Health and care sector latest developments
Streeting and BMA to negotiate over strike action
The health secretary will meet with the BMA this week to try to avert forthcoming strike action.
While the BBC reports that the government continues to insist it cannot improve upon a 5.4 per cent pay increase, co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors committee said they ‘look forward to constructive discussions’, hoping that there can be ‘progress that would be sufficient to support suspending the planned strike.’
Sources from DHSC have told the BBC that while Wes Streeting will not budge on salaries, he is happy to discuss improving working conditions.
Although resident doctors argue that higher salary rises are needed to ensure full pay restoration, new polling, reported by The Guardian, has shown that the public has lost sympathy for industrial action.
Only 26 per cent of people approve of strikes by resident doctors, down from 52 per cent last year. This may be linked to the 22 per cent pay increase received last year, followed by this year's 5.4 per cent rise.
The government also sees negotiations with the BMA as key to preventing a ‘contagion’ of strikes spreading across the public sector, with The Times reporting that nurses could soon follow resident doctors in taking action against what they deem to be a ‘derisory’ pay award.
It has also been reported that Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members have cautioned the government on possibly following the BMA’s footsteps, should it offer resident doctors a ‘bigger pay rise’.
The Times reports that a ballot is currently in place for the 345,000 members of the RCN to determine whether the government’s proposed pay rise of 3.6 per cent is sufficient for nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This emerges amid ministers trying to avoid ‘pay contagion’ spreading across public services.
Health and Social Care Committee session
At today’s session of the Health and Social Care Committee, witnesses included Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care; Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England; and Sally Warren, director general for the Ten-Year Health Plan at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Health secretary Wes Streeting appeared before the Health and Social Care Committee, stressing that patient empowerment is the NHS's most crucial reform while outlining his vision for systemic change through collaboration with healthcare leaders.
He addressed several key areas, including his disappointment with BMA strike, his commitment to tackling health inequalities and unconscious racism within the NHS, and confirmed that neighbourhood health services would remain NHS-led, while expressing cautious openness to private investment.
Streeting also discussed public health initiatives, announcing a new physical activity collaboration and highlighted priorities around digital transformation staffing, community care data publication, workforce flexibility improvements, and boosting childhood vaccination rates.
If colleagues would like the full transcript of the session, please get in touch via externalaffairs@nhsconfed.org
Sir Sajid Javid questioned at Covid Inquiry
Former health secretary Sir Sajid Javid faced questions in module 6 of the public inquiry into the UK government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also appearing: Dr Jane Townson OBE (on behalf of Homecare Association), Heléna Herklots CBE (former older people’s commissioner for Wales) and Melanie Minty (on behalf of Care Forum Wales).
Module 6 of the inquiry focused on the care sector.
Watch the full inquiry on YouTube.
Trust in merger talks with social enterprise community services provider
A community trust is exploring a merger with a neighbouring social enterprise.
Kent Community Health Foundation Trust provides services across the county, as well as in London and East Sussex. Medway Community Healthcare (MCH) serves the north of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System. A merger between an NHS trust and a social enterprise, while not unknown, is very rare.
KCHFT recently won a £1.8 billion contract to provide adult and children’s community health services across the Kent and Medway ICS. MCH and private provider HCRG will be the trust’s ‘delivery partners’.
The leaders of the two organisations claim they have a ‘similar vision’.
KCHFT chief executive Mairead McCormick said the merger would make ‘our services stronger and more resilient’.
She added: “It’s no secret, we have small specialist teams with recruitment and retention challenges, which make some of our services fragile, added to this the Kent and Medway system faces significant financial challenge. Together, we believe we would be better equipped to face these challenges.”
NHS rolls out at-home heart monitors
A new at-home heart monitor is being rolled out on the NHS.
The Independent reports that the monitor can be sent to patients to attach themselves, unlike more traditional devices, which require a physiologist to set up.
Consultant cardiac electrophysiologist Dr Iain Sim said use of the device allows clinicians to ‘reduce our turnaround times for reports and to get results back to patients faster.’
