Every. Second. Counts … when having a cardiac arrest.
Give a loved one the best chance of survival by learning CPR and how to use a defibrillator with RevivR – our online training tool.
Learn today, and have the confidence to #RestartAHeart tomorrow:
It’s Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week and breast cancer charity Walk the Walk is celebrating seven years of raising awareness that Men Get Breast Cancer Too.
Following the success of the Men Get Breast Cancer Too campaign, charities across the UK now regularly feature men as an integral part of their awareness campaigns and include the following important information:
Mark Winter (59) from Eastbourne is part of the Men Get Breast Cancer Too campaign and was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2020: “My message to men is to not only check ‘below’, but to check ‘above’ too and don’t be frightened if you find something.
“Proportionally, more men die of breast cancer because they’ve ignored the problem and not done anything about it. My own diagnosis was a hell of a shock, but that phone call I made to my doctor’s was probably the best one of my life.”
TODAY is #WorldMenopauseDay and it’s a great chance to spread awareness on the information, advice, and support that is available. 
NHS 24 has talked to the experts about a variety of questions (and myths!) that can pop up during this natural transition.
Visit our links in the comments below to find out more:
Menopause information on Women’s Health Platform on NHS inform – 
https://nhs24.info/menopause
View our Women’s Health playlist on the NHS 24 YouTube channel – 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist..
Pharmacy teams are experts in medicines and can provide help and advice quickly without an appointment.
If needed, they can refer you onto other healthcare teams.
Find your local pharmacy at:
https://nhsinform.scot/scotlands-service-directory/pharmacies
During menopause women can experience a range of psychological and physical symptoms.
Psychological symptoms can include anxiety, irritability and low mood. Knowing the signs can help you navigate this life transition with more confidence.
More info at http://nhsinform.scot/menopause
It’s OCD Awareness Week!
Misunderstandings and assumptions about OCD can result in the condition being overlooked or dismissed.
How we speak about OCD matters.
Learn more this #OCDAwarenessWeek and help challenge assumptions and stigma:
A partnership between NHS 24, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) ensures anyone who needs urgent mental health support will be directed to the most appropriate service for their needs.
Termed the ‘Mental Health Pathway,’ the collaboration between the three services means that people phoning 999 with non-emergency mental health concerns are now referred to NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub.
This is staffed by Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and Mental Health Nurses who are highly trained to help patients in mental distress. The Mental Health Hub is designed to support people who need urgent mental health support, where emergency intervention is not required.
The Hub can also be accessed by phoning 111. As well as helping people with their immediate care needs, specialist staff can also refer people to local services. They’ll then get further assessment and treatment if needed. Although most people can be helped immediately and supported with self-care techniques.
Dr Ron Cook is NHS 24’s Medical Director. He details the aims of the Mental Health Pathway and why it became essential for NHS 24, Police Scotland, and Scottish Ambulance Service to work together to provide more effective urgent mental health support for patients: “It is imperative that anyone in mental health crisis or distress can quickly and easily connect with professionals who are experts in that field. Within office hours, patients seeking help with their mental health should contact their own GP.
“However, during the out of hours period, such as evenings and weekends, it is common for patients to be unsure of where to access mental health support. Many will often reach out for help by dialling 999, which may not be the most appropriate care route for them.
“The Mental Health Pathway was set up to streamline the process for anyone needing urgent assistance with their mental health, and aims to make all callers feel supported, understood, and cared for.
“This project has led to a better experience for individuals experiencing mental illness or distress, but also has the added impact of reducing the deployment of frontline services in non-emergencies and easing the demand on emergency services.”
The Mental Health Pathway was developed as a response to actions from the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027, which aims to improve mental health services and outcomes for people in Scotland by providing a comprehensive and integrated approach to mental health.
NHS 24, Police Scotland, and SAS’ partnership went live operationally in 2020, and since then, the project has undergone various evaluation phases and gradual roll-out to thoroughly test processes to ensure patient safety.
2024 has marked a significant milestone for the Mental Health Pathway as over 91% of Police Scotland staff are now trained in the transfer process, with work ongoing to train 100% of applicable staff, secure the pathway as business as usual, and ensure all Police Scotland and SAS staff have awareness of and confidence in transferring mental health callers appropriately.
Anna is a Senior Charge Nurse in NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub, she explains the benefits to patients: “It is great that patients now come directly through to us if they need urgent assistance with their mental health, as it means that they are not waiting for lengthy periods at A&E which may not be the most suitable place for their needs at that time.
“It is so important that we are providing safe and effective care for all patients, and the development of the Mental Health Pathway means that people are getting the help they need at the right time by right person.”
The collaboration between NHS 24, Police Scotland, and SAS not only has a positive impact on patients. The Mental Health Pathway has also meant that police and ambulance staff are no longer deployed unnecessarily to calls regarding mental health unless there is an immediate threat to life.
