A&E patients often left in pain, survey shows – The Guardian 14th January 2009
Millions of patients were left in pain in NHS accident and emergency departments last year because staff did not provide prompt medication, the government’s health watchdog reveals in a report today.
The Healthcare Commission says patients were largely positive about the overall standard of care provided in A&E in England, with 88% rating it excellent or good. But a survey of the experiences of 50,000 patients found serious concerns about particular aspects of the service.
- Hospital cleanliness: the top and bottom scoring trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Pain control: the top and bottom scoring trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Care standards: the top and bottom scoring trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Hospital car parking: the top and bottom scoring trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Privacy: the top and bottom scoring hospital trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Information about side effects: the top and bottom scoring hospital trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Patient satisfaction: the top and bottom scoring hospital trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Danger signals: the top and bottom scoring hospital trusts – The Guardian 14th January 2009
- Patients get inadequate pain relief in A&E: health watchdog – The Telegraph 13th January 2009
Targets on the way to boost ethnic minority leadership in NHS – The Guardian 14th January 2009
The government is to set targets for increasing the number of black and minority ethnic members of NHS boards, to make the people directing health service more representative of patients and staff.
Surinder Sharma, the Department of Health’s equality and human rights “tsar”, told the Guardian that his officials are working with the Cabinet Office to agree on targets for the ethnic mix of non-executive chairmen and members of hospitals and primary care trusts in England.
Ann Robinson: I welcome scientific breakthroughs, but the prenatal test for autism raises a lot of questions – The Guardian 13th January 2009
I support prenatal testing for many conditions, but for a condition with such a complex diagnosis, I need specific answers
Additional Story
Robert Fox: Cognitive-enhancement pills are a disappointment in waiting – The Guardian 13th January 2009
Cognitive-enhancement pills are nothing new – and neither is their power to disappoint us
MPs criticise polyclinic plans – The Guardian 13th January 2009
Select committee says not enough evidence GP-led health centres needed everywhere
Grief and joy over dead wife’s baby – The Independent 13th January 2009
The husband of an ice-skating coach who gave birth to a baby girl two days after she died from a brain haemorrhage today spoke of his grief and joy.
Jayne Soliman, 41, was declared brain-dead but doctors managed to keep her heart beating long enough to deliver her daughter, Aya Jayne, by caesarean section.
Latte with a ghost to go, please – The Times 14th January 2009
Drinking large amounts of coffee or other caffeinated drinks could lead to hallucinations or seeing “ghosts”, a study suggests.
People who drink more than the equivalent of seven cups of instant coffee a day are more likely to see things or hear voices, and even report sensing the spirits of the dead, researchers say.
Additional Stories
- Three cups of brewed coffee a day ‘triples risk of hallucinations’ – The Telegraph 13th January 2009
- Go easy on the coffee, you could start seeing things – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
Middle-classes to get aid to find suitable care homes for loved ones – The Times 14th January 2009
Middle-class families will be given help to find suitable care homes for their loved ones and more power to challenge poor standards in a shake-up of long-term care for the elderly.
Phil Hope, the minister drafting a forthcoming Green Paper, told The Times that he wants to do away with the split between elderly people who qualify for help from local authorities to find and finance care and better off “self-funders”, who pay for care themselves but have no help finding it and cannot challenge the home when things go wrong. Anyone with savings or a property worth £22,500 or more is forced to navigate the complex system of residential care. They comprise 40 per cent of the 440,000 care home residents in Britain.
Bible diets dismissed as healthy food choice – The Telegraph 14th January 2009
A religiuos expert poured cold water on the claim that the Bible is a good recipe for a healthy diet.
Little evidence herbal menopause remedies work – The Telegraph 13th January 2009
There is little evidence that herbal remedies such as ginseng and evening primrose oil relieve symptoms of the menopause despite being used by thousands of women.
Additional Story
Doctor ‘killed bunion patient with adrenaline injection’ – The Telegraph 13th December 2009
A doctor killed a woman whom she was treating for a bunion by injecting her with adrenaline, a court has heard.
