RECENT NEWS

Sixty thousand new doctors will be specifically trained in the next ten years to identify and treat people who are drinking too much, Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo has announced. Medical schools have been allocated £650,000 to do a scoping exercise next financial year to see how alcohol misuse training can be added to the curriculum.

The BMA has requested an urgent meeting with NHS employers to open negotiations with junior doctors.The move follows the announcement of below-inflation pay awards for hospital doctors. The BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee said it was particularly angered by the refusal of the doctors’ pay review body to recommend a compensatory increase for first year junior doctors, who have lost their right to live on hospital premises free of charge from this year.

Managers at Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust took risks with the safety of patients, staff and volunteers, according to an investigation published by the Healthcare Commission. The investigation, covering the period April 2004 to June 2007, highlighted problems at the former Trust including the poor management of controlled drugs, “community first responders” (emergency ambulance volunteers) and an out-of-hours GP service.

US scientists claim to have developed a drug which may protect the body against damage from radiation.

The BMA has warned Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, that more consultants are needed. In particular, there are shortfalls in the areas of emergency medicine, intensive care, trauma care, acute medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics.

Researchers at Uppsala University, in Sweden, have found that men who develop diabetes in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life.

A former Trust chief, who found herself at the centre of a scandal over hygiene standards, has announced plans to sue.

The Government has given the go-ahead for three more independent sector treatment centres to undertake minor procedures for the NHS.

California researchers believe they have found a way of improving brain cell communication by injecting a drug called etanercept into the neck, according to a report by the BBC.

More than one in four student nurses leave their courses before qualifying, at a cost of £100 million per year to taxpayers, according to data obtained by Nursing Standard magazine.

Experts have warned that a surge of Parkinson’s disease linked to rapidly ageing populations worldwide will severely tax health care systems in coming decades.

Pioneering researcher, Professor Lord Robert Winston, will give a presentation on the opportunities that healthcare demands offer companies to expand and regenerate, at the Medical and Healthcare Industry Conference, at the Hyatt, Birmingham (4 June 2008).

A report by the Healthcare Commission has highlighted that patients have concerns about complaints handling, and want Trusts to say “sorry” more often. The Commission is urging NHS Trusts to learn from patients’ complaints and improve complaints handling, with key proposals including apologising more often when they do make mistakes. Complaints about a lack of basic nursing care, overly brisk GP consultations and a lack of help for mental health service users were among the key issues patients raised.

Agfa HealthCare has been selected by Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust to provide PACS, RIS and cardiology solutions to its entire Trust. The integrated IT solutions will enable a free flow of data between the hospitals, even though the systems will work entirely independently of each other.

The National Osteoporosis Society and the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons has awarded almost £3 million to thirteen NHS Trusts across England and Wales to improve osteoporosis services.

A national programme has been launched by the Department of Health to identify vulnerability to vascular diseases. Everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 will be entitled to the checks, which are expected to prevent up to 9,500 heart attacks and strokes every year.

The quality of care in Scotland’s 14 private hospitals and 15 voluntary hospices is good, according to a new report from the country’s care regulator.

Health Minister Lord Darzi has attended a meeting with patients with a variety of long-term conditions, following his promise to “create a vision for the future that is developed and owned by patients” together with staff and public.

Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, has been working to improve outcomes for patients undergoing major bowel surgery, through laparoscopic surgery and the Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP), and has reduced recovery times by three weeks.

Biocote has set up an expert panel to study the infection properties of silver and further its use in hospitals. The expert panel pools the expertise of leading UK experts – including chair Trevor Payne, estates and facilities director at UCLH Hospital, and Martin Kiernan, nurse consultant, prevention and control of infection, at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust.