NEWS
Trust leaders fear staff burnout as winter pressures loom
NHS Providers says the sustained physical, psychological and emotional pressure on health staff is threatening to push them beyond their limits. The warning has been prompted by fresh evidence of Trust leaders’ concerns over the toll of unrelenting pressure on the workforce, worries over the impact of winter, and frustration that Trusts need more support from the Government to deliver a sustainable service. However, most leaders say the quality of care being provided in their local area is high or very high, and they report that collaboration across different organisations in their communities to improve services for patients has increased during the pandemic. The findings, drawn from a survey of Trust leaders, are contained in a new briefing from NHS Providers. The findings included: l99% were concerned about current levels of burnout across the workforce.
l94% were extremely or moderately concerned about the impact of seasonal pressures over winter.
l56% were worried that the Government and its arms-length bodies were not effectively supporting the delivery of a sustainable service.
l83% were worried that insufficient investment is being made in social care in their area.
l68% said the quality of healthcare being provided in their area was high or very high.
l92% said that collaboration and partnership working in local systems had accelerated during the pandemic.
The survey responses included some powerful commentary that underlined Trust
Funding award for cervical screening
leaders’ concerns. One healthcare leader warned: “Staff are tired and have been working at full pace since March. There is a huge amount of anxiety relating to COVID. In addition, we need more workforce to meet the targets and manage over winter who are simply not out there.” Responding to the findings, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said: “NHS staff have been going the extra mile to care for patients, often in intolerable conditions. But as this survey makes clear, they’re now running out of road. There’s been no let-up in the pressure. The pandemic came off the back of a really tough winter and, while the response to the spring surge in COVID-19 cases showed the NHS at its best, the pressures took their toll on staff who gave so much. Many are exhausted. Some are traumatised. A number have lost colleagues to the virus.”
breakthrough Medtech Accelerator, the joint funding venture between Health Enterprise East (HEE), Eastern AHSN (Academic Health Science Network), New Anglia Local Enterprise Partners and local councils, has announced its latest award of £125,000 to develop a novel approach to cervical screening. Developed by a team of researchers based at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, this latest grant means that, since its inception in 2016, Medtech Accelerator has now fully committed £1.7m of funding to 14 life-enhancing technologies. The latest award will provide funding
to a Cervical Patch Sampling Device that screens for HPV (Human Papillomavirus) which can cause cervical cancer. The new device has been developed to improve detection results by enabling non-invasive evaluation of all the cells at the cervical surface while preserving their orientation. While HPV screening has led to a significant reduction in cervical cancer occurrence, current approaches have a low positive-predictive value meaning many women would be referred for secondary testing and possible treatment unnecessarily. By allowing women to be diagnosed in the community in one test, it is hoped this novel sampling approach will help reduce further testing referrals and unnecessary possible treatment, saving critical NHS time and money.
Vital rethinking in cancer early detection needed to save lives
Earlier detection of cancer offers arguably the single biggest opportunity to save lives from the disease, but there are many challenges of seeing this a reality for patients in the NHS, according to Cancer Research UK’s Roadmap for the Early Detection and Diagnosis of Cancer report. Cancer Research UK’s consultation of over 100 experts highlights the siloed early detection research and development ecosystem, from academia and industry to the health services and policy makers, which is hampering progress. Critically, it calls for the significant investment in diagnostic equipment and technologies, along with NHS staff, to support new ways of working and drive the paradigm shift to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage, and ultimately save lives.
The Roadmap also calls to attention a market failure in early detection of cancer, with too few innovative technologies making it into the health system.
By having the right investments and policies in place, the UK has the potential to become a world leader in early detection and diagnosis of cancer, unlocking a major economic growth opportunity for the UK. The authors hope that the prioritisation of early detection and diagnosis of cancer by scientists, companies, health services and Government will create a thriving multidisciplinary ecosystem, focused on proactively managing patients’ health and wellbeing before symptoms arise. Dr. David Crosby, head of prevention and early detection research at Cancer Research UK and co-author of the Roadmap said:
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“All too often, patients are being diagnosed at a late stage, where their cancer is deeply rooted and requires significant intervention, often with poor outcomes. “This is a human tragedy, not just in terms of lives lost, but it also means more expensive treatments, hospital stays and monitoring. If we can turn this on its head and find cancer at its earliest stages when it’s easier to treat, not only will we be able to save lives on a vast scale, but we will be saving our NHS millions of pounds that would otherwise be needed for costly late stage treatments. “For the first time, the Roadmap shows us how we can bring together the entire research, commercial and health ecosystem to create a future where lives are not needlessly lost due to late diagnosis.”
NOVEMBER 2020
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