WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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A key diagnostic tool |
NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention looks at the launch of a vital new resource: Blood Pressure – How Can We Do Better?, which has just been launched. Each pack has one page of infographics that show how the CCG and local practices are performing in detection & management of high blood pressure, and show the potential for improvement. And there are 2 pages of practical key messages, written by fellow clinicians in primary care, that tell us how to we can improve care and outcomes for our patients … by doing things differently. So why is this so important? Well, it’s a fact that high blood pressure affects more than 1 in 4 adults in England, and is one of the leading risk factors for premature death & disability. |
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NHS England: Blood Pressure: How Can We Do Better? Not everyone is capable of asking for checks Opportunities for action around hypertension highlighted with new resource BHF: Study finds oxidants aren't always bad for the heart Public unaware of the factors that increase the risk of dementia BHF: Long-term exposure to air pollution & traffic noise effects blood pressure Heart Age Tool updated with new interventions & advice BHF: Blood pressure treatment breakthrough BHF: Anabolic steroid abuse may increase risk of abnormal heart rhythm & stroke |
Most people want & can contribute in some way to ‘society’ |
As Mencap’s Learning Disability Work Experience Week kicked off, the number of NHS organisations pledging to employ more people with learning disabilities has hit 100, with NHS England calling on more trusts & hospitals to join the growing list. The pledges have already led to 10 new work experience placements which began last week across NHS trusts, hospitals and in the NHS England main London office, including in the CE’s and Chair’s office, with plans for more & longer term employment opportunities already in the pipeline. Organisations across the NHS that sign up to the pledge receive a learning disabilities toolkit, developed with NHS Employers to highlight good practice and break down the barriers that both employers & potential employees may face in creating a workplace that welcomes people with learning disabilities. The work is in line with NHS England’s commitment in the Five Year Forward View to become a more progressive employer, and is aimed at breaking down barriers to will help organisations employ more people with learning disabilities. |
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NHS England takes new steps to improve learning disability employment ‘Disability’ does not mean ‘inability’ in a work situation Not everyone in the NHS needs to be a ‘Brain Surgeon’ to facilitate a patient’s treatment De-Stressing the working environment can pay dividends |
SME Supplier Locator update... |
UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. |
They were used successfully BEFORE antibiotics were developed! |
Maggots are recognised as a highly successful, cost-effective and safe clinical treatment for chronic wounds. But convincing patients and even some medical professionals to let them consume our infected skin so it returns back to health is proving a challenge, says Dr Yamni Nigam, founder of Swansea University Maggot Research Group. According to her recent survey of attitudes towards maggots, just thinking about maggots made 28% of people feel ill. |
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ESRC: Squeamish Brits struggle to accept maggot therapy The Wonderful World of Medicinal Maggots Case report: maggot therapy in an acute burn - World Wide Wounds HEALTH - Healing Treatment, 4,000 Years Old, Is Revived - NYTimes |
One would have thought this was already being done! |
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has announced his intention to establish a new body to oversee strategic workforce planning, workforce design & education commissioning for NHS Wales. The working title for this organisation will be Health Education Wales (HEW). |
WAG: Health Secretary announces plans for new organisation - Health Education Wales (HEW) |
Will smoking be totally banned one Day? |
The Public Health (Wales) Bill aims to improve the wellbeing of people in Wales, with a particular focus on promoting children & young people’s health, by banning smoking in school grounds, hospital grounds & public playgrounds, in a bid to boost the nation’s health. The Bill includes proposals to create a mandatory licensing scheme for special procedures such as acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis & tattooing, and prohibits the intimate piercing of anybody under the age of 16. |
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And the results cannot come a moment too soon |
NCSC is working with partners to provide the UK public sector with a reliable DNS resolution service with some additional security benefits. The key benefit being that the service will aim to prevent public sector users from accessing domains known to be malicious, by simply not resolving them. This service is one of the NCSC's Active Cyber Defence projects, where we are taking positive action to make it much harder for criminals to perpetrate or gain from cyber attacks in the UK. |
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National Cyber Security Centre: Protective DNS service for the UK public sector |
ICO Blog; Protecting your data & privacy |
8 weeks ago I said my office would look into the approach WhatsApp had decided to take in sharing customer information with Facebook. It’s one of the roles of the Information Commissioner to pull back the curtain on how organisations use personal data, and I wanted to give you an update on what we’ve done so far. |
Information Commissioner updates on WhatsApp / Facebook investigation |
USA missed out on the ‘big one’ |
An independent review has recommended that FTSE 100 companies aim for a third of their all-important leadership roles to be occupied by women by start of 2021. |
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CIPD welcomes new recommendations to increase female representation in FTSE 100 executive roles BEIS: Women in senior leadership - launch of the Hampton-Alexander review report Proposals by the Hampton-Alexander Review FRC welcomes the Hampton/Alexander report CBI response to Hampton-Alexander review recommendations: women in leadership EHRC reacts to publication of the Hampton-Alexander report BEIS: The ethnic diversity of UK boards: launch of the Parker review CBI: Parker Review recommendations - Ethnic diversity of UK boards |
