Hunt set to launch a series of reforms to GP service
Jeremy Hunt will say that every patient should have a doctor who is responsible for their care 24/7 when he announces reforms to GP service.
Health Secretary to announce Out of Hours shake-up
A&Es are getting 'closer to the cliff edge' as ITV News has learned the Health Secretary is to unveil major reforms of Out of Hours care.
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Live updates
Urgent question from Labour on A&E 'crisis'
The Labour whips' office has tweeted:
Urgent Question from @andyburnhammp at 1230 on government's response to A&E crisis
From @labourwhips on Twitter:Hunt set to launch a series of reforms to GP service
Jeremy Hunt will say that every patient should have a doctor who is responsible for their care 24/7 when he announces reforms to GP service.
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Labour: A&Es have gone downhill 'sharply' recently
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said the coalition's care reform plans are an attempt to "distract attention from the Government's own failings".
He added that A&Es have gone downhill "sharply" in the last couple of years, which was greatly due to cuts in social care.
Mr Burnham identified two problems with the out of hours service, the first that the NHS does not need another "huge organisation", and the second that it will still not solve the problems in A&E.
Care reform is 'good idea in theory' but 'unworkable'
Dr John Hughes, a general practitioner from Manchester, said the Government's care reform is a "good idea in theory", but in practice it is totally "unworkable".
He said: "We're seeing twice as many patients as we were six years ago so we are all working to capacity and I'm not sure these proposals will make any difference at all, if anything they may actually worsen waiting times."
"If people have an individual GP that GP has other work to do as well", he added, "we can't be there 24/7 365 days a year, it's simply not physically possible."
Dr says it is a 'privilege' for a GP to stay with a patient
Dr Richard Vautrey, Deputy Chair of the British Medical Associations GP Committee has told Daybreak it is a "privilege" for a GP to be able to stay with a patient through the "highs and lows" of their life.
He said: "It's important wherever possible toy develop a relationship with a GP, and a GP values that, one of the great strengths of general practice is what we call continuity of care.
Hospitals are 'struggling to get people through A&E'
Mike Farrar from the NHS Confederation said hospitals are really "struggling to get people through A&E departments."
He said that over the last decade the number of people going to A&E has risen by 50% and the reason is because people are "unable to be cared for at home".
He added that the money needs to be redistributed to "primary community and social care" to get people living independently.
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Dr Hilary: We've 'lost faith' in the family doctor
Daybreak's Health Editor Dr Hilary said that people have "lost faith in the family doctor service".
He said: "A&E departments are overloaded by the kind of things that should be sorted out in general practice, the problem is the work the general practice gave up in the 2004 contract negotiated with the Labour Government was a disaster for out of hours care."
GPs to face new Chief Inspector
Family doctors will face a tough new inspection regime under plans announced by Jeremy Hunt.The Health Secretary will put forward proposals to introduce a Chief Inspector of General Practice.
The new chief inspector will devise and implement a new system so GP practices will be given ratings, such as those used by the schools inspector Ofsted, and will champion patients' interests, officials said.
Speaking on Thursday at a leadership summit held by think-tank The King's Fund, Mr Hunt will divulge plans to implement the "rigorous system of inspection" to ensure that GP practices are providing "effective and responsive care", a Department of Health spokeswoman said.
Mr Hunt will also embellish on plans to provide one-to-one care for elderly patients.
He will say that getting care can be "confusing", especially for older people who need more than one service.
Nice: 'Safest place for a baby to sleep is in a cot'
A Nice spokesman said guidance on the care of women and babies after birth is currently being reviewed.
– Nice spokesmanAny death of a child is a tragedy and one that any parent and health professional would want to prevent. Sleeping alongside a baby increases the risks to the child - including death.
We currently recommend that doctors, midwives and nurses should warn parents of the risks of sleeping alongside a baby in a bed.
The safest place for a baby to sleep is in a cot in their parents' room for the first six months.
Professor: Increased risk 'for all babies who bed share'
Research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found that the number of cot deaths in the UK could be reduced if parents did not share beds with their children.
Authors examined data from five studies on cot death, including the records of 1,472 cot death cases and 4,679 control cases.
Research showed that babies who slept in their parents' beds had a five-fold increase of cot death compared to children who slept in a cot in the parents' room.
– Professor Bob Carpenter, London School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineAlthough it is clear that smoking and drinking greatly increase the risk of cot death while bed sharing, our study shows that there is in fact an increased risk for all babies under three months who bed share, even if their parents do not smoke or drink.
If parents were made aware of the risks of sleeping with their baby, and room sharing was instead promoted in the same way that the 'Back to Sleep' campaign was promoted 20 years ago to advise parents to place their newborn infants to sleep on their backs, we could achieve a substantial reduction in cot death rates in the UK.
