NAPC News 2 March 2010

Care Pledge From Nurses

Nurses may have to make a ‘vow' under new rules to provide quality patient care. The plan, by the Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery, follows cases such as the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust scandal, where up to 1,200 patients died as a result of poor care.

Steep Rise In Child Cocaine Users

Growing numbers of children have been treated for cocaine addiction, according to the latest NHS figures. The number of under-18s treated between 2005 and 2009 increased from 453 to 745, a 65 per cent rise, the National Treatment Agency in England concluded.

Consultation Launched To Reduce The Number of Health Tourists

The Department of Health has launched a consultation document to reach a decision on whether overseas visitors to Britain should have health insurance. The consultation aims to reduce the numbers of ‘health tourists' using the NHS each year. The government is also proposing to remove the right to free NHS care for failed asylum seekers, except for conditions involving public health.

Health tourism costs the health service £5 million each year.

Trusts Plead Guilty To Patient's Death

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge brought against it by the Health and Safety Executive. The charge involves lapses in patient safety procedures in its care of Kyle Flack from Essex, who died at Basildon Hospital in 2006 after his head got caught in the rails of his hospital bed causing him to choke to death.

£9.3 Million Paid For Cancer Misdiagnosis

Figures from the NHS Litigation Authority showed that 193 patients were paid a total of £9.3 million in damages from 2005 to 2009 for misdiagnosis of cancer. The figures, obtained by Action Against Medical Accidents, showed that claimants were paid an average of £48,367 each.

Were More NHS Deaths Ignored

Five hospitals with high patient death rates have escaped investigation, despite the outcry over Stafford hospital where up to 1,200 patients died in four years. The national average for unexpected deaths in hospitals is 100, according to health research group, Dr Foster. An inquiry has discovered that all five hospitals have had high death rates for several years, yet there has been no investigation by the Care Quality Commission, the regulator.

Hunt For Pill To Cure Alcoholics

A reassessment of the nature of addiction, particularly to alcohol, is starting to pique the interest of the major pharmaceutical firms. For years the industry has been lukewarm, assuming either that finding a cure for alcoholism was impossible, or else that the target market would not make for great returns. Now changing Western attitudes and cheap supermarket-supplied alcohol have excessive drinking more widespread including among the middle-classes.

Data from Thomson Pharma, a company that monitors the drug industry, showed that there wee 24 drugs in development for alcoholism, including at least 10 in mid-stage trials.

The US giants, Merck and Eli Lilly, are pursuing tow possible drugs through human trials, and the biotech firm, Alkermes, has three drugs in development.

British Women In Denial Over Growing HIV Risk

British women are at the heart of an ‘HIV epidemic', according to experts, with a new survey revealing that almost three quarters have never been tested for the virus and a significant proportion admitting that nothing could persuade them to be examined. The survey found that 37% of British women who said they had engaged in sexual intercourse without a condom in the past five years were uncertain whether their partner was sleeping with other people.

Children Get Filtered Blood Transfusions To Beat CJD

Thousands of children who need transfusions are set to get specially filtered blood because UK supplies may still be tainted with the human form of mad cow disease. A major government committee has approved the use of a filter that can remove rogue variant CJD protein, called a prion, from blood in just 30 minutes. Scientific advisers warned last year that screening all two million units of blood donated annually could cost £87 million a year and would not be cost-effective for the general population, despite the risk that up to one in 4,000 people could be carryin vCJD without showing any symptoms. But experts want to press ahead with plans to filter the 60,000 units of blood needed for transfusion into sick and injured children.

Twenty Minute Cure For Ageing Eyes

Scientists have developed a revolutionary ‘lunchtime' operation, which restores near-perfect vision to those with age-related sight problems. The operation, which takes only 20 minutes, involves implanting an artificial lens into the eye and, unlike laser surgery, its effects are instant and permanent. Unlike laser treatment, which can correct distant vision but not near vision, the new lens is able to give distance, intermediated and near vision. Anyone having laser surgery may need repeat treatment because natural lenses grow throughout life. But the new lens is a permanent solution and, as the treatment involves replacing the natural lens, patients will never develop cataracts.

Filthy Cars Kill 50,000 Every Year

Up to 50,000 Britons are dying early every year because of car pollution, MPs have been told. Experts say that exhaust fumes and toxic particles from brakes and tyres could take 10 years off lives of people in cities. Environment researcher, Professor Frank Kelly of King's College London, said this issue was much larger than fatalities and serious injury form road accidents in the UK. The professor told the Commons Environmental Audit Committee that tackling car pollution was as important as dealing with obesity, alcohol and smoking. The problem could cost up to £20 billion a year in NHS treatment and time off work.

BBC Staff With Private Health Insurance Get £200 To Use NHS

Private medical insurance companies are paying corporate client employees upt to £200 a night to use the NHS. The bizarre situation has emerged as a response to the escalating costs of private healthcare.

Fiona Harris, BUPA's head of strategy development, said the change gave clients more choice. Companies did not but private medical insurance and hope their staff would use the NHS, but there would be instances where staff used the NHS, possibly because it was just as convenient, and then they could get the cash benefit.

Building Challenge

The NHS Confederation has challenged the construction industry to create a new generation of affordable, flexible primary care facilities. The Confederation is working with the Health Service Journal and construction trade show, BEST, to encourage innovation in healthcare construction.

BEST will be held at the Birmingham NEC on 17-20 October.

Research Work

Work has begun on pilots of a career framework that encourages nurses to conduct clinical research. Dame Jill Macleod Clarke, of the school of health sciences at the University of Southampton, hopes it will lead to a ‘whole new model' of career, where nurses ‘seamlessly weave between practice, education and research'.

Dam Jill said there was currently ‘a profound cultural problem' preventing nurses from producing research on clinical practice.

Out Of Hours

Involving clinicians in the design and monitoring of out-of-hours services was key to high quality, according to a Department of Health report.

Royal College of GPs' chair, Profess Steve Field and Department of Health clinical director of primary care, Dr David Colin-Thome, carried out the review after the death of David Gray, who was killed by a German locum, Dr Daniel Ubani in Cambridgeshire in 2008.

David Nicholson has instructed PCTs to implement reforms urgently.

Practice Nurses In London

Practices in London are to be urged to increase the average proportion of appointments nurses offer from 33 per cent to 50 per cent, according to official plans. Delivering Healthcare for London: Strategic Plan 2010-2015 proposes a range of measures to increase productivity in general practice as work is transferred out of hospitals in the capital. The document aims to make practices see 30 per cent more patients each day.

Health Inequalities Cost 2.5m Life Years

Overcoming extensive health inequalities in England will require co-operation between all government departments, a strategic review has concluded.

The Marmot Review, published recently, said ‘substantial' health inequalities were directly linked to social position.

Review chair, Sir Michael Marmot, and his team estimated that between 1.3 and 2.5 million years of life could be gained by reducing health inequalities They said these disparities cost the NHS more than £5.5 billion per year.