Archive for August, 2009


Fewer Deaths by improving communication

Filed Under: The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 4, 2009

We all know that good communication is key but it is not always practised as the coroners reports are showing, there seems to be a high number of deaths which could have been avoided. Since the rules were changed last year, coroners have been able to write detailed reports following inquests that highlighted a risk of more deaths occurring. Coroners reported that better communication could reduce the number of deaths occurring in hospital.

Out 207 reports between July 2008 and March 2009, 58 arose from hospital deaths, 19 were classed as mental health related, 19 were associated with community healthcare and emergency services and 11 were linked to drugs and medication.

So what is good communication?
Good communication is sharing information is a clear and concise manner with everyone who is involved in the care of the patient, it is also ensuring that the patient fully understands what is going; obviously in emergency situations this is not always possible at the time but after the emergency has passed they need to be told what is going on. This will minimise the chance of the patient possibly taking the wrong medication or committing suicide because they become depressed.

There are a number of courses available which are designed to help improve communication skills. One particularly good one is done by Medicology, Communication Skills for Doctors.

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Tamiflu causing side effects in kids

Filed Under: Healthcare News by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 3, 2009

There are claims that over half of the children taking Tamiflu to cure swine flu suffered side effects such as nausea, insomnia and nightmares. The statistics show that 1 in 5 children had a neuropsychiatric side effect, such as poor concentration, inability to think clearly, problems sleeping, and feeling dazed or confused. The research that was carried out was flawed as there was no control group therefore it is impossible to say whether the symptoms were a result of the drug or the virus; however, there were no serious long term side

Participants for the study were selected differently in the three schools. In two schools (one primary and one secondary school) the researchers selected all the classes who were offered prophylaxis, (age 4-11 years in the primary school), and all of one year group in the secondary school (age 13-14 years). In the other secondary school, the questionnaire was offered only to pupils in four of the classes in the year group (age range 11-13 years). This is a flawed sample as there is no fixed criteria for selecting the participants for the research.

Here are a few of the questions that were asked to the sample:

  • Whether children who had been offered Tamiflu had taken it?
  • How long they took it for?
  • Were they taking any other medication with Tamiflu?
  • Were there symptoms after taking Tamiflu (including specific gastrointestinal and neuropsychiatric symptoms)?

Out of 256 schoolchildren, 103 replied which is 40% of the participants. The number of responses from the secondary school were higher than those from the primary school. The results show that only 48% of the primary schoolchildren in comparison to the 76%of the secondary schoolchildren. The most common side effects were nausea and vomiting, followed by mild neuropsychiatric effects such as difficulty sleeping, nightmares and poor concentration.

It is worth pointing out that Tamiflu has not been withdrawn and is still used to treat swine flu. All drugs come with side effects and not everybody experiences them, thus suggesting that Tamiflu is no different to any other medicine.

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Private Transplants to be banned

Filed Under: Healthcare News, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 2, 2009

The government is planning to ban all private transplants of organs from dead donors in the UK. The ban comes as a result of media reports of patients from countries such as Greece and Italy paying to get on waiting lists for organs from British people, so due to the fact that organs are scarce the general consensus is that to ensure NHS patients don’t miss out no one should be allowed to pay for transplants. At present the ban is only been approved in England but is expected to come into place across the rest of the UK by October.

An enquiry carried out revealed that over 700 transplants, most of which were liver transplants, had been carried out on non-UK patients over the past 10 years. Of the 700 transplants 631 of those transplants used organs from dead donors and, of those, 314 were from outside the EU. It is worth pointing out that the enquiry uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing with regards to the allocation of the organs but came to the conclusion that no one should be able to pay for such operations. According EU law, some patients can receive treatment in other countries, if approved by their healthcare system, which then foots the bill, however the NHS should be more cautious when assessing patients’ eligibility as it is possible that some patients are receiving treatment when they should be refused. Some say that the NHS should work with other EU countries to help develop their own transplant scheme.

The ban only applies to transplants from dead donors private transplants can still be carried out using organs from living donors. Critics of the ban claim that the only reason people pay for transplants is the NHS takes so long that you will probably be dead before you get it. They also point out that it is illegal to sell your organs so why should hospitals be allowed to sell organs to the highest bidder, especially when there are not enough organs available for citizens of the UK. The organs should be allocated on the basis of who is in the greatest need instead of who can afford to pay.

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