November 2003

Drug addicts injecting crack, prostitution, and unsafe sex with strangers have been blamed for the rising number of cases of Hepatitis B in Bristol. Two years ago there were 15 cases of Hepatitis B in Bristol but the number has now risen to 75 – 7 times the national average. Cases in Bristol now account for one-seventh of cases in the country.

Doug Naysmith, Bristol MP, has recently been studying the treatment of obesity in the United States. He thinks that radical surgery techniques may be required in the UK to tackle a "frightening" increase in obesity. This includes possible part removal of stomachs.

A pilot scheme has more than doubled the number of people agreeing to donate their organs at Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals. The City is at the heart of a pioneering initiative aimed at tackling a UK shortage of donors.

The NHS is paying around £50 million a year to investigate about 100 health professionals who are forced to stay away from hospitals as a result of investigations into their professional conduct. Dr Elizabeth Whipp has been unable to work for nearly a year after she was suspended from her post at the Bristol Oncology Centre.

Bristol University has issued antibiotics to 3000 people to help combat the risk of a new outbreak of meningitis. A major awareness campaign has been launched.

The Government has set-up 3 national and 7 regional endoscopy training centres across the country in an attempt to improve the management of people with bowel cancer. The nearest regional centre to Bristol will be one at the Royal Gloucestershire Hospital in Gloucester where it is expected that medical staff from Bristol will go for training.

The Vassall Centre recently held a reception to celebrate the 5th anniversary of its setting-up. The Centre provides help for people with physical disabilities and is regarded as a major development in Bristol.

Medical staff in Bristol welcomed the news that the UK Transplant Unit is backing a programme aimed at trebling the number of pancreas transplants for diabetics. However, as yet, Bristol surgeons have not yet carried out any pancreatic transplants.

Mothers to be in Bristol may no longer be able to choose to have their child by caesarean section following advice from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. The World Organisation says that an acceptable maximum is about 15% of births. The average level at St Michael’s and Southmead Hospitals is 21/22% of births.

Bristol has come near the bottom of a league table for life expectancy. Bath on the other hand comes close to the top. Bristol lay in the bottom 25% of all males in England and Wales. This means that Bristol City men can expect to live or an average of 75 years compared to an 80 year life expectancy for Bath.

A recent study showed that nearly half of smokers in Bristol who want to quit cigarettes have been successful. A total of 857 residents tried to quit over a 2-month period earlier this year. 470 managed to give up cigarettes (but how long will they resist the temptation to restart smoking? Ed.)

Bristol is seeing a boom in home health care with a big increase in the sales of tests that can be carried out in the comfort of the home. British consumers now spend £55 million pounds a year on self-diagnosis. Such things as blood pressure monitors, pregnancy tests, ovulation kits, body fat monitors, peak flow meters, and tests for blood cholesterol.

Professor Rumsey, Profession of Appearance and Health Psychology at the University of the West of England has advised against carrying out face transplant operations in Britain.

A blueprint has been launched for tackling drug misuse in Bristol. This is spearheaded by Alison Comley, Head of Community Safety and Drug Strategy. The Home Office had praised organisations which work in the field and the staff who run them. However, there was need for the organisations to work more closely together.

Fertility treatments in Bristol, and the surrounding area, are to be reintroduced for the NHS following an 8-month review of the service. The service was temporarily suspended and no new names have been added to the treatment list recently. The waiting list is due to be opened again in January.

A new dental practice, offering more than 6000 extra NHS places for Bristol people, is set to open in Stoke Bishop.

The streets of Bristol were alive with the sound of music recently when staff and students from Bristol University busked in the City Centre to raise money for the David Baum Memorial Appeal. The money raised will go toward funding a new post at the University – the David Baum Chair in International Child Health.

Local Bristol blood donors, who have each donated 75 pints of blood, have recently attended an awards ceremony in Bristol.

