Community network

There is no community without people: the staffing challenges facing community health services and how we can address them

Source: NHS Providers

This briefing sets out the key workforce pressures facing community health providers, alongside suggested solutions and policy enablers to increase workforce capacity in the sector. The content has been directly informed by the views and experiences of community provider leaders.

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Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Smaller hospitals are urged to increase collaborative working to meet the needs of an ageing population.
NIHR Evidence; 2022.

[Collaborative working among staff is likely to be the best way to improve performance in smaller hospitals, a new study concluded. It explored the approaches smaller hospitals take to organising emergency care for people admitted to hospital. There were huge variations, but no single way of working (‘model of care’) was more effective than others.]

Eating Disorders.
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN); 2022.
https://www.sign.ac.uk/our-guidelines/eating-disorders/
[This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the management of people with eating disorders of all ages and gender groups, in any health or social care setting. Eating disorders covered are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating-disordered psychopathology occurring in the context of type 1 diabetes mellitus.]

HPV vaccination brings the WHO European Region closer to a cervical cancer-free future.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/pages/news/news/2022/4/hpv-vaccination-brings-the-who-european-region-closer-to-a-cervical-cancer-free-future
[New data from one of the first countries in the Region to introduce HPV vaccination reveal just how well the vaccines work to prevent invasive cervical cancer. In England researchers found that the HPV immunization programme has almost eliminated cervical cancer in women born since 1 September 1995 (who were vaccinated at age 12−13). Incidence among these women of late-stage (grade 3) CIN that could later develop into cancer has also been significantly reduced.]

Community Network: ‘Hidden waits: The lasting impact of the pandemic on children’s services in the community’.
NHS Providers; 2022.

[The Community Network, which is hosted by the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, has today published a new briefing which brings together new evidence about backlogs and increasing demand for children and young people’s services. It also demonstrates what community providers are currently doing to meet demand, including how they are innovating, and makes a series of recommendations on the national support needed, both now and in the longer term.]