Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

CLG: If your home is a boat, you should get a smoke alarm, is the message from the Fire Minister Sadiq Khan supporting the Boat Safety Scheme. During Boat Safety Week, 25 - 31 May, Fire & Rescue Services are offering free fire safety checks to boat owners and urging the boaters to be more fire safe on board.
 
Although boat fires on our coastal and inland waters are less common than fires on land, when they do occur they can be devastating to all involved, totally destroying the boat and putting lives at risk.  Boats are often in remote locations which may result in firefighters taking longer to arrive.
Press release ~ Boat Safety Scheme ~ Boat Safety Week, 25 - 31 May 2009
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Clinical Guideline Centre have published a guideline to improve the early management of persistent non-specific low back pain. 

This covers people who have been in pain longer than 6 weeks, but less than one year, where the pain may be linked to structures in the back such as the joints, muscles and ligaments. 
.  This covers people who have been in pain , where the pain may be linked to structures in the back such as the joints, muscles and ligaments. 
 
Setting out a range of effective mainstream & complementary treatments, the guideline recommends what care & advice the NHS should offer to people affected by low back pain. 

Affecting around 1 in 3 adults in the UK each year, low back pain is a very common disorder, with an estimated 2.5m people seeking help from their GP about their condition.  It is difficult to ‘cure’, but the treatments recommended in this guideline can reduce its effect on people’s lives.
Press release ~ NICE - Low back pain: Early management of persistent non-specific low back pain ~ National Clinical Guideline Centres
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) haveissued guidance on the use of newer agents for blood glucose control in adults with type 2 diabetes.  The new short clinical guideline is a partial update of last year’s clinical guideline ‘Type 2 Diabetes (Update)’ and examines several new & existing treatments for the management of blood glucose levels in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

The NICE guidance recommends a number of new treatments to help manage levels of blood glucose, positioning these treatments among existing therapies for type 2 diabetes.  These include recommendations on the use of long-acting insulin analogues, inhibitors of dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4 inhibitors), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) mimetics and thiazolidinediones within their licensed recommendations.
Press release ~ NICE: Type 2 diabetes - the management of type 2 diabetes (partial update)
 
DH: From 1 June 2009, HbA1c (long term blood glucose levels) in all people with diabetes will be measured in millimoles per mol as well as by percentage, the Department of Health has said. 

The UK is responding to the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) call for all countries to adopt the same measurement to make it easier to compare HbA1c results between laboratories throughout the UK and worldwide.
 
Both the old & the new measurements will be given for the first two years of the change, until 31 May 2011 when people with diabetes will receive their HbA1c measurement only in millimoles per mol. when people with diabetes will receive their HbA1c measurement only in millimoles per mol.
 
HbA1c gives a measure of how high or low the blood glucose has been over the previous 2-3 months.  Reducing blood glucose levels safely towards the levels found in people without diabetes can reduce the risk of diabetic complications.  Each person with diabetes must agree their own target HbA1c with their doctor.
Press release ~ International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) ~ Diabetes UK - Change in how HbA1c results are reported
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