RECENT NEWS

An audit of UK laparoscopic surgery has revealed that while 49% of operating theatres meet sufficient equipment standards, only 15% of theatres meet the highest levels of equipment safety and design.

Following the Medical Device Alert Ref: MDA/2012/024 issued on the 09 May 2012 with regard to the use of inappropriate accessory holders within automated endoscope reprocessors (AER) that may lead to contamination of devices, equipment and processing media by retained soil and corroded material from the endoscope accessory holder.

This year’s congress will focus on the impact of economic and political influences on the perioperative environment and how practitioners can manage that change whilst still maintaining patient care and safety.

Public satisfaction with the way the NHS runs fell from 70% in 2010 to 58% in 2011, according to British Social Attitudes Survey data published by The King’s Fund.

Hospices are to benefit from up to £60 million of funding to help improve the quality of care for people nearing the end of their lives.

The number of drug resistant cases of TB continues to rise with 431 reports in 2011, up from 342 in 2010 – an increase of 26%, according to the latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Specialist neuroscience hospital, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, has expanded its outreach services with a new satellite clinic in Merseyside. The new, consultant-led neurology clinic is the latest in a series of initiatives by The Walton Centre aimed at taking specialist neurology services closer to patients’ homes.

Bayer HealthCare’s oral anticoagulant tablet Xarelto (rivaroxaban) has been recommended for NHS use in final guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in adult patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) with one or more risk factors.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has announced data from a long-term follow-up study (PERSIST) which shows significant improvements in lung function, respiratory symptoms and weight gain among people treated with Kalydeco. The study enrolled people with cystic fibrosis (CF) with at least one copy of the G551D mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene.

Research conducted by the University of Ulster and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, reveals a new link between vitamin B2 and curbing high blood pressure.

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has launched a new toolkit to help hospitals look at the quality of care they provide through the eyes of patients and relatives, helping them to hear and see what good looks like. The 15 Steps Challenge helps hospitals to gain an understanding of how patients feel about the care provided and how high levels of confidence can be built for staff. It helps Trusts to understand and identify the key components of high quality care that are important to patients and carers from their first contact with a hospital ward.

Almost a third (30%) of UK young adults are only prepared to be tested for Chlamydia through a totally discreet method, such as remote testing via a postal kit, and only 32% are also happy to visit a sexual health clinic for Chlamydia screening, according to a new report from MindMetre Research.

The number of people in their 50s dying prematurely from cancer in the UK has fallen below 14,000 for the first time in 40 years according to figures from Cancer Research UK.

A new report from The King’s Fund, suggests that health and wellbeing boards could be the catalyst for delivering integrated care. They could bring the NHS, public health and local authorities together to co-ordinate health and other local services.

According to a review of recent scientific literature, commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA), chemicals which disrupt the hormone system – endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) – could be responsible for significant increases in cancers, diabetes and obesity, falling fertility, and an increased number of neurological development problems in both humans and animals.

The Enhanced Recovery Partnership Programme (ERPP) has published a new strategy to support the spread of enhanced recovery in the NHS.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued advice to surgeons to stop using a particular combination of metal-on-metal total hip replacements because it has a high revision rate compared with other implants.

A new NHS companion document outlines 45 best practice actions for the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma. The two can be confused due to similar symptoms and it is hoped that understanding the similarities and differences will help doctors provide better treatment.

In its final guidance the National Institute for Health and Clincial Excellence (NICE) recommends that the NHS provides fingolimod – the first pill-based medicine to help reduce the number of relapses – for some adults who have highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Monitor has published an independent report to help with the development of its policy on approving local modifications to the national tariff. Entitled A methodology for approving local modifications to the national tariff, the report was commissioned by Monitor from Frontier Economics and forms part of the growing evidence base that Monitor will use to determine its approach as sector regulator.