Blogs

July 2010 saw the launch of the first ever health inequalities strategy for London.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has set out its plan to reduce health inequalities in the city and promote London as a healthy place for all.

Between 2004/05 and 2008/09, emergency hospital admissions rose by 11.8%. A report by the Nuffield Trust stresses that the increase is unsustainable, and examines possible reasons for the steep rise.

Emergency admissions to hospital cost the NHS around £11 billion per year, and the number is rising quickly. Between 2004/5 and 2008/09 there were 1.35 million extra emergency admissions.

The NHS is changing dramatically – we take a look at how it will be transformed, how some of its functions will shift to local authorities, and the implications for accident prevention and partnership working.

Liberating the NHS – what is changing?

Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS strongly reflects the coalition government’s ambition to initiate and implement rapid health service reform to realise two main outcomes:

The Department of Health is looking for your views on the proposed changes to the NHS. Have your say before October 11th.

Tumble-dryers, lamp-posts, flat screen TVs – how should the accident prevention community respond to numerically rare accidents that are heavily covered in the media?

Research into accident prevention can tell us a lot about risk. For example, we know that children are at risk from road accidents , and that pedestrian education programmes can help to lower that risk and reduce accidents. We know that young children are at risk from poisoning, and that child-resistant packaging can significantly reduce the number of incidents.

A large cut in road safety budgets means that hundreds of speed cameras across the country could be switched off.

The government has cut £38m from this year’s road safety budget and ended central funding for speed cameras – a central plank of its promise to “end the war on the motorist”.

With some road safety departments losing up to 40% of their budget, cuts are being made in road safety initiatives throughout the country. Unfortunately for many road safety partnerships this means abandoning their speed cameras.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) puts strong emphasis on joint working in their new Children and Young People Strategy.

After questions raised in parliament about a review of cycle helmet effectiveness, we’re asking whether you think cycle helmets should be compulsory for under-16s.

In 2009, 458 cyclists under the age of 16 were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads. Around 40% of all cyclists admitted to hospital have suffered head injuries.

The role of Children’s Trusts will be reformed under the forthcoming Education Bill, as part of moves by the coalition government to free schools from bureaucracy.

The government has announced an overhaul of Children’s Trusts, to be put forward in the autumn. As well as removing the requirement for schools to co-operate with Children’s Trusts, the government has announced plans to revoke all statutory guidance on Children’s Trusts.

The changes will mean that:

What does the NHS White Paper have to say about prevention and local partnership working?

Much has been said already about the NHS White Paper launched on 12 July. However, the focus of the reporting has been on the GP commissioning of healthcare services and the abolition of primary care trusts. The White Paper also has important things to say about the preventative agenda and local partnership working.

Here are the key points:

• A new Public Health Service will be created.