RECENT NEWS

Patients in Scotland will have secure online access to their own health information by 2020 according to Alex Neil, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

NHS England has committed to invest £90 m to diagnose two-thirds of people with dementia by March 2015. Jeremy Hunt, The Health Secretary, has also challenged the NHS to bring down the average wait for an assessment for dementia to six weeks from GP referral in each area of England.

Scientists at Imperial College London have discovered that iron deficiency may increase stroke risk by making the blood more sticky. The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

According to the Journal of Endovascular Therapy, despite good immediate results, in up to 40% of patients with diabetes, obstructed arteries in the leg treated with a stent will again become blocked.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending that doctors consider many more people to be at risk of heart disease, stroke or peripheral arterial disease.

A set of 10 molecules in blood could be used to predict with 90% accuracy whether people are at greater risk of developing dementia within the next few years, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center, USA.

A new report from the Surgical Never Events Taskforce makes a series of recommendations for new standards and systems to further improve the safety of surgery in English hospitals.

A report published by Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority has found that progress has been made turning around some of England’s most challenged hospitals.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, has selected McKesson’s cardiology solution to redesign the treatment pathway for patients with cardiac valve disease, in a bid to reduce demand on its cardiology unit.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published findings from 18 pilot hospital inspections completed last year. This concluded that compassionate care is alive and well in the NHS.

Over one-quarter of miscarriages may be preventable, according to the results of a study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The Technology Strategy Board is funding a series of radical ideas with the potential to revolutionise the approach to long-term care.

Local commissioners should join forces with NHS England and involve patients when making decisions about the future of walk-in centres, according to Monitor.

An additional 209,000 nurses need to be recruited by 2050 in order to satisfy the longterm needs of the country in line with projected population growth, according to research conducted by specialist recruiter Randstad Care.

A new website that provides information for parents and carers about kidney conditions in babies, children and young people has been introduced. Funded by the British Kidney Patient Association and created jointly by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the British Association for Paediatric Nephrology.

The Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Service at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in the treatment of young cancer patients, is the first winner of the Kate Granger Award for Compassionate Care.

Nearly 3,500 patients received the organ transplant they needed in 2013 due to an increase in the number of people donating their organs after their death in the UK. Some 1,323 people became organs donors in 2013 compared to 1,164 in 2012 - a 13.7% increase.

Botox has been approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the treatment of ankle disability due to lower limb spasticity associated with stroke in adults.

Quality assurance systems in NHS pathology services need to be updated and less focused on minimal acceptable standards, a review of pathology services has recommended.

The Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS) and Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have provided joint evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Respiratory Health inquiry into respiratory deaths.