RECENT NEWS

A new contract for hospital consultants was introduced in October 2003 in exchange for a significant increase in consultants’ pay. However, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), there is still room for improvement in how Trusts manage their consultants.

More than 80% of patients suspected of having cancer are being referred by their GP to a specialist within their first two consultations, with more than half being sent to see a specialist at the first appointment, according to new research published in the British Journal of Cancer.

HORIBA’s medical division in the UK is now able to share and draw on expertise and information from other industry areas such as scientific, environmental and automotive following the announcement that the UK’s HORIBA Group companies have been brought together into one company to establish HORIBA UK Ltd.

The Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) and Infection Prevention Society (IPS) Spring Meeting will take place on 24 April at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham.

BMA council chair, Mark Porter, has called for national oversight of workforce planning to prevent the over-supply or under-supply of doctors.

The UK will face a shortfall of 61,200 nurses by 2050 due to skills shortages, an ageing workforce and restrictive migration policy, according to Randstad Care, a specialist recruiter.

Genetic errors driving the majority of breast cancers could be caused by a hyperactive enzyme called APOBEC3B, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has stated that that 1.5 million lives, which would be lost to cancer, could be saved every year if decisive measures were taken to achieve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘25 by 25’ target; to reduce premature deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is in the process of developing a clinical guideline on the acute management of myocardial infarction (heart attack) with ST-segment-elevation (STEMI) and has recently issued a draft version of the guideline for public consultation.

New figures suggest that English A&E departments see the most attendances on a Monday morning, when they deal with double the hourly average.

A King’s Fund report, Spending on health and social care over the next 50 years, states that health and social care could account for half of all Government spending within 50 years.

Five NHS Trusts in England have been categorised as having a ‘higher than expected’ mortality ratio over two years, new analysis shows. During the same period – between July 2010 to June 2012 – 11 Trusts were categorised as having a ‘lower than expected’ ratio, based on Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) data.

A Europe-wide initiative to explain blood tests to children has been sponsored by BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company). With medical education publisher, Medikidz, BD has developed a cartoon-style booklet and poster with the aim of helping children to understand what blood tests are for and how they help doctors make them better.

NHS Blood and Transplant has appointed three new clinical leads who will work towards developing and improving organ transplantation standards across the UK.

A study from Finland, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, has shown that being unmarried increases the risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attack in both men and women.

A study of 45,000 British adults found that not eating meat or fish was associated with better heart health, while vegetarians also displayed lower levels of harmful cholesterol in their blood and reduced systolic, or maximum, blood pressure.

The Royal College of Nursing’s online induction programme for new healthcare assistants, First Steps for Health Care Assistants, has a new look and a number of new features.

A recent vote in European Parliament has recommended improvements to the regulation of nurses working throughout the EU through the introduction of language checks and more rigorous competency requirements.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust, the most financially challenged NHS Trust in England, will be dissolved by October 2013 to address the risk it carries for ongoing patient care and the pressure it is placing on other parts of the NHS, according to Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Robert Francis QC’s long-awaited final report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust scandal has now been published, highlighting the appalling suffering of many patients.