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NAPC News 13 June 2012

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Created on Wednesday, 13 June 2012 10:56

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NAPC News 13 June 2012

Speed Up Checks On Doctors

A lobby group has warned that patient trust will suffer if doctors are allowed to hold up compulsory check being brought in to ensure they are still competent.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients’ Association, said doctors had been allowed to get away with ‘a decade of delays’ in bringing in the system of five yearly checks, known as revalidation.

Doctors’ Strike To Hit 30,000 Operations

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has accused doctors of endangering patients if they take strike action over pensions.

In a letter to Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, Mr Lansley accused doctors of taking action ‘that will at best inconvenience and at worst harm your patients.’

Record Fall In Public Satisfaction With NHS

This week it emerged that patient satisfaction with the NHS fell by record amounts, with government reforms blamed for nearly one in four people being dissatisfied with the service.

The proportion of patients saying they were satisfied with the way the NHS was run fell from 70 per cent in 2010 to 58 per cent last year, the biggest drop recorded since the King’s Fund began is annual survey almost 30 years ago.

May Announces Blanket Ban On Age Discrimination Of Patients

Theresa May has announced that, as of October, doctors will not be entitled to withhold medical help to patients purely on the basis of their age.

There had been fears that legislation, derived from Labour’s Equality Act 2010, was being shelved after previous slippages in the timetable for consultation on how aged discrimination laws should apply to both public and private services.

From October, patients will be able to sue the NHS, if they are refused drugs or surgery.

Christian GP’s Anger As Accuser Is Heard In Secret

Dr Richard Scott, a doctor facing disciplinary action for discussing his faith with a patient, has blamed ‘anti-Christian’ bias after his accuser was allowed to give evidence in secret.

Dr Scott has spent two years under threat of an official warning after the mother of a ‘suicidal’ patient complained about the conversation.

A General Medical Council disciplinary hearing agreed to go ahead with the case against him, even though the unnamed patient refused to attend.

Breast Cancer Recurs In Almost One In Four Patients

Almost one in four women who develop breast cancer will see the disease return within 10 years, according to the conclusions of a study, conducted by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Jane Maher, Macmillan’s chief medical officer, said the NHS must improve for care for women dealing with a recurrence.

Research into 1,000 women who were first diagnosed with the disease between January 1999 and March 2002 and then had their health monitored for 10 years, found it recurred in 22.6% of them.

Statins Can Cause Fatigue, Doctors Told

Doctors have been advised to be careful when prescribing statins, after researchers said the cholesterol lowering drugs could cause tiredness.

Academics found that four in ten women on a statin, called simvastatin, reported lower energy levels or tiredness after exercise, six months after taking the drug.

The study of more than 1,000 people, none of whom had a history of heart disease, found that ten per cent said they were ‘much worse’.

Dr Beatrice Golomb, associate professor of medicine at the University of California in San Diego, said: ‘Side effects of statins generally rise with increasing doses and these doses were modest’.

Poor Brushing Of Teeth Linked To Cancer Deaths

Failing to brush teeth properly could increase the risk of dying prematurely from cancer, according to new research.
The study, by the department of dental medicine at the Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, found a link between high levels of dental plaque, or bacteria, and dying from cancer up to 13 years earlier than might otherwise be expected.  However, the Swedish researchers have admitted their findings did not prove a causal link between cancer and dental plaque. 

Poor mouth hygiene may be an indicator of other lifestyle factors associated with cancer.

Three Parents Ethical

Fertility treatments to protect against inherited disease, which could lead to the birth of children with a genetic connection to three people, would be ethical if they were deemed to be safe, a review has found. 

The report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, published this week, assessed the use of mitochondria from donors to help to bypass disease.  It is currently not permitted in the UK/.

How Lack Of Sleep Could Raise Stroke Risk

Regularly sleeping fewer than six hours a night significantly increases the risk of stroke symptoms among middle-aged and older adults, who are not overweight, according to scientists.

University of Alabama research found that after taking body mass index into account, there was a strong link between sleep periods of less than six hours and a great incidence of stroke symptoms for the over 45s, even beyond other risk factors.

Incurable Strain of Gonorrhoea Reaches Critical Level In Europe

An untreatable form of gonorrhoea is spreading rapidly in Europe, according to the Stockholm based European Centre for Disease Prevention.

The Centre’s report followed a warning from the World Health Organisation that untreatable forms of gonorrhoea were spreading round the world.

The superbug strain is believed to have been created by the overuse of antibiotics, which help fuel genetic mutations in the bacteria.  I

In 2010, there were nine per cent of drug-resistant cases reported, up from four per cent in the previous year.

Dangers Of An Early Menopause

Researchers have warned that women who go through an early menopause are more likely to develop a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage.

US experts said that monitoring women at risk and giving them hormone replacement therapy could reduce the danger of a cerebral aneurysm.  Women are more prone to cerebral aneurysms than men, possibly because the levels of the hormone, oestrogen, plunge after the menopause.

Eat Fish To Protect Against Bowel Cancer

Results from a new study have shown that regularly eating fresh fish may protect against colon cancer.  Eating fish at least once a week reduced the risk of colon and rectal cancer by an average of 12 per cent.

The study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine, follows the observation that countries with higher rates of fish consumption, including Finland and Sweden, have lower levels of the cancer, and that mortality from colorectal cancer is greatly reduced.

Silver Bandage Destroys Superbug In 30 Minutes

Wound dressings made with silver could kill superbugs that infect scores of NHS patients.  New data presented at the European Wound Management Association conference showed that Acticoat dressing containing silver killed the NDM-1 strain of superbugs. 

The dressing eradicated the bacteria within 30 minutes for all five strains tested and maintained their anti-bacterial activity for at least four hours.  Silver ions are thought to be toxic to the bacteria.

Care Home Patient Left Naked On Bed

Inspectors discovered on an unannounced visit that staff at a care home left an elderly patient naked on a bed with the door to the room open.  A team from the Care Quality Commission also found that staff at the Bramcote Hills Care Home, Nottingham, had not been trained to help vulnerable adults, one of ten serious failings revealed in the report.

A strong cleaning product that should have been locked away when not in use had been left in a communal lounge are, and nursing staff appeared to be distracted by other tasks when administering medicines to patients.