RECENT NEWS

Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

There are over 80 hospitals in England and Wales that do not have the specialist diabetes foot care teams that are widely recognised as being important for preventing diabetesrelated amputations.

A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) commissioning toolkit has been published by the DH.

Cataract surgery may reduce the risk of accidents and injuries such as hip fracture, according to a new study undertaken in the US which found that older people who underwent surgery to improve their vision were less likely to suffer a hip fracture over the following 12-month period.

Astra Tech HealthCare, a provider of consumable medical devices within urology and surgery, has changed its name to Wellspect HealthCare.

A new scheme, funded by the Government and charitable organisations, will see an investment of around £19 million to create four ‘e-Health research Centres of Excellence’ being established in London, Manchester, Dundee and Swansea.

NICE has published a set of new proposed indicators for the 2013/14 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). This scheme, which is run by the Department of Health, focuses on driving up the quality of care.

People with neurological conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease are being neglected by the NHS, according to a report by an alliance of charities representing patients. .

Research from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) identified 394 surgical site infections among 4,107 women followed up after a caesarean section operation (9.6%). The majority of these infections were minor (88%) and the risk was found to be higher in overweight or obese women, according to findings published in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has accepted recommendations from UK immunisation experts to extend the flu vaccination programme to all children. Children in at-risk groups – such as those with asthma, heart conditions or cerebral palsy – are already eligible to receive the flu vaccine on the NHS.

A team of scientists from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the US, has developed methods to increase the production of red blood cells from stem cells, a discovery that could dramatically boost the blood supply available for transfusions.

Kidney disease is already costing the NHS more than breast, lung, colon and skin cancer combined, yet many cases still remain undiagnosed and untreated, according to a report published by NHS Kidney Care.

Managing director of Surgical Holdings, Daniel Coole, recently spoke at the launch of the Anglia Ruskin MedTech Campus in the House of Commons.

The South East Weight Loss Surgical Centre, located at BMI Chelsfield Park Hospital, has announced that it has been accredited as a ‘Bariatric (weight loss) Surgery Centre of Excellence’ by the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO).

The European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) has awarded the 2012 ‘ESA Dräger Prize in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine’ to the research group headed by associate professor Dr Alexander Zarbock, department of anaesthesiology, intensive care and pain management, at the University Hospital of Münster, and Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster, Germany.

NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, has announced that junior doctors will now be required to spend a minimum of four working days shadowing the job that they will be taking up, in a bid to improve patient safety.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the first issue of its quarterly Market Report, highlighting key trends in England’s health and social care services.

The Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care has approved the NHS dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d) as a fundamental standard which must be used by all staff.

The development of a web-based tool to accelerate and increase knowledge transfer interactions between the NHS and industry has resulted in an award for Health Enterprise East (HEE) worth £50,000.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a review which praises the exceptional services run by the Defence Medical Services (DMS), the British military’s trauma and rehabilitation unit for personnel injured in battle, as well as military primary care services for service personnel and their families.