RECENT NEWS

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.

Medical research charity, The National Kidney Research Fund (the Fund), has announced a unique collaborative partnership in the field of long-term outcomes in renal transplantation. The STEPP programme brings the resources of three of the UK’s leading transplant companies – Astellas (formerly Yamanouchi and Fujisawa), Roche and Wyeth, together with the expertise of the major professional groups in the field – The Renal Association and British Transplantation Society. The project will use IT-based solutions to ensure better management of patient information, promote evidence-based decision-making and improve the health and well being of patients who are transplanted, or are considering transplantation as a treatment for renal failure.

Cancer Research UK will launch a three-year campaign in November 2005 to raise awareness of the risks and symptoms of mouth cancer, with funding from the Department of Health. The new campaign will focus on raising awareness of the early signs of mouth cancer and the importance of early detection.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has launched a £1 million audit project aimed at revolutionising the way cardiac rehabilitation services in the UK operate. The National Cardiac Rehabilitation Audit Project will, for the first time, begin to harvest quality data about the effectiveness and uptake of cardiac rehabilitation programmes across the UK.

Strokes could be predicted and prevention improved by use of a risk score developed by scientists at Oxford University, according to new research published by The Lancet in June 2005. The findings, part-funded by The Stroke Association, could mean a change to the way that people who have had Transient Ischaemic Attacks (TIAs) or “mini strokes” are assessed and treated.

The training of doctors and other healthcare professionals looks set to be transformed with the launch of the country’s newest post-graduate medical school by Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, in June 2005.

A new drive to help beat bowel cancer has been unveiled by Health Minister Rosie Winterton. Beginning in April 2006, men and women aged 60-69 will be offered screening every two years for a disease that kills 16,000 a year, yet if caught early, has a survival rate of 90%.

Chief Nursing Officer Chris Beasley has launched the consultation regarding the future development of mental health nursing in England.

Leading cardiovascular disease experts attending the annual meeting of the European Society of Hypertension in June 2005, have issued a “call to action”, urging members of the worldwide medical community to shift treatment practices for cardiovascular disease (CVD) away from treating individual risk factors in isolation to a comprehensive strategy focusing on the whole patient.

New figures published recently by Health Minister Lord Warner show a continued fall in the NHS’s three-month vacancy rates, which, according to the Department of Health, means more NHS jobs are being filled.

The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) has announced new support arrangements which will ensure full backing for the coming year to allow Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) forums to influence health decision making.

In its recently published report on 200 A&E departments in England, the Healthcare Commission has urged hospitals to monitor variations in the quality of care in accident and emergency departments. The report states that the majority of patients are happy with the standard of care they receive in A&E, but it suggests that performance varies widely.

Four inter-linked research studies into a pilot project in London offering patients choice on where to have their operations have been published, showing that choice is broadly welcomed by patients, who are often sophisticated in their decision-making.

Significant findings from two UK clinical trials targeting the third biggest cause of sudden death in Britain suggest that the initial benefits of a new minimally invasive surgical technique are maintained at four years for low risk patients. However, for high risk patients – for whom the technique was designed in the first place – endovascular aneurysm repair offers no benefit.