Health Index | Health News & Fitness Guide » NHS

Honda promotes blood bikes

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:16:15 +0000

Many organisations rely on the unselfish dedication of volunteers to keep them ticking over and to keep the costs down. A familiar sight on the high street are charity shops, all manned by volunteers who give their time without recompense to help a good cause. We have all seen the WRVS concession stands in hospitals too, but there is another volunteer workforce in the background which provides a vital service to our hospitals.

These volunteers are the ones that use their own motorbikes, pay for their own petrol, and race around collecting blood and delivering it to hospitals when an emergency situation arises or their own stocks of a certain type are running dangerously low. These selfless riders are known as the blood bikers, and they drive around mainly at night delivering vital supplies of blood and not costing the NHS a penny.

A new video, sponsored by Honda, aims to raise public awareness of these unsung heroes of the road, and dispel the myth many hold with that the basement of a hospital is essentially an enormous blood bank with an endless supply on tap. The video follows one of these blood bikers from the initial phone call, to the collection and ultimate delivery at the hospital. It’s about time we were told about these kinds of volunteers and the work they do.

Imagine how it must feel to be the only person on one of the country’s biggest motorways, to know that while others sleep, you are giving up your time and saving lives. There is the reward right there, no monetary compensation necessary. This particular biker is a lifelong Honda fan, and uses a Honda machine as his blood bike and we see him riding along deserted roads in his quest to get from A to B in the shortest time possible.

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NHS reforms may never happen

Alan — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:16:26 +0000

Earl Howel, the health minister has cautioned that if the peers delay the bill that is set to reform the NHS then it may never get put into law. The bill is to encourage more competition in the NHS and so reduce the cost of health care; part of this bill is to devolve power to doctors who will be able to control their budgets.

The bill is set to pass through the House of Lords and it is expected that they will cause the bill to be delayed as they want it to be subject to more investigations. The bill has already been significantly changed after complaints from the NHS as well as some members of Parliament.

Proponents of the bill have claimed that it is very popular but recently there has been significant opposition to the bill from leading health care professionals in the country as well as members of the public and prominent celebrities.

Some of the Lords have said that the bill raises certain constitutional concerns over who will be monitoring the NHS. They have said that they would like to see a special select committee established so that the bill can be further scrutinised. They have raised particular concerns over the formation of the Monitor group which has been created to encourage competition within the health service.

Lord Owen has commented, “This bill is trying to establish a new way of working for clinicians and how they deal with their patients, this is very complex and they only way we are going to get a full idea of how it works and whether it will be effective is through a select committee. We must remember that the health service is not an ordinary utility, it is different.”

Labour Lord, Baroness Thronton has warned that the bill might turn health care into a commodity that can be traded, and patient choice will be turned into a shopping experience. Lord Rea, who is a former general practitioner, has asked for the bill to be dropped completely.

Lord Howe on the other hand has been a strong advocate of the bill saying, “It is clearly very important that this bill is properly examined before it is made into law. However, if we choose to delay this bill further it might just cause it irreparable damage. We must not delay it at this stage. It does not undermine the powers of the health secretary.”

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NHS has to follow new enforced guidelines

Alan — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 06:37:20 +0000

The NHS is having a lot of problems lately, what with scathing reports from the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority and the public accounts committee (PAC), as well as the National Audit Office. In the PAC report, as outlined in the Guardian last week, the findings showed that NHS has no sure way to link the electronic care records delivered through its National Progamme for IT (NPfIT) with those delivered from local sources.

That report also says that though NHS trusts will have the responsibility for care records systems, they don’t know what the ongoing costs will be, since they do not have a clear contractual agreement with existing suppliers. One such supplier, CSC, is under contract with NPfIT but hasn’t delivered the majority of the systems promised; instead the DH paid for interim systems that are not adequate for the job. Another supplier, PAC said, was blatantly overcharging the DH to implement systems that the NHS could have gotten for much less.

NPfIT was set up in 2002 with a government mandate allowing it to operate independent of the public sector in areas such as its systems network, patient ID numbers and service contracts. It was also allowed to sidestep reviews by the Office of Government Commerce that came in response to complaints about IT performance in the public sector.

Now that latitude is going to be curtailed, and NHS will have to abide by the policies and strategies that apply to the rest of government IT operations. NHS will be required to share existing systems instead of buying new ones, and that restriction may involve canceling the unsatisfactory contract with CSC, though NHS claims such a move would be more expensive than continuing their negotiations with CSC for reduced costs.

