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Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
OFT: The OFT has recently published guidance which sets out how & when it can use its new power to suspend consumer credit licences. Under the Financial Services Act 2012, the OFT can only use the new power where there is an urgent need to protect consumers from harm.
The guidance establishes that in the most serious cases, which include those where there is evidence of physical harm, the OFT will suspend a licence with immediate effect. In other circumstances, businesses will be given an opportunity to make its case to an adjudicator before the suspension takes effect.
ScotGov: A workload measurement & planning tool to determine appropriate nursing levels is being rolled out for community nurses. It will be available to all health boards from May 2013. It has been designed to ensure that communities have the right numbers & mix of nursing staff.
The tool looks at the number of patients, the complexity of the care provided by community nurses, time required for & mode of travel, and also factors in additional time for unexpected disruptions, or tasks such as administration. It then calculates the number of staff required to provide safe, effective & person centred care to the patients.
NICE: Patients with atrial fibrilation can now be offered apixaban (Eliquis) as an alternative to warfarin to reduce the risk of stroke & blood clots, says NICE. NICE recommends that apixaban can be used as an option for the prevention of stroke & systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular AF and one or more risk factors.
NICE: NICE's quality standard on asthma could improve the lives of millions by driving up the quality of care for people with the condition, say experts. Asthma is the most common long-term medical condition in the UK, with around 5.4m people currently receive treatment for asthma, 1.1m of whom are children.
Treatment goals are to help people manage their condition, and to lead symptom-free, normal, active lives. This is because a cure is not usually possible, as the causes of most forms of asthma are not fully understood. The NICE quality standard for asthma contains 11 measures to help improve the diagnosis & treatment of the condition in adults, young people and children.
