RECENT NEWS

Worcestershire County Council recently became the first county council in the UK to join forces with NHS Blood and Transplant in a bid to encourage more people to donate blood, sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register and discuss their wishes with their loved ones.

In Depth Managed Services, a cleaning and facilities management company, has launched a dedicated healthcare cleaning division.

Laboratory confirmed new diagnoses of hepatitis C infection (HCV) reported in England rose by more than one-third to 10,873 cases in 2012.

A new NHS procurement strategy has been announced by health minister Dr Dan Poulter, with the aim of cutting wasteful spending and allowing finances to be put back into the front line for patient care.

More than 70% of surgical patients experience post-operative hypothermia every year, which can cause adverse effects including wound infections, cardiac disturbances, coagulopathy, delayed emergence from anaesthesia and increased mortality.

University of Reading researchers have been awarded funding by Heart Research UK to discover new ways of treating heart failure.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies has announced that outdated rules designed to combat the threat of AIDS in the 1980s, when attitudes were very different and risks were less understood, will be modernised in line with the most recent science.

Imotech has supplied Cardiff University’s Welsh Institute for Minimal Access Therapy (WIMAT) Endoscopy skills lab, based at University Hospital Llandough, with two new fully digital flexible endoscopy stacks which will be available for training endoscopists using highquality simulation models.

A new imaging department has opened at Highgate Private Hospital. The diagnostic suite will now give patients access to state-of-the art equipment and specialist services, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 3/4D ultrasound, digital fluoroscopy and digital X-ray services.

A new study by Public Health England (PHE) aims to establish the most significant reservoirs of a strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as ESBL-positive E. coli that cause human illness in the UK.

Patients undergoing planned surgery appear more likely to die if they have their operation at the end of the week, a study published in the British Medical Journal has found.

With Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups aged 65 and over set to treble in the next 25 years, there is a growing need to rethink how accessible and appropriate end-of-life care is to people from diverse communities and their families, say palliative care experts.

The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI), the association for the UK medical device industry, has welcomed the announcement that NHS England has completed the designation of 15 new Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).

Following initial discussion with the Royal College of Surgeons, NHS Employers and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have developed and launched the Certificate of Fitness for Honorary Practice, in response to problems with NHS consultant doctors being able to work temporarily or for short periods elsewhere in the NHS or at universities.

Wales has become the first UK nation to introduce a soft opt-out system of organ donation. Unless a person states a wish not to be a donor (opts out), their consent to donation will now be deemed to have been given.

The Healing Foundation Centre for Burns Research will look at understanding how the body responds to burn injury and developing new treatments for repair.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and NHS Employers have published recommendations for safe trainee changeover.

Research involving more than 50,000 bowel cancer patients by the National Bowel Cancer Audit shows that four in five patients who underwent major surgery in England and Wales between April 2008 and March 2010 lived beyond two years of diagnosis.

Researchers found that 65% of people in the UK would rather suffer in silence than endure a face-to-face conversation about their intimate symptoms.

Almost three-quarters of NHS professionals do not think that quality of care in the NHS is given enough priority, according to a survey published in a King’s Fund report on patient-centred leadership.