Seven days in medicine: 29 Jan to 4 Feb 2020
BMJ 2020; 368 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m439 (Published 06 February 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;368:m439
Child mental health
Improvements are too slow, says report
The government’s pledges to improve child mental health services are not being delivered quickly enough, said the third annual children’s mental health report from the children’s commissioner for England. It said that, despite years of government commitments, NHS spending on children’s mental health continued to lag behind spending on services for adults, leaving substantial unmet need. On average the NHS spends £225 (€266; $293) on mental health for every adult but only £92 for every child. Children’s mental health remains “the poor relation” of NHS spending, it said. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.m364)
Whistleblowing
Urgent inquiry is ordered into trust that subjected doctors to “witch hunt”
The government ordered NHS England and NHS Improvement to commission an urgent and independent inquiry into a hospital trust accused of subjecting staff to a “witch hunt” to try to identify a whistleblower. Doctors accused West Suffolk NHS Trust after managers asked staff for fingerprints and analysed handwriting samples in an attempt to find out who had written a letter to the family of a patient who died, alerting them to failings in her treatment. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.m366)
Pensions
Trusts warn of senior staff “exodus”
Ongoing concerns over taxation of pensions may lead to an exodus of NHS senior managers in the next two years, a report by NHS Providers warned. It revealed widespread concerns that the UK government’s proposed solutions to taxation problems published in December applied only …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £184 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£50 / $60/ €56 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.