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The Digest
Did you see the news about...? If you missed an announcement or new development of interest to you, the chances are that it could be listed in The Digest. Each month in The Digest we feature subjects of note including where to obtain more information.
Coronary artery disease treatment
National guidance on the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease has been issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.
The NHS will now develop an implementation strategy for the guidance to ensure the necessary investment in new equipment and staff training is undertaken.
The full guidance is at:
Safety advice on HRT
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should no longer be used as the first choice of treatment for osteoporosis in women over 50.
The advice was issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) after studies showed long-term HRT use increased the risk of blood clots and some cancers.
The safety advice also includes key recommendations for prescribers.
More information at:
Children's anti-depressants
Children should not be prescribed with most selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in future as the benefits do not outweigh the side effects.
The Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued new advice after a review found that under-18s being treated for depressive illness faced a safety risk from the majority of SSRIs, although Prozac (fluoxetine) had a positive balance of risks to benefits.
More information at:
Maternity guide for expectant mums
Important information about local maternity services is now available for mothers-to-be through a new free magazine.
The Department of Health and Dr Foster, an independent health information organisation, have joined forces to produce You're Pregnant.
Babies' hearing scheme grows
The NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme is to be rolled out across England by 2005.
The programme has screened 250,000 babies since it was launched in 2001.
Of those, nearly 250 have been identified as having a hearing loss before six months of age. Early detection of a problem can greatly benefit the child and its family.
More information at:
Disposal of sharp bins
Sharp bins can now be legally returned to prescribing doctors for disposal, the Environment Agency has agreed.
Doctors will need to apply to their local Environment Agency for registration of this exemption under the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994.
More information at:
Older people's services boost
An extra £100 million has been allocated councils to provide even more support for older people.
The additional funds are on top of the £220 million councils have already been allocated for older people's services for the forthcoming year.
The money will be available to local authorities via the access and systems capacity grant, which enables councils to build up their stock of community-based social services and to promote older people's independence.
More information at:
\Palliative care boost
Care for terminally-ill cancer patients will be expanded following an extra £12 million investment by the Government.
The aim is to build on existing palliative care programmes by widening the pool of trained staff. It will also offer support to people in their preferred place of care.
The Department of Health will be working the Cancer Services Collaborative, Macmillan Cancer Relief, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Age Concern and Help the Aged.
More information at:
Improving access to dentists
A further £15 million will be pumped into dental services, on top of the £10m and £62.5m investments announced earlier in 2003.
The extra funding will be used by primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2004-2005 to help improve access and quality.
Chief dental officer Professor Raman Bedi said: "We recognise that we have problems to overcome. We are working to ensure that this continued investment in dentistry will help to improve services in areas that are currently under pressure."
An NHS Support Team has been set up to support PCTs where access to NHS dentists is most challenging. More information at:
Tackling childhood obesity
The £2 million Food in Schools programme has been launched to promote healthy eating in schools and to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity,
The programme includes a Healthier Tuck Shops project in 200 schools in the south west of England; and cookery clubs in schools in the north west.
The department has also announced an extra £77 million, through the lottery-based New Opportunities Fund, is now to be spent to roll out the National School Fruit Scheme across the country.
One million children already receive free fruit at school every day through this scheme.
More information at:
Digital health TV
Health information will be made freely available through television when NHS Direct Digital TV goes live in 2004.
The Department of Health is investing £15 million over the next three years to develop an interactive service giving information on NHS services, health news and advice as part of the Government's wider agenda to give patients more information and more choice over their health care.
Information on the pilots is at:
Handling major incidents
Emergency plans to deal with major incidents are to be overhauled after the publication of new guidance.
The Department of Health has produced Handling Major Incidents - An Operational Doctrine to develop new ways of updating procedures for dealing with terrorist attacks or biological outbreaks.
The guidance is available at:
Mental health report
Mental health services have been praised for their user-friendly culture by the national health watchdog.
A review by the Commission for Healthcare Improvement (CHI) found there were showing signs of improvement in mental health care after many years of under investment, although there are still staff shortages.
