Junior doctors announce longest strike in NHS history  Junior doctors in England will strike for nine days across December and January, when pressure on the NHS is likely to be at its highest. Doctors will walk out from 7am on 20 December to 7am on 23 December, and from 7am on 3 January to 7am on 9 January, after talks between the British Medical Association and the government broke down. The latest health and social care secretary, Victoria Atkins, who has been able to negotiate a deal that may put an end to the consultants’ action, said she would come back to the table if the strikes were called off (The Standard).

NHS urges people to get winter jabs as norovirus, flu and respiratory conditions hit hospitals  NHS England has urged people who qualify for flu and Covid vaccines to get them before the online booking system closes in two week’s time. NHSE says the number of people in hospital with norovirus is triple what it was this time last year, and that the number of people in hospital with flu is double what it was last year. RSV cases and staff absences are also rising. In an NHSE news release, leaders from A&E departments across the country urged people to use NHS 111, GP and urgent care centres where possible, and to only use A&E for serious and life-threatening issues.

Atkins sets out priorities and claims success on nurse and GP appointment targets Victoria Atkins, who is the fifth health and social care secretary to be appointed since Matt Hancock left in June 2021, has set out her priorities for the system. In a news release, she said her priorities were to make services: faster, simpler and fairer, while supporting the NHS over the winter. She defined faster as making it easier to get treatment locally, improving A&E performance, and cutting waiting lists, simpler as meaning more integrated care, and fairer as reducing disparities in health outcomes and “delivering a more productive NHS that is fairer for taxpayers.”   The government has also claimed that it has met its Conservative Party manifesto pledges to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses and generate 50 million more GP appointments. The Nursing Times pointed out that while the nurse target may have been met overall, some specialities have seen numbers decrease, and there are still 42,000 nurse vacancies. Pulse noted that another government pledge – to recruit an additional 6,000 FTE GPs by 2025 – is unlikely to be met. At the moment, the number of fully qualified, FTE GPs is 27,368 – down from 28,129 in December 2019.

Health IT news: GP records more accessible through NHS App; LAS picks mobile care record provider; trusts update PKB portal and launch cancer support app; VR therapy approved for agoraphobia; University of Exeter study calls for action on digital health inequalities NHS England has claimed that four in five practices in England are now enabling their patients to automatically access their up to date health records online through the NHS App. Nine in ten practices should be offering patients access by March next year (digitalhealth.net). The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has awarded a contract for a mobile patient care record to Cleric Computer Services (Health Tech Newspaper). University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has updated its Patients Know Best portal with additional services and a weight management questionnaire (Health Tech Newspaper).   Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust has launched an app called MySunrise to support cancer patients, with funding from the West Midlands Cancer Alliance. The app provides support for patients and includes public transport and wayfinding information (Health Tech Newspaper).  A virtual reality, automated therapy programme has been approved for use in the NHS for the treatment of severe agoraphobia. The move follows a trial led by researchers from Oxford University (Health Tech World). Urgent work is needed to prevent people living in deprived areas experiencing digital health inequality, a study by the University of Exeter has concluded. The study suggests local solutions, focused on infrastructure, device availability, education and engagement (Health Tech World).