Gender Dysphoria_Private Medical Providers_NHS England Guidance
NHS England has issued guidance on “Primary Care Responsibilities In Regard To Requests by Private On-Line Medical Service Providers to Prescribe Hormone Treatments for Transgender People” The guidance refers to GMC guidance on treating Trans patients and includes the following advice: A request by a private on-line medical service that a GP accepts responsibility for prescribing endocrine treatments Continue Reading »
NICE Bites – Sore Throat & Acute Otitis Media
The North West Medicines Information Centre have published a very useful synopsis of recent NICE guidelines on antimicrobial prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections. NICE Bites 107 summarises NICE NG 84: Acute Sore throat and NICE NG 91: Acute Otitis Media. Both aim to limit antibiotic use and reduce antimicrobial resistance, emphasising the low risk of complications and Continue Reading »
Resources to support safer modification of food and drink
NHS Improvement have issued a Patient Safety Alert to highlight patient harm linked to misunderstandings about, or imprecise application of terms used to describe thickened fluids or food texture. The Patient Safety Alert also draws attention to the requirement for local plans for transition to international standardised terminology in the NHS and across the UK – with links Continue Reading »
Updated Antimicrobial Prescribing Guideline
An updated version of the antimicrobial prescribing guideline for primary care in the North East & Cumbria is now available: Version 4 incorporates changes made to the Public Health England document: Management and treatment of common infections – Antibiotic guidance for primary care as well as recent guidance from NICE on management of self-limiting respiratory tract & ear infections.
Drug-Related Deaths – the Gabapentinoid Connection
Statistics on drug-related deaths in Scotland during 2015 & 2016 were released recently (June 2018). Similar figures for England & Wales were published in August 2017. The North East of England had the highest rate of drug-related deaths in England & Wales in 2016 (77.4 deaths per million population). Both sets of figures show a steep increase in Continue Reading »