Investigations take place after serious mistakes at three Northamptonshire hospitals

Investigations take place after serious mistakes at three Northamptonshire hospitals Investigations are being carried out after serious mistakes were made at three Northamptonshire hospitals within the past three months. Kettering General, Woodlands and Northampton General all reported ‘never events’ in October.

Never events are classified by the NHS as serious incidents that should have not occurred and were preventable. At the private Woodlands Hospital off the A14 near Rothwell a wrong site surgery was reported in which pain relief was given to the wrong part of the body before a procedure. The NHS-run Kettering General Hospital incident involved a foreign object being retained in the patient’s body after the procedure. At Northampton General Hospital the incident involved a wrong site surgery. Northamptonshire Telegraph

Worry less about children's screen use, parents told

Worry less about children's screen use, parents told There is little evidence screen use for children is harmful in itself, guidance from leading paediatricians says.
Parents should worry less as long as they have gone through a checklist on the effect of screen time on their child, it says. While the guidance avoids setting screen time limits, it recommends not using them in the hour before bedtime. Experts say it is important that the use of devices does not replace sleep, exercising and time with family. BBC News - Health

See Also:

• Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: a systematic review of reviews BMJ Open
• Build screen time around family activities, not the other way round, parents told Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)

'Life-changing' asthma injection will be offered to patients who can't use inhalers

'Life-changing' asthma injection will be offered to patients who can't use inhalers People suffering from severe asthma are to get a ‘life-changing drug’ which has been approved for routine use on the NHS.

Around 100,000 patients whose symptoms are too bad for traditional inhalers or steroids will be eligible for treatment with benralizumab after it was given the green light by health spending watchdog NICE.

Patients’ groups welcomed the decision, saying the drug – which is administered by injection – has the potential to improve the lives of those suffering from a particularly severe form of asthma. Mail Online

See Also:

• Provisional thumbs up for biological asthma drug On Medica
• Benralizumab for treating severe asthma [ID1129] NICE - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

Sweeteners have 'few health benefits', study finds - NHS Website

Sweeteners have 'few health benefits', study finds - NHS Website Researchers carried out the biggest review yet of evidence looking at the effects of sweeteners on health (researchers used the term non-sugar sweeteners or NSS).

Non-sugar sweeteners include artificially-synthesized sweeteners such as saccharine and natural non-calorie sweeteners such as steviol. Non-sugar sweeteners have become more popular because of fears that sugar is feeding the obesity epidemic. NHS Website

Is a breath test key to detecting cancer?

Is a breath test key to detecting cancer? A clinical trial has been launched to see if a breath test could detect the presence of cancer. Researchers want to find out if signals of different cancer types can be picked up in patterns of breath molecules. The Cancer Research UK team in Cambridge will collect breath samples from 1,500 people, some with cancer. BBC News - Health

See Also:

• New cancer diagnosis research 'exciting' for the future of healthcare, says RCGP Royal College of General Practitioners

Hospitals 'coping better with winter'

Hospitals 'coping better with winter' Hospitals seem to be coping better with winter, NHS England figures suggest. Data released for the festive period showed fewer A&E closures and ambulance delays than the same period last year. Levels of flu and vomiting bug Norovirus also remain low. NHS England said the improvement was a result of good planning and hard work by staff. But senior doctors warned the picture could deteriorate in the coming week because of an impending cold snap. BBC News - Health

UK hospitals expecting 'mayhem' when cold snap hits, top doctor says

UK hospitals expecting 'mayhem' when cold snap hits, top doctor says Staffing problems and a spike in flu could mean ‘severe difficulties’ for NHS, says Dr Nick Scriven

Hospitals will be hit by “mayhem” this weekend because of the coming cold snap, a growing number of people with flu and the NHS’s staffing problems, a leading doctor has warned.

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said hospitals will face “severe difficulties” this weekend as lower temperatures lead to a surge in patients needing care. The Guardian

See Also:

• Hospitals will be hit by 'mayhem' this weekend as temperatures plummet Mail Online