Future Trends: better

NHS 'getting better', says Hunt

5 February 2014 Last updated at 07:51 By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News Hospital ward

The health secretary says the culture of the NHS will not be transformed straight away The NHS in England has "changed for the better" in the year since the Francis Inquiry, the health secretary says.

The report, published on 6 February last year, accused the NHS system of betraying the public over the Stafford Hospital scandal.

The criticisms led to a series of changes, including a new inspection regime and tougher measures for failing hospitals.

Jeremy Hunt will say later these moves are making a difference.

'Shift in priorities'

Addressing a health conference in London, he will also point to data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre from October 2013 - the latest available information - which shows the number of hospital nurses has been risen by more than 3,500 in the past 12 months to top 172,000.

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The Francis Inquiry report made 290 recommendations. The government has claimed it has accepted all but nine of them.

Those not taken forward include the call for the regulators Monitor and the Care Quality Commission to be merged.

This was never likely to happen as both organisations had recently been given extra responsibilities and undergone changes under the reforms to the NHS made earlier this year.

But of the 281 recommendations the government says have been met, one in four have not been accepted in full.

For example, the report called for a system of registration for healthcare assistants, but the care certificate being introduced falls short of that.

Meanwhile, the inquiry wanted the duty of candour to apply to individuals not just organisations.

Nonetheless, inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC said he was happy, describing the government's response as a "comprehensive collection of measures".

Although data from the centre also shows that overall nurse numbers - once those employed outside of hospitals is taken into account - have fallen since the last election.

Mr Hunt will say: "Twelve months on, we cannot expect to have solved everything or have completely transformed the culture of the country's largest and finest institution.

"But we have seen a real shift in priorities - new inspections, more nurses and a stronger voice for patients with compassionate care starting to replace tick-box targets as the major focus on boards and wards."

Since the report was published, 14 hospitals have been placed in special measures - with management either replaced or supported to make improvements.

A new post of chief inspector of hospitals has been created and the Care Quality Commission has overhauled the way it inspects hospitals.

This is leading to a new Ofsted-style rating system that will be rolled out later this year.

What is more, from April hospitals will have to publish staffing levels on wards and state whether they fall short of recommended numbers.

'Wrong direction'

But Labour focused on the overall nurse figures, which had shown a drop.

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "This winter he's left the NHS facing an A&E crisis with thousands fewer nurses. It is yet more proof that you can't trust the Tories with the NHS."

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Peter Carter said there had been some "good news".

But he added: "We are also not seeing nursing staff spread evenly across the health system - we have severe shortages in mental health and in the community, and district nurse numbers are down which is very worrying and has many knock-on effects.

"We need to see the government put forward a long-term vision for workforce planning and make sure NHS patients get the care they deserve wherever they receive it."

The inquiry was chaired by Robert Francis QC, following events at Stafford Hospital.

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Speedy cyclists are better looking

5 February 2014 Last updated at 01:48

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins won the Tour in 2012 but wasn't included in the survey on attractiveness Successful professional cyclists are seen as more handsome than their struggling colleagues, according to new research.

Women rated facial attractiveness among riders in the 2012 Tour de France, won by Britain's Sir Bradley Wiggins.

The top 10% of performers were rated on average as 25% better looking than the laggards.

The scientists conclude that humans have evolved to recognise athletic performance in faces.

The research has been published in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters.

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We don't know what people are picking up in the faces that is signalling the riders' performance”

End Quote Dr Erik Postma University of Zurich Some biologists argue that evolution has shaped women to select mates on the basis that they would either make good fathers or would pass on good genes.

Healthy, physically fit men would on average be seen as more attractive by women.

A number of other studies in recent years have suggested that women have a sophisticated radar for athletic performance, rating those with greater sporting skill as more attractive.

This new work, though, set out to test if the same applied to more inherent physical qualities such as stamina and endurance.

Cycle of life

Dr Erik Postma, from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Zurich, asked people to rate the attractiveness of 80 professional cyclists from the 2012 Tour de France. The cyclists were all of a similar physical stature, were tanned and around the same age.

Around 800 participants were then asked to score the cyclist's attractiveness based just on their facial appearances. Their scores were excluded if they recognised the athlete.

Dr Postma then compared the attractiveness scores with the cyclists' performance in time trials and in the race itself which, at well over 3,000km (1,860 miles), is a renowned test of endurance and speed.

