Public health

Health officials are looking at whether a new Indian Covid strain spreads more easily and evades vaccines. There is not yet enough data to classify it as a "variant of concern", a leading scientist has said BBC

Young people being sought for trial – in which they will be reinfected with Covid Sky

Middle-aged men in England are to be encouraged to take a short online quiz to test their vulnerability to type 2 diabetes, as part of an NHS campaign partly intended to prevent more Covid deaths Guardian

Trusts

4.7 million waiting for elective operations BBC

Recovering the backlog may take five years – NHS will have to take “a transformative approach” says NHS Providers

GSST has urged all staff who work on its sites to take a one-off covid PCR test “as soon as possible” amid surge testing in local areas HSJ

Workforce

Healthcare workers – must be protected from immigration legislation NHS Providers

Just 50% of care home staff have been vaccinated in London borough where nursing home is at centre of South African Covid variant outbreak D Mail

Primary care – General Practice, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Optical

Backlog in GMC hearings will cause GPs unavoidable stress Pulse

GPs are to prescribe financial advice sessions for patients as part of a pilot scheme to help people with long-term health conditions. Under the scheme in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, doctors will send patients to see financial support link workers, who will help them claim benefits, obtain grants for essential items and deal with debts. The groups behind the programme, Impact on Urban Health and the Centre for Responsible Credit, said in a report that there was a “reciprocal relationship” between financial health and multiple long-term health conditions, and that those who shaped healthcare policy should take a “much wider” view of public health.

NHS Policy / Service redesign / £

NHS England and Improvement will publish a tender for a single HR, payroll, finance and procurement system covering the whole service in the summer: the new platform, described as an “enterprise resource planning solution”, would bring together the functions of two major national HR and finance systems used by the NHS and host services which affect the NHS’ 1.7 million staff and billions of pounds worth of NHS expenditure HSJ