Category: Healthcare News


Painkiller Ban reduces suicide

Filed Under: Healthcare News by Kirsty — Leave a comment
June 19, 2009

The painkiller co-proxamol has been gradually phased out after its licence was removed in 2007, since then there have been 350 fewer suicides and accidental deaths. The reason the drug was banned was due to the fact that studies such as that done by Professor Keith Hawton of Oxford University showed that co-proxamol was responsible for one fifth of drug related suicides.

Co-proxamol is a mixture of paracetamol and an opiod drug called dextropropoxyphene. It was used to manage the pain in conditions such as arthritis. Co-proxamol is extremely dangerous as even a slight overdose can be fatal as it takes effect very quickly so death occurs before medical attention can be sought.

Since the licence was removed there is a system in place where doctors could prescribe the drug on a named patient basis. This is for patients who are unable to manage their pain using alternatives, although they do so at there own risk because it is an unlicensed drug.

It seems that with any drug there is the risk of an overdose just so happens that the media found out about this one and created alot of hype otherwise known as a moral panic which then caused the regulators to remove it. If that’s the case then why not move drugs such as aspirin, that are readily available because if somebody decides that they want to commit suicide then they will do so using any means at their disposal, so are the regulators going to slowly ban every drug and put it on a named patient only system. This will not only cause problems for people who wish to gain access to analgesia or other fairly routine medication such as hayfever remedies, also it will cause the pharmaceutical companies to lose billions as the number of their product sold will decrease.

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Get your anti-cancer boost from whole carrots

Filed Under: Healthcare News by Kirsty — Leave a comment
June 17, 2009

Scientists have found that the anti-cancer properties of carrots are more potent if they are not cut up before cooking. It is estimated that carrots that are boiled before they are cut contain approximately 25% more falcarinol, which is and anti-cancer compound. Dr Kirsten Brandt, from Newcastle University claims that: “Chopping up your carrots increases the surface area so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are cooked. By keeping them whole and chopping them up afterwards you are locking in nutrients and the taste, so the carrot is better for you all round.” The latest findings indicate that when carrots are heated the cells lose the ability to hold water inside them thus increasing the falcarinol concentration.

Studies show that in blind taste studies the whole carrots also tasted much better, eight of ten people favoured the whole vegetables over those that were pre-chopped. The reason for this is because the naturally occurring sugars which are responsible for giving the carrot its distinctive flavour were found in higher concentrations in the carrot that had been cooked whole.

Dr Kat Arney, from Cancer Research UK, remains unconvinced that keeping carrots whole would have any impact on cancer risk arguing that: “When it comes to eating, we know that a healthy balanced diet – rich in a range of fruit and vegetables – plays an important part in reducing the risk of many types of cancer, rather than any one specific food.”

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Obesity Drug – Good or Bad?

Filed Under: Healthcare News, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
March 30, 2009

We’ve all heard about the growing rates of obesity in Britain and the USA. With the increasing number of bizarre diets and diet pills it was only a matter of time before somebody invented a pill that could apparently cure obesity. The company that invented the drug called Lorcaserin saw a 20% decline in shares after it announced that the 2 year trial period on 3,000 patients at over 100 sites throughout the US had fallen short of the benchmark sought by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The results of the trial were:

  • 47.5% of Lorcaserin patients lost 5% or more of their body weight, compared to 20.3% in the placebo group in 12 month.
  • In the first 12 months the Lorcaserin group lost on average 5.8% of body weight (12.7 pounds), compared to 2.2% (4.7 pounds) in the placebo group.
  • In total 22.6% of Lorcaserin patients lost 10% or more of their body weight compared to 7.7 % in the placebo group.

It seems that there are also reports the results are more than good enough to meet the FDA requirement for approval, the Arena claims that the drug has met all its primary endpoints, and shows significantly greater weight loss compared to placebo.

It is already accepted that obesity is a widespread disease, so having an effective therapy that can be used by the majority of patients who need to reduce their weight that could also be beneficial for conditions, such as diabetes, lipid disorders, and cardiovascular disease, Lorcaserin is the first in a new class of selective serotonin 2C receptor agonists; the serotonin 2C receptor is in the hypothalamus and other parts of the brain and helps to control of appetite and metabolism. This could potentially save the NHS millions of pounds as instead of paying for patients to have procedures such as stomach stapling and liposuction, a simple course of tablets can be just as effective.

