News summary
Branch
meetings Future
Events Conferences
OFT pharmacy report
139 Health Secretary prepared to over-rule OFT proposal The
Secretary of State for Health (Alan Milburn) has signalled that proposals from the Office of
Fair Trading to abolish controls over National Health Service dispensing contracts will be over-ruled
if there is sufficient hostility from stakeholders...[more]
139 Concerns expressed about rural dispensing after deregulation Both
pharmacists and dispensing doctors have expressed concerns that the Office of Fair Trading proposal
to deregulate pharmacy contracts has failed to clarify the position regarding dispensing in rural
areas...[more]
139 OFT chief denies conflict of interest in pharmacy report Accusations
that the Director General of Fair Trading, John Vickers, was wrong to have taken part in an inquiry
into the pharmacy market because of a possible conflict of interest have been denied by the Office
of Fair Trading...[more]
139 Commons motion opposes OFT proposal An early-day motion
(EDM) has been tabled in the House of Commons urging the Government not to accept the Office
of Fair Trading's recommendation that National Health Service pharmacy contract controls should
be scrapped...[more]
OTHER NEWS
140 Pharmacy
staff to ease doctors' hours Pharmacy staff at
Basildon hospital are to help reduce doctors' working hours as part of a new Government initiative...[more]
140 Charge fraud pharmacist fined Defrauding the National Health Service of £2,000 has cost a Derby community pharmacist £27,000...[more]
140 New schools on track for September start Two planned new
schools of pharmacy should take their first students in September...[more]
140 No cows are sacred in shake-up for medical training A groundbreaking
review of the way doctors are recruited and trained shows that the Government is willing to challenge
accepted norms for training in the health professions...[more]
141 Asthma
guideline encourages use of other drugs before raising steroid dose An updated guideline
on managing asthma was published earlier this week by the British Thoracic Society and the Scottish
Intercollegiate Guidelines Network...[more]
141 Long-term survival improved with inhaled corticosteroids in COPD The
long-term survival of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after discharge
from hospital is improved by the use of inhaled corticosteroids, say Canadian researchers...[more]
141 Nimodipine fails to show benefit in eclampsia trial Magnesium
sulphate is more effective than nimodipine (Nimotop) in preventing eclampsia in women with severe
pre-eclampsia, researchers have found...[more]
141 Folic acid and multiple births Consumption of 400µg of folic acid before or during early pregnancy does not increase a woman's likelihood of having a multiple birth, say researchers...[more]
142 Too
much vitamin A leads to increase in fracture risk A
direct link between high serum levels of vitamin A and the risk of fracture has been found in
a long-term, prospective study involving 2,322 Swedish men...[more]
142 Reconsider first-line paracetamol use for knee osteoarthritis The
recommendation that paracetamol should be used in preference to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs in the initial treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee should be reconsidered, according
to researchers...[more]
142 New guidelines recommend bone-protective therapy Patients at high risk of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis — those aged 65 years and over, and those who have already had a fracture caused by fragile bones — should be advised to start bone-protective therapy at the same time as starting glucocorticoids...[more]
142 Further evidence supports use of glucosamine for knee pain People
who suffer from regular knee pain may benefit from taking glucosamine supplements, say Australian
researchers...[more]
143 Pill
risk warnings poorly understood Few educated women
fully understand the risk of thrombosis associated with the contraceptive pill as it is explained
in current patient information leaflets...[more]
143 FDA updates warnings for HRT and over-the-counter spermicides The
United States Food and Drug Administration has added warnings to be given with product information
for some hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products...[more]
143 More tamoxifen prevention data More evidence "now clearly
shows that tamoxifen can reduce the risk of ER [oestrogen receptor] positive breast cancer"...[more]
144 Health
Minister calls into Boots's flagship branch David
Lammy, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, visited the flagship of the Boots The
Chemists chain, at Victoria Centre, Nottingham, on 23 January as part of a series of engagements
in the area...[more]
144 MEPs
oppose free movement "holiday" A European
parliamentary committee is expected to recommend that a proposal to allow health professionals
to take "working holidays" for up to 16 weeks in another European country without local registration
should be dropped...[more]
144 Treating depression makes employees feel no better Research
by the Health and Safety Executive has found that medicines prescribed to treat anxiety and depression
can cause the same problems at work as the illnesses themselves...[more]
144 HPA chief appointed Dr Pat Troop, currently deputy chief
medical officer for England, has been appointed chief executive designate of the Health Protection
Agency...[more] |
