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Obituary: Diabetes pioneer Professor Harry Keen

The Independent - 20th May 2013 7:13 pm

If there were a list of the scientific developments over the last half century that have improved the lives of people with diabetes, one of its striking features would be the number of milestones that involved Professor Harry Keen.

What really made his mark was the Bedford Survey, a project he led in 1962 to try to discover how many people in Bedford had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.

His team recruited the Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Women’s Institute and the Round Table to distribute pots to every home in the town and asked every adult to fill a pot with urine.

Remarkably, almost 70% of them did, leading not only to the identification of 250 people with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, but to the first definition of the pre-diabetic state, which he termed “borderline diabetes”. The study was also the first to identify, at a population level, the relationship between glucose intolerance and risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Independent.

Tags: Diabetes
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Privatised GP service ‘puts patients at risk’

The Independent - 9:17 am

A private company that took over the running of a GP out-of-hours service in north London has been severely criticised by the NHS regulator for failing to provide enough doctors to keep patients safe.

The Care Quality Commission’s report on Harmoni, Britain’s biggest provider of out-of-hours care which runs services across the country and earns £100m a year from NHS contracts, is the first evidence from an official body that cost-cutting by private companies may be harming patient care.

Last December, Harmoni categorically denied that the service in north London was unsafe or had failed to meet contractual obligations. But in March the company admitted that two of its doctors had failed to act appropriately at the inquest into the death from pneumonia of seven-week-old Axel Peanberg King, who was kept waiting for four hours last November.

Plans to diagnose two thirds of people with dementia

Social Care Worker - 16th May 2013 6:29 pm

NHS England has launched plans for two-thirds of people with dementia to be diagnosed and given appropriate support by 2015.

The health secretary Jeremy Hunt supported the move describing dementia diagnosis rates as “shockingly low”.

He said: “Dementia is a serious and growing problem so this ambitious drive to see a clear majority of people identified and supported is a major step forward.

“I am pleased that NHS England has set a clear direction and sent a message to the NHS that we must do more. I fully support every GP, doctor and health worker who accepts this challenge.”

Three-fold rise in altruistic organ donation in UK

BBC Health - 2:31 pm

The number of living people giving one of their organs to a stranger almost tripled last year in the UK, according to new figures.

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) approved 104 so-called altruistic organ donations in 2012-13 compared with 38 the previous year.

The figures include the first case of someone giving part of their liver to someone they had never met.

Altruistic donations now make up about one in 12 of all living donations.

Read more at BBC Health.

Tags: Organ donation
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A&E demand unsustainable CQC chair says

BBC Health - 9th May 2013 10:28 am

Levels of demand on NHS accident and emergency departments in England have been described as unsustainable by the head of the health service regulator.

Care Quality Commission chairman David Prior said there was no guarantee that another disaster like that at Stafford Hospital could not happen in future.

Hundreds of people are thought to have died after receiving poor care there. Pressures on accident and emergency departments across the NHS in England have been increasing in recent months.

Read more at BBC Health.

Tags: A&E, Waiting lists
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Outlook for social care funding is “getting bleaker”

Social Care Worker - 8th May 2013 12:10 pm

Services for older people and people with disabilities are still being cut despite funding being transferred from the NHS to local authority-funded social care.

These are the findings of a survey of social care budgets carried out by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services

Overall, in the three years since the beginning of the current austerity programme, some £2.68 billion savings will have been made by adult social care – 20% of net spending.

While much of these savings have been achieved through improving ‘back office’ efficiency, many councils admit that they were gained by “providing different, more cost effective packages of care, or reduced levels of care, to many elderly or disabled people.”

Ambulance delays “causing harm and deaths”

BBC Health - 4th May 2013 10:18 am

Patients are coming to serious harm and even dying because of ambulance delays, a paramedic whistle-blower has warned.

He says ‘lone-response’ paramedics at emergencies in the east of England can be stranded for several hours while they wait for fully crewed ambulances.

The ambulance trust serving the region is investigating eight “serious incidents” in March. They involve delays in getting patients to hospital, including four cases in which people died.

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) admitted the service had fallen short, and said it was investing in extra staff and ambulances.

Read more at BBC Health.

Tags: Ambulances
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Monitor spends millions on management consultants

Yorkshire Post - 10:15 am

NHS regulator Monitor spent 40% of its budget on millions of pounds on advice from five big firms of private consultants in the last year, final figures reveal.

The contracts totalling £7.8m include an “interim fee” of £1m for work by turnaround experts from Ernst & Young at the scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS trust.

Figures for 2012-13 show Monitor also paid PwC £3m, McKinsey £1.9m, KPMG £1.1m and Deloitte £800,000 from its £19.5m budget.

Monitor’s heavy reliance on private sector finance and management consultants has triggered renewed criticism of the regulator which has taken key new powers under the Government’s controversial NHS reforms.

CQC says ‘lives at risk’ at private hospital

The Guardian - 1st May 2013 10:26 pm

A private hospital in Surrey has agreed to stop all surgery on children following a damning report from the Care Quality Commission, which said that patients’ lives were being put at risk.

The as yet unpublished report into Mount Alvernia hospital in Guildford, Surrey, followed inspections in January. BMI Healthcare, which runs it, is one of the biggest providers of private healthcare in the UK and earned more than £200m from the NHS in 2011. The report will be politically sensitive, given the coalition government’s encouragement of more private-sector involvement in the NHS.

The report states categorically that patients’ lives were at risk at the luxury 76-bed hospital, where every room is en-suite.

“The care and treatment provided to patients at BMI Mount Alvernia hospital was unsafe. People were put at significant risk of harm to a life-threatening level. Children admitted for surgery were particularly at risk of unsafe and inappropriate care and treatment,” it says.

NHS 111 advice line services are ’still fragile’

BBC Health - 8:10 pm

The new NHS non-emergency 111 telephone service in England is in a fragile state in a number of areas ahead of bank holiday weekend, NHS bosses admit.

Reports have been emerging for weeks of calls going unanswered and poor advice being given, leading to hospitals being inundated with patients. The problems plaguing the advice line will now be discussed at a board meeting of NHS England on Friday.

Officials are expected to agree to an urgent review of the system. A board paper produced by NHS England says some of the problems have been “unacceptable” and, despite improvements, the system still remains in a “fragile” state in places.

There are 46 individual 111 services across England.

Read more at BBC Health.

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News From The Web

Obituary: Diabetes pioneer Professor Harry Keen

Privatised GP service ‘puts patients at risk’

Plans to diagnose two thirds of people with dementia

Three-fold rise in altruistic organ donation in UK

A&E demand unsustainable CQC chair says

Outlook for social care funding is “getting bleaker”

Ambulance delays “causing harm and deaths”

Monitor spends millions on management consultants

CQC says ‘lives at risk’ at private hospital

NHS 111 advice line services are ’still fragile’

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