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The following articles have the tag UK
AUSTRALIAN surgeons will “inevitably” have their individual patient survival rates published, with GPs to follow, after the UK government announced plans to do just that, a medico-legal expert has warned.
AUSTRALIAN surgeons will “inevitably” have their individual patient survival rates published, with GPs to follow, after the UK government announced plans to do just that, a medico-legal expert has warned.
A FILM depicting nurses cleaning up vomit and being shouted at by patients is at the centre of a new UK campaign to show the reality of the nursing profession.
SHAME and self-stigmatisation are major obstacles to doctors returning to work after a long-term absence with a physical or mental illness, a UK study has found.
EMISSIONS from cars, trucks, planes and power plants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the UK each year, according to US researchers.
MICROSURGEONS in the UK have successfully attached a man’s big toe to his hand to replace a thumb that was severed in an accident. James Byrne, 29, cut off the thumb on his left hand last December 2010 while sawing through a piece of wood. After an attempt to reattach the damaged thumb was unsuccessful, Umraz Khan, a plastic surgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, transplanted the big toe from the patient’s left foot on to his hand. "Mr Khan reattached my thumb but it had been badly damaged and although ...
TWO more patients have died in a British hospital where a nurse is suspected of contaminating a batch of saline with insulin, taking the death toll so far to five. Police arrested a 27-year-old nurse this week in connection with the deaths of the three other patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in northwest England and also have grave fears for nine others, including a 41-year-old man, who has been described as being critically ill. "I can confirm that there have been two further deaths that we are linking to the investigation ...
Is economic strength the only way to measure a country’s success? The UK thinks not and will start to measure wellbeing within the population. Should Australia follow suit? Kathryn Eccles reports.
THE UK is facing a growing human campylobacteriosis epidemic, and the poultry industry is being held to blame. In 2009 there were more than 64,000 reported cases, a yearly increase of 30% in Scotland and 14% in England and Wales. However, because of substantial under-reporting, the total number may be closer to 450,000. About 10% of the reported cases were hospitalised. The bacteria is believed to be responsible for about one in seven cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Experts are calling for the poultry industry to take drastic action to reduce Campylobacter load in chickens, which ...
ACT health workforce recruiters will focus on UK doctors as part of a renewed push to fill ongoing gaps in the territory’s general practice workforce. The ACT Government, in collaboration with the ACT Division of General Practice, has launched a new campaign, believed to cost around $23,000, to find doctors for the territory’s 50 existing GP vacancies. Full-page ads will be taken out in the British Journal of General Practice promoting Canberra’s lifestyle, with applicants put in touch with local practices through the division. Division chair Dr Rashmi Sharma said that although the ACT included several designated ...
RESEARCHERS have expressed concern about the amount of smoking portrayed in movies watched by adolescents in the UK. A study has found British youths were exposed to 28% more on-screen smoking than their US counterparts due to differences in movie classification. The authors found 79% of films rated ‘R’ (for adults) in the US were rated ‘15’ or ‘12A’ in the UK and classified as suitable for adolescents. Researchers identified the number of smoking-related scenes in 572 top-grossing films screened in the UK from 2001 to 2006 compared with the US equivalent and in relation to the average ...
A NEW medical centre set to open in GP-starved Canberra will be taking its cue from innovative UK models of care, according to its practice manager, David Bailey. The West Belconnen Health Cooperative will even be staffed by UK doctors, with four GPs poised to begin work at the practice within the next six months. The practice itself is owned and run by the local community cooperative, and is only the second practice in the country to be established in this way. Mr Bailey, director of practice consulting firm Professional Management Solutions, said, while the shortage ...
• CHINA STARTS VOLUNTARY ORGAN DONATION SYSTEM THE Chinese Government has launched a voluntary organ donation system in an attempt to curb the country’s thriving illegal organ trade. Coordinated by the national Red Cross Society in conjunction with China’s Health Ministry, the pilot program was unveiled at a news conference in Shanghai last month. The voluntary donor scheme will be trialled in 10 cities and regions throughout China, including Shanghai and the prosperous Guangdong province, with the program expected to be rolled out nationwide, The New York Times reports. Vice-Minister of Health Dr ...
AS Australia considers its own model of patient registration under the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission recommendations, the UK is watering down its own long-established scheme. Under the existing British scheme, citizens must register and consult with GPs within a specified range of their residential address, however patients may be able to choose which GP they register with within the year. The system overhaul is designed to help commuters see doctors close to their workplace and for students to access doctors close to schools. The Times Online has reported the move could see ...
• MEXICO HIT BY SOARING DENGUE FEVER RATES HAVING just survived the H1N1 epidemic, Mexico now faces another health threat, with rates of dengue fever climbing rapidly, The Lancet reports. Mexico’s public health department reported the number of dengue fever cases had risen from 1781 in 2000 to 33,000 last year. They said confirmed cases for this year were already 15% higher than for 2008. Experts say the surge in dengue fever is being driven by the appearance of the mosquito Aedes aegypti in more Mexican states and at higher altitudes ...
• INDIA HEART DISEASE ALERT EXPERTS have warned an expected sharp rise in cardiovascular disease in India will wreak havoc on the country’s healthcare system and productivity. The World Health Organization has estimated India will have 60% of the world’s heart disease patients by 2010, and the disease burden of CVD, stroke and diabetes will cost the country $237 billion by 2015. The epidemic has been blamed on the adoption of Westernised lifestyles, increased stress and rampant tobacco use. The Indian government will introduce a pilot program in 10 districts focused on heart ...
BRITAIN is likely to subsidise influenza vaccination for children aged from six months to two years, according to the head of the government-funded national GP surveillance unit. Dr Douglas Fleming, director of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Birmingham Research Unit, said cost-effectiveness was a stumbling block to subsidised universal vaccination in the UK for this age group. “I don’t think anybody disputes that vaccination is clinically effective, with the potential benefits being maximal in children less than two years [but older than six months]. Our problem is deciding whether it is cost-justifiable.” Dr Fleming told ...
• NEW DISEASE RESEMBLES CJD US researchers have identified a new fatal brain-wasting disease that resembles Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). A CBC News report said the disease, which robs patients of the ability to speak and move, had been identified in 16 people since 2002, 10 of whom had died from the infection. The new disease leads to brain tissue damage through the accumulation of prions, which are deformed versions of a brain protein. • FAT LOWERS SPERM COUNT Wearing tight briefs has been blamed for reducing sperm count, but men trying to ...