RECENT NEWS

NICE has recommended that some people with varicose veins, such as those causing pain and ulcers, should be offered alternatives to surgery, known as endothermal ablation, heat energy treatment of the wall of the vein (radiofrequency or laser treatment), which are less invasive than surgery with a much speedier recovery time.

Government plans to introduce new checks on doctors’ language skills have taken a step forward as detailed proposals on how the checks will work were unveiled by Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter, following his announcement to tighten rules about overseas doctors earlier this year.

A genetic mutation that can lead to haemorrhagic stroke has been identified by scientists – along with a drug to potentially treat it.

The Government has now published its five year antimicrobial resistance strategy, following a warning by the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies that antimicrobial resistance poses a ‘catastrophic threat’ if action is not taken.

Sponsored by Getinge UK Academy, a one-day seminar on endoscope decontamination will take place at the Holiday Inn, London Elstree, Borehamwood, on the 22 October 2013.

A national initiative to carry out mandatory screening of hospital patients for deep vein thrombosis has resulted in a significant reduction in death rates, experts in Birmingham have concluded.

Over half of patients saw an improvement after being treated with biological therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to data from the first national report of biological therapies.

A cheap cancer drug is just as effective and safe in treating a common cause of loss of vision as an expensive alternative, according to research funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme.

Cancer patients’ experience of care, is improving, with 88% of patients reporting that their care was either excellent or very good. The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey reported the views of 116,000 cancer patients in all 155 NHS Trusts that provide treatment to patients with cancer.

A research team at the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Biomolecular Sciences has uncovered a new way of inhibiting the toxicity and virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

A national initiative to carry out mandatory screening of hospital patients for deep vein thrombosis has resulted in a significant reduction in death rates, experts in Birmingham have concluded.

A new state-of-the-art training centre has now received the go ahead and will be built at Eastwood Park in Falfield, South Gloucestershire. John Thatcher, CEO at Eastwood Park said:

The Forum for Injection Technique (FIT) has recently won two awards for their collaborative initiative ‘FIT4Safety – Injection Safety in UK and Ireland’, which includes the formulation and publication of the widely praised Safety of Sharps in Diabetes Recommendations (1st Edition).

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has announced proposals to tackle increasing pressures on NHS A&E services – starting with care for vulnerable older patients with complex health problems.

NHS Supply Chain has placed an order for 20 TrueBeam machines from Varian Medical Systems as part of a programme to replace older machines and roll out modern radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments for patients in the UK’s public hospitals.

More needs to be done to ensure leadership talent is encouraged and barriers are removed for women in healthcare.

Abbott has announced the results from a study evaluating its High Sensitive Troponin- I (hsTnI) assay which says that it may help doctors predict which patients presenting with symptoms of a heart attack, such as severe chest pain, are at a higher risk for having a heart attack 30 days later.

Since its introduction last year over 2,400 patients with long-term conditions have signed up to use the myhealth@QEHB system, which allows patients to view and update their own medical records online.

New research suggests that failure by junior doctors in their annual changeover period to identify deteriorating patients and poor prioritisation skills are likely to drive a reduction in the quality and safety of patient care.

Around 3.3 million women in the UK are living with heart and circulatory disease. Recent study findings from the US, published in Global Heart, show that women are less likely to receive preventive recommendations – including cholesterol-lowering statins and lifestyle advice – than men with a similar risk.