RECENT NEWS

The Royal College of Nursing has expressed concern that patients are facing longer hospital stays due to under-resourced community services. RCN chief executive, Dr Peter Carter said the number of district nurses in the UK has fallen by 42% over the last decade.

New research suggests that elective hernia surgery offers value-for-money and improved quality of life for patients.

Alzheimer researchers in Spain have taken a step closer to finding a blood test to help in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. With approximately 75% of the estimated 36 million Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide yet to receive a reliable diagnosis, the potential impact on the lives of possible sufferers, present and future, could be significant.

The national chair of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals, Denise Foster, is calling for the introduction of nationally recognised qualifications and training standards for all NHS cleaning staff.

Nearly three in ten people think the problems in Mid Staffordshire are widespread across the NHS, according to an Ipsos MORI poll.

The public still firmly believes in the fundamental principles underpinning the NHS but under certain circumstances could support the introduction of charges for some treatments and services, suggests a new Kings Fund and Ipsos MORI report entitled, How should we pay for healthcare in future?

The results of the ‘Trial of prophylactic vs no prophylactic platelet transfusions’ known as the TOPPS trial have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Focusing prostate cancer testing on men at highest risk of developing the disease is likely to improve the ratio between benefits and the harms of screening, suggests a paper published on bmj.com Prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening is widely used for the early detection of prostate cancer.

A survey of oncologists and haematologists in Scotland has revealed that over 39% are aware of cancer patients who have relocated to England to receive treatment.

MRI measurements of atrophy in an important area of the brain can provide an accurate predictor of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.

The number of women under 50 diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK has exceeded 10,000 for the first time according to latest statistics from Cancer Research UK.

NHS England has commissioned The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to take over the work of the NHS Technology Adoption Centre (NTAC), giving it a greater role in helping the NHS to adopt innovative technologies, such as surgical implants and diagnostic and monitoring devices.

Omalizumab (Xolair) is now available for NHS patients as an add-on treatment for severe, persistent allergic asthma in adults, adolescents and children, says NICE.

NICE has published final guidance, which recommends pirfenidone (marketed as Esbriet and manufactured by InterMune) for people who have the chronic lung condition, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with a forced vital capacity (FVC) between 50% and 80% predicted.

A poll by Doctors.net.uk shows that 70% of doctors think the NHS 111 non-emergency hotline service should be scrapped.

A new study has found that the use of regional anaesthesia in place of general anaesthesia in patients with sleep apnoea undergoing total joint replacement decreases major complications by 17%.

NICE has published final guidance recommending two treatments – vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty – for fractured bones in the vertebrae caused by osteoporosis.

Older bladder cancer patients are less likely than younger patients to receive treatments intended to cure their disease such as surgery to remove the bladder or radiotherapy.

A new toolkit from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) for the recognition and care of seriously ill patients recommends that patients admitted as emergencies should only transfer out of the acute medical unit to a ward area that has facilities to meet their clinical needs.

Ansell, a protective solutions provider, has developed a new education module, Prevention of Sharps Injuries in the Healthcare Setting, to support the European Union Directive (2010/32/EU) for implementing the Framework Agreement on prevention of sharp injuries in the healthcare sector.