RECENT NEWS

An updated report on Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK has been published.

Timesco of London has relocated to a new 26,000 ft2 head quarters in Basildon, Essex, to handle growth in both UK and international business.

With SmartCare/PS, a Dräger Medical system designed for weaning ICU patients from artificial ventilation, more than 600 million euros could be saved each year in Germany alone.

A36-year-old woman lung cancer patient has become the first person in Switzerland to be treated using a highly-targeted radiotherapy technique called extra-cranial stereotactic radiotherapy.

The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, has gone live with a Somatom Sensation 64 CT system and Magnetom Espree MR system from Siemens Medical Solutions.

Anew report entitled Diabetes Heartache, the hard reality of cardiovascular care for people with diabetes, reveals that up to 2.4 million people with diabetes are at risk of dying of cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart disease or stroke, if nothing is done to improve awareness, prevention and treatment.

This year, Completing the Picture, the educational symposium for clinical and biomedical engineers, will be held in central London at the Barbican Centre on 7 June.

In a move to deliver the most modern and effective clinical sterile services in the UK, BMI Healthcare has agreed a 12-year contract with Vanguard AG for its 49 private hospitals in the UK.

The first Patient and Public Champion to monitor NHS efforts to reach the Government’s target of reducing waiting times to 18 weeks has been announced by Health Minister Andy Burnham.

Airedale NHS Trust has landed two major accolades at the 2007 Yorkshire Productivity Awards for its ground-breaking work in implementing “lean” policies and practices to dramatically cut waiting times at Airedale General Hospital, Steeton.

The Greater Manchester Collaborative Procurement Hub (CPH) has placed an order with Philips’ distributors in the UK, Cardiac Services, for the purchase of a million pounds worth of monitor/defibrillators, including the HeartStart MRx and HeartStart FR2+.

A written constitution for the NHS, overseen by an independent board of governors, is recommended in the BMA’s proposals for the future of the NHS in England.

The 37th Annual Infection Control Conference 2007 is to be held at The Brighton Centre, Brighton, from 24 to 26 September.

In a strategic alliance with Howorth Medical, Maquet and Fulbourn Medical, OR Networks, developers of ORTV, has launched the OR3G Operating Theatre.

Improved levels of risk management standards in NHS hospitals would reduce MRSA infections by between 11% and 20%, according to new research by Professor Neil Rickman of the University of Surrey and colleagues.

Olympus UK has announced that the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford has won the top prize out of 130 entries at the prestigious 2007 Government Computing Awards for Innovation 2007.

Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust in Croydon has been chosen to pilot a new electronic tracking system to further improve the safety of blood transfusions, the National Patient Safety Agency and NHS Connecting for Health have announced.

Laerdal Medical has opened a purpose-built training facility at its head office in Orpington, Kent. The new centre facilitates realistic, scenario-based learning in simulated prehospital and in-hospital environments, utilising Laerdal’s innovative patient simulators and training products together with hi-tech, interactive AV equipment.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has appointed Martin Fletcher as its new chief executive. Martin Fletcher joins from the World Health Organization (WHO), where he had been based in Geneva.

The 37th annual conference of the Infection Control Nurses Association will be held at the Brighton Centre in Brighton from 24 to 26 September 2007.