Monday 4 August 2014

Seven-month wait for pain clinic check in Northamptonshire

Seven-month wait for pain clinic check in Northamptonshire NHS staff who treat patients with muscle and joint disorders have said Northamptonshire GPs are often wrongly referring patients to them. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

NHS takes action to tackle race inequality across the workforce

NHS takes action to tackle race inequality across the workforce The NHS Equality and Diversity Council today announced action to ensure employees from black and ethnic minority (BME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and fair treatment in the workplace.

The move follows recent reports which have highlighted disparities in the number of BME people in senior leadership positions across the NHS, as well as lower levels of wellbeing amongst the BME population. NHS England

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Competition review of NHS mergers: a short guide for managers of NHS providers

Competition review of NHS mergers: a short guide for managers of NHS providers This short guide seeks to answer the questions merging providers often ask us about the UK merger review process. It is designed to highlight important aspects of the process of merger review and provide an overview of the substantive test. It is therefore not intended to be comprehensive. Monitor

Phone calls 'do not cut GP pressure'

Sperm bank to meet UK donor demand

Sperm bank to meet UK donor demand A national sperm bank, which can be used by same-sex couples and single women, is to be opened to combat a UK-wide shortage. BBC News

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BMJ 'right' in statins claims row

BMJ 'right' in statins claims row An investigation backs the British Medical Journal's response after it published two inaccurate articles on the harms of cholesterol-reducing statins. BBC News

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Combined Pill may raise breast cancer risk

Combined Pill may raise breast cancer risk "Some contraceptive pills double risk of breast cancer," The Daily Telegraph reports, as a new US study found an increased risk of 50% with use of the combined oral contraceptive pill, commonly called "the pill".

The combined pill contains oestrogen and, as it is known oestrogen can stimulate breast cancer cells to grow, the potential for extra oestrogen to increase the risk of breast cancer has been recognised for some time.

However, any increase in risk needs to be seen in context. The baseline risk of women of a fertile age developing breast cancer is small, so a 50% increase in this risk doesn't amount to a "high" risk.

Also, this risk needs to be measured against the potential benefits of the pill protecting against other types of cancer, such as ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, there are often no easy answers when weighing up the benefits and risk.

What we can say is this was a robust study that included more than 1,000 US women aged 20 to 49 who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and an age-matched control group. The researchers checked if the women used combined oral contraceptive pills in the year before their cancer diagnosis.

Overall use of any combined pill in the past year was associated with a 50% increased risk of developing breast cancer, compared with never using the combined pill or using it more than one year ago. High-strength pills more than doubled risk, but these are no longer prescribed in the UK.

GPs to foot the bill for texts to patients

GPs to foot the bill for texts to patients Practices could be forced to spend thousands of pounds on replacement SMS texting services under DH plans to phase out central funding for services used by NHS bodies. GP Online

Rise in prison suicides linked to mental health problems

Rise in prison suicides linked to mental health problems Suicide and murder rates in prisons rise to highest level in six years. OnMedica

Jeremy Hunt announces drive to eliminate 12-month NHS waiting lists

Jeremy Hunt announces drive to eliminate 12-month NHS waiting lists NHS to get £250m as health secretary says no patient should wait more than a year unless there is strong clinical justification.

No one should have to wait more than a year for NHS treatment in England unless it is clinically necessary, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said.

Hunt announced a £250m drive to eliminate "unacceptable" 12-month waits, with more than 100,000 additional treatments to take place in the NHS over the summer. Continue reading... The Guardian

Nurses need to be fitter, to fight for the future of the NHS | Christina Patterson

Nurses need to be fitter, to fight for the future of the NHS | Christina Patterson Big bodies may hold big hearts, but obese health workers are in no shape to tackle the problems of the health service.

If you go anywhere near the NHS, you cant fail to see it. The woman who marches you over to the scales and carefully records your weight, the man who asks you to roll up your sleeve and tells you to expect a sharp scratch: what they often have in common apart from a desire to help is that theyre pretty damn big.

Sometimes, when Ive been weighed by a nurse who looks twice my size, Ive been tempted to ask whether shes ever been asked to step on a set of scales herself. Sometimes, when Ive been quizzed about my lifestyle and seen letters to my GP saying Im a heavy social drinker Ive wondered whether the person who quizzed me has ever been asked to tot up their weekly tally of chips. I dont know if NHS workers are ever grilled about their lifestyle, but if theyre not theyll soon find out what its like. Theyll find out because their new boss has looked at his staff and decided far too many of them are fat. Continue reading... The Guardian

NHS hospital cafés 'are helping to fuel the obesity crisis'

NHS hospital cafés 'are helping to fuel the obesity crisis' NHS chief urges hospitals to act after Telegraph investigation exposes the unhealthy offerings promoted in scores of hospitals. The Daily Telegraph

Independent review urges NHS whistleblowers to speak

Independent review urges NHS whistleblowers to speak Sir Robert Francis, head of the Mid Staffs public inquiry, calls for an end to a culture of 'denial and fear' as he launches first ever independent review of whistleblowing. The Daily Telegraph

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No rise in numbers in care homes despite surge in elderly population

No rise in numbers in care homes despite surge in elderly population New figures show little change in the number of elderly people living in care homes over the past decade, even though the number of pensioners has soared. The Daily Telegraph