Services were praised for involving users more effectively than other parts of the NHS and good links with voluntary organisations.
The report is available at:
NHS performance indicators published
The performance indicators that will be used to rate NHS trusts in England next year have been published.
The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) has increased the number of indicators that reflect patient experience. These indicators will be used to decide the star ratings for trusts due to be published next in summer 2004.
A list of the current ratings and the indicators is at:
Overseas visitors
New measures have been launched to prevent free access to hospital services by overseas visitors with no rights to treatment.
Changes to current legislation are designed to stop 'health tourism' and allow the NHS to charge overseas visitors for treatment. The rule changes are scheduled to come into effect on 1 April.
More information at:
Presumed consent on organ donation ruled out
New laws designed to tighten the rules on human organ and tissue retention has been put forward by the Government.
Under the Human Tissue Bill, doctors would no longer be able to keep organs from dead patients without the full consent of their families.
Changes to the law have been proposed following the Bristol, Alder Hey and Isaacs inquiries, where some children's organs were taken without consent.
The Government rejected calls from some MPs for a system of presumed consent, saying such a concept had 'no place' in the bill.
More information at:
Medicines legislation
Full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act means two pieces of current legislation on medicines will be repealed in 2005.
Both section 118 of the Medicines Act and section five of the Biological Standards Act currently prevent information being made available to the public which will be permitted under the planned open government legislation.
The Medicines Act currently prevents disclosure of information about the licensing and post-licensing monitoring of medicines in the UK.
More on the Freedom of Information Act at:
Health Protection Agency Bill
The bill to establish the agency has been published and sets out how existing health protection standards will be improved.
Its key objective will be to increase effective responses to infectious diseases and other hazards including the threats of chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear terrorism.
The HPA brings together a number of other organisations including the Public Health Laboratory Service, the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, the National Focus for Chemical Incidents and the National Poisons Information Service.
More information at:
NHS foundation trusts - latest
Leave has been granted to 24 NHS trusts to apply for final authorisation to become NHS foundation trusts.
Health secretary John Reid is supporting the applications but the Independent Regulator will have the final say on whether these trusts take on foundation status from April. The regulator will only accept bids when completely satisfied about the applicant's preparedness and viability.
NHS foundation trusts will have greater management and financial freedom including the freedom to retain surpluses and to invest in the delivery of new services.
More information at:
Electronic recruitment
A pilot electronic recruitment scheme for the NHS has been launched to make job finding easier and to reduce advertising costs.
NHS Jobs will initially cover 46 organisations in London, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, County Durham and Teesside, and the south west Midlands. Funded by the Department of Health, the project aims to get all NHS trusts advertising their vacancies for external candidates online when a full national service goes live next April.
The new recruitment website is at:
Medical science investment
A new £10 million bioscience strategy has been set up to ensure the NHS and the UK biotechnology industry takes full advantage of the latest advances in medical science. The strategy has been launched in response to a report on bioscience published by the Bioscience Innovation and Growth Team (BIGT).
The report is at:
Ethics review
The British Medical Association has called for a review of ethics teaching in the NHS to improve patient care. It follows the publication of the BMA's handbook of ethics and law Medical Ethics Today, which features new areas of ethical debate and health care dilemmas.
More information at:
Obstetrics and gynaecology guide
Practical information on obstetrics and gynaecology in primary care has been published.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Primary Care, published by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), details basic investigation and management in primary care using a patient-centred approach and guidance on when to make a referral.
More information at:
NHS and Primary Care magazines
The magazines aim to spread good practice, stimulate debate and keep health professionals up to date with the latest developments. They can be read at:
Medical Device Alerts
MDA/2003/043 - LifeScan OneTouch glucose test strips for use with: LifeScan OneTouch II, LifeScan OneTouch Profile or LifeScan OneTouch Basic blood glucose meters
MDA/2004/002 - Aventis Optipen Pro insulin pen injection system
MDA/2004/001 - reporting adverse Incidents and disseminating medical device alerts
More information at:
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