Tag: health services

£100 million new aid for over three million vulnerable Ethiopians as humanitarian crisis deepens

  • UK Government announces new aid to save the lives of mothers and babies in Ethiopia as UK warns of growing risk of humanitarian catastrophe.
  • The funding comes as the UK’s Development and Africa Minister, Andrew Mitchell, returns from a 2-day visit to the country,  witnessing the humanitarian crisis first hand
  • UK calls on the international community to step up efforts to prevent a major crisis

More than three million Ethiopians, including mothers and babies, will receive lifesaving help from the UK through a new humanitarian aid programme and further support for the Tigray region. The uplift has been announced by UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell following a two-day visit to Ethiopia.

While in Ethiopia, Mr Mitchell set out a series of actions the UK is taking to help stem the worsening tide. He announced a new UK fund worth £100 million for Ending Preventable Deaths that is targeted on children, particularly children under the age of five, and also on pregnant and post-natal women.

The programme will help more than 3 million Ethiopians – mostly women and children – access essential health services. The funding will increase, among other things, access to family planning support, medicines, and childhood vaccinations.

In addition, emergency funding will help 75 health centres tackle malnutrition and other preventable causes of death such as malaria and cholera.

Across northern Ethiopia, millions of people are facing hunger. War and climate change have crippled crop production and driven people off their lands. The conflict in Tigray has left more than 1 million people displaced.

The combination of conflict and failed harvests in northern Ethiopia have plunged over 3 million into a state of critical food security and hunger. Millions more people are in need, with women and young children in particular, severely affected.

The Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell said: “The crisis is a wake-up call to the world. Food shortages are at a critical level. War has displaced people and decimated vital infrastructure. Climate change and El Nino have fuelled local exoduses with 400,000 displaced in the Somali region of Ethiopia as of last December. 

“Millions are trapped in displacement, hunger and need.  As ever the most vulnerable people, particularly women and children, are the first to be hit.

“The international community needs to come to Ethiopia’s side and work with our friends in the government and international partners to halt and reverse this crisis. In a region that has experienced the horrors of famine in the past, we must ramp up international efforts to avert a major crisis in the near future. We need to act fast and act now.”

The Government and international donors are responding to the needs of 6.6 million people. But as the Minister has warned, the number of critically food insecure people is growing rapidly and will reach 10.8 million in the coming months. 

 Mr Mitchell stressed that while the UK is taking positive action which will save lives on the ground, its efforts alone will not be sufficient to contain the crisis, and that urgent cooperation with international partners and agencies and government will be necessary to prevent the worst.

Meeting with the Government of Ethiopia, he also discussed the UK’s humanitarian commitment to Ethiopia, to women and girls, ending internal conflict, and issues affecting regional stability, including the recent Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and the Somaliland authorities on access to the Red Sea.

More health services to restart

Patients will be able to access more health care in the coming weeks and months as NHS Scotland prepares to safely, carefully and in a series of stages, resume some services that had to be paused to ensure COVID-19 capacity and prevent further spread of the virus.

As Scotland moves into Phase 2 of the route map for transitioning through and out of the crisis, health boards will use the NHS Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design framework to safely and incrementally prioritise services whilst ensuring that staff and patients are safe.

As services resume, the patient experience will look and feel different, and may often take longer because of the demands of ensuring safety, such as the need to reduce numbers in waiting rooms, additional cleaning and the extensive use of PPE.

From Wednesday 1 July, NHS Golden Jubilee plans to resume elective ophthalmology, orthopaedics, cardiac surgery and cardiology based on clinical priority. The Board have continued to provide urgent cancer, heart and lung services, including transplants, throughout the period.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic NHS Scotland has remained open continuing  to provide emergency, urgent, cancer and maternity care, support for social care and maintained COVID-19 capacity and resilience.

“Thanks to the efforts of our health care staff and to all of us for continuing to follow public health advice, we have been able to protect our health service and provide the urgent care required to combat the virus.

“The Scottish Government is working with Health Boards to ensure the safe resumption of paused NHS services.

“We are doing this incrementally to ensure we prioritise patient and staff safety, whilst retaining capacity to treat COVID-19 in our health service, but good progress is being made.

“Patients should not expect to see all NHS services resumed immediately as it will take time ensure physical distancing and other safety measures are in place to protect patients and staff.

“The NHS does not exist in isolation. The ongoing development of these plans needs to be founded on a whole health and care system approach, which involves primary and community care, and engagement with clinical partners, service delivery partners, local authorities and patients.

“As we go forward, our Test and Protect strategy will also be crucial to help break the chains of transmission as lockdown restrictions slowly change. I want to reassure you that we are taking these precautions so that we can safely offer the right care, at the right time, in the right place.”

National Clinical Director Jason Leitch said: “The reality is coronavirus is likely to be with us for some time to come and as we move to restart paused services, we have had to review how we deliver those services to ensure patients both get the treatment they require but also that staff and patients are safe.

“This work takes time and in some cases will mean that how patients access services will look and feel different.

“We would ask the public to keep using NHS Inform as their first source for reliable health information. Community pharmacies remain a widely available resource for minor ailments and General Practice teams are fully available.”

Measures that will come into force in Phase 2 include:

  • Urgent referrals and triage of routine services in key specialties such as Cardiology, Urology, and Trauma and Orthopaedics, will be resumed gradually during phase 2, with patients prioritised by clinical need and in line with guidance to ensure the safety of all patients and staff.
  • Health boards will reintroduce any suspended GP services in a planned and phased way throughout phase 2. The majority of GP practices have introduced a telephone triage system and patients will be navigated to the most appropriate pathway to meet their needs, supporting them to see the right person at the right time.  Patients access to Primary Care Out of Hours Services will continue by contacting NHS 24 on 111.  There will be a greater use of telephone and video consultations and so patients are likely to have a different experience than they had before COVID-19.
  • From Monday 22 June, all dental practices will be able to open and treat patients in need of urgent dental care. The capacity of the urgent dental care centres, established at the start of lockdown, will be increased and will continue to see those patients who require certain treatments involving aerosol generating procedures.
  • From Monday 29 June, health boards will be able to gradually resume some screening services including endoscopies and other diagnostic tests prioritised by clinical need and in line with guidance to ensure the safety of all patients.
  • From Monday 29 June, all community optometry practices will be able to resume seeing patients face-to-face who have emergency and essential eye problems, as well as continuing to manage as many of these patients remotely as possible. The Emergency Eyecare Treatment Centres, which have managed patients with emergency eye problems who needed to be seen face-to-face during lockdown and Phase 1, will close.
  • From Monday 6 July, health boards will reintroduce some chronic disease management, which could include pain services, diabetic services on an incremental basis.

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