NAPC Bulletin 24 April 2012

News From NAPC

Today a conference of the Coalition of NAPC and NHS Alliance, as NHS Clinical Commissioning (NHS CC) is taking place for CCG leaders, which will be attended by the Secretary of State for Health, the Chairman of the NHS Commissioning Board, Malcolm Grant, as well as Dame Barbara Hakin from the Department of Health, and others from Monitor and from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

It will be followed by the first meeting of the transitional steering group of NHS CC and then by dinner at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Tamiflu Email Fury

The government is at the centre of a dossier row involving Tamiflu after press officer played down its side effects by trying to alter an official Freedom of Information (FOI) response.

Emails obtained by the press showed how the Department of Health’s press officer asked to revise a crucial paragraph in the FOI response by adding the claim that side effects were rare.

An expert form the Department of Health and an official from the medicines watchdog overruled the amendment after pointing out side effects were common.

Traffic Fumes Stunt Growth Of Children’s Lungs

A study by the Royal London Hospital has found that exposure to traffic pollution is stunting the growth of children’s lungs, cutting their breathing power by up to 17%.

It is the latest in a growing body of evidence, which suggests that particulates are becoming a health hazard on a par with the smogs that killed thousands of people in London in the 1950s.

Frank Kelly, Professor of Environmental Health at King’s College, London, who is overseeing the much larger Exhale study of which this study is a component, said: ‘In the inner city each cubic centimetre of air on a main road has 150,000 particles in it.  That means people walking or cycling along them inhale 60m particles with each breath.

Britain’s 100,000 Mutilated Women

Up to 100,000 women in Britain have undergone brutal sexual mutilations and some medics in this country are offering to carry out these illegal operations.

Female genital mutilation, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and, in some cases, the stitching of the vaginal opening, is widespread across parts of Africa.

Forward, a charity that campaigns against such mutilation, revealed at the weekend that an estimated 100,000 women in Britain had undergone mutilating genital surgery.

Men Abandon Bad Habits To Outlive Women

Boys born at the start of the millennium and now aged 12 can expect to live to an average age of 87.1, catching up with girls of the same age.  Younger boys will go on to surpass the girls’ life spans.

The controversial forecast, by an adviser on population projection to the Office for National Statistics, would mark an extraordinary turnaround in the fortunes between the sexes.

As recently as 1970, a man of 30 would expect to die 5.7 years before a woman of the same age, the widest gap between the sexes since records began in 1841.

North-South Pay Divide Debate Continues

NHS staff could be paid less in the North than those in the South under controversial government plans.  Only executives in the new NHS bodies being set up would be exempt, as the Department of Health takes the view that they would need pay premiums to ‘attract and retain high-calibre leaders.’ 

The plan was revealed in a submission to the NHS pay review body from the Department of Health.  It would effectively see the end of a national pay scale introduced in 2004 that standardised pay grades of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the NHS.

State Should Pay For Care Of The Terminally Ill

According the Andy Burnham, Shadow Health Secretary, the state should cover the care costs of all terminally ill patients to ensure they can die at home, rather than in hospital.

Mr Burnham said that if Labour was in power he would abolish means testing for those on an end of life register, so that families were not put off by the prospect of form filling.

At present, people who choose to die at home face a means test for social support, which could leave families with large bills for the cost of home help and other such services.  But patients admitted to hospital get care free on the NHS.

Mr Burnham said that by allowing more people to choose home-based end of life care, the number of hospital deaths would be reduced, potentially saving the NHS millions.

Roche Is Looking For Alternatives After Bid Snub

Roche is looking for alternatives after it dropped a $6.8bn hostile offer for genetic specialist, Illumina.

After dripping the offer, chief executive, Severin Schwan, said last week that Roche would look for other ways to expand its leadership in the diagnostic business.

Whooping Cough Is On The Rise

Figures from the Health Protection Agency have suggested that rates of whooping cough are on the increase.

So far there have been 65 cases in babies under three months, compared with the expected average of 35 in a year, and this has prompted doctors to urge parents to ensure children receive the full vaccination course.

While 95 per cent of one year olds have received their first does, only 88 per cent have received their booster shots by the age of five.

Fizzy Drinks Increase The Risk Of Suffering Stroke

People who consume fizzy drinks regularly are at greater risk of suffering a stroke, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

More than one serving of sugar-sweetened fizzy drink per day led to an increased rate of high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Researchers found that drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of an attack.

Avocado Hailed AS New Anti-Ageing Superfood

The avocado has been hailed as a new superfood that could help millions fight the ageing process, diabetes and cancer. A study has discovered that avocado oil is able to directly combat free radicals, which are destructive and unstable.

It is known that environmental factors, such as pollution, cigarette smoke and radiation, can turn oxygen found in mitochondria, the energy creating power houses of cells, into free radicals.  These destroy normal molecules in cells, such as proteins, wreaking havoc on healthy cells, leading to ageing and cancer.

Previous studies of known antioxidants in vegetables and fruits, such as carrots and tomatoes, have revealed they are unable to enter the mitochondria.  But this study found that oil in avocado was able to help the survival of cells exposed to high concentrations of free radicals.

Anorexia Linked To Brain Problem

New research has indicated that mental illnesses are caused by a brain abnormality, challenging long-held beliefs about psychological disorders.

Psychologist, Dr Ian Frampton, of Exeter University, and Profess Brian Lask of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital used novel scanning techniques to reveal that the brains of anorexics were malfunctioning in the insula, a key area that controls eating, anxiety and body image.  This persists after weight recovery, suggesting the problem exists before the onset of the illness.

Dr Frampton commented: ‘The discovery of differences in the insula begins to explain why anorexics behave the way they do.  Not all adolescents are susceptible to excessive dieting.  It is only those who have this biological defect.’

Happy Moods Improve Crohn’s Disease

Antidepressants may ease the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to new research by Barts and the London NHS Trust.

Doctors analysed data on patients who had been prescribed antidepressants for mood disorders and who had also been diagnosed with IBD. 

Result showed that one year after starting antidepressants, not only did mood improve but patients had fewer relapses and needed fewer steroids to control the symptoms. 

In a comparable group of those with IBD who did not have antidepressants, there were no changes.

David Rampton, professor of gastroenterology at Barts, who led the study, said: ‘These are interesting preliminary results but there now need to be clinical trials to assess the effects of antidepressants on the activity of bowel inflammation.

Legal High Party Drugs Banned After Man’s Death

The government is to announce that popular party drugs, Ivory Wave and Bonsai, which cause hallucinations and paranoia, are to be made illegal on the recommendation of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘So called legal highs are frequently toxic chemicals and sometimes contain illegal drugs.  They are not safe.’