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Digest News


New quality standard on oral health in care homes


NICE has published a new quality standard on oral health for adults in care homes. It covers dental health and daily mouth care with and without nursing provision, and describes high-quality care and priority areas for improvement. Over 425,000 people in the UK live in care homes and the new quality standard recommends that residents have their oral health needs assessed on admission and recorded in their personal care plans. Residents should also be supported to clean their teeth twice a day and/or their dentures daily. Dr Paul Batchelor, fellow of the FGDP and a member of the committee which developed the new standard, commented: “The degree of oral health provision in care homes is highly variable, but these basic measures – assessing, recording and daily cleaning – could significantly improve the health and quality of life of residents, and should be applied universally.” Access the new quality standard at www.nice.org.uk/guidance/


QS151


Prescription purge urged


A FORMAL public consultation is being launched in England on new guidelines calling for 18 treatments – including homeopathy and herbal treatments – costing taxpayers £141 million a year to “generally not be prescribed”. This proposal is part of detailed plans published by NHS England to cut out prescriptions for what it calls ineffective, over- priced and low value treatments. The consultation also covers a further 3,200 prescription items readily available and sold ‘over the counter’ in pharmacies, supermarkets, petrol stations, corner shops and other retailers, often at a significantly lower price than the cost to the NHS. Initial action is


proposed to limit prescribing of products for minor self-limiting conditions which currently cost taxpayers £50-100 million a year. The products include cough mixture and cold treatments, eye drops, laxatives and sun cream lotions. Simon Stevens, NHS England’s chief


executive, described homeopathy as “at best a placebo and a misuse of scarce NHS funds”. He added: “The NHS is probably the world’s


most efficient health service, but like every country there is still waste and inefficiency… The public rightly expects that the NHS will use every pound wisely, and today we’re taking practical action to free up funding to better spend on modern drugs and treatments.”


6 / MDDUS INSIGHT / Q3 2017


Action plan to improve revalidation


CLEARER guidance and greater support will be provided to doctors as part of a new action plan to improve the revalidation process, the General Medical Council has announced. The regulator has set out how it will implement the recommendations made in Sir Keith Pearson’s report, Taking revalidation forward, which was published earlier this year. The plan includes commitments to provide clearer guidance for doctors and responsible officers on what is required from them for revalidation and to support and strengthen processes for doctors working in multiple settings, in particular across the NHS and private practice. More specific advice will be offered on how doctors should gather representative feedback


from colleagues and patients. The Department of Health in England will also lead a review of the


Responsible Officer Regulations. The aim is to establish a connection to a designated body for certain groups of doctors that don’t ordinarily have one, while making sure only organisations with robust governance arrangements are able to oversee a doctor’s revalidation. GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said: “We need the continued commitment from a wide range of organisations to make revalidation a better experience for doctors, especially at a time when they are under ever- increasing pressure.”


Survey reveals mistrust of medical evidence


A SURVEY conducted on behalf of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) has found that when deciding whether to take or refuse medication, 65 per cent of the public trust the experiences of friends and family compared to only 37 per cent who trust evidence derived from medical research. Clinical trials funded by the pharmaceutical


industry are particularly mistrusted, with 82 per cent of GPs and 67 per cent British adults believing these are often biased to produce a positive outcome. These findings are highlighted in a new


AMS report on the use of scientific evidence to judge the potential benefits and harms of medicines. The report summarises data from surveys of 1,013 GPs and 2,041 British adults, and input from public and expert workshops. The report states that poor quality evidence about medicines and the misrepresentation of evidence can lead to under or over-medication and thus prevent the full realisation of the health gains from medical innovation. Among recommendations in the report are longer GP consultations to allow adequate time for shared decision-making about treatment options and lifestyle changes, particularly in the context of multimorbidity. It recognises the need for improved content and readability of patient information leaflets, offering a balanced appraisal of the benefits and harms of medicines. The report also calls for NHS Choices to become the central repository of information on the benefits and harms of medicines – making direct reference to underlying evidence (and updates as new evidence emerges) and providing relevant, robust and evidence-based decision aids for use by patients and healthcare professionals.


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