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The effect of the credit crunch on private healthcare

Filed Under: Healthcare News, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
March 15, 2009

The credit crunch has hit private healthcare organisations, pretty hard as it has forced alot of people to return to the NHS for treatment; as they can’t afford to pay to receive the treatment privately. It is estimated that the 25% of the population who paid for private healthcare has declined to approximately 16% and experts estimate that this will continue to decline in the current economic crisis. The number of cosmetic procedures carried out has fallen as the banks are refusing loans, so people are unable to raise substantial funds to cover the cost of the procedures. To give you some idea of the scale of the problem in 2008, 215,000 self-pay customers spent £515million on private treatments, of which £170million went on cosmetic surgery. A fifth of bank loans are taken out to fund cosmetic surgery and experts said that they were now much harder to get.

Private healthcare professionals blame not only the credit crunch but also the reduction in NHS waiting times for a decline in their business. According to Spire Healthcare, one of the UKs biggest private providers, those who would normally pay for procedures were delaying treatment. Another private organisation BMI Healthcare, noted demand had fallen, particularly for operations such as hip and knee replacements.

So after an increase in the privatisation of healthcare it seems that the situation is being reversed as a result of the credit crunch, however it is possible that after the credit crunch has been resolved that the situation may revert back to private healthcare becoming more popular again.

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Plan to give patients to get their own NHS budgets

Filed Under: Healthcare News, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
January 17, 2009

Personal budgets have been used in social care since the mid 1990s and ministers claim that they can encourage patients to get more from the NHS. Evidence shows that personal budgets have allowed people in social care to be more imaginative and use funds more “carefully” than the system did. It is said that the personal budget programme employed in social care includes direct cash payments to the individual as well as budgets that a patient can put in the hands of a social care professional.

Those who support the idea of patients having their own personal budget have said that there is no reason why this should not happen in health, although it will need to be carefully introduced.

There are those who claim that the system who say that the system can be misused if you are simply giving patients money however the information on this scheme states that where direct payments are handed over to individuals the way they are used is carefully monitored and people receive help from professionals about what services are available. The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, states: “There is a growing body of evidence to suggest health outcomes are improved when the patient is directly involved in making decisions about their treatment and the way in which care is delivered by NHS staff.” Despite this there are a number of obstacles to overcome before the scheme can be launched nationally.

There are lots of questions from those who have their doubts about this new system such as, should patients be allowed to spend their personal budgets on non cost-effective treatments? or should individuals be allowed to top-up their care? Should patients be allowed to invest personal budgets to be spent at a later date? Dr Hamish Meldrum, who is the chairman of the British Medical Association, said the policy appeared to “further establish the idea of healthcare as a commodity”, which would not be in patients’ “best interests”.

Those who support the idea of patients managing their own budget claim that “Personal health budgets could revolutionise the way in which care is delivered, but they are not without risks.”

Niall Dickson states: “Getting the initial payment level right will be important as will deciding what restrictions to place on the kind of treatment a patient is allowed to purchase with tax payers’ money, and from whom.”

Ministers imagine that it will be of particular interest to those with long-term conditions such as diabetes and people using mental health services, for example, a person with diabetes may choose to use their budget to get treatment from a community clinic rather than being referred to a hospital specialist. Launching the Bill, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “People rightly have high expectations of the care the NHS offers, and they want more control over their own health – which is why this Bill will give more power to patients and drive up the quality of care.” Andrew Lansley adds: “Personal budgets have been at pilot stage since 2005. If Labour had stuck to their promises to deliver them then patients would already be benefiting”.

It would seem that the majority of people are dubious of this new scheme as it seems that they are worried about several factors:

  • It is essentially privatising the NHS
  • Some people may get a higher budget than others
  • Some people may use their budget to jump through the waiting lists for procedures

Without a detailed plan of how the scheme will actually work it is impossible to know whether the scheme will actually work basically I’m not sure if the scheme is good or bad. Although the evidence would suggest that there is the potential for the scheme to work I think it may cause some people to lose out or be unable to get the treatment they need.

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