Failure to monitor independent centres prevents comparison, says watchdog

Shortage of emergency department doctors needs urgent action, says watchdog.

England’s spending watchdog has urged health bosses to deal with staffing shortages in NHS emergency departments as part of a package of measures to tackle rising numbers of admissions. The National Audit Office also said that the Department of Health had to encourage more doctors to work in accident and emergency, remove barriers to seven day working in hospitals, and ensure greater use of ger...

Failure to implement hospital antimicrobial prescribing guidelines: a comparison of two UK academic centres.

BACKGROUND Rational antimicrobial therapy should provide maximum benefit to patients while minimizing the development of resistant microorganisms. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate (i) which antimicrobial drugs were chosen by hospital doctors faced with two common infections [community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and urinary tract infection (UTI)], (ii) whether these choices we...

Independent sector treatment centres: evidence so far.

DDAH says NO to ADMA.

Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is vasoprotective, as it enhances endothelial cell survival and proliferation, inhibits the excessive proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, and suppresses the adhesion of platelets and inflammatory cells to the vessel wall.1 Substantial evidence from preclinical studies and human research indicates that impairment of the endothelial NO synthase (NO...

Deaths at UK immigration detention centres are the result of avoidable systemic failures, report says.