RECENT NEWS

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has joined forces with almost 40 of the UK’s leading health organisations to warn that cutting specialist nurse services for people with long-term conditions would be a “false economy”, as they began a campaign for guaranteed access to specialist nursing care for all patients with long-term conditions.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued final draft guidance recommending the drug rituximab (MabThera) as a treatment for certain patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Final guidance will be published later this year.

The Royal College of Surgeons has claimed that NHS operating lists and outpatient clinics for children are still being cancelled across the country due to the “chaotic” introduction of new Government safeguarding regulations, despite repeated warnings from surgeons.

People at risk of having the Hepatitis C virus are being encouraged to come forward for testing as part of a new Scottish Government campaign. The communications campaign is designed to tackle the current Hepatitis C epidemic by increasing awareness of the virus among at-risk groups, and encouraging them to come forward for testing.

People at high risk of having a stroke are half as likely to have a stroke or die following surgery to repair damage to an artery in the neck, rather than “stenting” treatment, according to UCL research published in the Lancet.

A fifth of stroke survivors questioned in England for a recent survey did not receive any posthospital physiotherapy on the NHS, meaning they either had to pay for private treatment or go without any.

The 2010 Clinical Engineering Team of the Year Award is open for entry, sponsored by Welch Allyn.

Doctors are vulnerable to aggressive, demanding, abusive or even violent patients and feel ill-equipped to manage such consultations, according to an MDU survey. Of 172 GPs and hospital doctors who responded to the survey, over half (99) said they had been physically or verbally assaulted in the last five years.

Action Against Medical Accidents (a charity dedicated to patient safety) has published a damning report highlighting failures to implement patient safety recommendations issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).

Organised by 3M, the 9th European Infection Prevention Expert Conference, is taking place in Neuss, Germany, on the 21-22d April 2010.

This conference is taking place on Wednesday 19 May 2010 at the Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester and will provide a practical guide to eliminating central line and ventilator associated infection.

The development of the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) from advisor to assessor has placed a strong emphasis on the improvement and standardisation of NHS endoscopy facilities in recent months.

If GPs and hospital doctors directed some elderly patients to a care support service that allowed them to continue living in their own homes, “lost years” in old age could be avoided, according to Fiona Lowry, chief executive of The Good Care Group.

NICE is updating its clinical guideline on the management of chronic heart failure in adults and has published its draft recommendations for public consultation.

The BMA has warned that plans to allow patients to pay directly for services could “undermine equality in the NHS in England, create a new layer of bureaucracy, divert funding to unproven treatments, and result in some patients not getting the care they need”.

The NHS could save £1.2 billion through the free provision of home-based hospital care, according to the report Hospital care at home.

New guidance, produced by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and frontline services across England and Wales, has been published aimed at ensuring clinicians store vaccines at the recommended manufacturer temperature range.

A report by the BMA claims that hospital services in London could close or be down-graded as healthcare in the capital heads towards “a major financial and organisational crisis”, with the imposition of real term cuts of £5 billion by 2017.

Gillian Merron, public health minister, has asked NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) to lead a team of experts in creating a new 10-year strategy for the provision of blood stem cells, including those from cord blood to fight leukaemias and other blood disorders.

An analysis of bariatric surgery claims, published by the Medical Defence Union (MDU), reveals that there has been a dramatic rise in the number of cases notified in the past two years.