Salford Royal Foundation Trust is celebrating after a new initiative by nurses saw patient satisfaction levels soar.

The Trust’s Transparency Report for June revealed that out of 10,053 patients one individual suffered a fall whilst in their care and seven people suffered a pressure ulcer – six device related.

Yet despite the incidents a new measure by nurses to visit patients on an hourly basis to check their welfare led to 98% of respondents indicating they would recommend the trust if a friend or relative required treatment.

The Trust said it was “delighted with the feedback” it had received from patients and staff about the new working practice.

But results from the survey were not as positive when patients were quizzed over the treatment they received at meal times. Slightly more than two-thirds (69%) said they always received a high standard of help. But more than a fifth (22%) disagreed.

In tackling pressure ulcers, the Trust said it is working with its nursing teams and is “determined to see these harms continue to reduce”.

The Trust also said it is in the process of improving the care and services it provides through the development of a new patient experience strategy.

The risk of HIV infection is growing in the UK due to lack of awareness among young adults, experts have said.

The issue presents a challenge for the new public health strategy, in which local authorities will have responsibility for sexual health.

The Department of Health has allocated £8m to the voluntary sector to raise awareness of HIV in England.

According to the Health Protection Agency, nearly 3,500 young adults (aged 16 to 24) have been diagnosed with HIV in the last five years.

London-based sexual health expert Paul Steinberg commented that younger people were not exposed to past HIV awareness campaigns and took for granted its treatability through combination therapy.

The disease has “dropped off the radar” for many people, he said, but it remains incurable and life-limiting.

After April 2013, responsibility for sexual health will shift from NHS to local authority control. However, HIV treatment will be handled by the NHS Commissioning Board.

The Department of Health recently allocated £8m to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the leading AIDS charity, to raise awareness of HIV over the next three years.

The charity has been asked to target those groups most at risk of HIV infection through sexual activity: gay men and black and African people.

The issue reflects the global nature of public health issues relating to infectious diseases, as well as the complexity of the new public health system in England.

Servier’s Procoralan (ivabradine) has been recommended by NICE in draft guidance as a treatment option for people with chronic heart failure.

The treatment has been recommended in combination with standard therapy or when beta-blocker therapy is contraindicated or not tolerated, after impressing in clinical trials.

Professor Carole Longson, NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director, said Procoralan has demonstrated a “beneficial effect in reducing mortality and improving quality of life”.

The draft guidance also recommends that standard therapies used routinely for managing the condition should be optimised before treatment begins with Procoralan and after a stabilisation period of four weeks.

“The (Appraisal) Committee was mindful that there is robust evidence for the effectiveness of ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers and aldosterone antagonists that are used routinely in managing heart failure,” said Professor Longson. “They concluded that ivabradine should be initiated only after optimal treatment with these drugs has been achieved when patients are still symptomatic after receiving optimised initial therapies, or when beta-blockers are contraindicated as specified in the marketing authorisation or not tolerated by the patients.”

It is estimated that chronic heart failure affects about 900,000 people in the UK – a figure that continues to rise due to an ageing population and improved prognosis.

West Hampshire CCG, which covers Southampton and nearby towns, has appointed its future Chief Officer and Chief Finance Officer.

Former nurse and hospital manager Heather Hauschild (pictured) will become Chief Officer for the county’s largest CCG, which serves over half a million people.

Experienced health service accountant Mike Fulford will manage the CCG’s £646m budget.

Heather Hauschild has been a nurse at Southampton Hospital, Director of Operation at Poole Hospital Foundation Trust and Director of Quality and Service Development at NHS Hampshire.

Dr Sarah Schofield, interim Chair of West Hampshire CCG, said the new Chief Officer’s “skills and expertise” were “crucial to support the CCG through authorisation and beyond”.

Mike Fulford has worked as an accountant in the local NHS for over 18 years, and has been Deputy Director of Finance at Hampshire PCT for five years.

Dr Nigel Sylvester, Vice-Chair of the CCG, commented: “With the ever-growing financial challenge in the NHS, this is a vital role for CCGs.”

The new Chief Finance Officer would enable the CCG to “remain in balance financially” while delivering the necessary services, he said.

The CCG will go through the national authorisation process as part of wave 3, commencing 1 September.

Less than 1% of physiotherapists will initially be able to become independent prescribers, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).

