RECENT NEWS

Ambulance services in England have been given a strong endorsement for the way they deal with people who have non-urgent medical problems. Survey results released by the Care Quality Commission show that most of those who responded to the survey had a positive experience of the way they were looked after by the emergency ambulance service.

The RCN has launched phone line to allow members to talk in confidence about patient safety concerns at their workplace.

British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) members are pioneering the UK’s largest randomised controlled drug intervention trial into the use of aspirin for gastrointestinal cancer prevention.

New guidance on child protection has been published by the BMA to help doctors dealing with suspected cases of abuse or neglect.

The NHS spent £350 million on external management consultants in the last financial year.

Thousands of people with or at risk of developing a potentially blinding form of glaucoma will benefit from a new guideline published by NICE and the National Clinical Guideline Centre.

NHS Evidence, a new service, will allow people working across health and social care to access a comprehensive range of sources of clinical and non-clinical evidence to help them make informed decisions about treatments and resources.

For men younger than 50 with prostate cancer, undergoing a radical prostatectomy can greatly increase their chances for longterm survival, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital.

The Department of Health is to provide £1.6 million to Macmillan to improve services and support for those living with and beyond cancer, Health Minister, Ann Keen announced.

A multi-disciplinary team of scientists from the University of Leicester could be potentially paving the way for the development of a powerful new strategy for both the early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Building work to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation in hospitals across England has started with over 700 projects planned across 200 organisations, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced.

The British Association of Urological Nurses (BAUN) has announced a free study day aimed at urology and oncology nurses working in both the community and the acute sector, as well as nursing professionals with an interest in the management and treatment of prostate cancers.

Significantly more patients have rated their hospital wards and bathrooms as “very clean” and more have noticed doctors and nurses washing their hands between patients, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed, following its national inpatient survey.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA Council, has written to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, to request that he intervenes to ensure that the UK does not lose further doctors as a result of recent changes to the immigration system.

Researchers from the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College London, working in collaboration with the World Health Organization and public health agencies in Mexico, have assessed the threat presented by the new strain of influenza A (H1N1) in Mexico.

Despite many improvements in stroke services over the past decade, a quarter of patients in the National Sentinel Audit for Stroke 2008 were not offered the best treatment for stroke – a stay in a dedicated stroke unit.

The Department of Health will have to contribute £2.3 bn in additional savings, as part of £5 bn “efficiencies in spending” across the public sector in 2010/11, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced.

Nurses and other frontline healthcare staff are being alerted to the risks of accidentally inserting shorter-length urinary catheters – intended for use only in female patients – into male patients.

In 2007, the National Audit Office reported that primary care Trusts (PCTs) could save more than £200 million a year without compromising patient care if cheaper, generic medicines were prescribed.

Research, published by the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, warns of a six-month time lag before effective vaccines can be manufactured in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak.