RECENT NEWS

Haematology clinics at Torbay Hospital have cut waiting times for blood analysis with an ABX Pentra 60C+ haematology analyser from Horiba.

Oncura, a supplier of brachytherapy products, has been awarded the contract with The London Clinic – an independent hospital – to provide radioactive seeds for their new low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy service for the treatment of prostate cancer, one of the commonest forms of cancer in men.

The UK needs to quickly improve stroke services or they will remain the worst in western Europe, a leading doctor reported in the British Medical Journal.* Professor Hugh Markus from London’s St George’s Medical School, said that patients are not treated with sufficient priority and the condition is seen as a “Cinderella” subject in the UK compared to other European countries.

The National Patient Safety Agency has announced urgent guidance alerting healthcare staff to the potential risk of confusion between different formulations of intravenous amphotericin, used to treat serious fungal infections.

Following the death of a patient during routine laparoscopic surgery, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is warning that surgery should not be performed in facilities which lack the systems and equipment to manage emergencies safely.

Five years on from his report for the Treasury, which paved the way for a 50% increase in NHS spending, Sir Derek Wanless has outlined deep concerns as well as successes in his latest review of the NHS.

Following the death of a patient during routine laparoscopic surgery, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is warning that surgery should not be performed in facilities which lack the systems and equipment to manage emergencies safely. The NPSA said the incident was exacerbated by the fact that no blood was available.

The National Patient Safety Agency has announced urgent guidance alerting healthcare staff to the potential risk of confusion between different formulations of intravenous amphotericin, used to treat serious fungal infections.

A new guideline to improve the diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/ myalgic encephalomyelitis or encephalopathy (CFS/ME) in adults and children is launched by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care.

A new Europe-wide report in the Lancet Oncology revealed improvements in cancer survival and predicted that large variations in survival between different nations may soon be reduced. However, the report also reveals that cancer survival in the UK is still below the European average and is similar to some eastern European countries that spend less than a third of the UK's healthcare budget per person.

P3 Medical has recently entered into an arrangement to offer a comprehensive range of Anios products to Infection Control and Decontamination professionals. Laboratoires Anios has been developing disinfectants and detergents in France since the 1890s but the company’s full range of products were not previously available in the UK.

Alliance Medical, a provider of MRI, PET and CT diagnostic scanning, has announced the purchase of Sequence Medical Group, an MRI service provider. Sequence Medical currently has nine contracts in hospitals in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland.

A new study investigating the potential benefits of the PSA blood test - used to help detect prostate cancer - has suggested that screening men every two years may not be any more effective than screening every four years. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing has been available since the late 1980s, but a national prostate cancer screening programme has not been introduced in the UK because the benefits are as yet unproven.

A new set of reports have been published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which assess the national implementation of its guidance across the NHS.

Research by the Soil Association reveals that a serious health threat already present in the Netherlands and other European countries, could spread to the UK. A new strain of MRSA has developed amongst intensively farmed animal on the continent, which has already transferred to farmers and their families in the Netherlands.

Beacon Hospital has installed an audio-visual system that will allow two-way interaction between the operating team and spectators in a separate seminar room, enabling teaching and training to take place.

Latest figures for MRSA show there was a 6.4% fall in the number of cases reported to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the last quarter, from January to March 2007, while the figure has fallen by 10%, over the course of the year.

Pavillion Medical has purchased the assets of T-Med Medical from Turkington Industries.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued a new guideline on the care of adult patients who are, or who become, acutely ill while in hospital.

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.