At this point the logistics of an overall reform of the NHS’s systems are rather daunting; it’s clear that changes are needed but implementing them poses more problems. The government is searching for a viable way to integrate NHS and private sector systems, and working with a severely reduced budget.

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NHS thinks £32 is a fair price for a loaf

Alan — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:45:14 +0000

It has emerged that more than £32 per loaf was paid by NHS officials for thousands of loaves of bread. The product is gluten free and given free to patients that have coeliac disease, yet sells in supermarkets for as little as £2.25. Figures released show that costs to the NHS by supplying it through pharmacies has increased for a small loaf to £32.00 or about £2.50 per slice, with the bread costing for the year over £1.3 million.

This sum is what Welsh officials of the NHS paid. They also pay £11.50 for bags of pasta that normally costs only £3.50 in the supermarket and £7.15 for gluten free biscuits that on high street cost only £2.00. Shadow Health Minister Darren Miller of the Welsh Assembly uncovered the bill for the bread and it is being blamed on administration charges.

He added that this is not the effective way to use resources and the Health Minister needs to evaluate the way the foods are accessed by patients to try and protect the public purse better. Gluten free food and gluten free prescriptions in Wales for NHS patients have risen in recent years from 100,000 to over 140,000 as more and more patients have been diagnosed with small intestine coeliac disease.

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Many drugs being added to NHS blacklist

Alan — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 07:30:20 +0000

According to the GP Organisation ‘Pulse’, NHS managers are banning GP’s from prescribing high cost drugs to try and make savings on prescription budgets. Over 50% of PCO’s (Primary Care Organisations) have in the past year brought in drug blacklists that will no longer be funded by the NHS.

Health boards and Primary care trusts are drawing up plans which they estimate will cut a whopping £250m of this years budget for drugs. ‘Pulse’ questioned over 134 PCO’s, using the Freedom of Information Act, and this is where it was revealed that over half now have blacklists. Some lists contain over 100 drugs which GP’s are now unable to prescribe to NHS patients.

‘Pulse’ has also claimed that 73 of the PCO’s they questioned have added more drugs to their blacklists or placed further restrictions on primary care prescribing in the last 12 months. Their aim is to make an average estimate saving of £1.9m each over 2011/12

The lists of blacklisted drugs include the Diabetes medication Gliptins and Denosumab, which is used to treat Osteoporosis. The reason given for other drugs being blacklisted is that they are of ‘low clinical priority’. This group includes some of the new contraceptive pills, drugs to treat Parkinson’s Disease, homeopathic remedies and Orlistat, prescribed for weight loss.

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Doctors do not have to speak English to work for the NHS

Alan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:11:11 +0000

Current European rules are a serious cause of concern and patient safety risk by banning it from examining GPs language skills before they are able to begin working here, says the General Medical Council. Some doctors on its books are not able to communicate in English says the regulator but were not allowed to prevent them from looking for work under the current European law.

They warned that the NHS may be infiltrated by some bogus doctors from other countries that can present false certificates and ID because there is a lack of security checks and also they could hide the fact they may have had their license to practice suspended in their home country.

The worry is doctors from outside Britain may have little idea on how to carry out certain procedures that are quite standard here since there is not standardized training, education or healthcare system.

The GMC’s strong letter followed the Daniel Ubani scandal which is what brought all this to the forefront and currently the European Commission is reviewing the laws that govern free movement across the continent.

The German, cosmetic surgeon gave a 70 year old English man a lethal dose of painkillers in Cambridgeshire on his first shift as a locum GP and the GMC has not even been able to verify if he had any prior GP experience.

Health Minister Diane Abbott the weaknesses in the system allowed this case with Ubani to happen. To even think or suggest that healthcare system workers can operated without proper training in our system is just plain absurd.

There are over 23,000 doctors registered from the 27 European Union members that under the current system can work in Britain because the European single market means they have to have their qualifications accepted and they can not be tested on their English language abilities.

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NHS productivity continues to fall

Alan — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:14:33 +0000

Despite increases in resources it has been announced by a Parliamentary Report that NHS productivity in the last decade has fallen. The report from the Office of National Statistics has stated that the NHS productivity has fallen by close .2% each year since 2000 and in hospitals by an average of close to 1.5%, all this while government spending for NHS increased 70% from 2000/01 to 2010/11 from £60bn to £102bn.

Taxpayers have received less for each pound spent even though the quality of health service has improved due to increased spending, that from Chair of the Committee of Public Records the Rt Hon. Margaret Hodge MP and this trend needs to change in order to meet the target of achieving a savings of £20 billion each year.

