The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today proposed to expand coverage of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), a move expected to save thousands of lives a year."W
About 40 percent of adults ages 40 to 74 - or 41 million people - have pre-diabetes, a condition that raises a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Studies show that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who
Budgetary cuts are the order of the day in the European healthcare industry. Among the many markets affected by this drive to economise, the surgical gloves market is experiencing a sudden drop in prices across Europe. Companies are realising that thei
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks joined The Cancer Council Victoria today to launch the 2004 SunSmart season. Releasing the latest skin cancer rates for Victoria, Professor David Hill, Director of the C
Academic medicine is failing to drive innovation and excellence in clinical practice, argue an international group of leading medical academics, in this week's BMJ.They believe that academic medic
Commenting on a paper in today's (Friday 1 October) British Medical Journal on 'the hidden curriculum' in medical schools, Dr Peter Dangerfield, chair of the
Health reform in Chile is "absolutely necessary" and is based on the principles of equity and solidarity, Chilean Health Minister Dr. Pedro Garc?said recently.This objective "implies an important advance of our democratic system -consolidated i
The shortage of flu vaccines and the DHSSPS's public handling of the situation has caused anger amongst many of Northern Ireland's GPs. Monday 4th October 2004, was to have seen the beginning of a flu immunisation programme for the province but
On October 21, in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the international humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) opened a health centre providing public healthcare, including
Australian Medical Association President, Dr Bill Glasson, today branded moves by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to have pharmacists usurp some of the core public health functions of community GPs as
When patient advisers at the referral centre, run on behalf of four primary care trusts in the Nottingham area, contacted outpatients and gave them the option of earlier treatment at the new Trent and South Yorkshire ISTC run by Care UK Afrox Healthcare, most declined, according to GP Jonathan Harte.
Dr Harte, a member of a group called Nott Wait, a group of clinicians and hospital managers formed to cut waiting times in the four PCTs, told BMA News there were concerns that the slow uptake of treatment centre places was wasting PCT resources. PCTs pay for a certain number of procedures a year at the ISTC, even if they are not carried out.
Treatment centres are a core part of the government's drive to cut waiting times in the NHS.
The BMA welcomes the extra capacity but warns resources should not be taken away from other areas and says they should be subject to the same rigorous standards as the rest of health service.
http://www.bma.org.uk