Media Centre

NAPC News 11 June 2012

Quality Assurances Across CCGs Commercial Support Units

Over the next year, CCGs will be faced with the question of whether to take over legacy systems from PCTs or find more cost effective alternatives.  Leaving this too late will make it impossible to avoid such legacy arrangements, as they will have been adopted by Commissioning Support units and will become the norm by the time of the handover to CCGs.  In essence, you will, I think, be stuck with it.

Typically, the primary care support infrastructure uses teams of managers to monitor performance, absorbing overheads of anything from £500k to in excess of £1 million, and our joint research with NAPC found that quality reports were often delivered up to 2 years late.  We believe there is an enormous opportunity for CCGs to avoid inheriting the cumbersome and expensive infrastructure operated by PCTs.

Instant Quality Assurance Across CCGs

X-Genics produce a fully integrated smart system that will break this cycle of bureaucracy by simplifying the quality management and governance process with savings and efficiencies at every level from quality performance at GP practice to governance at CCG level.  This delivers:

•    Standardisation of performance across an entire CCG

•    Real time performance data and reports for every practice

•    A governance system for running the CCG

•    A single unified system that handles all forms of quality assurance from human resources, health and safety to clinical governance.

Implementation is immediate, and this sophisticated future proof system is delivered at a fraction of the cost of what PCTs have in place.

Complete Governance Systems For CCGs

X-Genics will also be launching a complete governance system for CCGs and are inviting first movers CCGs to participate in the design requirements.  ‘We work closely with clients to achieve the most practical and useful products and involving CCGs is a natural move’, said Bharat Patel, chief executive of X-Genics.  ‘Our aim is to give the market easy to use products that bypass bureaucracy and make dramatic efficiency savings’.

For further information,  email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web site: www.xgencis.com

Tel No: +44 (0) 0845 680 9204

Legionnaires’ Linked To Distillery

It has been reported that cooling towers have been shut down at a whisky distillery in Edinburgh, which is at the centre of an investigation into an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

The Health and Safety Executive has served an improvement notice on the North British Distillery for alleged failures to adequately control risks of legionella in one tower.  The Distillery said it had taken its towers offline and had halted production at its Gorgie plant as a precaution.

Alzheimer’s Vaccination

A vaccine which could cut the number of Alzheimer’s cases in half has passed it first human trials.  The vaccine, called CAD106, was tested in patients aged 50 to 80 over a three year period.

The authors of the study in Lancet Neurology called it a ‘promising option in the treatment of people suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease’.

Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘This trial is an important first step.  Large scale trials of CAD106 will determine whether it can help people’s memory and thinking skills.’

Operation To Treat Prostate Cancer In Only Half An Hour

A form of prostate cancer treatment that takes only 30 minutes has been devised by British surgeons.  This means that men are out of hospital and back at work much sooner and are much less likely to suffer problems such as impotence and incontinence.

The technique is just as effective as surgery but is cheaper and has fewer side effects.

Food Allergies  - The City Curse

Children living in heavily built up urban centres have more food allergies than those living in rural areas, according to a study.

The US study, in Clinical Pediatrics journal, investigated 38,465 children aged 18 and under.  It found that in urban centres, 9.8 per cent had food allergies, compared with 6.2 per cent in rural communities.

Nurses Pay An Extra £44

Nurses and midwives will be asked to pay an extra £44 per year to be allowed to work. In a revised registration arrangement, the Nursing and Midwifery Council plans to raise its registration fee from £76 to £120.

The government has now been urged to subsidise registration.  In a rare move, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and Unite issued a joint statement saying the rise was excessive and unacceptable.

Drug Offers Better Life For Terminal Kidney Patients

For patients with terminal kidney cancer, treatment is focused on extending life as comfortably as possible.

Now, an  unique trial, which was unveiled at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago last week, has shown that patients fare far better on a new, lesser known drug – Votrient (pazopanib).

Robot Arm Helps Surgeons Help Treat Mouth Cancer In One Hour

Cases of squamous cell carcinoma, the most common type of mouth cancer, have increased threefold in recent years.  6,000 new cases were reported in the UK in 2009. 

The disease can be caused by smoking and alcohol consumption, but it also linked to human papillomavirus.

Pioneering robotic surgery is allowing doctors to remove cancer in the mouth without leaving a scar.

Child Neglect Cases Reported To NSPCC Rise 30% In A Year

According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, there has been a sharp rise in reports of child neglect, which will increase the pressure on already stretched children’s services.

New figures released by the NSPCC, show that reports of neglect to its helpline have doubled over the last two years to reach record levels.

In the year to March 2012, counsellors working on the charity’s 24 hour free phone service dealt with more than 12,000 calls about neglect, up by a third on last year alone.

Rescue NHS Hospital £33m In Red

Unison Chief Executive, Dave Prentis, is already calling for ministers to take back control of the first NHS hospital just recently being managed by a private company, with the hospital running up losses of £33 million.

Circle Health has posted up a loss of £32.9 mill for 2011/12 on a turnover of £74.6 million.

Andrew Lansley warned of the risks, when he handed over Hinchingbrooke hospital, which had debts of £40 million in a ten year £1 million deal.

Patients At Risk From Junior Doctors

A survey of doctors published in the British Medical Journal Careers has warned that hospital patients are being put at risk by ‘incompetent’ junior doctors who have not had enough hands-on training because of a limit on their working hours by Europe.

The survey questioned 615 foundation level doctors and found that 87 per cent believed that ‘incompetent trainees could obtain satisfactory results from workplace based assessments.’

Glaxo Extends Bid Deadline

GlaxoSmithKline’s battle to take over its partner, Human Genome Sciences, is turning increasingly toxic after a poison pill forced the British company to extend its $2.6bn offer to shareholders of the US biotech firm.

GSK is looking to appoint its own nominees to the HGS board, which has consistently refused its advances.