RECENT NEWS

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.

Scientists claim to have created a large number of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells, opening up the prospect of having a limitless supply of blood for transfusions.

A new report published by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has failed to find a single cardiac rehabilitation programme in the UK that is meeting minimum staffing levels.

Researchers have developed a more accurate technique for identiying the most aggressive forms of bowel cancer.

EuroSciCon has announced its CPD accredited meeting: “Infection Prevention in Hospitals”, which takes place on 21 November 2008.

Full Support Healthcare has partnered with Global Hand to donate unwanted stock to communities in desperate need of medical supplies.

A leading microbiologist has told the BBC that he fears a major outbreak of new strains of community infections unless public monitoring is given more resources.

NICE has recommended the drug Lucentis after reversing an earlier decision published in draft guidance, last year. The move was welcomed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), which has campaigned for Lucentis for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Data presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress shows that selective heart rate reduction with ivabradine significantly reduces the risk of myocardial infarction by 36%