RECENT NEWS

This year sees the launch of the new “Clinical Engineering Team of the Year” award from Welch Allyn. The award seeks to reward teams of clinical and biomedical engineers by recognising their contribution to healthcare in the UK.

Patients in the North West of England and North Wales are set to benefit from innovative cardiac imaging services as a result of an agreement signed between the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and medical imaging company Alliance Medical. The eightyear agreement will see thousands of NHS patients scanned over the lifetime of the contract.

The target of reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease for people under 75 by 40% has been met by the Department of Health five years early, according to the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) National Service Framework (NSF) Progress Report.

Prosurgics and Adept Technology are to collaborate in the launch of a new generation of surgical robotic systems for image guided and navigated neurological and soft tissue surgery.

Ecolab’s centre of excellence for contamination control, Shield Medicare, is celebrating a major step in its development with the opening of a purpose-built manufacturing facility at Baglan Energy Park, near Swansea.

A study conducted by the Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer has indicated that the contraceptive pill offers women substantial long-term protection against the disease.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has announced a package of measures to recruit an extra 4,000 midwives to the NHS over the next three years. During a visit to the Royal Victoria Infirmary Maternity Unit in Newcastle, the Health Secretary outlined plans to give former midwives a “golden hello” worth up to £3,000 to help them return to work after a break in service.

Architects Race Cottam Associates have designed a new critical care unit at the Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital. The development will provide wards with a higher proportion of single rooms, where nursing staff are more able to cope with complex medical conditions.

Skin secretions from South America’s Paradoxical frog could be used to treat Type 2 diabetes, according to research announced at Diabetes UK’s Annual Professional Conference in Glasgow.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has issued a statement supporting new immigration rules that will restrict international medical graduates’ (IMGs) access to UK post-graduate medical training.

Only one in ten of women with breast cancer have access to reconstruction surgery at the time of their mastectomy, despite recommendations from NICE. These are the early findings of the National Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction Audit, published by the Royal College of Surgeons and the NHS Information Centre.

A request by the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) to its members for information on outsourced decontamination of instruments has highlighted concerns. More than threequarters of those who responded are said to have reported negative experiences.

This year sees the launch of the new “Clinical Engineering Team of the Year” award from Welch Allyn. The award seeks to reward teams of Clinical and Biomedical Engineers by recognising their contribution to healthcare in the UK.

A vascular surgeon at Lanarkshire Hospital has carried out the first endovascular iliac branch aneurysm repair operation in Scotland.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has announced a package of measures to recruit an extra 4,000 midwives to the NHS over the next three years.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has issued a statement supporting new immigration rules that will restrict international medical graduates' (IMGs) access to UK post-graduate medical training.

Royal Philips Electronics has announced that it will lead a new European Union (EU) funded research project aimed at improving care of heart patients through the development of telemonitoring solutions. The HeartCycle consortium will work to improve the quality of care for coronary heart disease and heart failure patients by developing systems for monitoring their condition at home and involving them in the daily management of their disease.

Scientists at the University of Portsmouth have won nearly half a million pounds to develop a way of allowing drugs to be delivered straight to the brain. The grant allows a team to spend the next three years trying to unlock the blood brain barrier to allow drugs to be targeted at diseases including cancer. The £451,000 grant was given by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has announced its interim Appraisal Committee Decision on the use of Tarceva (erlotinib) as a treatment for non small cell lung cancer.

Doctors in Manchester have begun a drug trial that could stop hundreds of thousands of people in the UK from going blind.