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NAPC News 21 May 2012

Coordinate My Care

Coordinate My Care (CMC) is a new clinical service now hitting the headlines that is underpinned by an electronic register and record.

It enables patients with complex needs to be managed by multiple health and social care providers across multiple setting in acute and primary care.  The keys to CMC are coordination and communication.

Full details can be found here : http://www.napc.co.uk/index.php/napc-library3/file/104-cmc?start=20

Most GPs Cannot Recognise Alzheimer’s

Only 37 per cent of GPs say that they have adequate basic training on dementia, according to research by the Alzheimer’s Society.

Around 800,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia, costing the economy more than £23bn every year. In less than 10 years, it is estimated that a million people will be living with the condition, rising to 1.7 million by 2051.

When asked what the barriers were to identifying the disease were, 65 per cent  of GPs said  that many people with dementia did not present to General Practice, and 66 per cent also cited the stigma attached to the disease as putting patients off visiting their GPs.

AZ Push To Revive Trial Drugs Pipeline

Martin Mackay, President of Research and Development at AstraZeneca, has said that it plans to seal several new deals this year to fill its depleted pipeline of experimental medicines.

Why Snoring Could Be A Cancer Warning Sign

Snorers may have a heightened risk of dying from cancer, according to a new study at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Previous laboratory tests on mice have shown that oxygen starvation, which can be caused by snoring, promotes tumour growth.  Mild snorers were just 0.1 times more likely to die from cancer than those without the problem.  But moderate snorers doubled the chances of cancer death, while severe snorers increased the risk 4.8 times.

Risk Of Alzheimer’s Linked To Saturated Fats

A study by US researchers linked to Harvard University has claimed that eating too much red meat, butter and other foods that contain high levels of saturated fats could increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Researchers made their conclusions based on results from 6,000 women over 65, who carried out a series of mental tests over four years.  Older women who ate lots of food high in saturated fats had worse memories than those who ate more mono-saturated fats, found in olive oil, sunflower oil, nuts and avocados.

Dr Olivia Okereke from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said: ‘When looking at changes in cognitive function, what we found is that the total amount of fat intake did not really matter, but the type of fat did’.

Statins Ward Off Cancer In Transplant Patients

A study of patients in Zurich found that statins, the drugs that are used to lower cholesterol, could also prevent cancer in heart transplant patients.

Following a study which was conducted between 1985 and 2007, doctors suggested that statins should be recommended to the over 50s at risk of heart attack and stroke was reduced by a fifth, even in those who had no sign of heart disease.

People In Wealthy Regions Live 20 Years Longer

The life expectancy of those living in England’s most deprived areas is up to twenty years lower than those in affluent Southern parishes.

Research by the Church Urban Fund show a significant north/south divide.  Women from Everton, Toxteth in Liverpool can expect to live to 74, while their counterparts in Comberton, Cambridgeshire, have an average life expectancy of 94.

Global Emergency To Be Called In Polio Battle

The World Health Organisation is expected to declare polio a global health emergency this week.

Sona Bari, a spokesman for the polio eradication programme, said the world faced a ‘now or never’ moment, and failing to stamp out the disease could mean as many as 200,000 children crippled by it in the next decade.

This year has seen a decline in cases, but health officials said they had only half the $2 billion needed to wipe out the disease in its remaining havens of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

GPs Go Online To End 8am Rush

Ministers will encourage GPs to book appointments online, in an attempt to me the health service more customer friendly. 

Under the NHS Information Strategy to be launched today by Andrew Lansley, all surgeries will have to allow patients to receive test results and view medical record via the computer or smart phone.  Patients will also be able to email surgeries direct, ending the irritation of jammed switchboards, and repeat prescriptions will be approved online, saving visits to surgeries.

Long Shifts Put Doctors At Risk

Delegates at a British Medical Association conference at the weekend said that tired junior doctors were putting lives in danger by driving home after long inhuman shifts.

Simon Burns, the health minister, backed the call for doctors to be given time to rest.  ‘Safety of patients, and the doctors who treat them, is of the utmost importance in the NHS’, he said.

NHS Event Celebrates Its Transgender Staff

The NHS has funded a ‘human rights week’ with dozens of events, including a photographic exhibition celebrating transgender staff.

However, patients’ groups have criticised the spending at a time when services and jobs are under threat, as the NHS attempts to make £20 billion in efficiency savings.

Lawyers Told Doctors To Exaggerate Crash Injuries

Lawyers for accident victims routinely asked doctors to exaggerate the extent of their injuries to help them win compensation, a tribunal has heard.

A former employee of Claim Time Solicitors told the tribunal she was forced out of her job after she expressed concerns about the practice.

Big Mac Healthier Than NHS Food

A Big Mac is healthier than 75 per cent of NHS meals, a study has revealed.  One curry served to  patients had six times more fat than a KFC Zinger Burger with fries, and pasta dish had over three times a person’s total daily recommended saturated fat intake and twice the salt limit.

The Department of Health said hospitals decided diets, but admitted: ‘There is no excuse for any hospital offering poor quality food.  Good quality nutritious food is vital.’

Women Over 40 Will Get Free Fertility Treatment

Women over 40 will be entitled to free fertility treatment on the NHS for the first time, under Government guidelines to be published this week.

The NHS is set to extend the controversial upper age limit for IVF by three years to 42, following advice that suggests many women in their late 30s and early 40s could conceive after treatment.

The update, by government rationing watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, is also expected to make it easier for couples hoping to start a family to access fertility treatment.

Plea For Use Of Overdose Cure

The Advisory Council on the Misuse Drugs has written to health minister, Anne Milton, to propose naxolone, an antidote to heroin overdoses, should be available, without prescription, despite claims that this would create a safety net for drug users and potentially encourage greater use of class A drugs.

The drug is currently only available on prescription, which means people working with drugs users cannot keeps stocks or carry them in case of emergency.

Trying For A Baby Can Make Men Impotent

Research in the Journal of Andrology said that after six months of the stress of so-called ‘timed intercourse’, at least four out of ten men suffered erectile dysfunction or impotence, and many had tried to avoid having sex with their partners at the allotted time.

Dr Simon Fishel, managing director of Care Fertility, and one of the world’s leading fertility treatment specialists, described the study as important ‘ because it highlights further the social an psychological impact of infertility and its treatment.’

Commenting on the study, Dr Mike Wyllie, who was a member of the team that discovered and developed Viagra, and who is now chief scientific officer of the drug discovery company, Plethora, said: ‘In the design of drugs such a Viagra, the pharmaceutical industry considered an essential feature of any drug action was not to compromise spontaneity, and this new analysis shows that any formalising of the sexual act can be counterproductive,’