"To my initial surprise, I found a positive relationship between the two and it was actually quite strong," he told BBC News.

Continue reading the main story Professional cyclist

This is the list of the most handsome cyclists in the 2012 Tour according to the research. Although he was the top pick, French rider Amael Moinard (pictured), finished in a modest 45th place.

2. Yann Huguet

3. Maxime Monfort

4. Andriy Grivko

5. Michael Schar

6. Martin Velits

7. Christophe Riblon

8. Adam Hansen

9. Rui Alberto Costa

10. Manuel Quinziato

"If we took the 10% best riders and compared their performance to the 10% worst, we found the best were on average 25% more attractive than the worst ones."

"We don't know what people are picking up in the faces that is signalling the riders' performance."

One element that significantly interfered with the overall results was contraception.

Dr Postma and his team found that women who were on the contraceptive pill were less likely to link attractiveness to performance.

"Typically, studies find that women using the pill have a reduced preference for masculine faces, and we found the same phenomenon: women on the pill had a reduced preference for faster cyclists," said Dr Postma.

Many men argue that they find it difficult to rate the attractiveness of other males, but in the study the researchers found that men who took part had a fairly similar view on who was handsome as the women.

It suggests that men do have this inherent ability to judge who is handsome, according to scientists, and they believe it has evolved to help men rate their competitors.

The scientists say that smiling didn't make a big difference in the survey. Men who were beaming were rated as more likeable but not as more attractive.

What about Wiggo?

Other scientists who looked at the study found the performance measures "convincing".

"It summarises performance over a long time and should therefore be especially meaningful," said Dr Johannes Honekopp from the University of Northumbria.

"We should bear in mind that the sample is highly selected and should therefore show little performance variance in comparison to a more representative male sample of that age.

"This limitation should lead to a reduction in effect sizes. Any such effects might be stronger in a more representative sample."

And what about British favourites, such as 2012 winner Sir Bradley Wiggins and leading sprinter Mark Cavendish?

"Unfortunately, Team Sky decided to wear sunglasses for their photos and to improve standardisation I decided to not include them. That is really a pity," said Dr Postma.

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NHS 'getting better', says Hunt

5 February 2014 Last updated at 07:51 By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News Hospital ward

The report, published on 6 February last year, accused the NHS system of betraying the public over the Stafford Hospital scandal.

The criticisms led to a series of changes, including a new inspection regime and tougher measures for failing hospitals.

Jeremy Hunt will say later these moves are making a difference.

'Shift in priorities'

Continue reading the main story

The Francis Inquiry report made 290 recommendations. The government has claimed it has accepted all but nine of them.

Those not taken forward include the call for the regulators Monitor and the Care Quality Commission to be merged.

This was never likely to happen as both organisations had recently been given extra responsibilities and undergone changes under the reforms to the NHS made earlier this year.

But of the 281 recommendations the government says have been met, one in four have not been accepted in full.

For example, the report called for a system of registration for healthcare assistants, but the care certificate being introduced falls short of that.

Meanwhile, the inquiry wanted the duty of candour to apply to individuals not just organisations.

Nonetheless, inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC said he was happy, describing the government's response as a "comprehensive collection of measures".

Although data from the centre also shows that overall nurse numbers - once those employed outside of hospitals is taken into account - have fallen by more than 5,000 to just over 312,000 since the last election.

Mr Hunt will say: "Twelve months on, we cannot expect to have solved everything or have completely transformed the culture of the country's largest and finest institution.

Since the report was published, 14 hospitals have been placed in special measures - with management either replaced or supported to make improvements.

A new post of chief inspector of hospitals has been created and the Care Quality Commission has overhauled the way it inspects hospitals.

This is leading to a new Ofsted-style rating system that will be rolled out later this year.

What is more, from April hospitals will have to publish staffing levels on wards and state whether they fall short of recommended numbers.

'Wrong direction'

But Labour focused on the overall nurse figures, which had shown a drop.

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "This winter he's left the NHS facing an A&E crisis with thousands fewer nurses. It is yet more proof that you can't trust the Tories with the NHS."

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Peter Carter said there had been some "good news".

"We need to see the government put forward a long-term vision for workforce planning and make sure NHS patients get the care they deserve wherever they receive it."

The inquiry was chaired by Robert Francis QC, following events at Stafford Hospital.

View the original article here