New regulations enabling physiotherapists to prescribe drugs for a range of conditions have been welcomed by the profession, but the transition will not be rapid.

Only the best-qualified physiotherapists are eligible for the relevant training, so initial take-up will be limited.

Health Minister Lord Howe announced in July that new regulations would enable physiotherapists and podiatrists who gained suitable qualifications to prescribe for their patients.

This change, expected to become law by April 2013, was widely praised as a step towards integrated care of conditions such as chronic pain, asthma, rheumatic disorders, injuries and diabetic foot ulcers.

Dr Helena Johnson, CSP Chair, said that being able to prescribe would “hugely improve” the care therapists could provide, giving patients “a more streamlined and efficient service”.

However, a CSP spokesperson has since noted that only around 200 of its 51,000 members – those already involved in supplementary prescribing – will immediately be in a position to undertake the training necessary for independent prescribing.

A limited further number will be eligible for the training, but will require funding from their employers.

High-profile sports physiotherapist Dave Roberts commented: “It is going to take some time for physiotherapists, GPs and patients alike to get used to the new prescribing landscape.”

There would be concern from patients and from GPs about working together, he said – but “education” of all stakeholders should “counteract any tension”.

A BMA spokesperson said the new prescribing regulations would need to be “explained clearly and thoroughly” to all healthcare professionals.

Sir Michael Rawlins wants campaigners to take legal action against trusts that deny patients access to NICE-recommended drugs. Maxine Vaccine asks whether this is a powerful strike against bureaucracy or a pointless fit of sulking.

It’s not easy being NICE. When you decide a drug is not cost-effective, the manufacturer contacts a bunch of patient groups on Facebook and passes on soundbites to the press that make you out to be the most heartless despot since King Herod. When you decide a drug is cost-effective, the NHS quietly ignores you.

The Government says it will force trusts to make NICE-approved treatments available to patients – but at the same time, the recession comes back for whatever it forgot to wreck the first time, and the NHS is told it has to make deep spending cuts for the foreseeable future. Andrew Lansley first praises the NHS for hacking nearly £6 billion from its budget, then says rationing of NHS treatments is “unacceptable”. Simon Burns tells Radio Five Live that Monitor will sack CCG leaders who ration services, then the DH shamefacedly explains that he meant to say the Commissioning Board would do that.

And just to make matters worse, if you’re Sir Michael Rawlins, people confuse you with Sir Andrew Dillon and vice versa. Is it your fault that you both look exactly like 1970s newsreaders? Having good taste in neckwear wasn’t part of your job description. And you both have something of the knight about you. It’s time you stood up for yourself.

At least, that’s my rationalisation of why Rawlins went on the HSJ website and revealed that he encouraged the RNIB to take legal action against the NHS. I could be wrong, however. He may have had a touch of the sun, or a bout of lansley that his GP wasn’t allowed to prescribe for.

Whatever the reasons, his blog was in the awesome NICE tradition of standing on the moral high ground and waxing ironic over those below. He recommended that patient groups should use legal measures to “blow the whistle” on trusts that use “delaying tactics” to save money – thereby forcing them to put in place “appropriate financial arrangements” for the drugs in question to be provided. Then came his parting shot: “That would be a much better use of the time of formulary committees than trying to pretend they have the knowledge and skills of a NICE appraisal committee.”

Strangely enough, that didn’t go down too well with the NHS. David Stout, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, responded with an air of wounded dignity: “We must remember the reality is that every NHS organisation has a finite amount of money available. Every new treatment covered and funded under a NICE technology appraisal means fewer resources for other treatments.

“The issue raised by Sir Michael Rawlins leads us on to the wider debate that we need to have about the fact that the NHS is facing an unprecedented financial challenge,” he continued. “We need to be open and honest with the public about what the consequences of this financial challenge are, and the fact that trade-offs will be required if we are to improve standards of care while keeping the NHS affordable.”

That is rather good – and it cuts through the DH’s excuses like a scalpel through the contents of an inflamed colorectal tract. We need a public debate about NHS rationing – its economics, its democratic basis, its medical and social impact – not confused denials that such activity was ever dreamt of. If it was Rawlins’ intention to force that debate into the public space, he did well.

Bring it on.

Maxine’s views are not necessarily those of Pharmaceutical Field.