RECENT NEWS

The Healthcare Commission has published a review of the care provided by Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs). Although the review offered reassurance about the quality of services provided, with patients rating services highly, the watchdog said that there are still too many gaps in the data to be able to compare the quality of care with that provided by the NHS.

Sky Medical has secured investment from Lacomp British Enterprise EIS Funds to conduct trials for a patented technology to prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).

Orthopaedic implant and instrument manufacturing specialist, JRI, is set to launch a new £6 million facility. JRI will unveil a major re-investment in the UK and Sheffield, when the facility is officially opened by the international cricket star Darren Gough on 14 September 2007.

The Medical Defence Union paid out nearly £9 million in damages and legal costs to compensate patients harmed as a result of spinal surgery in the independent sector over a recent ten-year period.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has published his annual report on the state of public health, which calls for action in five key areas. This includes: improving levels of hand hygiene, tackling organ shortages for transplantation, reducing the risk of radiation overdoses during cancer treatment, research into “intrapartum-related deaths”, and increasing the number of women in the most senior positions in medicine.

The Medical Defence Union (MDU), which advises members on criminal matters which might arise from their clinical duties, warned that hospital doctors may face more investigations into their conduct when the Corporate Manslaughter Act comes into effect on 6 April 2008.

GPs are still prescribing antibiotics for up to 80% of cases of sore throat, otitis media, upper respiratory tract infections, and sinusitis, despite the fact that official guidance warns against this practice, according to an analysis of the world’s largest primary care database of consultations and prescriptions, published in a supplement to the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. This practice is hindering efforts to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has found that it requires three additional theatres and more UCV (Ultra-Clean Ventilation) facilities, and has therefore commissioned a new £5.5 million theatre complex, due for completion early next year.

The Government has come under fire for the declining number of maternity beds, which have decreased by 40% in some regions. Conservative leader, David Cameron, publicised new figures that show there has been an 18% reduction in the number of maternity beds for every 100,000 people – equivalent to almost 2,000 beds in the last 10 years.

SterilPlus has won the contract to provide a complete decontamination service for medical instruments used in BMI Healthcare’s three hospitals in Scotland.

Between 5% and 10% of men aged 65 to 79 are unaware they have abdominal aortic aneurysms, yet stand a very high risk of dying if their weakened arteries burst. Cochrane researchers reviewed trials, involving a total of 127,891 men and 9,342 women, which showed that men in this age group could benefit from ultrasound screening.

Last year, hospital staff gave the wrong treatment to the wrong patient on almost 25,000 occasions – 3,000 of these incidents occurred as a result of wristbands used to identify the patients.

Patients now cite fear of hospital-acquired infection as a major cause of concern and staff morale is at its lowest in wards with poor cleaning standards, an audience of infection control professionals were told at the 4th Oxoid Infection Control Seminar Day.

Australian researchers have said that avoiding the use of nitrous oxide may cut the risk of surgery complications, such as wound infections, and have highlighted a possible link with an increased risk of heart attack.* The study included 2,000 people and looked at the outcomes of operations in 19 hospitals around the world, including in the UK.

Pierre Guyot, president of the wound care division within Mölnlycke, has been appointed new president and CEO of Mölnlycke Health Care Group.

The Association of Anaesthetists has issued guidance on the perioperative management of morbidly obese patients amid concerns over patient safety.

Researchers have found a gene variant that can more than double the risk of developing the degenerative eye disease “age-related macular degeneration” (AMD), which is the most common cause of blindness in the US and Europe.

The National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment programme is investigating a new blood test for helping diagnose or rule out heart attacks.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is funding legal action against Oxfordshire PCT, for denying sight saving treatment to an 84 year-old patient, Dennis Devier.

Treatment of Alzheimer’s patients, in the UK, has been criticised in a damning report by the National Audit Office (NAO) and also by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. The NAO said the UK lags behind other EU countries in terms of early diagnosis and access to drugs, and added that the disease is being given “too low a priority by health and social services”. It found that UK performance is in the bottom third of Europe, below almost all northern and western European nations.