Tuesday 10 September 2013

NGH gears up for a festival of fun

NGH gears up for a festival of fun  Everyone at NGH is gearing up for the hospital’s first NGH Festival, which is being held on Saturday 14 September between 12 noon and 4pm. 
“We wanted to do more than we have in the past at our open days,” said Sally Watts, head of communications, who is helping to organise the Festival with membership manager Elinor Morton. “Having the support of the hospital charity has made a real difference to what we can do this year and we are really pleased with the response we have had from departments across the hospital.
“The support of the wider community is also a great bonus. We are pleased to have Bhangra dancers and Dhol drummers to entertain visitors in our marquee, as well as a jazz band (many of whom are NGH staff), our own NGH Choir, and I know a lot of people are looking forward to having a go with the Salsa experience provided by Cripps Recreation Centre.”
Visitors to the Festival can have basic health checks, see inside a mock major incident room, take the ‘Play Your Costs Right’ challenge, see how we detect and diagnose diseases in pathology, or have a tour inside the ‘engine’ of NGH – the boiler room. They could also be among the first people to see inside our new Barratt birth centre before it opens later in the year. Children can take their teddy to the Well Teddy Clinic, win a prize on the wildlife trail or paint their own bird box. There will also be a demonstration hive where you can watch bees at work,and jars of honey for sale.
Entrants to the NGH History Quiz have the chance of winning tickets for a family of four to see The Wind in The Willows at The Derngate in November. Visitors can have a lovely cream tea at Café Royale or enjoy a burger from the barbecue. The hospital’s Radio Nene Valley will be doing a live broadcast on the day. 
“There is so much for everyone tosee and do,” said Sally, “they will struggle to fit it all in before we close at 4.00pm!”
There will also be an opportunity at the Festival for people to return medical equipment such as crutches,walking sticks and more specialised items that are no longer needed. Every year NGH issues hundreds of items that are not always returned when they are finished with, often because people simply do not know where to bring it. With this in mind there will be an equipment ‘amnesty’ at the Festival for anything that patients or their relatives no longer require. Help to reuse the equipment so we can spend the money for replacements on other aspects of patient care. Please return items to the container outside the marquee on car park 1, where there will also be information about who to call if you have equipment that you can’t get to us and need some help in collecting.  NGH News

Up to 7 days’ life gained for every 28 you remain smokefree

Up to 7 days’ life gained for every 28 you remain smokefree  The campaign is launched by Public Health England (PHE) as new research shows the extra years of life that can be gained by giving up smoking. Someone who quits smoking for Stoptober, and doesn’t smoke again, could gain an extra 7 days of life, every 28 days, for the rest of their life.  NHS Network News

Call for GPs to improve elderly care

Call for GPs to improve elderly care  Elderly people often feel there is no reliable alternative to hospital, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says, as he calls for improved care from GPs.  BBC News

Five consultants in A&E overnight in whole of England

Five consultants in A&E overnight in whole of England  Only five consultants are on duty overnight in accident and emergency departments across the entire country, figures suggest.  Daily Telegraph

Helene Donnelly to launch updated NMC guidance on Raising Concerns for nurses and midwives

Helene Donnelly to launch updated NMC guidance on Raising Concerns for nurses and midwives  The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will publish updated guidance on Raising Concerns on 12 September, backed by Helene Donnelly.
Helene Donnelly will speak to the Council on that date, drawing on her experience of raising concerns about care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and her new work as ambassador for cultural change at Staffordshire and Stoke-On-Trent Partnership NHS Trust. Helene’s presentation will be live streamed on the NMC website and will be available for subsequent view.The NMC Code makes raising concerns about patient safety an unequivocal professional duty. The guidance for nurses, midwives and nursing and midwifery students includes information on organisations that can provide individuals with advice and support on how to take matters forward. 

