Acute Care – Page 479
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HSJ Knowledge
Copying outpatient clinic correspondence: letter to patient or GP?
The NHS plan flagged up improving communication between doctors and patients by having outpatient clinic letters to GPs copied to patients. We ran a study comparing this with writing a letter to the patient copied to the GP.
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News
Northern Ireland cancer consultation launched
Northern Ireland health minister Paul Goggins has launched a new cancer control programme which highlights the importance of lifestyle factors in preventing cancer and the need for the public to be more proactive in reporting possible cancer symptoms at an early stage.The report's 55 recommendations span every aspect of cancer ...
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News
Back to the ward: back-to-front thinking
Even when financial pressure is being felt so heavily up and down the country, it still seems odd that some trusts are asking senior nurses (in at least one case, at director level) to go back to the wards to help out on a regular basis. Read more >>
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News
RCN attacks back-to-wards plan
The Royal College of Nursing has expressed concerns that trusts across the country are asking senior nurses with specialist skills to go back to the wards as nursing auxiliaries to ease recruitment and financial problems.
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News
LIFT-funded buildings pass 100 mark
The opening of three new health centres this week through the local improvement finance trust has pushed the NHS above the 100 mark in its LIFT-funded building programme.The 100th building to open was the £3m Longview Drive primary care centre in St Helens and was followed by two more in ...
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News
Guidance on treatment of critically sick children launched
The Department of Health, medical royal colleges and the Royal College of Nursing have produced guidance on how best to treat acutely or critically sick children in district general hospitals.The guidance includes training for staff, transfer of sick children, and the needs of sick children's families.Read the full guidance ...
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News
Waiting list breakthrough in Northern Ireland
No patients are waiting more than nine months for surgery in Northern Ireland for the first time, government figures for the end of October have revealed.This time last year 5,600 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case surgery for more than nine months.Read more ...
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News
Infection control risks revealed
Fewer than half of NHS trusts have a ringfenced budged for infection control, and nearly half of respondents said staff are not adequately trained in infection control, according to a survey carried out by the Patients Association.The survey, which polled directors of nursing, infection control nurses, and microbiologists, also revealed ...
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Comment
Hilary Thomas on being half-way through radiotherapy
Soon I can put radiotherapy and my emotional reaction to it behind me and enjoy Harry Hill's advice: 'My auntie used to say, what you can't see won't hurt you. She died of radiation poisoning'
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HSJ Knowledge
When 3x9=24 and fewer tired doctors
A fresh approach to rota design in the wake of the European working-time directive could help ensure that doctors and patients are better looked after. Professor Roy Pounder explains
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News
MPs ask how users can shape public services
The House of Commons public administration select committee has launched a new inquiry into the role that 'customers' or 'users' should have in helping shape public services. Key questions include the possibility of setting minimum standards for services and how consultations manage to capture the views of the right people.Find ...
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News
Ambulance trusts 'must improve performance data'
Ambulance trust boards need 'accurate and timely' performance information to drive improvements in information so the ambulance service can play a key role in ensuring patients receive appropriate care in the right environment, according to a new report by health information company Dr Foster Intelligence.The report will appear ...
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News
Cancer audit in sight
The Information Centre is preparing to audit hospitals' care of patients with gastro-intestinal cancer
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News
Granger tops NHS earners list
The average salary of the 12 highest earners in the NHS is £183,000, according to an analysis of senior executives' pay in the public sector for 2004-05.The figures from the Taxpayers' Alliance show the top two NHS earners are Connecting for Health chief executive Richard Granger, with a £285,000 salary, ...
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News
Nicholson to give evidence to spending enquiry
NHS chief executive David Nicholson, acting permanent secretary Hugh Taylor and finance director Richard Douglas are to give evidence to the Commons health committee on 23 November as part of its inquiry into NHS expenditure. Health secretary Patricia Hewitt will face the committee on 29 November.
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News
Select committee to investigate patient involvement
The Commons health select committee is to carry out an inquiry into public and patient involvement early next year. Although the terms of reference will not be announced until after the Queen's Speech on 15 November, the committee said it intends to consider issues such as the powers and make-up ...
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News
Health sector has worst staff illness
The health and social care sector accounted for the highest number of self-reported, work-related illness per 100,000 people in 2005-06, according to the Health and Safety Commission's Health and safety statistics for 2005-06.The report said there were 4,100 self-reported work-related illnesses per 100,000 people involved in health and social work, ...
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News
Latest IT delays a 'catastrophe'
Just two of the 22 acute trusts which promised in June to implement NHS Connecting for Health patient administration systems by the end of October have fully done so. Two more have partially introduced the systems.
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News
Push to publish clinical data
The Department of Health is to look at ways of providing clinical outcome information for independent treatment centres. The government's response to the Commons health select committee's report on ITCs conceded that without robust information on clinical quality, patients cannot make an informed choice.
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News
Government urges quicker action on infection rates
The government has said it will urge the Healthcare Commission to move more quickly to take action against trusts with high levels of healthcare-acquired infection.