From Ann

D. Mail 23.5.18 “OAPs SENT HOME FROM HOSPITAL WITH COCKTAILS OF DRUGS THAT CAN KILL” by Sophie Borland, Health Editor.

Elderly patients are being discharged from hospital with potentially lethal cocktails of medical drugs.  Pensioners are often prescribed up to 9 different treatments which can cause severe side-effects when combined, including dizziness, falls, heart problems, kidney damage - which in some cases prove fatal.  Researchers from Brighton & Sussex Medical School & King’s College London, found a third of pensioners suffered “medical harm” from the drugs but 52% of these could be prevented.  In the largest study of its kind, researchers monitored 1,280 patients in the 8 weeks after they left hospital.   37% of them suffered some medication harm of which 81% was deemed to be serious.  4 of the patients died.  Researchers calculated that the cost of medication harms to the NHS was almost £400million a year, due to patients being readmitted  to hospital.  Dr Nikesh Parekh, clinical research fellow in Geriatrics at Brighton & Sussex Medical Schools criticised today’s “over-medicalised” culture.   “We’ve moved into an era of chronic use of medicines without strong evidence of benefit.  The average patient on our cohort was on 9 medicines.”   Published in British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

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D. Telegraph 18.5.18 “TOOTH CARE IN HOSPITALS”  Letters.

Regarding dentist David Berry’s letter about his elderly frail patient not having her teeth cleaned when she was in hospital for 3 months, one of my dental patients told me in 1998  “You never get your teeth cleaned in hospital.”   It prompted me to research oral healthcare instructions for nurses’ training. There were none.

I researched the 31 textbooks, which 162 nursing training establishments said they used.  Advice on dental care was either very brief or completely absent.  The British Medical Journal published my research in May 1998.  Sadly, nothing appears to have changed.

By: Dr Rosemary Longhurst, Exmouth, Devon.   (My comment:  this may also apply in care-homes.)

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Daily Mail 23.5.18 “HOW HUMANS ARE NOW GIVING ANIMALS CANCER”

Animals around the world are getting cancer as a result of human activities, scientists say.  Plastic pollution, chemical spills, nuclear radiation etc. may be causing the cancer rise in wild & domestic animals, found researchers at Arizona State University’s School of Life Science.  Cancer-causers include pesticides & herbicides on farmlands, pollution of oceans & waterways, & the accidental release of nuclear radiation into the atmosphere from nuclear plants.  The study authors stated “Microplastics are ingested by a wide range of species, potentially causing serious health threats & increasing cancer prevalence through their intrinsic toxicity.. One of these contaminants, bisphenol A, possesses endocrine (hormonal) disruption properties & may contribute to the development of breast cancer & prostate carcinoma in humans, as well as hepatic (liver) tumours in rodents.”  There is chemical pollution in Estuary of St Lawrence in Canada where 27% of adult Beluga whales have cancer, as well as a high prevalence of cancer in sea lions in California.”  Co-authors are Dr Tuul Sepp & Dr Mathieu Giraudeau.  Published in “Nature Ecology & Evolution”

Ann