Will COVID-19 mark the end of an egalitarian NHS?

The exceptional circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the traditional organisation of healthcare resources allocation in the UK. Since its inception, the National Health Service (NHS) has aimed to regulate risks of ill health in the population by providing an equal and universal provision of healthcare services to residents based on their health status rather than their ability to pay. The rapid spread of this new virus has, however, triggered a shift in paradigm from an egalitarian allocation of healthcare resources to a utilitarian approach, which has led to discussions about society’s greatest taboos: death and dying and the economic value of individuals’ health

Evaluation of the organisation and delivery of patient-centred acute nursing care

In 2002, a team of researchers from the School of Nursing, University of Salford were commissioned by Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust to evaluate the delivery and organisation of patient-centred nursing care across the acute nursing wards within the Royal Bolton Hospital. The key driver for the commissioning of this study arose from two serious untoward incidents that occurred in the year 2000. Following investigation of both these events the Director of Nursing in post at that time believed that poor organisation and delivery of care may have been a contributory factor. Senior nurses in the Trust had also expressed their concern that care may not be organised in a way that made best use of the skills available

New Jersey 9-1-1 Consolidation Study: Site Visit Results and Implications for Consolidation

In 1999, the Center for Government Services at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey completed a study of New Jersey's E9-1-1 system. The study offered a snapshot of the extensive and decentralized network of communications centers that receive incoming calls requesting emergency assistance and that dispatch police, fire, and medical units. In 2005, the New Jersey Office of Management and Budget commissioned the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University to build on the findings of the 1999 study by exploring ways to improve the efficiency of New Jersey's E9-1-1 system while maximizing the use of available funding.This report is the result of site visits and interviews with officials from 12 PSAPs. The focus of this report is on the current landscape of local operations, funding, staffing, equipment, and technology. In addition, this report identifies issues associated with consolidation, including barriers and opportunities, and presents recommendations for promoting consolidation in New Jersey. It is the third of four deliverables to be produced by the Heldrich Center for the State of New Jersey's 9-1-1 Consolidation Study.Presently, there are over 200 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and more than 100 enhanced Public Safety Dispatch Points (PSDPs) operating in New Jersey. The central goal of this study is to determine whether a consolidation of PSAPs and PSDPs could reduce costs while maintaining and/or improving the level of service. In this report, consolidation is defined as the reduction in the number of locally managed PSAPs and PSDPs that provide emergency communications services

The Hunger and Food Safety Net System: Best Practices and Opportunities for Pennsylvania and Montgomery County

This report presents a comprehensive system review and outlines best practice opportunities of hunger prevention programs coordinated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, these initiatives -- Pennsylvania's State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) --form Pennsylvania's final safety net to protect against food insecurity. Together, these programs have a significant impact on the food that is in Montgomery County

Real-Time and Secure Wireless Health Monitoring

We present a framework for a wireless health monitoring system using wireless networks such as ZigBee. Vital signals are collected and processed using a 3-tiered architecture. The first stage is the mobile device carried on the body that runs a number of wired and wireless probes. This device is also designed to perform some basic processing such as the heart rate and fatal failure detection. At the second stage, further processing is performed by a local server using the raw data transmitted by the mobile device continuously. The raw data is also stored at this server. The processed data as well as the analysis results are then transmitted to the service provider center for diagnostic reviews as well as storage. The main advantages of the proposed framework are (1) the ability to detect signals wirelessly within a body sensor network (BSN), (2) low-power and reliable data transmission through ZigBee network nodes, (3) secure transmission of medical data over BSN, (4) efficient channel allocation for medical data transmission over wireless networks, and (5) optimized analysis of data using an adaptive architecture that maximizes the utility of processing and computational capacity at each platform

Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities

Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial