Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 10h

www.newscientist.com/article/2499...

There are five types of sleep – here's what that means for your health

Scientists have identified five sleep profiles, each of which is linked to distinct mental health symptoms and brain activity patterns

www.newscientist.com

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 10h

Many GPs say they are working at or above capacity as not only are patient numbers increasing; they are having more appointments each year on average at the same time as GP full-time-equivalent numbers are decreasing
www.pulsetoday.co.uk/analysis/spe...

GP practices consider cutting lists to improve access

Many practices are at capacity, and are unable to provide the levels of access they would like – with some considering cutting their lists.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 14h

Big increase in price UK pays for drugs will take a significant chunk of cash from the NHS budget increase. All to keep Trump happy in case he decides to rip up the recently agreed UK/USA trade deal- and in vain hope of cuts to tariffs on UK steel exports to US?
www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...

Britain weighs medicine price increase to avoid US tariff war

www.independent.co.uk

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 14h

Government’s latest ‘Connect to Work’ programme may have more of a problem convincing potential employers than disabled and sick workers
disabilityhorizons.com/2024/12/7-ou...

7 out of 10 disabled workers failed by employers

Updated insights into the challenges faced by disabled workers in the UK, recent statistics and ongoing efforts to improve workplace inclusivity.

disabilityhorizons.com

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 14h

Leonard Cheshire survey in 2024 found that 73% of disabled workers had left work due to disability or health conditions with 66% of managers saying workplace adjustments are a barrier to employing disabled workers and 60% concerned a disabled person not able to do the job
www.gov.uk/government/n...

Job advisers to be embedded in GP surgeries as tens of thousands more sick and disabled people offered help into work

Over 40,000 more sick or disabled people will receive intensive employment support to move into secure, fulfilling work and out of poverty, thanks to a £167.2 million boost to the Connect to Work prog...

www.gov.uk

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 15h

Bit simplistic take. Demand in the NHS is effectively limitless. Now GP time is increasingly taken up by longer patient consultations with more complex long term chronic conditions as our population gets older and sicker.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Alternative services will help GPs, says Hampshire NHS boss

Making use of pharmacies and a new online booking system could help ease demand on GPs.

www.bbc.com

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Wonder if it occurred to those brains that run our government that large majority of disabled people are not unemployed because they want to be. That they have tried over years, many years perhaps, applying for jobs but have run up against exactly the same barriers as these DWP ‘work coaches’

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Lots promised by NHS since 2023. In Feb this year the current government even launched a consultation on a ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps’. Regardless, it is mainly those who use NHS most- elderly, disabled and poor that are NOW most excluded by new systems.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps

www.gov.uk

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

‘As Britain’s stock of household wealth has grown so have the gaps between the wealthy and less wealthy’. Well, knock me over with a feather
www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Before the fall • Resolution Foundation

This report is the fourth in our series of ‘audits’ of households’ wealth, offering the most comprehensive assessment of wealth inequality in Britain. It comes against a backdrop of an unprecedented m...

www.resolutionfoundation.org

Reposted by Healthwatch

EveryDoctor @everydoctor.org.uk · 1d

AI is being hailed as the future of healthcare — but speed isn’t the same as safety.

We explore whether the NHS’s rapid move toward AI could fix the system, or just create new risks for patients and staff.

💬 Read the full piece: everydoctor.org.uk/talking-poin...

Image says "AI may be fast, but is it always right? In healthcare, accuracy is everything."

2 14 22

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Glug, glug, glug. Tory party canoe sinking without trace as crazy Badenoch and ranting Jenrick paddle frantically round and round in circles.
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Badenoch criticised for ‘nonsensical’ plan to cut student numbers by 100,000 – UK politics live

Tory leader says proposal would ‘protect interests of taxpayers and students’ but university representatives say it is ‘economically illiterate’

www.theguardian.com

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Agree. But remains that a majority of the UK electorate would not be voting for a racist party if an election was held today. Populism with its racism and nostalgic flag waving for a past that never existed, exploits the fear, discontent and anger among those losing out in a changing world economy.

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

‘Populists (like Trump and his acolyte Farage) exploit the anger and frustration of declining working classes for their own benefit and that of selfish plutocrats’. But Starmer, with his flag waving nostalgia,should also note that you cannot step into the same river twice
www.ft.com/content/a742...

Trump’s tariffs won’t deliver many jobs

Nostalgia is not a strategy: the past cannot return

www.ft.com

1 2

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Could the Ten Year Plan be going same way as the French government?
www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care...

DHSC GP adviser steps down

Wes Streeting's neighbourhood health and primary care lead is stepping down, after less than a year in the role and having recently launched an implementation programme.

www.hsj.co.uk

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

Also might ask that, without migration, where those 5.75million workers would come from to keep our services and economy going.

1 1 1

Reposted by Healthwatch

M Meerkat @kackbro.bsky.social · 2d

Donnie Downturn Doofus......

76 970 1.4K

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

’Work coaches’ struggling to find employers ‘who can accommodate disabled people and get them into work‘ All very predictable
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Stretched job centre staff struggling to get disabled people into work

The government wants work coaches to provide personalised support, but some have caseloads of up to 200 people.

www.bbc.com

3 3

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

This is also a lesson relevant to the UK, that will also become poorer and less innovative as our dinosaur politicians scramble to close its borders.
www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Welcome to Zero Migration America

Closed borders will make the country smaller, poorer and less innovative

www.economist.com

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

“The government is committed to tackling health related economic inactivity” Forgetting that it is often that very ‘economic activity’ causing the poor health in the first place- e.g. irregular night/day work shift patterns, heavy lifting, noise and stress
assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/6...

assets.kingsfund.org.uk

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 1d

What will be impact of NHS ‘digital first’ on service access for the millions of digitally excluded? With millions of UK adults functionally illiterate, unable to complete simple online tasks, without skills to get online or unable to afford internet access
committees.parliament.uk/publications...

committees.parliament.uk

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 2d

Sounds pretty whizz at first then realise that clinical trials for a new drug take many years AFTER approval has been given.
www.gov.uk/government/n...

UK clinical trial approval times twice as fast with AI and reforms

Patients receive earlier access to life-saving treatments as UK trial approval times cut in half from 91 to just 41 days.

www.gov.uk

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 2d

It would follow on the Gov statement about trying to reduce ‘competition’ between GPs and Pharmacists. Though most of us would call that ‘choice’

1 1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 2d

The mysterious process of becoming a government ‘adviser’. Guess he is a good communicator- IF people listen. Anyway Mr Streeting might just as well employ Mary Poppins as an ‘adviser’ for magical thinking seems to be a key aspect of the Ten Year Plan
www.hsj.co.uk/integrated-c...

Streeting hires delivery adviser with no health experience

Wes Streeting is drafting in an education expert as his senior adviser on delivery, despite disagreements in his department about the role.

www.hsj.co.uk

1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 2d

Been expansion of Pharmacy services under new Pharmacy contract as Streeting tries squaring his 10 Yr Plan to shift more health services into community with real terms funding cuts leading to pharmacy closures. Might try to do as you say but seems no direct mention here
www.gov.uk/government/p...

Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026

www.gov.uk

1 1

Healthwatch @healthwatch.bsky.social · 2d

Resident doctors vote to back strike action over unemployment and shortage of training places.
www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opi...

Resident doctors back strike

Job security fears prompt support for resorting to industrial action

www.bma.org.uk

2