New bird flu 'has unique traits'

New bird flu 'has unique traits'  The new bird flu which has emerged in China may be able to transmit easily and cause severe pneumonia, research suggests.  BBC News

Glasgow doctor develops GP app

Glasgow doctor develops GP app  A Glasgow junior doctor has developed a free antibiotic guidelines app for GPs.  EHI News

Maternal depression associated with reduced breastfeeding and premature delivery

Maternal depression associated with reduced breastfeeding and premature delivery  We often hear about postnatal depression, a well-recognised depressive episode in mothers occurring after the birth of their baby. However, 54.2% of women suffering from postnatal depression actually developed their depressive symptoms before or during pregnancy  (Burt and Quezada, 2009). Around 10% of pregnant mothers have depression and this number increases each trimester. Women are less likely [read the full story...]  The Mental Elf

New Electronic Staff Record-training passports case study

New Electronic Staff Record-training passports case study Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has introduced ‘training passports’ for all the trust’s staff to enable the tracking of training requirements.  NHS Employers

Average earnings in the NHS – new infographic

Average earnings in the NHS – new infographic NHS Employers has produced a new infographic showing the average annual earnings in the NHS on a handy and informative poster.  NHS Employers

Vaping 'matches patches for stopping smoking'

Vaping 'matches patches for stopping smoking' "E-cigarettes 'as effective' as nicotine patches," BBC News reports, while The Independent suggests that they are actually more effective.
The well-designed research behind the headlines looked at the number of people who achieved continuous abstinence from smoking for six months. This was achieved by a slightly greater proportion of the people using e-cigarettes than those using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patches or a placebo (dummy) e-cigarette containing no nicotine.
However, there was no significant difference between any of the groups, meaning that people using nicotine e-cigarettes were no more or less likely to quit smoking than people using patches or placebo e-cigarettes. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the proportion of people abstinent over a seven-day period.
The quit rates in all groups were much lower than the researchers anticipated, so the findings may not be as reliable as the researchers had hoped.
The research did not have the statistical power to reliably detect significant differences between the three treatments.
This means it is still possible that e-cigarettes could be more effective than NRT patches, but this study couldn't detect this.
As the researchers conclude, "Uncertainty exists about the place of e-cigarettes in tobacco control, and more research is urgently needed to clearly establish their overall benefits and harms at both individual and population levels". 

Language control for doctors - proposed changes to the Medical Act 1983: a paper for consultation

Language control for doctors - proposed changes to the Medical Act 1983: a paper for consultation
Department of Health 
This consultation seeks views on proposals to change the Medical Act 1983 to give the General Medical Council more power to take action where concerns arise about a doctor’s English language capability. The proposals are designed to complement and strengthen the existing language controls imposed through the responsible officer regulations, performers list regulations and other checks undertaken at a local level. The consultation closes on 2nd December 2013.

NHS England response to Monitor’s Fair Playing Field Review recommendations

NHS England response to Monitor’s Fair Playing Field Review recommendations In 2012 the Secretary of State asked Monitor to undertake an independent review of matters that may be affecting the ability of different providers of NHS services to participate fully in improving patient care.
NHS England worked closely with Monitor as they undertook their review. In March 2013 Monitor published their findings with recommendations to government and the health system. They also asked for our comments on their recommendations.
We welcomed Monitor’s invitation to comment on the recommendations contained in the Fair Playing Field Review. In common with Monitor’s Review, above all else NHS England’s focus is on the interests of patients. Our goal is high quality care for all, now and for future generations, informed by the values of the NHS Constitution. This is reflected in our response to the Review’s recommendations.
NHS England recognises the importance of Monitor’s Fair Playing Field Review in seeking to address distortions in the current system that may be preventing the provider best able to meet patients’ needs from doing so. We are working with Monitor to implement the recommendations, guided by thejoint statement that NHS England and Monitor published earlier this year on the use of choice and competition in the NHS, and by our wider strategy. We are keen to ensure that any action that NHS England, Monitor and the Department of Health take improves the way in which the system operates in the interests of patients. We look forward to working closely with Monitor and DH, and others in the system, to this end.
More details on the Review and its recommendations are available on the Fair Playing Field Review pages on Monitor’s website.
NHS Commissioning Board