RECENT NEWS

Using midwives and other maternity staff more effectively is the key to improving maternity care in hospitals, according to a new Kings Fund report – Staffing in maternity units: getting the right people in the right place at the right time.

The Clinical Engineering Team of the Year Award is now open for entries. Interested entrants need to identify examples of team projects that have made a difference to your department or Hospital and brought innovation to the use, management or implementation of medical devices.

There is a belief among nurses working in the NHS that there are not enough staff to deliver good quality care to patients, according to a new survey from the Royal College of Nursing.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has opened a consultation on a new medical technology device to promote wound healing. The medical technology guidance draft was produced by the Medical Technologies Advisory Committee (MTAC), part of the Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme at NICE.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has developed an accurate blood test for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It is hoped that the prototype, which is said to be 100,000 times more sensitive than any previous attempt, will transform the diagnosis and screening of the brain disease.

A major consolidation programme which, it is claimed, will deliver huge savings to the NHS has almost been completed by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) Details of the three year programme have been set out in a report presented to the NHSBT Board.

It has been reported that 70% of consultant surgeons, who took part in a national survey, said that they are expected to undertake elective operations while they are supposed to be on call for emergencies.

The UK Sector Skills Assessment 2011 has presented a wide-ranging review of the health sector’s skills and workforce needs, against a backdrop of rapid organisational and technological change, financial constraint and rising demand for services caused by an ageing population and increases in long-term conditions.

MS Society research has shown that damage to myelin can be reversed using stem cells.

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal exposure to noise from road traffic can increase the risk of stroke, particularly in those aged 65 years and over.

DTR Medical, a manufacturer of sterile single-use surgical instruments, has launched a new website (www.dtrmedical.com) designed to give customers increased functionality through the introduction of more userfriendly applications.

The UK is to double its current contribution to polio eradication over the next two years, said Prime Minister, David Cameron.

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), people with Type 1 diabetes are nine times more likely to have had a virus infection than people without the condition.

The NHS Information Centre has published the first national summary of work to link hospital data (HES) with death records from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessement (HTA) programme is funding a pilot study to investigate whether a lung cancer screening programme could be effectively implemented at hospitals and cancer centres across the UK.

Heart failure diagnosis is four times higher in the most economically disadvantaged communities and twice as high among South Asians, concludes a new study undertaken at the University of Leicester.

Commenting on the Health and Social Care Bill for the NHS in England, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said: “Ploughing ahead with these changes as they stand, at such speed, at a time of huge financial pressures and when NHS staff and experts have so many concerns, is a massive gamble. “

Researchers at University College London (UCL) have discovered that combining cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing with MRI scans could provide an early indication of a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Fewer than one in ten people believe that radiotherapy is a modern cancer treatment according to the results of a YouGov survey.

A nine-week independent trial at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust of a Nanoclave UV cabinet has proved successful. The cabinet utilises ultraviolet (UVC) light to eradicate problematic pathogens on a broad range of medical equipment and electronic devices.