Additional Story
Providing prescription drugs over the counter ‘will not help patients’ – The Telegraph 13th December 2009
Plans to provide certain prescription drugs over the counter will not help patients, who still need proper consultations, most doctors believe.
Nurses may face police questions over C-diff outbreak – The Telegraph 13th December 2009
Nurses could be questioned by police after 18 people died following a Clostridium difficile outbreak at a hospital.
Additional Story
Number of dementia and heart disease sufferers to stretch NHS to breaking point – The Telegraph 13th December 2009
A 50 per cent rise in the number of over 65s with dementia, heart disease and osteoporosis by 2025 will stretch the NHS to breaking point, a charity has warned
Obesity campaign to be changed due to bullying charge – The Telegraph 13th December 2009
The Government has been forced to change its latest obesity campaign after parents complained it was fuelling bullying.
Schoolboy who killed man and attacked his wife ‘blames Prozac’ – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
A 15-year-old boy battered a man to death and tried to kill a woman after claims his personality changed a month after he began taking Prozac, a court heard.
Defence lawyers for the unnamed boy will argue that he was driven to club the man more than 30 times after taking the popular anti-depressant.
Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex will hear scientific evidence in an attempt to prove the drug, also known as Fluoxetine, can cause ‘violent impulses’ which can drive someone to kill.
Alzheimer’s patient treated in grubby hospital bathroom because of a shortage of beds – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
This is the picture that shames the NHS. An elderly Alzheimer’s patient is treated in a squalid bathroom due to a chronic shortage of beds at a hospital.
In what her family describe as ‘an affront to human dignity’, Gladys Joynes, 79, was shunted into the bathroom for several hours.
The grandmother was left next to an overflowing bin, a commode and a foulsmelling walk-in bath.
Make simple changes now to ensure good health after you retire, urge experts – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
Britons who are keen to enjoy good health late into their retirement need only make small dietary and lifestyle changes, a British Nutrition Foundation report claims.
Eating well, taking a brisk walk every day and quitting smoking can save you from becoming incapacitated and isolated in old age, according to their scientists.
Thomas, 5, smallest patient to receive brain implant – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
A five-year-old has been given new hope after pioneering surgery to fit an electronic implant to help conquer a debilitating brain condition.
Thomas Melville-Ross is the smallest patient to be given the device to stimulate his brain and help stop involuntary muscle contractions and movements caused by his severe disabilities.
Dark, cold and barked at by soldiers… but this is one exercise class I would do again – Daily Mail 13th January 2009
New Year’s Day inevitably means a raft of New Year’s resolutions and fortified by white wine and good cheer I decided I needed a) to get in shape and b) enjoy the outdoors.
Which was why I was standing shivering with 40 strangers one evening, in a freezing cold park with just the moon and street lamps to light our way.
In a fit of enthusiasm I had signed up for an hour-long session with British Military Fitness, the UK’s leading outdoor fitness provider. Now after a long day at work as the temperature plummeted below zero, I was having second thoughts.
A&E must do more on pain control – BBC Health News 14th December 2009
Thousands of people have expressed concern about pain management in A&E units in a poll of patients.
The Healthcare Commission survey of nearly 50,000 people found less than two thirds felt staff did everything they could to manage pain.
Doctor’s HIV efforts recognised – BBC Health News 12th December 2009
A Scots doctor who helped to fight Aids in Africa until it claimed his own life is being officially recognised.
A twinning agreement between the Borders General Hospital near Melrose and St Francis Hospital in Zambia will honour the efforts of Dr Sandy Logie.
Buff enough for Bollywood – BBC Health News 13th December 2009
With one eye on muscle-bound Bollywood megastars, young Asian men are increasingly hitting the gym in pursuit of the body beautiful.
Deepak Harbias from Hounslow is typical of the trend.
Uncertain future for hybrid research – BBC Health News 13th December 2009
It sparked impassioned debate, but less than a year after parliament refused to ban hybrid human animal embryos scientists say a lack of funding means their research has been put on ice.
Condemned as “Frankenstein” science by at least one religious leader, and rejected by the majority of the Tory shadow cabinet, hybrids proved one of the most controversial aspects of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
