Today’s top health stories

February 23, 2012

The Independent has reported on fears amongst ministers that the National Health Service may require a cash injection ahead of the next general election in order for it to cope with the country’s ageing population. According to the newspaper there is “growing anxiety” in Whitehall that extra money promised to the NHS by George Osborne will not be enough to meet the cost of providing care for elderly patients and advanced medical treatments. Fears over the NHS continued in the House of Commons yesterday, when Labour Leader Ed Miliband compared the government’s reforms to the Community Charge ‘poll tax’ of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A hospital in the UK is to become the first in the world to trial a vest which can instantly detect a heart attack, reports the Metro. Bradford Royal Infirmary will use the Heartscape system to enable doctors to view a 3D colour image of the heart, which can also be rotated 360 degrees. The hospital is trialling the system as Bradford has one of the UK’s highest rates of death from chronic heart disease, treating over 300 major heart attacks every year. Current electrocardiograph (ECG) technology has a limitation where some patients wait up to 12 hours for blood test results, increasing the possibility of further damage to the heart.

The Daily Mail has reported on a medical team in Houston, USA, which has used micro-blogging social network Twitter to tweet and post photos and video clips during open-heart surgery. A member of the surgical team was also on hand to answer questions posted by the hospital’s Twitter followers during the surgery. A warning that graphic content may be posted was made at the start of the operation, with surgical footage taken by Dr Michael Macris via a helmet cam.

The HSJ has revealed “four Fs” the Prime Minister believes sum up the coalition government’s approach to the NHS. David Cameron said the Fs were a “commitment to the founding principles of the NHS”; a “commitment to funding”; a “commitment to making it fit for the future”; and a fourth commitment to “freedom for local decision making”. The Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Mike Farrar, urged the Prime Minister to engage NHS staff more widely in implementing the government’s NHS reforms.

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