The Multiple Sclerosis "Risk Sharing Scheme" is an innovative way of securing MS treatment. It is the result of a joint venture between the Department of Health, drug manufacturers and patient bodies. As part of the scheme – 53 new MS specialist nurse posts have been created nationally. 62 prescribing centres for MS patients are now up and running across the UK.

Health quangos cost the tax payer £2.2 million. There are health watchdogs and quangos employing nearly 20,000 staff. The number of these bodies is likely to be cut by up to a third. (The Times, November 26th 2003).

An article in The Times has pointed out that the UK is unprepared for a major epidemic such as a new strain of influenza and SARS.

Eight out of 10 general practitioners nationally are planning to opt out of providing care for their patients outside surgery hours according to a new survey. General practitioners will no longer to obliged to provide out of hours cover from the end of 2004. Those who decide to pass responsibility for providing out of hours cover to Primary Care Trusts are expected to lose approximately £6000 a year in income. (We hope to cover the subject of emergency medicine and out of hours services , in its various forms, in a future edition of the website. Ed.)

Bristol North Primary Care Trust Board has announced a plan to build a new community hospital for the inner City in East Bristol, as well as a Primary Care Centre for Shirehampton. No site for the new community hospital has been identified. Both the new building projects will be funded by the new Bristol LIFT company which is a local partnership between the Bristol Primary Care Trusts and a private company. Consultation is due to start in the new year.

Death rates for some types of heart surgery in Bristol’s hospitals are above average according to a new report. A recent survey had shown that mortality for aortic valve replacements in the city is above the national average whilst death rates for heart bypass operations are below many health authorities.

orth Bristol NHS Trust has been criticised by Bristol City Council’s Health Watchdog for closing a geriatric ward at Blackberry Hill Hospital without consulting the Watchdog. The Health Scrutiny Commission agreed to use its legal powers to force the local health bodies and to review the decision.

South Gloucestershire Council have agreed to oppose the planned closure of Blackberry Hill Hospital until a guarantee has been given that any closure would not damage the health care received by the residents in the area.

Keynsham and Paulton Community Hospitals are to lose beds for elderly patients and respite care – despite much public protest. The cost-cutting measures were drawn-up after a £15 million over-spend – mainly by the Royal United Hospital. (There are a number of letters in the Evening Post criticising the decision to close beds at these hospitals. Ed.)

Concerns have been raised over the future of Children’s Emergency Services at Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals. There are proposals to concentrate all Paediatric Services at the Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Plans to build a "super hospital" on the outskirts of Bristol have been dropped. The future of the Bristol Children’s Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary have been "secured". However, Southmead and Frenchay could still close and be replaced by a new single site hospital.

"Health bosses" have said that they want to build a hospital for South Bristol at Hengrove Park and would aim to have it finished by early 2007 if given the go ahead. The new hospital would cost about £25 million and would provide 50 beds.

"Lives are being put at risk in Bristol" because paramedics are being forced to wait with patients in A&E Emergency Departments for hours. A huge rise in the number of emergency patients going to the Casualty Department during the last 3 weeks has resulted in ambulance crews being asked to care for their patients on a trolley or even take them to another hospital.

Text messages are being sent to out-patients at the UBHT to remind them about appointments. The UBHT Call Centre has recently started providing the reminder service in addition to the usual telephone calls.

Recent figures from the Department of Health show that 530 people have waited for treatment for up to 11 months in the area covered by the Bristol North and Bristol South West Primary Care Trusts. The average number waiting for treatment over the same timescale at Trusts across the country is at 143.

A £1.25 million multiple sclerosis treatment and research centre planned for Frenchay Hospital will not be built. The project has been abandoned because of uncertainty over the future of Frenchay Hospital. The fund-raising appeal, which had raised £980,000 in cash and pledges has been closed and advice is being sought from the Charity Commission to determine what should happen to the money that has not yet been spent. The Charity has already spent around £300 million on the design of the centre and related matters.

National cancer charities have joined forces to urge the Government to make sure that PET scanning becomes available across England and Wales. At the moment there are only 5 PET scanners in the entire NHS – all of them in London. The charities are calling for scanners to be put in at least 15 sites in the UK.

