RECENT NEWS

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine recently launched a quality improvement guide which provides practical advice for emergency physicians at any stage of training.

The Infection Prevention Society annual awards programme offers the opportunity to recognise and celebrate excellence in infection prevention and control. The categories include:

A patient safety alert has been issued to warn NHS providers of the risk of severe harm and death if an insulin needle and syringe is used to administer insulin withdrawn directly from a pen device or replacement cartridge.

n a study published in the journal Circulation researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Lund University examined how sex-discordant blood transfusions (i.e. blood from a woman to a man or vice versa) affected survival following cardiac surgery.

UK researchers creating new vaccines for epidemic diseases such as Zika and Ebola are among the winners of £22 million of funding, announced by the Department of Health.

BSI, the business standards company, has published PAS 1616, Healthcare – Provision of clinical services – Specification, in association with the Clinical Services Accreditation Alliance (CSAA) to help clinical services providers deliver efficient services which are good value for money.

Tracking the locations of their McKinley T34 syringe drivers with Harland Simon’s RFID Discovery has enabled NHS Forth Valley to improve utilisation of these specialist pumps and avoid a capital cost of £50,000 to purchase additional devices.

The medical journal Mayo ClinicProceedings has published new insulin delivery recommendations for healthcare professionals caring for insulin-using patients, including the results from the largest injection technique survey ever performed for people with diabetes.

EDAP TMS has announced the results of a study using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for localised prostate cancer which demonstrates promising oncologic outcomes with low side effects.

The National Quality Board (NQB) has published a new framework that will promote improved quality criteria across all national health organisations.

A brain implant has been placed in a patient enabling her to operate a speech computer with her mind.

Alcohol will cause around 135,000 cancer deaths over the next 20 years and will cost the NHS an estimated £2 billion in treatments, according to estimates from a new report by Sheffield University, commissioned by Cancer Research UK.

The latest stroke audit results for April-July 2016 reveal that 42 (18%) of all inpatient stroke services in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland achieved an ‘A’ score indicating a world class stroke service, with a further 59 teams (26%) achieving a ‘B’ score.

A report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman says that people who complain to the NHS are often denied the answers they need, leaving them no choice but to bring their complaints to the Ombudsman’s service.

New whistleblowing guidance has been drawn up following a five-week consultation with staff working in primary care.

Cancer Research UK has announced the largest investment to date into its network of Centres across the UK. £190 million has been committed to 13 Cancer Research UK Centres over the next five years.

The traditional surgical workforce is changing and the roles undertaken by non-medical practitioners have subsequently adapted to become an integral part of the modern surgical team.

A network to run clinical trials could make finding new antibiotics cheaper and more efficient, according to a report from the Wellcome Trust.

On 22 November, eighty decontamination technicians and reprocessing staff joined together for a British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) study day, at the Madejski Stadium in Reading.

Pathology services in the UK are struggling to cope with the increasing number of patient samples that need to be tested, according to a Cancer Research UK report.