RECENT NEWS

A patient safety alert has been issued to NHS services that use ECG machines to diagnose cardiac problems, highlighting the risk associated with printing the wrong patient’s ECG records, which could lead to misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published the first Medtech Innovation Briefings on a range of novel technologies.

A new curriculum, designed to encourage junior doctors to study in Wales, will see medical students spending more time training in clinical settings. BMA Cymru Wales has welcomed the modification at Cardiff University’s medical school called C21 (21st century).

Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is likely to become a primary screening method for chromosomal abnormalities in pregnancy in the future, reducing invasive testing and the associated risks, according to a scientific impact paper published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).

With almost one-in-five children with diabetes developing a dangerous complication known as Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) – a lack of insulin in the body – before they are officially diagnosed with the condition, doctors are calling for greater diabetes awareness.

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.