NAPC News In Brief 2 July 2009

Offenders To Have GPS Tracking

Criminals held in secure mental health units are to be tracked with global  positioning systems to stop them absconding or re-offending, under a trial by South London and Maudsely NHS Trust.

Patients will wear steel-reinforced leather ankle bracelets which will track their whereabouts to the nearest couple of metres when out on leave as part of their rehabilitation process and when they visit other hospitals for treatment.  An alarm will be raised if they enter prohibited areas, such as an area around schools or other zones from which they have been banned by the courts, or if they break their curfew.

Heatwave: Hospitasl On High Alert

Hospital visiting hours were dramatically reduced yesterday and a network of cool rooms set up after the heat wave warning was raised to its second highest level.  As temperatures soared to 31 degrees, a major NHS operation was launched to cut heat-related deaths.

London’s hospitals face a staffing headache, brought on by the heat wave.  More than 1,000 NHS workers across the capital have called in sick this week complaining of unbearable conditions in stuffy wards with no air conditioning, according to absence management company, FirstCare.

Six New Rights For Every NHS Patient

Patients this week have been promised six new rights to NHS treatment as the government attempts to push through a new raft of public service reform in the run-up to the next general election.

Gordon Brown has promised to scrap unpopular centrally imposed targets as he unveils a national prospectus, which is seen as critical to his attempts to restore his authority and fight back against the Conservatives.

Hospital Staff Should Be Allowed To Offer Prayer To Patients

According to sponsors of a motion at the British Medical Association’s annual meeting in Liverpool, doctors and nurses should be allowed to offer to pray for patients without fear of disciplinary action.

Guidance given by the NHS suggests that staff could be sanctioned if they offered spiritual help to anyone who did not share their beliefs.

Dress Down To Avoid Effects Of The Heatwave

Office staff should be encouraged to wear shorts and lightweight clothing during the current heatwave to make their work more bearable and avoid them ‘collapsing’ at their desks, according to Trade Union Congress general secretary, Brendan Barber.

The St John Ambulance service has treated 1,250 fans at Wimbledon this week, the majority suffering from heat-related problems, including heatstroke, fainting, sunburn and dehydration.

Premature Births More Likely After A Miscarriage

Women who have a miscarriage are more likely to give birth prematurely in their next pregnancy, doctors have said.

The findings of an international group of experts, presented at the annual conference  of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam, should make it easier for doctors to predict which women may need special care and attention during pregnancy.

Premature babies can survive from as early as 22 weeks’ gestation, but are on the border of viability.  Every extra week of life in the womb increases chances of survival and improves prospects of long-term health without significant disability.

Fat Starts Making Obesity Seem OK

Overweight stars such as the actor James Corden and singer, Beth Ditto, are making fat seem normal, an expert has warned.  Professor Michael McMahon said that the increasing profile of larger celebrities, for example, James Corden, Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Jones and Ben Ditts , meant that being overweight was now perceived as being normal in the eyes of the public.  The dangers of skinny media images had been talked about, but the problem actually swung both ways.

Doctor Who Inhaled Gas Denies Taking Drugs

A doctor inhaled gas and air while on duty on a children’s A&E ward and told nurses it was ‘fun’, a medical disciplinary panel was told this week, The General Medical Council panel was told evidence would be presented showing Entonox should only be used in medical situations.

Dr Danile Chahal, denied inhaling the substance on a date unknown in July 2007 and inviting a nurse to join him.  He also denies taking cocaine between January and March 2008.

End Prescription Charges

Prescription charges have been branded an ‘unfair tax on illness’ and doctors have called for them to be scrapped..

The British Medical Association’s annual conference in Liverpool voted overwhelmingly this week for the Government in England to follow the example set in other parts of the UK.  The call comes just months after the cost of a single prescription was increased this year in England to £7.20.

Resistance To Tamiflu

Experts have reported the first case of swine flu that was resistant to Tamiflu, the main drug being used to fight the pandemic.

The drug manufacturer, Roche, confirmed that a patient with H1N1 influenza in Denmark showed resistance to the antiviral drug. The company said that this H1N1 influenza in Denmark showed resistance to the antiviral drug.  The company said this was not unexpected, given that common seasonal flu could mutate to develop resistance to the treatment.

However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that there were no signs of a Tamiflu-resistant strain of H1N1 circulating in Britain or elsewhere.

Women Freezing Ovaries To Have Children Later

A number of professional women in the US have chosen to undergo the removal and freezing of an ovary in order to have children when they are ready, according to Dr Sherman Silber, Director of the St Louis Infertility Center in Missouri.

The operation carries the usual anaesthesia risks, but no more than that, according to Dr Silber.  His clinic’s technique involves fast freezing very thin slivers of tissue removed from the removed ovary. 

The well-funded St Louis Center was not aiming to make money out of these patients, Dr Silber said.  Cancer patients received the service for free, but others have been charged $2,000 to cover some of the costs.

GPs Are Failing To Spot Ovarian Cancer Symptoms

Lives are being put at risk because GPs confuse the symptoms of ovarian cancer and irritable bowel syndrome, a charity has warned.  Many patients were dying unnecessarily because by the time the mistake was discovered, the cancer was often terminal, according to the charity Target Ovarian Cancer.

Four in five GPs wrongly thought women in early-stage ovarian cancer had no symptoms and only 27 per cent knew of NHS guidelines on what they should watch out for.  And 69 per cent seemed unaware that women with ovarian cancer were more likely to experience sudden and persistent pain than women with irritable bowel syndrome.  When asked what other diagnosis they had made when women reported these symptoms, seven out of 16 GPs replied irritable bowel syndrome.

Caesarean Babies Risk Disease

A new study indicates that babies born by caesarean section undergo genetic changes that make them more susceptible to diseases, including asthma and diabetes.

A report from researchers at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, which was published in the journal, Acta Paediatrica, said the highest levels of stress experienced by babies during the operation could be responsible for the changes.

Cancer Screen Could Help Nine In Ten Patients Survive

Nine out of ten patients will survive early stage bowel cancer if it is picked up early, according to latest figures.

The findings suggest that GPs should highlight to patients the importance of taking part in bowel screening when invited.

The figures are the first to be based on national statistics and are published by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) and the Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry and Information Service (NYCRIS).

The NCIN looked at every case of bowel cancer diagnosed in England between 1996 and 2006 and the percentage who survived for at least five years.

Professor David Forman, Director of NYCRIS and information lead for the NCIN said that it was really encouraging that more people with bowel cancer would now be successfully treated, if the disease was caught at the earliest stage.  But overall, only half of people with bowel cancer survived, so this showed how crucial it was that disease was spotted early.

More than 80 per cent of bowel cancer cases occur in the over-60s.  Bowel cancer screening will be available across England for this group by December 2009 and it could pick up changes that could be the earliest sign of cancer.

College Pranks Can Blight Medical Career

Medical students are being taken to professional disciplinary hearing for parking violations, slack form-filling and nights out on the town as part of a draconian new system of sanctions. 

Students are having their careers put at risk because medical schools are abusing new guidance from the General Medical Council in an attempt to deter high jinks and poor behaviour, the annual meeting of the British Medical Association was told.