NHS Winter crisis 2017- get some facts from our recommended links

This week many commentators referred to a national crisis in the NHS
Dr Richard Fawcett and A&E Consultant from Stoke caused a storm on twitter with his posting on 'third world conditions'

Certainly many NHS Trusts cancelled non urgent procedures
see the
Operational update from the NHS National Emergency Pressures Panel for the official policy
the website also has the policy documents on NHS winter plans
in November the Kings Fund said the NHS was on a knife edge.
The president of the Society for Acute Medicine said the situation was 'as bad as I have ever known'
The BMA annual message said 2018 should be a turning point in the NHS as resources were 'woefully underfunded'
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine spoke of the intense pressures in A&E

How well is the NHS doing?
Check local performance in your area against national targets using the BBC performance tracker.
Look at the regular updates on performance from the Kings Fund in their quarterly monitoring report which covers financial and operational pressures.
Nuffield Trust Quality Watch website 
NHS England Winter daily situation reports.

NHS - is it in crisis?

This week the Red Cross called the state of the NHS a humanitarian crisis.

 According to the BBC leaked documents show there is a crisis in NHS A&E departments.
Royal College of Physicians has written an open letter to the Prime Minister on the state of the NHS

Campaign groups that share this opinion include:
NHS Support Federation
in 2016 they analysed the winter NHS crisis
BMA survey of doctors showed the majority felt NHS was less prepared than in earlier years.
they has also produced research briefings on the nature and extent of strain on the NHS
Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Their winter flow project examines the flow of patients in A&E departments. In december they recorded only 78.69% of patients were seen within the four hour target.

NHS data
Official data on the situation can be found on the NHS England site which has winter daily situation reports. These are collected from acute trusts each weekday during winter and include data on areas such as A&E closures and diverts or bed pressures. The site has historic data from 2012-13
There are also bed availability and occupancy reports. 
NHS evidence is a useful place to search for references to recent NHS reports, articles and policy reports 

Here are some useful sites/ resources which discuss the evidence.

Kings Fund - Urgent and Emergency project.
Has quarterly monitoring reports on the preformance of the NHS
According to the latest report the NHS faces a 'difficult winter due to increased demand'

Nuffield Trust has reviewed levels of pressure in the NHS . It has also published papers on understanding bed occupancy rates.
they are now producing winter insight briefings. The first one covers winter beds.

Health select committee inquiry, meetings and reports

Junior Doctors Strike - what is going on?

Try our free resources on the Junior Doctor's strike.

New resources.
BBC coverage
Includes an explanation. 
The Sun - focuses upon the luxury lifestyles of junior doctors  
Daily Mail focuses upon cancelled operations
Telegraph refers to the naivety of junior doctors.
Guardian considers is it justified?
Mirror front page refers to Jeremy Hunt blood on his hands 
Daily Express Doctor's union risking your life
FT a strike too far.

UK Government website contains official letters and documents representing the government perspective. 
Includes Jeremy Hunt's statement to parliament on the possible impact of the strike. and the contract
NHS employers - resources for NHS management
Full fact analysis- Full fact is a independent organisation which checks facts
.
 Reactions to the strike
BMA viewpoint - the BMA doctor's union has statements and news updates.
There is also a one profession website which is focussing specifically on the strike.
Letter from Labour Party to Jeremy Hunt
Royal College of physicians website has some comments  
Latest on the eve of the strike 
Royal College of Emergency Medicine 
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 
Royal College of General Practitioners 
Royal College of Anaesthetists 
Hospital Consultants Association


UNISON - trade union support for the strike
National Health Action Party opinion 
TUC

Discussion from Think tanks major publications.
New Statesman
Nuffield Trust blog posting on the history of the dispute.
Economist Blog
Spectator
Adam Smith Institute

Social science sites of the week

Celebrating LGBT History month

To celebrate LGBT History month take a look at recommended academic resources on our blog. Items will be added throughout February

Take a look at the Gay t-Shirt archive!
Wearing Gay History
a digital archive of American LGBT t-shirts. created by Doctoral student Eric Gonzaba who digitized the entire t-shirt collection of the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives in Indiana
T-shirts have been used to express gay identity, politics and pride as well as fashion. There are current 6 exhibitions including gay pride
alternatively browse the t-shirt map!


What does your vice – chancellor earn?
How do does pay and perks compare at the UK top universities? Find out in the annual report from UCU union Transparency at the top? This was published as part of its campaign for greater transparency in UK university executive pay. It also includes expenditure on air flights, hotel accommodation and expenses.

