RECENT NEWS

A Lancashire company has been awarded nearly £100,000 to develop a system to prevent older patients falling from their beds. Lancaster-based Rinicare has received £99,694 through the Small Business Research Initiative for Healthcare (SBRI Healthcare).

Eastwood Park Training has agreed a formal partnership with ECRI Institute. These two renowned healthcare organisations will be working closely together to improve effective asset management and maintenance of hospital medical devices, supporting each business’s ultimate mission for continued improved and effective patient safety.

Public Health England (PHE) has announced that rubella (German measles) susceptibility screening in pregnancy will end in England on 1 April 2016. The decision to stop screening follows a review of evidence by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in 2003 and 2012.

Nuffield Health, working together with Royal Philips has announced the opening of a state-ofthe-art diagnostic suite to provide imaging and wellbeing services to the people of Manchester.

A census of consultant physicians and higher specialty trainees has shown that there are significant concerns around filling gaps in trainee rotas, prompting fears over the impact on patient care.

The Infection Prevention Society (IPS), in partnership with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has launched a revised Infection Prevention and Control Commissioning Toolkit.

The first major evaluation of the NHS Health Check in England has found that the programme is effectively identifying people at risk of developing a major cardiovascular incident such as heart attack or stroke.

The Commission on Improving Urgent Care for Older People is calling for a fundamental change to the way care for older people is designed and delivered.

Results from The UK Collaborative Trial for Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) demonstrate that screening may reduce ovarian cancer mortality by an estimated 20% after a follow up period of up to 14 years.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have found a way to make swallowable cameras more effective at detecting cancers of the throat and gut.

The rate of children dying from cancer has dropped by 24% in the last decade, according to the latest figures published by Cancer Research UK.

Following a recent meeting, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has made a number of new recommendations, including:

Scientists are embarking on a new approach to overhaul the system for safe research and use of medicines which will help tackle medication errors.

The National Performance Advisory Group (NPAG) has announced that the Theatres, Sterile Services & Decontamination Conference is taking place on 16 March at Drayton Manor Theme Park.

The financial performance of acute hospital Trusts has significantly declined in the last year and their financial position looks set to worsen in 2016, according to the National Audit Office.

New guidelines for alcohol consumption, produced by the UK Chief Medical Officers, warn that drinking any level of alcohol increases the risk of a range of cancers. This is supported by a new review from the Committee on Carcinogenicity (CoC) on alcohol and cancer risk.

While a recent report has ranked end of life care in the UK as the best in the world, there are areas where care can be improved and made more consistent.

Patients may benefit from using a package of technology, education and support from clinicians (called ‘supported self-care’) to empower them to manage their health needs more effectively at home, a new report suggests.

The world’s first guidelines for chronic fungal lung infections for doctors and laboratories have been published by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

Almost 700,000 new cases of cancer linked to being overweight or obese could be diagnosed in the UK during the next 20 years, according to a new report from Cancer Research UK and the UK Health Forum.