News Archive

March 2021

Donna Ockenden elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

In February 2021 Donna Ockenden has been named as a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.

The fellowship is awarded by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and is limited to individuals determined to have made outstanding achievements to social progress and development.  

The accolade has been awarded to Donna Ockenden for her work which has touched the lives of many throughout her career. Her work has been a catalyst for change to improve the quality of care for a broad section of people who use healthcare services across the UK.

The RSA was founded in 1754 by William Shipley in London. During the next 100 years, “the Society encouraged innovation and excellence through this scheme in six areas” including agriculture, manufacture, chemistry, mechanics, arts and trade, according to the society’s website.

Donna Ockenden said: “I am grateful to the RSA for electing me a Fellow. The previous Fellows have made very significant contributions to human knowledge and bettering our society and I am humbled to join their company. I look forward to working with current Fellows to advance our common goals of creating a more just and equitable world.”

Previous Fellows have included Marie Curie, Charles Dickens, John Diefenbaker, Alfred Dunhill, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hawking, Nelson Mandela, Karl Marx and Adam Smith.

March 2021

Autumn budget last chance to fix social care funding, Boris Johnson warned

A comprehensive plan to fix the social care crisis in England faces years of further delays unless Boris Johnson backs sweeping reforms this autumn

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February 2021

About 7% of UK children have attempted suicide by age of 17 – study 

About 7% of children have attempted suicide by the age of 17 and almost one in four say they have self-harmed in the past year, according to a paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and experts say the figures could rise as a result of the pandemic.

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February 2021

On Thursday 11^th February 2021 there was a joint press release announcing the Maternity Improvement Partnership between the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS FT. 

The partnership will support the Maternity department at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust on the following areas:

• Leadership development
• Quality of evidence & reporting
• Clinical governance approaches
• Working practice
• Culture
• Patient experience

Read more here about the plans for a formal Maternity partnership between the two Trusts.

February 2021

Government to publish plans to  overhaul much of 2012 Health and Social care Act

Ministers are to press ahead with plans to assume more power over the NHS in England. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, will set out plans in a white paper to create a “more innovative and responsive” NHS and said he wanted to target “burdensome bureaucracy”. This would also reduce/ replace many of the rules put in place by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, under the previous Conservative government led by David Cameron and the then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.   

Read the Guardian | Read BBC Online

February 2021

Breastfeeding is now ‘chestfeeding’, at Brighton’s Maternity services 

Midwives at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust have been told to say “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” and to replace the term “mother” with “mother or birthing parent” as part of moves to be more trans-friendly. The trust is the first in the country to formally implement a gender inclusive language policy for its maternity department, which will now be known as “perinatal services”. A policy released this week states that staff should not stop using the word “woman” or other terms describing motherhood but they should consciously start adding in the word “people” and other more inclusive language.

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January 2021

Covid-19: Number of patients on ventilators passes 4,000 for first time

Number of Covid-19 patients on mechanical ventilation in the UK has passed 4,000 for the first time in the pandemic. It comes as latest government data showed that 4,076 Covid-19 patients were in ventilator beds on Friday 22^ndJanuary. 

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January 2021

Covid-19: Vaccine programme expanding with 32 new centres across England

32 new vaccination centres are due to open in England this week. Government figures show that more than 6.3 million people in the UK have now received the first dose of the two-dose vaccine to help protect them against Covid-19.

January 2021

Care homes: averting market failure in a post-covid19 world. 

On the 18^th January the BMJ editorial focussed on the need to tackle major issues in social care. 

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January 2021

Covid-19: Nursing and Medical leaders call for better masks to protect all staff

Nursing leaders are calling for all UK staff to be given a higher grade of face mask to protect them against the new variants of Covid-19. 

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January 2021

Maternity staffing standards

Gill Adgie from the Royal College of Midwives  spoke about how Trusts could and should use the Birth Rate Plus Assessment to make sure they have the correct midwifery staffing levels. And Jo Mountfield from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists  said that with the correct  funding the professions could lead the work that was needed to come up with a safety standard for medical  staffing that took into account the complexity as well as volume of births..

January 2021

Training 

Sara Ledger from Baby Lifeline made a strong case for the need for further investment maternity safety in training and to ensure that all staff get time as well as funding for that training. 

Watch here