The reports said that performance management had not been handled by clinical staff with regard to efficiency or cost in order to focus on the quality of care. The report was also critical of the DH for not identifying the efficiency or inefficiency of some hospitals even though they offered similar services.

The position of consultants was defended by Dr. Paul Flynn BMA’s Consultants Committee Deputy Chairman who was critical of the report. Some of the most important improvements that took place in the NHS were forgotten about because of crude measures of productivity

Consultants salaries have been frozen for the past two years even thought the report talked about there be significant pay raises. If the NHS is to reach its goal of efficiency we agree there needs to be new ways of working but knee-jerk reactions like cutting consultants time spent on developing new services will be counterproductive in the long term.

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NHS still has many mixed sex wards

Alan — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:16:14 +0000

NHS guidelines suggest genders be separated to different wards when treated in hospital. However, hundreds of patients of both genders have been thrown together into the same wards in London, contrary to these guidelines.

Both the Tories and Labour have sworn to rid the hospitals of the mixed-gender wards, yet even today the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley released statistics that indicate the wards are still in use in this manner.

Only in December were more than 11,000 unwarranted offences found to the guidelines. Over 350 were found at Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust 320, Barts and The London NHS Trust 355, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust 295, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust 147, and Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals 247.

Throughout the hospitals of London there were barely fewer than 2,000 offences. The country’s capital was the worst offender, coming in at 10.5 breaches for every thousand patients. Lansley said, “Labour ministers claimed the problem of mixed-gender wards was dealt with and gone, without releasing any figures to back it up.”

“Now we are revealing to the public the gravity of the problem. It is far bigger than was told us by the former government. Now we at least have a government in place who is willing to follow through with solving the dilemma.”

The dignity of the person is at stake, according to Lansley, and he reported that any hospitals who offend that dignity will receive a stiff penalty of £250 each time.

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Doctors want homeopathy out of the NHS

Alan — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:25:37 +0000

Doctors believe that the NHS should not pay for homeopathy and that it should no longer be considered a medicine by pharmacies.

Medics voiced their opinion on the matter at the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Brighton conference. They labeled the remedies as ‘nonsense’ and stated that some can even be harmful to patients that choose these options over conventional medicines.

The Department of Health responded by stating that homeopathy therapy would be reviewed. The therapy itself is a 200 year old system of home treatment that makes use of diluted substances.

Due to the fact many of these substances are highly diluted, in some cases the original product does not remain when consumed. All substances are consumed orally under the theory that it will stimulate the body to begin to self-heal.

The NHS is estimated to spend around £4m per year on such treatments by funding four homeopathic hospitals as well as prescriptions.

Shropshire GP, Dr. Mary McCarthy, stated that there is no evidence that homeopathy produced results past the placebo effect, which is when a patient begins to heal only because of the psychological boost. She added that it harms patients that are diverted from conventional medical methods of treatment.

Many doctors at the BMA conference felt the same way, with dozens of the doctors agreeing. BMA junior doctor committee member Dr. Tom Dolphin called the therapy nonsense and that society risks falling back into a world of make believe when made-up science is accepted as a solution for rational treatment.

A handful of doctors did support the homeopathy therapy however with Edinburgh GP, Dr. John Garner stating that a ban would hurt patients that have seen a benefit.

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Fines for hospitals if they kick out patients before they are well

Alan — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:01:33 +0000

Under new government plans, hospitals will face financial penalties if patients have an emergency within 30 days after they are discharged from an initial stay.

Andrew Lansley will unveil the scheme on Tuesday in his first major act as the new health secretary. According to his address, English hospitals will receive pay for initial treatment of a patient, but will not receive additional payments if the patient returns with a related problem.

The announcement is aimed at the debate that patients are facing early discharges in order to free up beds, instead of being discharged once their condition is identified and under control.

The Conservatives have stated in the past that Labour cuts on hospital beds forced the NHS staff to discharge people as needed without proper medical support.

In terms of Lansley’s vision for the NHS, he is also expected to ask that patients be allowed more control over the direction of their healthcare. Additionally, he also is expected to announce that hospitals need to be responsible for patients’ health in the month following their discharge date. At the moment, GP’s and primary care trusts are responsible for looking after patients following hospital discharges.

Lansley overall feels that the NHS needs to focus more on providing better care for patients and their safety which he believes is possible by reducing the cost of NHS waste, bureaucracy, and administration.

Among his goals will be developing fund raising techniques to raise money for new drugs such as the highly controversial and expensive cancer drugs.

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