National Association of Primary Care - Executive Members

NAPC News 10 May 2012

Health Reform Risk Register

The Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley, triggered a new row over the government’s controversial health reforms this week by defying an order to publish an internal risk assessment of the impact of the changes.

Opponents of the legislation had hoped that the publication of the risk assessment would expose any serious concerns.

Demand For GPs Grow As Doctors Retire

A report by Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions has warned that the number of GP appointments is steadily growing due to an ageing population, while the number of general practitioners retiring is at a ten year high.

By 2035, GPs are thought to be likely to be undertaking 433 million appointments a year, it found, up from 300 million in 2008, leaving surgeries to cope with demand.

Most of the rise in demand will be from the over 65s, doubling from about 90 million appointments today to about 180 million in 2035.

Cameras To Monitor Hospital Staff

The NHS is set to start using cameras in hospital wards to monitor staff behaviour in a bid to reduce hospital acquired infections, drive up the quality of care and improve patient safety.

One In Six Cancers Caused By Treatable Infections

New research suggests one in six cancers is caused by infections. The infections cause about two million cases of cancer each year, with 80 per cent of these occurring in the developing world.

Out of 7.5 million deaths from cancer, 1.5 million were caused by infections that could have been treated or prevented, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Call To Cut NHS Price Cap For New Drugs

Academics at York University are set to make a case for a reduction by a third in the cap on new drug costs used by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Cholesterol Injection That Could Prevent Heart Attacks

A new once a fortnight cholesterol busting injection that could save millions of lives has been hailed as a potential breakthrough in the battle against heart attacks and strokes.

The medical world has been stunned after trials of the hoped for miracle injection on volunteers found nearly three quarters of a harmful form of artery blocking cholesterol simply disappeared.

Young In North Most Likely To Have Alcohol Problems

Figures from the health campaign group, Balance, revealed a north-south divide in the prevalence of alcohol related problems.

Twice as many young people living in the North East of England receive treatment for alcohol problems than in the rest of the country. 118 in every 100,000 under-18s in the North East were treated for drink problems, which amounted to double the national average.

Terra Firma’s Care Homes’ Takeover Alarms MPs

The £820m purchase of Four Seasons Healthcare by private equity firm, Terra Firma, has prompted calls for care home owners to face a fit and proper persons test.

The government has been criticised for failing to bring in safeguards after Southern Cross collapsed last year under a huge debt pile.

The Conservative MP, Stephen Dorrell, who chairs the health select committee, said he was open to the idea of a fit and proper person test.

Dental Fraud Costing NHS £70m A Year

Dentists are claiming more than £70, a year in taxpayers’ money for NHS work they have not carried out, according to an official investigation by NHS Protect, the agency established to tackle crime in the health service.

Skills Shortage Looms With One In Four GPs Due To Retire

The NHS faces a demographic time bomb with thousands of family doctors planning to retire within five y ear, a report by the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions has warned.

Labour Will Pull Out Of Elderly Care Talks Unless Coalition Acts

Labour is prepared to pull out of cross party talks on reforming elderly care if the Coalition continues to ‘kick the issue in the long grass’.

In 2010, one of the Coalition’s first acts was to launch a commission on the funding of elderly care to prevent tens of thousands of pensioners being forced to sell their homes to pay for help each year, but the Government is understood to have ruled out providing extra money for the system.

PM Urged Not To Turn Back On Elderly

A total of 78 organisations, including Age UK, Saga, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Social Services banded together to write an open letter to the Prime Minister.

The letter said that social care was in crisis. The system was chronically underfunded and in urgent need of reform. Without this, too many older and disabled people would be left in desperate circumstances, struggling on alone, living in misery and fear.

The group praised Mr Cameron’s comments in March, when he said the current system could leave people helpless, in the dark about their care and suffering massive losses as a result of care bills.

Blood Test Offers DNA Clue To Prostate Cancer

A blood test for missing or duplicated DNA could provide a way of predicting relapsing prostate cancer, research has shown.

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that genetic abnormalities called copy number variations correlated with recurring cancers. The abnormalities found in blood enabled researchers to correctly predict 81 per cent of relapsing prostate cancers that returned after initial treatment.

Asthma Warning For Second Wet Month

Doctors have been told to prepare for a big increase in serious asthma cases after forecasters warned that record breaking rainfall would continue well into May.

The wet weather has been blamed for an increase in cases of so called thunderstorm asthma. It occurs when heavy rain stirs fungal spores, especially one called alternaria, a common allergen liked to hay fever and asthma.

Having Goals In Life Keeps Alzheimer’s At Bay

Motivated people who have goals in life are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study by a team at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago who looked at plaques and tangles in the brain, symptoms linked to the disease.

The study is published in the journal, Archives of General Psychiatry.

Quick Eaters twice As Likely To Suffer Diabetes

A study has found that people who eat faster than others are more than twice as likely to suffer from diabetes.

Researchers compare 234 people who had recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with twice that number of similar but healthy people. When questioned, those who said they ate their food faster than others were twice as likely to be in the diabetes group.

Delays That Condemn Arthritis Sufferer To Unbearable Pain

More than a quarter of arthritis sufferers have to visit their GP at least three times to get a diagnosis, a report has revealed.

The number of Britons suffering from the painful condition is expected to double over the next 20 years, due to the ageing population and higher levels of obesity.

There are an estimated 8.5 million people with osteoarthritis but by 2030 this will have reached 17 million.

Don’t Label Overweight Obese

Doctors have been advised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to avoid using the word obese, because it could be considered ‘unhelpful’ or ‘derogatory’.

Health campaigners responded by attacking the softly softly approach as ‘extremely patronising’.