins for cigarette butts were eligible for funding.
Source: Hansard, 21 September 2022
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Study: Socio-economic deprivation and cancer incidence in England: Quantifying the role of smoking
A new study, conducted by researchers from Cancer Research UK and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, has been published this week in the journal PLOS ONE. The study supports the role of smoking in perpetuating health inequalities, concluding that between 2013 and 2017, there could have been 61% fewer cases of cancer linked to deprivation in England if nobody smoked.
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