This change has meant that staff from these services now have more time to perform their core roles.
Notably, Police Scotland data has recorded that 17,413 officer hours were saved over a ten-month period and 99% of their staff confirmed they felt confident making referrals and using the Mental Health Pathway following their training.
Chief Superintendent Matt Paden leads Police Scotland’s Mental Health Taskforce, he said: “Our work around policing’s response to mental health seeks to reset the parameters of policing’s contribution to a system wide response to ensure people get the compassion, help, and support they need and deserve from those best able to provide it.
“Our colleagues in the Mental Health Taskforce and C3 Division have worked closely with partners in NHS 24 and Scottish Ambulance Service to deliver the Mental Health Pathway over a period of years.
“Their important work demonstrates the benefits of referring those in mental health crisis to services best able to meet their needs. This can provide better outcomes for individuals and communities, better value to the public and enable officers to tackle threat, harm and risk and prevent crime.
“Further development and evaluation will continue, but I am grateful to all of those involved in the successful implementation and delivery of the Mental Health Pathway.”
Catherine Totten, Head of Service for Mental Health and Dementia at the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) said: “SAS supports people in mental health crisis and distress 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, and we are committed to improving the outcomes and experience for these service users.
“The Mental Health Pathway allows us to directly transfer non-emergency callers to mental health trained clinicians in the NHS 24 mental health hub, ensuring those in crisis receive the right care at the right time.”
The government is launching a major crackdown on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year, helping to divert more resources to frontline care.
A new strategy – the Design for Life Roadmap – is being published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service and reduce our reliance on foreign imports.
Disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England alone. The roadmap paves the way to slashing this waste and maximising reuse, remanufacture and recycling in the NHS.
Doing so will create thousands more UK jobs and help transform the country into a life sciences superpower. As it stands, millions of devices like walking aids and surgical instruments are thrown away after just one use.
Harmonic shears – surgical devices which seal patients’ wounds using ultrasound waves – each cost more than £500 and around 90% of them are binned after a single use. Innovative companies are already purchasing these used devices and safely remanufacturing them at a lower price.
The government will encourage more of this kind of innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products and drive costs down, including by changing procurement rules to incentivise reusable products and rolling out examples where hospitals are already leading the way on cutting wasteful spending and practices.
Approximately £10 billion each year is spent on medical technology like this in the NHS, but too much of it is imported via vulnerable routes that risk disrupting patient care.
A Circular Economy Taskforce has already been created to foster more highly skilled green jobs and smarter use of our resources. An economy wide shift to a circular economy could add £75 billion to the economy and create 500,000 jobs by 2030.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste.
“Because the NHS deals in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. This government inherited a £22 billion blackhole in the public finances, so we will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money.
“Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown medtech and equipment.”
The below case studies illustrate the potential savings:
The Design for Life programme will reduce this kind of waste and achieve an NHS-wide move to sustainable alternatives– also supporting the government’s net zero goals.
A new roadmap sets out 30 actions to achieve this shift – including how the government will work with companies to encourage the production of more sustainable products, along with training for NHS staff on how to use them.
Taking this approach will mean more money can be spent in the UK, driving growth, creating more engineering, life sciences and research jobs – all while securing savings for the NHS budget.
Many of these products include precious metals such as platinum and titanium which are in high demand but go to landfill when they could be recovered and sold. A reduction in the amount of disposed single-use devices will also reduce the country’s carbon footprint and plastic pollution.
The government will encourage industry figures to innovate by making sure benefits of reusable MedTech are part of how the NHS chooses the products it buys.
Baroness Merron visited University College London Hospital yesterday (Tuesday, 15 October). The hospital is a member of the Circular Economy Healthcare Alliance, which advocates for sustainable practices within the NHS.
Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron said: “Design for Life doesn’t just deliver on the Health Mission, to build an NHS fit for the future, it also delivers on our Growth Mission to make the UK a life science superpower and our commitment to get the NHS to net zero by 2045.“
She toured a mock operating theatre and was shown various sustainable products its NHS staff use – from simple products like gowns and scissors to sophisticated, expensive products like harmonic shears.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, said: “While the NHS is treating record numbers of patients, we know there is much more to do to ensure taxpayers get value for money.
“The NHS made a record £7.25bn worth of efficiency savings last year and is targeting a further £9bn of savings for 2024/25. But we are rightly still looking for ways to get our money’s worth for every penny we spend.”
In response, charity Kidney Care UK is urging people to take their five minute online Kidney Health Checker to understand their level of risk and take action to prolong their kidney health as part of their #BloodyAmazingKidneys campaign.
The campaign has the backing of 51-year old Lois Denham, a kidney transplant recipient from Paisley: “Most of us probably haven’t really heard of Chronic kidney disease but I had symptoms – I was exhausted, and I mean really exhausted, not just tired, but constantly.
