The Health News United Kingdom January 28 2018

• Powers to protect NHS staff from people being disruptive in GP surgeries and hospitals could be introduced in Wales. The Welsh Government is considering making it a crime for people to cause a nuisance or disturbance in GP surgeries and hospitals. Staff said there were no legal powers covering this, whereas England has had a law in effect since 2009 . The Welsh Government said NHS staff should be able to work without fear of violence, abuse or harassment.
• According to NHS England, a spike in norovirus is increasing the pressure on hospitals already facing high levels of demand. However, cases of flu appear to have stabilised.
  Norovirus is potentially debilitating for hospitals because beds have to be closed for deep cleaning after being occupied by those infected. The latest NHS England situation reports, for the week ending Sunday January 21, show a 19% increase in the number of beds closed -742, compared with 621 in the previous week.
• Doctors have warned that having diabetes can significantly increase your chances of being struck down by dementia. A study has found that rates of long-term mental decline are steeper in those with Type 2 diabetes.  But getting blood sugar levels under control could prevent the start of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Scientists have warned that chronically unhealthy lifestyles lay waste to the brain after research established a direct link between the debilitating condition and a breakdown in mental function.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 28th of January 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-42792199

Powers to protect NHS staff from people being disruptive in general practitioner surgeries and hospitals could be introduced in Wales. The Welsh Government is considering making it a crime for people to cause a nuisance or disturbance in GP surgeries and hospitals. Staff said there were no legal powers covering this, whereas England has had a law in effect since two thousand nine. The Welsh Government said NHS staff should be able to work without fear of violence, abuse or harassment.

Hospital staff in Wales were physically or verbally attacked about thirty thousand times between two thousand eleven and two thousand sixteen, not all of which were covered by existing laws. Since two thousand nine, police officers and health boards in England have had the power to throw people out who are disrupting NHS staff. The offence, which applies to non-patients, can result in fines of up to one thousand pounds and gives powers to eject people by force if necessary. Following a petition submitted to the assembly, the Welsh Government is looking to give its NHS staff greater protection.
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Jeremy Davies, a mental health nurse at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said the introduction of the offence could also help to get rid of people who turned up at hospitals for no reason, distracting staff and draining resources.

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Currently, anyone who physically attacks a member of NHS staff at a GP surgery in Wales is de-listed from their doctors and referred to an alternative treatment centre for twelve months.

https://news.sky.com/story/norovirus-increase-piles-pressure-on-nhs-11221822

According to NHS England, a spike in norovirus is increasing the pressure on hospitals already facing high levels of demand. However, cases of flu appear to have stabilised.
Norovirus is potentially debilitating for hospitals because beds have to be closed for deep cleaning after being occupied by those infected.

The latest NHS England situation reports, for the week ending Sunday January twenty one, show a nineteen percent increase in the number of beds closed – seven hundred forty two, compared with six hundred twenty one in the previous week. The closures add to pressure on hospital capacity, with bed occupancy remaining extremely high at ninety four point eight percent, though that was marginally down (zero point one) on the previous week. A figure of eighty five percent or below is considered the safe standard, with the anticipated rate going into the winter ninety two percent.

However, there was a significant fall in the number of ambulance handover delays at Accident and Emergency departments, with eleven thousand nineteen people waiting more than the target thirty minutes – down from more than twelve thousand five hundred in the previous week.

And the spread of influenza has slowed, with only a modest rise in the number of patients attending general practitioners with flu-like symptoms compared with last week, according to Public Health England had slowed.
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The Society for Acute Medicine said the statistics demonstrate that the NHS remains under severe pressure, and criticised the level of preparedness.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/910063/Dementia-risk-Type-2-diabetes-brain-disease-Alzheimers

Doctors have warned that having diabetes can significantly increase your chances of being struck down by dementia. A study has found that rates of long-term mental decline are steeper in those with type two diabetes.  But getting blood sugar levels under control could prevent the start of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Scientists have warned that chronically unhealthy lifestyles lay waste to the brain after research established a direct link between the debilitating condition and a breakdown in mental function.

Doctor Wuxiang Xie, of the School of Public Health at Imperial College, London, said: “As there is currently no cure for dementia early intervention on modifiable risk factors, such as diabetes, may offer an important way to prevent cognitive decline. Indeed it has been established that intervention for treating and addressing modifiable risk factors for dementia could prevent up to a quarter of cases.”
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Type two now affects almost one in ten adults in the UK. The latest study of more than five thousand Brits aged over fifty is one of the largest to show a higher blood sugar reading indicates a steeper rate of mental decline. British researchers and colleagues from Peking University Clinical Research Institute in Beijing, found rates declined with age in all participants, whether diabetic or not.

The findings, published in the journal Diabetologia, were based on data from two thousand three hundred twenty nine men and two thousand eight hundred sixty women over a decade. Participants with an average age of sixty six had blood sugar levels ranging from three point six percent to thirteen point seven percent. Diabetes is defined as having a reading of at least six point five per cent. Just a slight increase in the reading was associated with a significant rate of cognitive decline, analysis revealed.
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More than four million people are now blighted by type two diabetes and a further twelve million who live unhealthy lives are at risk. It means twenty five per cent of the UK population has, or could develop, an illness that can lead to blindness, amputation, heart and kidney disease, strokes and death.