How does your pay compare? Use their Rate for the Job calculator to compare your wages with people in other institutions performing a similar role
Look at out Scoop.it page to read more recent reports on Higher education, teaching and learning


Also published this week
NMC Horizon Report 2016 Higher Education Edition

is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Download the full text from the website. What trends does it predict for the future use of technology in higher education. What are the challenges? Bring your own device and learning analytics are seen to be some of the key areas in the coming year. The report is based in the USA but is applicable elsewhere each section has links to supporting reading and some case studies.

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill- parliamentary report launched
Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill has just published a report with 86 recommendations on improving the clarity of the bill. The website has access to written and oral evidence presented.
View the full text of the Bill and associated documents on the Home Office website
Also released this week the Intelligence and Security Committee report on the Bill.
The Open Rights Group Wiki has a good timeline of key events in the run up to the bill with links to UK government documents.

Guardian viewpoint published 2nd November 2015

Open Rights Group response to the select committee report.

Don’t Spy on us Coalition response.

Article 19

Internet Service Providers.

We are starting to develop a data and society scoop.it page covering data policy, access, control, potential uses of big data . discover more


Economists on Twitter.
The great working paper site RepEc has just launched its own directory of economists who tweet. This currently lists over 150 who fulfil a criteria of inclusion given on the website. It you have not visited RepEC recently it now indexes over 2 million economics, finance working papers many leading to abstracts and full text. The site also links to EconAcademics.org which aggregates postings from key economics blogs and is hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.


USA 2016 elections: New York Times Resource
Good use of technology from the New York Times its Election 2016 bot can send users live news updates. You can also submit questions to the newsroom by using the command /asknytelection.” Nieman Labs has a review of how this feature works. The New York Times is also experimenting with Virtual reality film from the campaigns. See the smiling Donald Trump!

Also using new technology

New United Nations app
UNU Jargon Buster glossary app for smartphones, with about 450 A-to-Z entries . Find out what the many abbreviations abbreviations mean including programmes and organisations . They are also helpfully cross referenced cross-referenced with the Sustainable Development Goals
If you are looking for help with research on the United Nations try the helpful guides produced by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library . They are great for getting help on tracing UN documents and reports. A good example is this beginners guide to tracing UN documents.

Euro health consumer index 2015
This annual report from Health Consumer Powerhouse analyses European health systems and assesses them on 48 indicators, looking into areas such as patient rights and information, access to care, treatment outcomes and range and reach of services. The main conclusion of this report is that European healthcare is steadily improving, despite worries about financial crisis austerity measures, aging population and migrants.

For worldwide data on health systems and access try the WHO website. They have a Global Health Observatory . Browse the data there is a section for Health Systems.

For the UK , and analysis of NHS performance, a great starting point is the Kings Fund website . They publish quarterly monitoring reports. Also issued by them this week public opinion on the performance of the NHS. How satisfied are patients?

Oman Digital Library
Access hundreds of online resources digitised from the Oman Library Middle East Institute. Most manuscripts and books date from 1700 to 1921. They include Arabic documents as well as travellers accounts and colonial books from the Middle East offering insight into the cultural life and political history of the region.

A snapshot of examples include:
· Report on the Russian army and its campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878
Greene, F. V. (Francis Vinton 1908
Kitāb-i Maẓhar al-ajāʼib
Authors: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn Language: Farsi 1316 [1937]
The Persian crisis of December, 1911
Authors: Browne, Edward Granville, 1862-1926 [1912]

Culture under threat map – antiquities threatened by conflict 2016

The Antiquities Coalition has produced an interactive map to provide a visual mapping of sites and regions under threat by recent violence in the Middle East/ North Africa. The focus is upon countries who are members of the Arab League. The maps has been produced using the ArcGIS mapping system from Esri . There is a focus on sites ‘deliberately targeted by Daesh and indication of UNESCO world heritage sites and major museums. The ‘terrorist groups have been defined using data from the National Counterterrorism Center. The site has definitions and data sources.

Colouring books from the worlds most famous museums and libraries

In February 2016 a major campaign was launched on social media #ColorOurCollections–made available free colouring books, letting you colour artwork from the collections of art museums and galleries then share them
See some fun examples from the Bodleian Library
Smithsonian Library
New York Public Library
And the amazing colouring book of Patents – with an eye protector for chickens and many kinds of robots!