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Tuesday 5 November
There is further coverage in the Evening Standard on the report by the Royal colleges, including the RCN calling for more action against Female Genital Mutilation. The report estimates that more than 66,000 women in England and Wales have undergone FGM, with more than 24,000 girls under the age of 15 at risk of it. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - November 5, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Wednesday 30 October
New guidance on Female Genital Mutilation The Evening Standard reports that health staff across Britain are to be given new guidelines on how to identify and protect girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) under landmark reforms drawn up by leading medical organisations. The health bodies involved in preparing the guidance include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The guidance will be launched on Monday 4 November. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - October 30, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Wednesday 16 October
Patients should have to pay more for hospital services and lifestyle treatments to head off a financial crisis in the NHS, said Michael Dixon, president of the NHS Clinical Commissioners and chairman of the NHS Alliance. Mr Dixon was speaking at a speech at the Westminster Health Forum event on the future of the NHS. He suggested that extras, such as better food, more comfortable beds, or treatments including IVF, could all be charged for. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - October 16, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Saturday 12- Monday 14 October
Research by Nursing Times has found that over a third of NHS trusts have actively recruited nurses from overseas in the past year, and more plan to do so in future, with many blaming a shortage of UK nurses. 40 of the 105 NHS Trusts who responded to the Freedom of Information request said they had actively recruited nurses from overseas in the past 12 months, with another 41 saying they planned to do so. The increase in overseas recruitment follows reductions in nurse training places of 2,500 over the past three years. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - October 14, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Tuesday 24 September
Some London hospital accident and emergency departments (A&E) are already treating the amount of patients seen during the peak of winter demand last year, according to a leaked document seen by the Health Service Journal. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - September 24, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Saturday 21-Monday 23 September
The Daily Mirror contains a feature on the Pride of Britain Awards 2013. The judging panel includes President of the Royal College of Nursing Andrea Spyropoulos. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - September 23, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Saturday 14 September - Monday 16 September
Sir David Nicholson, the outgoing head of the NHS, has come under criticism from MPs after it was revealed that the NHS has used gagging orders to silence 133 staff in the past four years. The figure is more than twice the amount previously disclosed under Freedom of Information laws and was given to the Commons Public Accounts Committee following three months of requests. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - September 16, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Saturday 31 August - Monday 2 September
NHS care is suffering from age discrimination, and some elderly people have routinely been denied potentially life-saving treatment because of where they live, according to figures obtained by former health minister Paul Burstow. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - September 2, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Tuesday 30 July
The future of NHS 111 service was thrown into doubt yesterday when NHS Direct, one of the largest providers, said it was pulling out of the phone line because of the time each call is taking to handle. NHS Direct initially won 11 of the 46 regional contracts for the service, covering 34% of the population. It said it could no longer afford to carry on with the urgent line after finding that calls took more than twice as long as predicted. No alternatives have yet been found for where NHS Direct runs the service, but health chiefs say they are optimistic that local ambulance trusts would be able to step in without patients ...
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - July 30, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Saturday 27 - Monday 29 July
Managers of the 111 non-emergency phone line have said the service is unsafe for patients at weekends due to a lack of staff, according to an undercover television investigation. Channel 4's Dispatches programme, NHS Undercover, found the non-emergency 111 system had staff shortages, long waits for callers and in some cases ambulances were being called out unnecessarily. Two reporters posing as trainee call handlers secretly filmed at centres run by private health care company Harmoni, which has a third of the hotline contracts in England. Dispatches said the footage shot at the branches in Dorking in Surrey and Bristol re...
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - July 29, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Friday 26 July
Two nurses from Stafford Hospital struck off by NMC A panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council has ruled that Sharon Turner and Tracey-Ann White should be struck off the nursing register. They were found to have altered records in order to meet government targets. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - July 26, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Friday 31 May
GPs can no longer deliver safe care because they are too overstretched, according to Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Dr Clare Gerada claimed that family doctors were seeing up to 70 patients in one day and were unable to look after patients "in the way that they want". (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - May 31, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Thursday 30 May
The number of ambulances being turned away from accident and emergency departments because hospitals are full has risen by a quarter in the last year, according to figures by the House of Commons library. The data disclosed that there were 357 occasions when emergency ambulances were diverted to other hospitals because there was no room at A&E in 2012-13. This was up from 287 in 2011-12. The figures, released to Labour, represent the latest evidence that hospital A&E departments are struggling to cope. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - May 30, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Wednesday 15 May
One in five accident and emergency units relies entirely on junior doctors at evenings and weekends, according to a report by the College of Emergency Medicine. The study of more than 130 casualty units said that NHS departments were struggling to provide safe care, with doctors working in "intolerable" environments that place patients at risk. In some cases, gaps at evenings and weekends were filled by "middle-grade" doctors, those who have finished basic training but are still learning specialist skills and have yet to qualify as a consultant. However, at one in five A&E units, junior doctors fresh from medical school we...
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - May 15, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news

Tuesday 14 May
The Daily Mail reports that Robert Francis told the Nursing Times and Health Service Journal in an interview that he was concerned the nursing profession was failing to make urgent improvements following the Mid Staffordshire scandal. Mr Francis led the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire care failings and made 290 recommendations for the health service on how to improve care. (Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert)
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - May 14, 2013 Category: Nursing Source Type: news