The UBHT has appointed a new Chief Executive – Ron Kerr, 53. He replaces Hugh Ross who resigned from that post in July 2002. He takes up his post in April 2004.

Mark Davies has been appointed Chief Executive to the Royal United Hospital Bath. He will be the Trust’s 4th Chief Executive in 2 years.

Alderman Paul Smith has welcomed the plan to build a hospital in South Bristol – albeit 50 years late! However in view of the long history of his project – he felt that there could be no guarantee that such a hospital would be built. Vigilance is required.

An extension to Headway House at Frenchay hospital, costing £50,000, has been opened. The house provides support for people who have suffered significant brain damage as a result of head injury.

The new children’s intensive care ward has been opened at Frenchay Hospital – costing £858,000. The new unit means that children requiring brain surgery, burns, or orthopaedic surgery will receive the care they need in a bright and friendly environment.

Schools, hospitals and care homes in Bristol face a large rise in the cost of criminal checks on potential staff because so many applications have been "bungled". The total annual cost to local institutions will run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Hospitals in the United Bristol Health Care Trust are ranked 6th worst in the country in a study of a number of patients infected by the potentially fatal MRSA "super bug". (See rticle on this subject elsewhere in the Newsletter. Ed.)

The English Longitudinal Study of Aging, based on more than 12,000 individuals, has uncovered significant inequalities in almost every aspect of daily life amongst those aged 50 and over. Age appears to sharpen the social divide with the lower classes showing signs of aging far more quickly than their more privileged peers. A third of men in routine and manual jobs aged 50 to 59 had some form of limiting long-standing illness whilst the figure for men in the professional and managerial groups remained even lower than this until they reach the age of 75. Only just over ¼ of professional and managerial men aged 60-74 reported any type of limiting long-term illness. Similar inequalities emerged with mental abilities. In cognitive tests – university graduates aged 75 and over performed as well as, and sometimes better than, younger academically qualified people – particularly with numbers. The researchers were surprised at the high level of physical disability amongst younger people with 43% of participants in their 50s reporting some difficulty with mobility and 13% saying that they had problems with at least one basic activity of daily life.

Women in Bristol who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to combat osteoporosis have been warned that it may increase their risk of developing cancer. Recent research was commissioned by the Government’s Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency.

A new computer system which will help people suffering with speech disorders is being developed at Frenchay Hospital. New software has been developed with the objective of helping people with dysarthria improve their speech by being able to practice regular speech exercises in their own homes.

Reports for the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) based upon work done by Bristol University. This appears to show that women and men have very different experiences of the same illnesses – showing different symptoms and being at risk of becoming ill, in the first place, for different reasons. The modernisation of the NHS has so far done little to make sure that the health service can respond to these differences. The NHS needs to take note of the differing health care needs of men and women.

The Children of the 90s project has installed 2 robots programmed to replicate the DNA in case the original organic matter that is taken becomes damaged or deteriorates with time. The machines which are named Germanator and Robobanker will make use of a very large database of information and samples taken from children and their parents since the project began 12 years ago. Altogether more than half a million biological samples have been taken – including everything from placentas to milk teeth.

New research shows that by just standing in the Centre of Bristol you can breath in as many toxins as there are in a packet of cigarettes. An environmental study has created a pollution league for British cities to show where the air is dirtiest. Bristol lies in 8th place. The most polluted locations were Oxford, Bath and Glasgow equating to 61, 46 and 44 cigarettes per day respectively. The equivalent Bristol figure was 27. The peak level for Oxford equated to 185 cigarettes in a 24 hour period. This work was undertaken by Calor Gas and is based on published air quality statistics for 28 UK locations.

A research project has been funded at the University of Bristol which could lead to the prevention of many deaths from meningitis. The Meningitis Research Foundation has put up £140,000 for the work. The team is working on a possible vaccine for Group B meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia.

RLH