via Acute sector faces wave of mergers and reconfigurations | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
The English NHS hospital sector is facing a wave of mergers, acquisitions and reconfigurations, HSJ’s extensive survey of trust chief executives has revealed.
via Half of GPs on clinical commissioning groups have financial links with private providers | BMJ.
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An analysis of clinical commissioning groups showing the financial links many GP board members have with non-NHS providers has raised fresh fears around potential conflicts of interest.
Doubts are being raised over government claims the NHS in England is making good progress on its savings target.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Objectives Universally offered child health reviews form the backbone of the UK child health programme. The reviews assess children’s health, development and well-being and facilitate access to additional support as required. The number of reviews offered per child has been reduced over recent years to allow more flexible provision of support to families in need: equitable coverage of the remaining reviews is therefore particularly important. This study assessed the coverage of universal child health reviews, with an emphasis on trends over time and inequalities in coverage by deprivation.
via Nicholson: commissioning staff will know job fate by December | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Commissioning staff will find out whether they have a place in the new commissioning system, and many will be transferred, by December, NHS Commissioning Board chief executive Sir David Nicholson has announced.
The right to choose a particular school or hospital will be enshrined in law, if new legislation announced by Prime Minister David Cameron is passed.
via BBC News – Cameron promises more choice on schools and hospitals.
The first volume of a “book of cancer knowledge” has been published, which scientists say will speed up the search for new cancer drugs.
via Lansley condemns expensive GP phone calls | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Patients should not be charged premium phone call rates to make an appointment with their GP, health secretary Andrew Lansley has said.
via MPs back guidance on assisted suicide in first Commons debate for 40 years | BMJ.
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The House of Commons has thrown its overwhelming support behind guidelines on assisted suicide from the director of public prosecutions, in the first full debate on assisted dying to take place on the floor of the UK’s elected chamber since 1970.
Through a new Public Health Responsibility Deal pledge on calorie reduction, the country’s biggest supermarkets, food manufacturers, caterers and food outlets are joining forces to help cut 5 billion calories from the nation’s daily diet.
via Public Health Responsibility Deal announces new food pledge | Department of Health.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Abstract (by Kath Williams: East Midlands SHA) The Department of Health has published ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Towards a workforce strategy for the public health system’. This consultation has been launched to help identify and unlock the potential of the people who are responsible for improving the population’s health and wellbeing. The closing date for comments is 29 June 2012.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Objective To identify and empirically investigate the dimensions of leadership in medical education and healthcare professions.
via Patient information leaflets about cancer trials are too complicated, finds study | BMJ.
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People approached to take part in cancer trials find patient information leaflets about the trials too long and difficult to understand, warns a study, which is informing new guidance on consent procedures.
via Care of older people in hospitals is unacceptable, says think tank | BMJ.
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Older people’s care often breaks down in hospitals, and these failures in continuity of care are “unacceptable,” says the King’s Fund.
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Ageing affects people in different ways, with a wide variation in age related physical and mental functioning
Healthier ageing is achievable through modifying some lifestyle factors—such as stopping smoking, being more physically active, and eating a balanced diet
For healthier ageing, eat mainly nutrient dense foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals and low in fats and sugar
Balancing energy intake and expenditure is important for maintaining healthy weight
Preventing chronic diseases may promote healthier ageing through better physical and mental health
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Objectives To determine the effect of human papillomavirus (HPV) quadrivalent vaccine on the risk of developing subsequent disease after an excisional procedure for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or diagnosis of genital warts, vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, or vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia.
Dementia patients ‘illegally locked up’ – Health News – NHS Choices.
NHS Choices examines the science behind the newspaper headlines.
The CQC says that tackling the problem is a high priority and it plans to ask councils, healthcare trusts and other organisations to contribute to a pilot study that is being developed to improve the collection of information.
Cynthia Bower, CQC chief executive said: “The safeguards are vital to ensure that a person’s best interests are carefully considered, their needs fully understood, their wishes taken into account and their human rights properly respected.”
Dementia patients locked in rooms to make them, easier to manage. The Daily Telegraph, March 27 2012
Locked up and sedated: Huge rise in number of dementia patients being ‘restrained’ by hospital staff and carers. Daily Mail, March 27 2012
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end heading –>Care Quality Commission: The operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in England, 2010/11 (PDF, 392kb). Published March 27 2012
This report, commissioned by the Department of Health, provides an independent evaluation of the two regional pilots aimed at raising public awareness and promoting earlier diagnosis of bowel cancer. It brings together information from a wide range of sources including:
· A campaign-specific survey of public awareness of the key symptoms of bowel cancer and of the acceptability of such campaigns.
· A bespoke study of attendance at GP practices before and during the campaign to assess changes in the public’s behaviour resulting from the campaign and any effect on GP workload.
· Analysis of urgent referrals to secondary care for suspected colorectal cancer both in the two pilot regions and elsewhere.
· Analysis of the impact on lower gastrointestinal endoscopy activity.
· Analysis of the impact of the campaign on the uptake of bowel cancer screening.
· Analysis of numbers of cancers diagnosed and (where available) stage at diagnosis, through cancer registries.
via NHS reform risk register reveals list of serious concerns | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
A version of the Department of Health’s risk register for the NHS reforms has been published on the internet, having apparently been leaked.
This story has also been covered by the BBC. This story can be viewed by clicking here
via Alcohol strategy | Home Office.
Alcohol Strategy
The alcohol strategy sets out proposals to crackdown on our ‘binge drinking’ culture, cut the alcohol fuelled violence and disorder that blights too many of our communities, and slash the number of people drinking to damaging levels.
The strategy includes commitments to:
via Ambulance responses ‘vary’ in elderly fall cases | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
There are wide differences in how UK ambulance services respond to 999 calls from elderly people who have fallen, research suggests.
via Increase in patient liberty restrictions – CQC | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
There has been a rise in the number of approvals for measures that allow hospital and care home staff to deprive people of their liberty
via English nurses more confident in managers than European peers | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Despite a high degree of scepticism, nurses in England appear to have more confidence in their managers than their counterparts in other countries, researchers have revealed.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Ethnicity data collection has been proven to be important in health care but despite government initiatives remains incomplete and mostly un-validated in the UK. Accurate self-reported ethnicity data would enable experts to assess inequalities in health and access to services and help to ensure resources are targeted appropriately. The aim of this paper is to explore the reasons for the observed gap in ethnicity data by examining the perceptions and experiences of healthy South Asian volunteers. South Asians are the largest ethnic minority group accounting for 50% of all ethnic minorities in the UK 2001 census.
White rice consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: meta-analysis and systematic review | BMJ.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Objectives To summarise evidence on the association between white rice consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes and to quantify the potential dose-response relation.
The difference in blood pressure readings between arms and survival: primary care cohort study | BMJ.
This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.
Objective To determine whether a difference in systolic blood pressure readings between arms can predict a reduced event free survival after 10 years.
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Objective To investigate the association between low functional health literacy (ability to read and understand basic health related information) and mortality in older adults.
Design Population based longitudinal cohort study based on a stratified random sample of households.
via Europe’s health systems can survive economic squeeze, conference hears | BMJ.
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Stagnant economies are driving governments to introduce cost containing health reforms but the “huge squeeze” on health budgets “need not have an adverse effect on front line services,” said Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), at a recent conference in Geneva.
