RECENT NEWS

Many families are being forced to find an average £3,123 a year – or an estimated £15,000 over a five year medical course – to get their children through medical school owing to spiralling levels of debt and the impact of tuition fees, a new BMA report has claimed.

Researchers have found a genetic link between low birth weight and the risk of going on to develop Type 2 diabetes in later life. The team analysed over 38,000 Europeans from 19 studies of pregnancy and birth and found that two genetic variants showed strong associations with birth weight.

Proposals for improving safeguards for people using herbal medicines, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture have been announced by Health Secretary Andy Burnham.

The number of reported patient safety incidents that resulted in death has fallen, against a backdrop of increased awareness, learning and reporting by NHS organisations across England, according to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).

The BMA has warned that the announcement of a pay freeze for armed forces GPs and consultants and a 1% pay rise for junior doctors, staff grades and associate specialists, would worsen recruitment and retention problems facing the Defence Medical Service.

Clinicians at Henry Ford Hospital, in the US, have found that infection with the hepatitis C virus increases the risk for developing kidney cancer. Using data from more than 67,000 patients, physicians found that over the period 1997-2008, 0.6% patients with hepatitis C infection developed kidney cancer whereas only 0.3% patients without the disease developed kidney cancer.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has commented on statistics from the NHS Information Centre’s Annual Workforce Census for England showing a 1.9% yearly increase in the number of qualified nurses in the NHS.

A new study has identified a significant shortfall in patients with life-long but treatable conditions re-entering employment. The research is being presented at the annual Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Manchester.

Electronic implants to treat blindness have shown successful results in a clinical trial, carried out in Germany, involving 11 patients who had lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is challenging nurses, doctors and surgeons working in NHS trauma services to help curb the epidemic of alcohol misuse by providing advice to patients during their course of treatment.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently appraising the use of dronedarone (Multaq) for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) – a disturbance of the heart’s rhythm.

A man’s chances of dying from prostate cancer – the most common cancer in men – vary according to postcode, new figures from the Prostate Cancer Charity show.

Companies advertising Computerised Tomography (CT) scans as an “MOT” for people who have no relevant symptoms but who are anxious to keep one step ahead of possible illnesses, will see the service they provide become clarified in law.

Around 95% of Trusts confirm that they have virtually eliminated mixed-sex accommodation from hospitals across England, Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced.

Provisional figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show that cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the UK have increased by 5.5%, from 8,679 reported in 2008 to 9,153 in 2009.

Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of stroke in middle-aged and older adults, especially men, according to new results from a landmark study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health in the US.

Skills for Health has warned that urgent action is needed to address skills gaps within the health sector, following the publication of the first National Strategic Skills Audit by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

Nurses across the UK are struggling to access training in core areas such as infection control, a new survey by the RCN has revealed. The landmark survey of over 3,000 nurses showed that almost a third (32.1%) have been unable to access their mandatory training this year.

Libby Thomson the lead nurse endoscopist at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust marked the formal launch of Wassenburg in the UK at a ceremony held on the stand at the British Society of Gastroenterology meeting in Liverpool.

Bukumbi Care Centre was built in the 1970’s as a joint venture between the Government and another NGO. The aim of the centre was to care for people suffering from leprosy and other disabilities who had been ostracised from their communities and were living on the streets of Mwanza and surrounding towns.