All Omicron variant articles
See all articles with this subject.
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News
Number of covid positive hospital patients stops rising
The number of covid positive patients in English hospitals has stopped rising after 30 days.
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News
Emergency pension rules extended for some staff
Emergency measures that relaxed pensions rules for some retired NHS staff who returned during the pandemic are being extended for another two and a half years, the government has announced.
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News
Updated: Rollout of omicron vaccine threatened by ‘flimsy needles’
NHS staff have warned that needles supplied with a covid vaccine which targets the omicron strain are “not fit for purpose” and could place vaccinators and members of the public at risk.
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News
‘Emergency’ pension rule changes extended to help NHS cope with winter
The government is planning to extend measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic which relaxed the pension rules for staff who ‘retire and return’.
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News
Covid redeployment ‘wrong’ and ‘will never be repeated’
Redeployment of community staff to other services – meaning visits for babies and parents were missed – was the “wrong decision” and would “never be repeated”, a provider has stated.
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News
Exclusive: New capital fund to boost beds and A&E capacity
England’s mental health inpatient system is “running very hot” and operating well above recommended occupancy levels, HSJ has been told, as new funding to address the problem is revealed.
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News
Test and Trace spent £450m on consultants
England’s Test and Trace system spent more than £450m on management consultants during the pandemic, UK Health Security Agency CEO Dame Jenny Harries has revealed.
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Leader
The NHS is not living with covid, it’s dying from it
Some of the covid control measures taken in the past two years need to return, argue Dr Kamran Abbasi, editor of the British Medical Journal, and HSJ editor Alastair McLellan.
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News
Third 2022 covid wave will cause less hospitalisation, predicts Powis
NHS England medical director Sir Steve Powis has told HSJ he expects fewer admissions during the new covid wave than the two previous 2022 surges.
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Expert Briefing
The Integrator: The South West’s nightmare may soon spread to the rest of England
Insider tales and must-read analysis on how integration is reshaping health and care systems, NHS providers, primary care and commissioning. This week by deputy editor Dave West.
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News
New pandemic record for hospital-acquired covid rates
A record proportion of covid cases recorded in English NHS hospitals in the latest week were most likely caught by patients who were being treated for other illnesses, new figures reveal.
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News
Covid absences rise 20pc in 10 days
The number of NHS hospital staff off work for covid-related reasons rose by a fifth in 10 days, according to the latest figures out this morning.
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News
Omicron hit cancer performance harder than first covid wave
The omicron variant had a bigger effect on cancer performance than the first wave of coronavirus in 2020, official data suggests.
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News
NHS staff must not come to work if they test positive for covid
NHS staff who test positive for covid must continue to stay away from work for at least five days, despite restrictions being lifted for the general public, NHS England has said this morning.
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News
‘Unprecedented numbers’ sent hundreds of miles for a bed
Parts of the country are seeing ‘unprecedented’ numbers of ‘inappropriate’ out of area placements for mental health patients, despite a flagship national ambition to eliminate these cases.
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Comment
The lessons the NHS needs to learn from the covid vaccination programme
A study from The King’s Fund looks at the trials, tribulations and successes of the vaccine roll-out in England from its inception - and asks if there are broader lessons from it for both the NHS and local government. By Nicholas Timmins
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News
Delayed discharges worsen despite NHSE’s reduction targets
The number of patients in hospitals who are ‘medically fit’ to leave has increased in January, despite NHS England targets for trusts to dramatically reduce the numbers.
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News
Region’s hospitals expect covid pressure to rise for another two weeks
Another two weeks of rising covid admissions have been forecast for one of the country’s hardest-hit regions for hospital cases, with senior sources telling HSJ they expect staff absences ‘to get worse before they get better’ and culminate in an end-of-January peak.
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Comment
ICS delay muddies leadership and threatens accountability
What we need from the centre is real clarity on accountability and a crystal-clear framework for this delay period that is understood by all parts of the health and care system, writes Louise Patten
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News
NHS guarantees private sector at least £225m to reserve capacity in case of new covid surge
NHS England has guaranteed to pay independent providers around £225m between now and March to reserve capacity in case of a covid admissions surge – but the figure could rise to up to £525m if the capacity needs to be fully utilised.