The Health News United Kingdom April 10 2018
- Health chiefs have revealed that endemic tooth decay is now costing children approximately 60,000 days off school a year. A child is having a rotten tooth removed in England every 10 minutes, due largely to high-sugar diets and a failure to clean teeth properly. Released on the day Britain’s “sugar tax” comes into force, the new figures from Public Health England show that, on average, 142 children a day, some as young as one, are having teeth pulled out thanks to avoidable factors.
- A study suggests that 4 in 10 prostate cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed late. The report by charity Orchid found a “worrying trend” of late diagnosis with 37% of prostate cancer cases diagnosed at stages 3 and 4. The report found 1 in 4 cases of prostate cancer was diagnosed in A&E. In February figures showed the number of men dying from prostate cancer had overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK.
- Patients are to be given access to hospital consultants within 24 hours under a “digital healthcare revolution” being pioneered in London. Paper referral forms used by GPs to book appointments with consultants will be scrapped from October and replaced with online communications — enabling family doctors to receive next-day expert feedback on a patient’s condition. The new e-referral system will enable GPs to obtain “advice and guidance” from a consultant within twenty four hours, to help decide on the next stage of treatment.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 10th of April 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.
Health chiefs have revealed that endemic tooth decay is now costing children approximately sixty thousand days off school a year. A child is having a rotten tooth removed in England every ten minutes, due largely to high-sugar diets and a failure to clean teeth properly.
Released on the day Britain’s “sugar tax” comes into force, the new figures from Public Health England show that, on average, one hundred forty one children a day, some as young as one, are having teeth pulled out thanks to avoidable factors. Officials are calling on parents to swap sugary drinks for low-sugar alternatives such as water and low-fat milk. They also want children to limit the amount of fruit juices and smoothies they consume to no more than one small glass a day. Britain’s leading dentists last night said the revenue raised from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy should go towards funding tooth-brushing lessons in nurseries and primary schools.
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Tooth decay remains the most common reason for hospital admissions for children aged five to nine years old. Experts believe ninety percent of child tooth extractions could be prevented by eating less sugar. The Faculty of Dental Surgery last night urged schools to make sure high-sugar products such as cake and non-fruit-based desserts are taken off the menu. Although some brands contain more sugar than fizzy drinks, fruit juice is exempt from the new tax because a small portion – less than one fifty millimeter taken with a meal – counts as one of the five a day. Milkshakes are also exempt, although they too can contain high volumes of sugar.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43669439
A study suggests that four in ten prostate cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed late. The report by charity Orchid found a “worrying trend” of late diagnosis with thirty seven percent of prostate cancer cases diagnosed at stages three and four. The report found one in four cases of prostate cancer was diagnosed in Accident and Emergency. In February figures showed the number of men dying from prostate cancer had overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK.
With an aging population, the charity has called for urgent action to prevent a “ticking time bomb in terms of prostate cancer provision”. Orchid chief executive Rebecca Porta said: “With prostate cancer due to be the most prevalent cancer in the UK within the next twelve years, we are facing a potential crisis in terms of diagnostics, treatment and patient care. Urgent action needs to be taken now.” The report canvassed the opinion of the UK’s leading prostate cancer experts and looked at previously published data to get a picture of the prostate cancer care across the UK.
The data came from organisations such as NHS England, charities and the National Prostate Cancer Audit. The report says that forty two percent of prostate cancer patients saw their GP with symptoms twice or more before they were referred, with six percent seen five or more times prior to referral.
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Professor Anne Mackie, director of programmes for the UK National Screening Committee, said the test was not offered universally because it was not very good at predicting which men have cancer.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/patients-to-see-consultants-within-24-hours-under-digital-healthcare-revolution-a3805556.html
Patients are to be given access to hospital consultants within twenty four hours under a “digital healthcare revolution” being pioneered in London. Paper referral forms used by general practitioners to book appointments with consultants will be scrapped from October and replaced with online communications — enabling family doctors to receive next-day expert feedback on a patient’s condition.
The new e-referral system will enable GPs to obtain “advice and guidance” from a consultant within twenty four hours, to help decide on the next stage of treatment. They will also be able to send photographs — for example, of a mole they fear is cancerous. Under the NHS constitution, cancer patients must be seen within two weeks of a GP referral, but there can be a wait of up to eighteen weeks for other conditions. About one in twenty patients seen by a GP has to be referred to hospital, resulting in one point five million appointments a year in London. It is hoped that by securing early access to a consultant, care can be speeded up and simplified.
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Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs five east London hospitals, is in the vanguard of the system, which will be introduced London-wide. Barts Health runs a “virtual e-clinic” for patients with chronic kidney disease that has slashed waiting times for a specialist opinion from fifteen weeks to five days, and ensures that only those who need to see a consultant are referred to hospital. The trust plans to roll out the system to eight other specialties, including diabetes, paediatrics, renal and dermatology. Tom Butler, consultant haematologist at Barts Health, said: “It’s allowed me to communicate safely and securely with GPs in real time, meaning we can agree the next stage of our patients’ care far more quickly, and if people do need to come to hospital they get to the right clinic sooner.”
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