RECENT NEWS

A report released by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) claims that patient care in the UK is being put at risk by staff cuts and excessive workloads, leading to unprecedented nurse stress and ill health.

Frequent maternity unit closures, restricted services such as home births and falling budgets are among the issues highlighted by a survey of senior midwives by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

Royal Preston Hospital, part of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has invested in Esaote’s O-Scan – a compact MRI unit for extremities scanning.

One in ten of the world's population will have diabetes by 2035 according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

New data from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) shows that just 56% of newly qualified physicians are securing substantive consultant posts.

Infection prevention products manufacturer Vernacare has won a prestigious healthcare award for innovation. The Bolton-based company has received the Innovation Clinical Award in the Excellence in Supply Awards 2013 for its work in developing a breakthrough product to improve female continence.

New figures reveal that, for the first time, more than half of NHS patients who need vital stroke prevention surgery are accessing it within two weeks of experiencing symptoms of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA or mini stroke). However, more must be done to raise public and professional awareness about the need for quick treatment, and improve referral patterns from GPs and other clinicians. Hospital services should be organised to ensure there is rapid access to specialist imaging and care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued standards to help prevent and treat surgical site infection in adults, children and young people undergoing surgical incisions through the skin. The NICE quality standard is based on the NICE guidance on both surgical site infection and healthcare- associated infections.

New methods for improving care for patients with a damaged aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, are being researched by a team at King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Funded by a grant from Heart Research UK, the team will look at new methods for managing aortic dissection, a tear in the aortic wall, which creates an abnormal secondary passage for the blood to flow through and can be life-threatening if left untreated.

Simon Stevens has been appointed as the new chief executive of NHS England. Simon, who has 26 years’ experience in healthcare management at frontline and national level both in England and internationally, will take over from Sir David Nicholson on 1 April 2014.

A new study will examine the best methods for cleaning surgical instruments to reduce the risk of variant CJD infection. The £90,000 study, funded by the Scottish Infection Research Network, will focus on instruments used in neurosurgery and test different methods for cleansing surgical instruments.

Giving radiotherapy in fewer, larger treatments is at least as safe and effective at treating early breast cancer as the international standard dose, according to the 10-year follow-up results of a major Cancer Research UK trial, published in The Lancet Oncology.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, who last year identified a major pathway leading to brain cell death in mice, have used an orally-administered compound to block the pathway, and prevented neurodegeneration in the mice.

Professor Darzi, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, will head up the new clinically-led London Health Commission, which will conduct an evidence-based investigation into healthcare provision and resources for Londoners.

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) is to chair an independent review of the implementation of the Working Time Directive (WTD), Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.

Digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat heart conditions, was associated with a 72% higher rate of death among adults with newly diagnosed systolic heart failure, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in an online issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Scientists have discovered a natural temperature sensor in one of the bacteria that cause meningitis and blood poisoning, which allows them to evade the body’s immune response leading to life-threatening infections.

A new toolkit from the Royal College of Physicians aims to improve the care of cancer patients admitted to hospital as an emergency with medical problems due to their cancer or their treatment.

The health regulator, the Care Quality Commission, is to be given greater independence to ensure it can act ‘fearlessly’ as the nation's chief whistleblower on health, Jeremy Hunt Health Secretary has announced.

Obese children have blood vessel damage and insulin resistance that are precursors to atherosclerosis and diabetes, reveals research by Dr Norman Mangner presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2013.