RECENT NEWS

Patients will be guaranteed the choice of being able to book an advance appointment with a GP under measures to improve access to family doctor services announced by Health Minister, Lord Warner.

At a recent ceremony at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre in Exeter, president of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), Michael Benson presented a plaque to the people involved in the landmark 1970 “Exeter hip” operation which set new standards in the field of hip implants.

Speaking at the Infection Control Nurses Association (ICNA) conference in Torquay in September, Chief Nurse Christine Beasley launched an online training tool for all NHS staff, designed to raise awareness of the key procedures needed to help reduce infection.

Students undertaking nursing and midwifery diplomas in England are to continue to receive their NHS bursary payments throughout pregnancy and childbirth, Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt has announced. Interim arrangements, which have been backdated to 1 June 2005, aim to ensure that women who would have otherwise had to abandon their studies can continue to pursue a career in the NHS.

Over one person in eight of the British population has family or friends who have contracted MRSA this is the alarming statistic from a nationwide poll from Talley Environmental Care that goes state that a quarter of Britons are just one step away from MRSA, with the real figure possibly closer to a half.

New research shows a quarter of all people with diabetes may not be receiving treatment because they are either undiagnosed or not on practice registers. Information from over 250,000 people in England, in Europe’s largest national audit published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre on behalf of the Healthcare Commission, reveals the level and extent of diabetes care in England.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has launched its “No to 65!” campaign, in an effort to urge the Government to rethink plans to compel nurses to carry on working until 65. Nurses from across the UK have said they will not rule out the option of industrial action if the Government raises their retirement age to 65.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health have launched a clinical guideline on the treatment and management of depression in children and young people.

Users of mental health services have praised the care they get from NHS doctors, nurses and other specialist staff, including psychologists and social workers, in a major national survey published recently. However, the mental health patient survey, published by the Healthcare Commission, also highlights a number of areas where care could be improved, including better emergency support and better information on the side effects of medication.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published new statistics on work-related ill health in Great Britain. For the first time these identify the contributing factors recorded by specialist doctors involved in cases of musculoskeletal disorders and mental ill health.

Landmark trial results published recently reveal that changing the way people suffering from Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS), or “threatened heart attack” are treated could save more than 5,000 lives each year in the UK.

A new online resource that enables both healthcare professionals and the general public to access up-to-date information about pre-diabetes is now available at www.glucoforum.org. This new site actively addresses the growing problem of pre-diabetes, a condition that is estimated to affect over 60 million people in Europe alone. For health professionals, a “registered users only” area is available which contains detailed clinical and scientific content, whereas the general public can access easy to understand and user-friendly advice.

The International Relations Committee (IRC) of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland has announced the launch of the Overseas Anaesthesia Fund as part of a campaign for greater access to safe anaesthesia and pain relief in the developing world.

Patients with kidney problems are seeing a real change in how they receive their care, with services becoming more patient-centred and responsive, according to a report published recently by the Department of Health. It also praises the momentum that has built up in the renal community since the publication of Part One of the Renal National Service Framework (NSF). This progress has been reinforced by the publication of Part Two in February this year, which has been warmly endorsed by primary care and other bodies.

GE Healthcare, a division of the General Electric Company, has announced that it is to join forces with Oxford University to study the pathology of colorectal cancer, with the aim of achieving earlier diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The two-year collaboration is the first ever to focus on developing a comprehensive disease management program which will focus on improved staging of the disease using both imaging and genomic pathology, targeted therapy selection and efficacy assessment, and overalltreatment monitoring. A major goal will be to create a coherent picture of a patient’s disease and determine the most effective treatment.

Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt has announced that women who are diagnosed from 3 October this year onwards with early stage breast cancer will have the opportunity to be treated with the drug Herceptin. This means that the lives of around 1,000 women a year will be saved – the same number of lives saved by the NHS national breast cancer screening programme for roughly the same cost.

www.effectivestrokecare.org, the new website of the Stroke Therapy Evaluation Programme (STEP) has been officially launched in a direct attempt to break down the barriers that prevent health professionals keeping up to date with rapidly increasing volumes of high quality research.

Nurses are taking on complex and advanced roles, co-ordinating packages of care and developing and modernising services, according to research by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Department of Health. The survey looked at nurses working in new and extended roles and highlighted how they were developing their jobs to provide innovative new services and better patient care.

Measures to prevent strokes, limitation of brain damage in trauma and stroke, and prospects for enhancing recovery after traumatic brain injury (TBI), will be issues addressed at a two-day conference in London.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has called on NHS leaders to kick start a big programme of public engagement in order to shape the future of NHS family health services.