“Along with this I also had brain fog. Before I had my transplant I was vomiting up to four times a day including through the night. It was horrendous. However, I continued to work almost full time right up to the day before my transplant. But it wasn’t until I had my transplant in January 2023 that I realised just how awful it had been before that. I had just got used to it, it had been so long.”
“Now, thanks to the most wonderful and precious gift from the most incredible person, Josh, I now not only more energy, but I’m also well. I’m able to do and experience so much more. I actually get to live a full and happy life thanks to the selfless generosity of my big hearted friend. I will forever be grateful to him.
“But the point is, that I didn’t know I was at such risk, or how kidney disease could develop itself, what the repercussions would be not just to me health wise but on my family, on my ability to just do everyday things.
“I have polycystic kidneys and I was being monitored. So if you have risk factors like high blood pressure or diabetes or an underlying kidney condition then please, take it seriously. Get yourself checked out and take the advice that doctors give you so you can try and live a healthier, fuller life for longer.
“Like the campaign says, your kidneys are amazing – but you could be losing kidney function without even knowing.”
The most common signs of CKD are: cramps, itchy skin, dietary changes (food tasting different to how it does normally), nausea and/or vomiting, exhaustion, changes to your wee and swelling of your ankles/legs or face.
Our research also showed that:
CKD currently affects 1 in 10 people – equivalent to more than 7 million people in the UK – but 1 million of those are not even aware they have CKD.
Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two leading causes, but more than 70% of people with high blood pressure do not have an annual urine test for CKD; furthermore 45% of people with Type 1 diabetes and 32% of people with Type 2 diabetes do not have their annual urine test for CKD. Unless urgent preventative action is taken to improve diagnosis and treatment rates, CKD is predicted to be the fifth leading cause of death globally by 2040..
Fiona Loud, Director of Policy at Kidney Care UK, said: “We want to see at risk groups in Scotland screened for CKD as early as possible. Delay in the diagnosis of moderate to advanced CKD by just one year results in a 63% higher likelihood of kidney failure requiring costly and burdensome treatment to stay alive, such as dialysis or a transplant.
“This also has a significant effect on people’s mental health and on their ability to work. Whether people are identified early or late, there will always be a cost to the NHS; but by identifying people sooner more can be done to prolong their kidney health, improve their quality of life and reduce the impact on health and other services.”
Whilst age-based screening is offered for people aged 40 to 75 via the NHS Health Check, only half of all people invited for the NHS Health Check take up the offer. Innovations such as the new digital health check programme may make it easier for people to engage with their health. However, it’s important to note that people with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes aren’t included in the health check programme.
Laurie Cuthbert, Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications at Kidney Care UK, added: “We are concerned that a lack of symptom awareness amongst the general public in Scotland, combined with a fear of not wanting to burden their GP, means that some are at risk of losing as much as 90% of their kidney function without realising or taking simple steps to look after their kidney health.
“We hope that our #BloodyAmazingKidneys campaign will help raise awareness of the Bloody Amazing role they play. By empowering individuals to take control of their kidney health, we want to ensure that more people are diagnosed sooner and ultimately never reach kidney failure.”
Take 5 minutes to protect your kidneys today:
Scotland’s only dedicated first aid charity, St Andrew’s First Aid, is providing Edinburgh locals and tourists with a chance to learn lifesaving CPR skills at open demonstrations held in the heart of the city this month.
To mark ‘Restart a Heart Day’ (16th October), an initiative led by Resuscitation Council UK to increase the number of people who survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, St Andrew’s First Aid will be delivering free public demonstrations across three city centre locations.
Passers-by will be invited to get involved with CPR demonstrations, as well as learning how to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
They will also be encouraged to practice what they have learned, gaining insightful feedback from St Andrew’s First Aid Community Engagement Trainers and Volunteers, to ensure they are prepared to step in and help, if they witness someone having a cardiac arrest.
Jim Dorman, Director of Operations and Community Engagement at St Andrew’s First Aid said: “We usually mark Restart a Heart with one day – but this year we decided it needs to be noticed – so we’re carrying out a roadshow across the full month of October, with free demonstrations taking place up and down the country.
“The importance of knowing how to administer CPR correctly can really be the difference between life and death for those receiving it. It’s our ambition to have as many people as possible learning these vital skills that could ultimately save a life.”
St Andrew’s First Aid Community Engagement Trainers and Volunteers will be in attendance at the following locations:
Between April 2022 and May 2023, there were 3,161 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Scotland*. Charities such as St Andrew’s First Aid are making it their mission to create a nation of lifesavers, by providing easy to access and free training to the public.
To find out more about St Andrew’s First Aid please visit: www.firstaid.org.uk
* https://www.scottishambulance.com/media/10dn0df0/ohca-report-2022-23.pdf
