RECENT NEWS

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions have published a guideline which will help save lives of people with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that navigating complaints systems is not straightforward, particularly for health service users, and handling some complaints takes too long. There is little sharing of lessons from complaints or evidence that services are improving as a result.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), together with NHS Connecting for Health (in England) and Informing Healthcare (in Wales), is issuing a “Safer Practice Notice” recommending that the NHS number is used as the national unique patient identifier.

A cream commonly used to treat burns may actually delay healing, Cochrane researchers concluded after a systematic review of data. In addition, despite the wide range of wound dressings available for burns, there is no consensus on the most effective alternative treatment. Healthcare providers have used silver sulphadiazine (SSD) cream since the 1960s to minimise the risk of burns becoming infected, although concerns have recently been raised about its toxic effects on skin cells.

The NHS is failing to deal with some of the UK’s most severely injured patients because local NHS targets, designed to speed up routine operations, are leaving emergency patients stuck in the wrong hospital, the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and The Royal College of Surgeons have reported.

The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme has commissioned a new study to identify the most effective and efficient surveillance methods for women who have received treatment for primary breast cancer. Currently, there is no general agreement on the best way to monitor patients for recurrence or how often women should receive X-rays.

The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) has published evidencebased guidelines to address the management of hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), which is the most common hospital-acquired infection in intubated patients – increasing mortality by up to 75%. Following four years of data analysis, the guidance has been developed to tackle a range of issues including prevention, diagnosis and treatment, in order to reduce the inconsistencies in its management across the UK.

New research reveals that mothers giving birth by Caesarean section have a 20% higher risk of their baby developing Type 1 diabetes in childhood compared to those having natural births, according to the health charity Diabetes UK. On average 24% of pregnancies in England are delivered by Caesarean section, which is significantly higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended rate of 15%.

The BMA has referred to PFI as a “long-term millstone” around the neck of the NHS, “dragging down otherwise good organisations”. The BMA made the statement in response to the Public Accounts Committee report on the management of PFI contracts. The association believes that many of the contracts were poorly set up, biased towards the private sector providers and inflexible, leaving NHS Trusts struggling to meet repayments.

The Medway NHS Foundation Trust has introduced Mölnlycke’s Barrier range

A new cancer therapy developed by Dr Mark Lowdell, UCL Medical School, has been successfully trialled on a patient. The therapy involves a patented process to activate Natural Killer cells (NK) which occur naturally and attack tumours and virally infected cells. While some tumours are easily killed by NK cells, many are resistant to NK killing. The hypothesis for the trial is that NK cells have two controls – one to prime the cell and the other to trigger it to kill tumour cells.

A third of patients have unnecessary cannulae inserted when they are in hospital, needlessly exposing them to serious complications such as infection and blood clots, research launched at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester has shown.

Construction has started on B. Braun Medical’s new aseptic unit at its Thorncliffe Park headquarters, in Sheffied, which will feature one of the most advanced drug preparation robots in Europe.

Scientists at the University of York have helped to reveal more about the way bacteria can attach to human tissues. The study could help in the development of new treatments for serious heart conditions such as infective endocarditis.

Two years on from the launch of Age Concern’s “Hungry to be Heard” campaign, many hospitals are still not doing enough to stop older people from going hungry on hospital wards, according to new findings revealed by the charity. The campaign follows research which showed that six out of ten older people are at risk of becoming malnourished, or their situation getting worse, in hospital.

A £1 millon grant to help build the world’s first purpose-built institute for research into end-of-life care has been announced by the Government.

A number of studies recently published have made significant breakthroughs in the field of Alzheimer’s treatment and research. A drug, known as Rember, is believed to have halted the progression of the disease in a substantial number of patients participating in a trial.

The NHS and private healthcare are not providing good enough basic care to a large portion of the population in England, especially older and frailer people, according to a study by researchers at the University of East Anglia.

Pre-eclampsia can significantly increase a patient’s risk of suffering kidney failure, later in life, according to a Norwegian study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

People who have previously had nonmelanoma skin cancer appear to face a higher risk of other cancers, according to researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina. The study analysed data on 769 people with non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma) and a further 18,405 people with no previous history of cancer for 16 years.