Request from NICE

Posted: 23/12/2009

Request to participate in an audit of the management of the open abdomen in order to investigate the occurrence of intestinal fistulae with and without negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT).

Concern has been expressed to NICE about the incidence of fistulae in patients managed with an open abdomen and whether NPWT (or the way in which it is applied) may be a contributory factor. In response to this concern, NICE and the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) of the University of Aberdeen are organising a national audit to gather further information.

If you are a Clinical Director, Clinical Governance lead or a Tissue Viability nurse in a hospital with ITU facilities, you should have received a letter in December  which  provided more information about the audit. Your participation is essential for us to address this potentially serious health concern.

We need anonymised data on all patients with an open abdomen between 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2011 (whether treated with NPWT or not) to be submitted to https://viis.abdn.ac.uk/HSRU/OpenAbdomen. This portal is being managed by Gladys McPherson at the HSRU of the University of Aberdeen.

We request that you please email Gladys McPherson at g.mcpherson@abdn.ac.uk with details of your hospital and a nominated lead that will be responsible for electronic data submission to the portal. At least one individual is required from each hospital with ITU facilities. Login details for access to the web site will then be provided.

The NICE audit tool and guidance on NPWT for the open abdomen are available at www.nice.org.uk/IPG322.

Your health, your way - a guide to long term conditions and self care

Posted: 05/12/2009

In January 2008, the Prime Minister committed to putting in place a Patients' Prospectus setting out how the 15.4 million people living with long term conditions in England could access a choice of self care services. Your health, your way - a guide to long term conditions and self care was launched on NHS Choices on 2 November 2008, setting out the support that patients should expect to receive from their Primary Care Trusts and local authorities.

Your health, your way is not new policy, but provides an opportunity to draw together all the strands of work and information that already exist. It is primarily a generic product - applicable to all long term conditions and covers five pillars - four of which are existing DH policy for self care, plus healthy lifestyle choices.

It raises awareness to patients and the public about what support they can expect if they choose to self care. 

The core aims of Your health, your way are to empower and support people with long term conditions to understand their own needs and be able to make an informed choice about the self care support they wish to access from the resources available.  These aims should be achieved through a process of collaborative dialogue during which the individual leads the discussions based on the goals that are important to them.

Five areas of self care have been identified as being key to achieving these aims:

1.  Information
2.  Skills and knowledge training
3.  Tools and self-monitoring devices
4.  Healthy lifestyle choices
5.  Support networks

Find ot more at

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Longtermconditions/yourhealth/index.htm

We are looking for patients with pyoderma gangrenosum

Posted: 05/11/2009

The Centre for Evidence Based Dermatology has produced information upon participating in a randomised controlled trial recruiting people with pyoderma gangrenosum.  If you are involved in the treatment of this condition perhaps you could get involved in the study?

Reference document : Pyoderma gangrenosum trial