RECENT NEWS

NHS patients throughout the West Midlands are to benefit from a digital pathology programme, designed to help reduce cancer backlogs, transform services, and improve the speed and accuracy of cancer diagnosis.

There is an urgent need to increase the cap on visas to allow more international medical graduates to work and train in the NHS. A paper published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine outlines how increasing the cap could help address exceptionally difficult workforce issues facing the health service.

Atrial fibrillation is the greatest risk factor for stroke. Screening to detect atrial fibrillation in older people would not only increase the chance of preventing stroke, it would also save money for the healthcare system and society. This is the conclusion from research conducted at Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and published in the European Heart Journal.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) has compared the challenges that currently face the NHS to England’s football manager approaching the World Cup without a full squad.

The NHS will roll out an innovative, potentially life-saving treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer thanks to a new drug deal.

Joe Zhang at Imperial College London and colleagues point to a recent 10 day IT system outage at one of the largest hospital Trusts in the NHS and warn that increasing digital transformation “means such failures are no longer mere inconvenience but fundamentally affect our ability to deliver safe and effective care.”

The joint initiative between Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Charity, which will see services move to a brand-new integrated centre on the site of St Pancras Hospital, has now been given final NHS and government approval.

Key organisations from across the UK are coming together on Genetic Counsellor Awareness Day (Thursday 10 November 2022) to highlight the important role genetic counsellors play in healthcare.

To mark COP27 and the one year anniversary of IHPN’s industry-wide pledge to achieve net zero by 2035, a new report has been published setting out the independent health sector’s progress in reducing carbon emissions.

Two projects have been shortlisted in the Best International Recruitment Experience and the Best Workplace for Learning and Development Categories at the Nursing Times Workforce Summit Awards, which are to be held on the 22 November in London.

A new RCP Cymru Wales report highlights the importance of training doctors locally in north Wales as a solution to the workforce crisis.

The number of men having treatment for prostate cancer has jumped by more than a quarter in England in one year, new NHS figures show. Almost 4,000 men received prostate cancer treatment in August (3,898) compared to just over 3,000 in the same month last year (3,057).

Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy at North Middlesex University Hospital (North Mid) now have even more access to a treatment to manage the side effect of hair loss, thanks to the generous purchase of scalp cooling equipment by local charity, Wigs for Heroes.

Physicists at McMaster University have identified a natural delivery system which can safely carry potent antibiotics throughout the body to selectively attack and kill bacteria by using red blood cells as a vehicle.

A large-scale comparison of direct oral anticoagulants (blood thinners), commonly prescribed for irregular heartbeats, has identified the drug with the lowest risk of bleeding, in a new study led by UCL researchers.

Surgical care experts have unveiled two studies in The Lancet that will help to provide safer surgery for thousands of patients around the world – particularly in Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMIC).

A world-leading, fibre optic laser therapy for people suffering with epilepsy who have not responded well to other forms of treatment will be rolled out on the NHS.

Patients will benefit from more streamlined care and be able to make more informed choices about how and where they access treatment after plans to transform NHS data sharing have been brought forward.

A pilot study of 795 pre-diabetic patients has shown the significant potential of ICB-managed text messaging to engage patients with health intervention programmes, after text prompts led to a 1000%+ increase in referrals to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP).

A review of blood donation and apheresis services run by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHS BT) has found safe and effective care and treatment provided by competent and skilled staff, working together effectively to meet local patient needs.