NEWS&VIEWS 13
Facing the Threat of Acquired Infections
hospitals; and the use of new technology to track the evolution of superbugs which can attack people weakened by viruses such as Swine Flu and trigger a form of pneumonia which can kill in 72 hours.
The situation has been made worse, he commented, by the under-funding of hospital microbiology laboratories which has limited their ability to rapidly detect CA-MRSA strains, and by the paucity of new antibiotics to treat these infections — only two have been introduced in the last 25 years. “It took the UK over 10 years to start to get to grips with the problems of hospital MRSA infections and we are still fighting this war. We are not set up and ready to fight the next one against CA-MRSA infections which can cause serious infections in the young and healthy in the community.”
Leslie Ash and Professor Richard James
Leslie Ash, Patron CHAI
Professor Richard James, Director of the Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections (CHAI) at The University of Nottingham, has said that the health service is not ready to deal with new strains of MRSA which are currently causing infections in UK hospitals and which are
also circulating within the wider community. On July 21 he was joined by actress Leslie Ash, Patron of CHAI, to raise awareness of the threat posed by community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus - CA-MRSA– through the launch of an appeal to fund development of rapid, economical diagnosis tests for MRSA and C.diff in NHS
Having faced a long and difficult recovery after contracting MSSA, a strain related to MRSA Leslie Ash, said: “From my own personal experience infections like these can change your life forever. It took a lot of support from those I love to regain any sense of normality. That is why I am proud to be patron of CHAI. I urge people to join the fight against deadly hospital superbugs by supporting the new £1.4 million fundraising campaign.”
Professor James added: “The concern is that exposure of a population with a high carriage rate of CA-MRSA, community based MRSA to a flu pandemic will trigger a large number of necrotizing pneumonias that would swamp the health service. It has been suggested by several authors that many of the deaths caused by the 1918 Spanish flu were actually caused by Staph aureus and not the virus.”
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Shaping UK Nanotechnology Strategy – Government Call
Lord Drayson, Science and Innovation Minister and chair of the Ministerial Group on Nanotechnologies, has called on industry and interested groups to get involved in shaping a UK strategy for nano technologies.
Industry, academia and consumer groups are invited to use a new website to help develop the strategy, building on and consolidating the existing research and consultations that have already taken place.
The website will gather views on core issues including research, regulation, innovation and commercialisation, measurement and standards and information as well as on the anticipated impact of nanotechnologies on a wide range of sectors.
The aim of the strategy is to describe the actions necessary to ensure that the UK obtains maximum economic, environmental
and societal benefit from nanotechnologies while keeping the risks properly managed.
Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson, said:
"The Government has made clear the need for responsible development of nano - technologies. This new website will let everyone be involved in developing a new UK Strategy by February next year. This will address the exploitation of technologies and management of potential risks."
Lord Drayson launched the strategy development process with his colleagues iin Defra, DH and DWP. The website is available for contributions until 31st October 2009. A summary of responses will be published by the end of the year, with the final strategy published in 2010.
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Senior Posts at Owen Mumford
devices, coupled with a change management and manufacturing background.
A chartered engineer Andy spent seven years at Plessey and 13 at Proctor & Gamble and latterly worked for Covidien as European Technical Projects Manager and Director of Projects.
Owen Mumford Ltd has made two recent appointments and welcomes Andy Vardé (above) as New product Development Manager. He joins the company with extensive experience in design, product development and project management including medical
Gail Saxon (far left) has also joined the company heading the HR department and as a member of the Senior Management Team, reports to Gavin Jones, Group Finance Director. Gail was formerly with Prodrive as HR Manager and spent eight years with Marconi Ltd. Gail is a member of the Chartered Institute of Professional Development and has an honours degree in Business Administration.
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London’s Barts Hospital Selects Advanced
Radiotherapy Instruments
Developers behind an ambitious project to redevelop one of London’s leading cancer centers have ordered four new radiotherapy treatment machines from Varian Medical Systems. Barts and The London NHS Trust is acquiring the new Clinac®
linear accelerators
as part of a high-profile £1 billion PFI (private finance initiative) scheme, with treatments due to commence next spring.
As the largest PFI project in the UK to date world renowned hospitals Barts in the City and the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel are both being redeveloped. Barts was founded in 1123 and is the oldest hospital in Britain. Together, the hospitals provide comprehensive care for more than 700,000 patients each year.
The new machines equipped with On-Board Imager®
devices and RapidArc® capability, will
enable Barts to expand its intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) programme and offer advanced treatments to more patients.
They will replace three older devices and will be joined by a two year-old accelerator that is being transferred from the current site and upgraded with RapidArc, giving the hospital five modern Varian linear accelerators when installed. “These modern and advanced treatment machines will enable us to offer highly conformal IMRT treatments to more cancer patients,” said Niall MacDougall, physicist at Barts, “We are also eager to introduce RapidArc treatments as soon as possible.”
Barts, noted for its head & neck IMRT programme, also works closely with its London peers The Royal Marsden in Fulham Road and University College London Hospital which also use Varian technology. “This is a prestigious and long-awaited project that will add enormously to London’s radiotherapy provision and we are honoured that Varian’s equipment and software has been selected to be a part of it,” says David Scott, Varian’s UK Sales Manager.
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