To Frack or not to Frack (that was the promise) |
A package of 6 research reports have been published to inform ScotGov’s position on whether or not to allow any Unconventional Oil & Gas (UOG) development in Scotland. This package of research, which addresses evidential gaps identified by the Independent Expert Panel established by the Scottish Government to look at the issues around UOG. The research will now inform a public consultation which will launch in tandem with the consultation on the ScotGov’s draft Energy Strategy and the, parallel, Climate Change Plan, being published in draft form in the early New Year. |
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ScotGov: Unconventional oil & gas research published Underground coal gasification blocked Energy Minister welcomes stakeholder response to fracking moratorium CCC: Exploitation of onshore petroleum requires three key tests to be met Third Energy is granted fracking permits for a site in North Yorkshire Faster decision making on shale gas for economic growth and energy security DECC responds to recent coverage on shale regulation Telegraph: Fracking 'could generate £3.9bn for the Scottish economy' Scotland Shale gas | Energy | British Geological Survey (BGS) Guardian: First shipment of fracked shale gas set to arrive in UK |
Very little time to register |
The Centre for Defence Enterprise is holding a networking event for science & technology providers in London on 17 November 2016. Registration closes on 14 November 2016 at 5pm. Jim Pennycook, Head of Operations at CDE, will introduce CDE and give an overview of proof-of-concept research funding opportunities for innovative science & technology providers. There will also be an update on the Defence & Security Accelerator. Technical experts from Dstl (the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) will provide specific information about the themed competition: ‘the future of aviation security’. This competition has up to £1m available for fully funded phase-1 projects. |
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Dstl: CDE Innovation Network event: 17 November 2016, London |
Editorial Comments – Anything but the USA elections: |
Here are a couple of items that have nothing whatsoever to do with the US Presidential election! First; Did anyone else notice a ‘similarity’ to the EU immigrant crisis, between India’s apparent ‘demands’ for cheaper/easier visa access to the UK for Indian citizens on the PM’s recent visit there? The UK’s ‘response’ seems to be a desire for India to ‘speed up’ the return of illegal Indian migrants and visa ‘overstayers’. Turkey is supposed to allow (predominantly) Greece to return some ‘illegal migrants’ to Turkey in return for the EU taking in an equal number of Syrian refugees, etc.. So perhaps we could ‘up’ the number of ‘legals’ from India on a one-for-one basis, if they will facilitate the return of their own ‘illegal’ citizens to India? Theresa May vows to relax visa system if India takes back 'thousands of overstayers ~ Relaxing visa rules for high-skilled workers from India will help post-Brexit Britain boom ~ CBI: UK-India university bonds are strong, but we can do even more ~ IPPR: New figures demonstrate 'wild overestimation' of non-EU students overstaying their visas ~ New digital visa application service now available worldwide ~ PX: Immigration & Integration After Brexit ~ UK Government must take post-study visa problems seriously ~ You’re invited: why Indians should visit Britain ~ Operators ready for introduction of exit checks ~ UK announces health surcharge ~ Reforming the UK border and immigration system: report published ~ Super priority visa service offers greater flexibility for Indian travellers Second: There appear to be increasing ‘calls’ to scrap the state pension triple-lock on the basis that it is becoming unaffordable & ‘unfair’ compared to people on benefits & low wages. Yet, at the same time, pensionable retirement age is gradually increasing without any real understanding how workers in ‘hard/physical’ jobs will maintain their health sufficiently enough to keep working. However, another news thread has also received some publicity recently – the threat of Artificial intelligence (AI) to the number of jobs that will be available in the coming decades. There are even calls for a Basic Income to be given to everyone as ‘work’ becomes almost an ‘option’, available only to a small talented elite. So one wonders whether ‘boredom’ rather than ‘poverty/un-affordable pension schemes’ will be the social/economic problem of the medium future, rather than whether people will (again) live long enough to claim/enjoy their pension! PC&PE: Scrap the state pension triple-lock, says Committee ~ DWP: Lower benefit cap comes into effect ~ Government thinking on AI and robotics needs reboot ~ BCS: What benefits can AI deliver to the world in the next 10 years? ~ Chancellor sees bright future for Britain’s world-leading innovative industries ~ AlphaGo proves victorious but what does this say about the future? ~ Analytics & big data: how artificial intelligence could deliver genuine social impact ~ JRF: Poverty costs Wales £3.6bn every year ~ CIPD: HR must lead the way in ensuring technology unlocks people’s potential ~ Intelligent Machines: The jobs robots will steal first - BBC News ~ What is basic income? | BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network ~ Elon Musk says there's a 'pretty good chance' universal basic income will become reality ~ Ten Reasons to Support Basic Income - Basic Income UK ~ A universal basic income could wind up hurting the poor |
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Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
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ScotGov: EU market key for Scottish business ScotGov: Brexit risk to NHS recruitment Scottish Government will intervene in Article 50 legal case ScotGov: Statement following JMC (EN) Wales Office: Alun Cairns Attends CBI Wales Business Breakfast IFS: Outlook for the UK’s public finances has worsened by £25bn since Budget |
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More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims; |
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Cabinet Office: Minister champions a democracy that works for everyone in Scotland |
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