Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

OFT: The OFT has published new advice for businesses to help them avoid becoming victims of scams as part of its Scams Awareness Month. Businesses continue to be targeted by scammers using deceptive & aggressive sales practices to con them out of hundreds of pounds.
 
The scams include 'free' listings in business directories where the victim unknowingly signs up to paying for repeated entries; businesses unwittingly agreeing to paying for adverts being placed in bogus 'charitable' publications; and companies being tricked into ordering unwanted and overpriced office supplies.
 
The advice, on the OFT's website, explains how the most common scams work, and offers tips to companies and their staff on how to protect their business from losing money to the scammers.
Press release ~ OFT – Scams Targeting Businesses ~ Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) ~ Inhibiting Enterprise: Fraud and Online Crime Against Small Businesses
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions have issued a guideline to improve the management of rheumatoid arthritis in adults.  It sets out how best to identify rheumatoid arthritis, which treatments and therapies are effective, and when surgery should be considered.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term disease in which joints in the body become inflamed, causing pain, swelling and stiffness.  It often affects the small joints of the hands and the feet, and usually both sides equally and symmetrically.  Around 400,000 people in the UK have RA and people of all ages can develop the disease.  Over twice as many women as men suffer from the condition.
Press release ~ Rheumatoid arthritis: the management of rheumatoid arthritis in adults ~ National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions ~ National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published final guidance on the use of endovascular stent grafts for the treatment of infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).  Aortic aneurysms develop when the wall of the aorta weakens, causing it to bulge and form a balloon-like projection.
 
This leads to further stretching of the wall of the aorta and eventually the wall can rupture, leading to massive internal bleeding.  The main risk factors for AAA include increasing age, high blood pressure, smoking and family history of the condition.
Press release ~ Endovascular stent - grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued a new guideline on best practice for the diagnosis & treatment of advanced breast cancer.  There are approximately 40,500 women diagnosed with breast cancer and 10,900 deaths recorded in England and Wales each year, making it the most common cancer affecting women.
 
The guideline, produced for NICE by the National Collaborating Centre for Cancer, will help clinicians to provide coherent & consistent care for patients with advanced breast cancer, providing a systematic framework to support patients with the disease and ensuring equal access to services across England and Wales.
Press release ~ Advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and treatment ~ National Collaborating Centre for Cancer
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued a new guideline on best practice for the diagnosis & treatment of early and locally advanced breast cancer.

Over recent years there have been a number of significant advances in the management of breast cancer including new types of chemotherapy, as well as biological and hormonal agents.  The guideline, produced for NICE by the National Collaborating Centre for Cancer, will help clinicians to provide coherent & consistent care for patients with early breast cancer, providing comprehensive information to ensure equal access to services across England and Wales.
Press release ~ Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and treatment ~ National Collaborating Centre for Cancer
 
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published guidance encouraging Primary Care Trusts to review their local needle & syringe services with an aim to expand availability, alongside the publication of an ACMD report - See ‘General Reports and Other Publications’ for further information.
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story