RECENT NEWS

Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, has delivered the first mandate from the Government to the NHS which sets out what patients in England can expect from GPs, hospitals and the wider NHS over the next two years.

MEDICA 2012 has seen a continued increase in top decision-makers attending the event. The event organisers reported that 93% of the 130,600 trade visitors had decision-making responsibility.

A new tool in the armoury for infection prevention and control professionals was launched at IPS 2012 – the BIOQUELL ICEpod. The temporary enclosure has been developed to help healthcare workers control outbreaks and manage patients who are known/suspected to be infected or colonised with nosocomial pathogens.

Emergency admissions for patients with cancer remain problematic, despite the development of acute oncology. According to a new report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), more could be done to improve their care and subsequent experiences and outcomes.

Blackpool Teaching Hospital has introduced rapid screening for the superbug MRSA of all emergency admissions patients, and both MRSA and MSSA for surgical patients admitted through A&E, which is delivering clinical and economic benefits.

The Department of Health (DH) has announced that pregnant women will be offered the whooping cough vaccination to protect their newborn babies, who are not usually vaccinated until between two and four months.

A session at the Annual Congress of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) recently discussed data from the UK’s first national audit into emergency laparotomy surgery.

British healthcare professionals are working harder than they were one year ago according to research carried out by Randstad, a specialist recruitment company.

CQC has imposed an urgent legal restriction on the registration of Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, preventing the use of the day surgical unit at Pinderfields Hospital for patient stays in excess of 23 hours.

Hospitals recorded 2,290 eating disorder admissions in the 12 months to June 2012; a 16% rise on the previous 12 month period. Children and teenagers aged 10 to 19 accounted for more than half of admissions in the latest 12 month period, up from 49% in the previous 12 months.

NICE has published guidance on the role of new and established treatments for the management of Crohn’s disease in adults and children. There are currently around 115,000 people living with Crohn’s disease in the UK and between 3000 and 6000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter has announced that the Government has offered the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) a one off grant of £20 million to improve the NMC’s performance.

Almost 8,000 more cancer patients a year could benefit from the rollout of an advanced radiotherapy technique with fewer side effects, following the announcement of a £15 million investment by the Government.

The latest national clinical guideline for stroke recommends that all patients, regardless of age or how severe their stroke is, should be considered for thrombolysis. New research has shown that these categories of patient, formerly not thought to benefit from thrombolysis, should now be offered it with other patients within three hours of the appearance of stroke symptoms.

Hospitals in England dealt with 6,370 admissions for stress in the 12 months to May 2012; a 7% rise on the previous 12 month period.

Latest Health Protection Agency (HPA) surveillance figures indicate that, for the first time in five years, the risk of resistance developing in currently recommended gonorrhoea treatments fell slightly in 2011.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is launching a new publication – the Good Clinical Practice Guide – which covers legislation, guidance and good practice relating to the conduct of clinical trials of medicinal products for human use in the UK.

A study has shown beta-blockers are not associated with a lower risk of heart attacks or stroke in certain patients.

The Society for Obesity and Bariatric Anaesthesia (SOBA) has produced a 10 minute educational DVD entitled Safe anesthesia for the morbid obese patient. The DVD is aimed at the whole theatre team and not just anaesthetists.

New research, part funded by the British Heart Foundation, shows that high blood pressure among expectant mothers may have an effect on their child’s IQ in later life.