RECENT NEWS

Foundation Trusts seeking to take advantage of a loophole that could allow them to increase the income they generate from private patient care are walking a legal tightrope according to health law experts at Browne Jacobson. Unison is seeking a judicial review unless Monitor, the Foundation Trust regulator, steps in to stop the growing numbers of Foundation Trusts setting up joint ventures, special purpose vehicles and charities to get around a legislative cap.

Council trading standards chiefs are launching a nationwide project to identify inaccurate hospital weighing scales that could be putting patients’ lives at risk. The new scheme follows a series of pilot studies which found hospital staff using inaccurate scales to calculate dosages of medication for patients, including small children.

A trial of wipe clean duvets and pillows at Worthing and Southlands Hospital NHS Trust has shown that the products can reduce laundry bills and linen replacement costs, while reducing nurses’ bed making time. Following the trial, the Trust purchased 560 duvets and 1,120 pillows from the Sylvan range manufactured by the Talley Group.

Switzerland’s state commission on AIDS claims that patients with the disease that take effective retroviral drugs do not pass on the virus through unprotected sex. The Federal AIDS Commission said in a report that couples, where one partner is HIV positive, do not need to use a condom to prevent transmission as long as retroviral therapy is followed regularly and has suppressed the virus in the blood for at least six months.

Rare or complex diseases can be treated more successfully in dedicated centres specialising in the treatment of these conditions, according to the latest research. Taking pituitary surgery as an example, a large peer-reviewed study published in Clinical Endocrinology indicates that the move in the late 1990s to concentrate treatment in specialist centres has resulted in a significant increase in success rates, better outcomes for patients and potential savings for the NHS.

Many doctors have no confidence in the Government’s ability to safeguard patient data online, according to a poll conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA). More than 90% of respondents to the survey said they were not confident patient data on the proposed NHS centralised database would be secure.

US research shows that a drug used to treat kidney cancer could successfully be used to treat patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.

The Christie Hospital in Manchester has announced a £35 m expansion which includes the development of an “early trials unit” for cancer treatments and new chemotherapy services.

A vaccine to combat C. diff has shown promising results in initial trials and researchers hope to test the product in NHS hospitals later this year.

A new deadly strain of MRSA has emerged which is acquired through casual contact in the community. Currently it is believed to be more prevalent within the gay population in San Francisco, but two cases of the USA300 strain have been recorded in the UK.

A study of medicines to treat the pain of arthritis has been launched in Scotland. The SCOT Trial, (Standard Care versus Celecoxib Outcome Trial), will compare different types of treatment for arthritis – a series of conditions which affect around nine million people in the UK.

The elimination of pathology and laboratory medicine from the curriculum in many medical schools, and consequent lack of knowledge of basic science among junior doctors, are jeopardising patient safety, according to a report in the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry.

NICE has published its final draft guidance on the use of drug-eluting stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD).

New research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will investigate whether giving premature babies probiotics decreases the risk of bacterial infections. Over 42,000 premature babies are born per year, and they have an increased risk of picking up infections which can cause long term complications or even be fatal.

Intensive care consultants and anaesthetists at the East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust, UK, are using SonoSite hand-carried ultrasound systems for placing central lines, and for performing nerve blocks, during upper and lower limb surgery at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley hospitals.

Healthcare companies recently had their achievements recognised at the Medilink UK National Health Technology Awards. The Health Technologies KTN Innovation Award was picked up by Brandon Medical for the development of Symposia – the world’s first fully integrated medical tele-video system for healthcare. The IP-based open-ended platform allows complete integration of any medical video source, providing full collaborative working between clinicians across any distance.

Researchers have suggested that competition between NHS hospitals may lower the quality of care and found that death rates from heart attack actually rose. In a paper published in Economic Journal, Professor Carol Propper of the University of Bristol said that the “internal market” led to a decline in standards, despite waiting times being reduced.

A leading Harley Street X-ray and ultrasound clinic is now up and running with Agfa HealthCare’s most advanced CR unit – the DX-S, which offers faster image acquisition. The Xray Xpress Clinic, at 121 Harley Street, has also installed Agfa HealthCare’s Drystar 5503 Imager to operate in conjunction with the new CR unit.

New measures must be taken to protect healthcare workers from healthcare acquired infections such as MRSA, according to a report to be adopted by the European Parliament. The report focuses on the need to reduce workplace-related diseases and accidents across the EU and in particular to better protect vulnerable workers such as those in healthcare.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) issued a warning of potentially fatal outcomes if incorrect doses of oral chemotherapy drugs are administered. The NPSA raised concerns that the risks of prescribing, dispensing and administration errors are potentially increased if the normal safeguards used for injectable anticancer medicines are not applied.