NAPC News 4 March 2010

Child Heart Surgery Halted At Hospital After Four Deaths

Children's heart surgery at a leading hospital has been suspended after the deaths of four youngsters, it has emerged. The deaths occurred during or after surgery in the past four months at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

GMC To Consult On Revalidation

A consultation on the current plans for revalidations will be launched next month, the General Medical Council (GMC) has said.

The GMC is asking GPs, patients and ‘all those involved or affected by revalidation' to help shape the process. The consultation was launched on 1 March and will run for three months.

It will cover four main themes: how revalidation will work; what doctors and employers will need to do; how patients will be involved; and how and when revalidation will be introduced.

Details of the consultation are available at www.gmc-uk.org/revalidation.

Details Of Fit Note Form Revealed

The new Med 3 form has been published by the government, revealing the full details of what will be expected from GPs. From 6 April, the so-called ‘fit note' will allow GPs the option to advise a patent that they ‘may be fit for work'. The GP would then be able to suggest ways that the patient could be helped to return to work sooner, for example by adapting the workplace.

Dr Bill Gunnyeon, Chief Medical Adviser to the Department of Work and Pensions, said he realised some GPs were concerned about not having the skills to meet the new requirements. However, they were not being asked to make recommendations about the specific nature of the job. What they were being asked was about the functional impact of the patient's condition and anything they thought of that might help the patient return to to work. It was for the employer to decide whether they could make those adjustments or not.

If patients cannot return to work, Dr Gunnyeon said, then the certificate they have from their GP enables them not to return to work. There is no requirement for them to go back to the GP for another statement. The employer has effectively taken responsibility.

GPs Set For Cash Windfall After Floating IT System Firm

The EMIS Web programme is to be rolled out nationally after the owners of EMIS reinvest the millions they are set to make when the company is floated on the stock exchange next month.

Peter Sowerby and David Stables, former GPs and owners of EMIS, want to float 25 per cent of EMIS Group on the Alternative Investment Market and they hope to raise £50 million. EMIS say the money will be used to roll out the EMIS Web programme, the remotely hosted version of its practice IT system. It is being trialled in Tower Hamlets, east London, Liverpool and Gateshead.

EMIS currently holds about 34 million patient records on its platform, which serves 52 per cent of UK GP practices.

Sean Riddell, chief excutive of EMIS, said that a flotation on AIM would position EMIS to take advantage of growth opportunities, broaden its shareholder base and further incentivise management.

Pharmaceutical Companies To Discuss NHS Quotas With Ministers

Health minister, Mike O'Brien, this week hosted a summit with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists to discuss the shortage of medicines caused by organisations and individuals selling medicines destined for NHS patients to exporters.

John Turk, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association said the imposed medicines quotas have made it difficult to source drugs that may be in short supply, resulting in pharmacists ‘having to spend hours phoning, faxing and pleading with suppliers to fulfill prescriptions for certain medicines.

PCT Settles Out Of Hours Case Out Of Court

South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust this week agreed an out of court settlement following the case of a patient who died when an out of hours failed to diagnose chronic septicaemia, misdiagnosing it as a reaction to painkillers.

Josephine Brindley from Cannock was examined by locum GP, Dr Karuna Desai following an accident at work. He prescribed her a further dose of painkillers for a pain she reported in her shoulder. Ms Brindley died the following day.

Health Warning

Doctors this week issued a health warning over anti-wrinkle injections for teenagers after a mother said she allowed her daughter to receive the jabs at the age of just 15. Sarah Burge, 49, allowed her daughter have the treatment on a Spanish holiday last year, but now the beautician from Cambridge is to inject the anti-wrinkle treatments into her daughter's face herself, claiming it is the responsible thing.

Daily Aspirin Is A Risk

Healthy people who take an aspirin in the hope of preventing a heart attack or stroke are doing themselves more harm than good, medical experts have warned. Research carried out in Scotland and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that aspirin taken by people who had no outward symptom of heart disease did not reduce the risk of a heart attack when compared with those on a dummy pill.

Four Cups Of Coffee Help The Heart

Drinking four cups of coffee a day may protect the heart, scientists said yesterday. Despite the belief that coffee can cause the heart to go into palpitations, a study indicated that moderate drinkers may be a lower risk of having heart rhythm disturbances.

Dr. Arthur Klatsky, a cardiologist at the Kaiser Permanente health insurance company, said the study did not conclusively prove coffee protects the heart , just that was some sort of link.

Arthritis Patients To Be Denied Treatment

Thousands of patients will suffer because the NHS rationing body is to turn down a drug that eased the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, campaigners have warned. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) does not recommend the use of abatacept, also known as Orencia, in rheumatoid arthritis patients who have not responded to other treatments.

Speaking about the decision, which is at draft stage, Dr Carole Longson, of NICR, said that abatacept appeared to work no better that rituximab in this context and it was more expensive.

Revalidations Pilots To Test Affiliate Role

Two GMC affiliate pilots are to be launched within the Department of Health's 10 revalidation pathfinder pilot areas.

The two pilots will be carried out for six months on a regional basis in the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber, to test the potential for the involvement of affiliates in the revalidation process.

The GMC said the pilots would involve a lay affiliate with ‘expert fitness to practise knowledge' appointed to work alongside a responsible officer. The role of affiliates in supporting revalidation would focus primarily on the tranche of doctors who failed to revalidate or where revalidation was delayed as a result of outstanding concerns, it said.

Will Taking Statins Increase Risk Of Diabetes

According to media reports, taking statins increases the risk of developing diabetes. Dr Naveed Satttar and colleagues at the University of Glasgow investigated 13 statin trials in a meta-analysis published in the Lancet.

The study covered 91,140 people. In total, 4,278 developed diabetes over an average of four years. Statin therapy was associated with a 9 per cent increased risk of developing diabetes between statin and control groups.

The authors said the data suggested that statin therapy slightly increase the risk of diabetes, but the risk was low and outweighed by the benefits from reduced coronary events.

Although the researchers found that statins slightly increased the risk of diabetes, the absolute risk was very low. Just 174 extra cases of diabetes resulted from statin treatment over the control groups in assessed trial - equating to on additional case of diabetes per 255 patients taking statins over four years.

This association was stronger in trials with older participants, but was not affected by baseline Body Mass Index and cholesterol levels, according to the authors. They also noted no difference in diabetes risk between types of statins, nor any increased risk in patients aged 60 or under.

Researchers also studied the benefits of the treatment Statin therapy resulted in 5.4 fewer major coronary events per 255 patients treated over four years, compared with control therapy for cholesterol reduction.

The researchers said they expected this benefit to be even greater if the study accounted for the effect on strokes and the need for revascularization.

Diabetes UK was unequivocal that advice to patients should not change.

Family Doctors Who Work Alone Earn On Average £120K

Doctors who work on their own in ‘single-handed' GP practices are earning an average of more than £120K a year, NHS figures revealed. Such GPs earn an average of £20,815 more than those in practices with six or more doctors.