Northampton General Hospital CQC report

www.cqc.org.uk

The Care Quality Commission have published their inspection report of Northampton General Hospital (carried out under the new acute hospital inspection model).

• Inspection report overview
• Full inspection report (.PDF)

Disruption to EBSCO databases and journals on Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of March

EBSCO who supply some of our databases (namely CINAHL and Health Business Elite) and electronic journals, will be carrying out a network upgrade between 5 pm and 7 pm on Friday the 28th of March.

There may also be further disruption on Saturday the 29th between 1 am and 3 am which could include the HDAS service.

During this time there may be intermittent access to some or all of their products and it may not be possible to access some of our e-journals or carry out any searches on the affected databases.

March Eyes on Evidence

Eyes on Evidence is a free monthly bulletin from NICE Evidence Services which reviews significant new evidence as it emerges and what this might mean for current practice.

In the March issue you can find:

• Blood oxygen levels in preterm infants
• Premature mortality in people with epilepsy
• Oral contraceptive pills in preventing ovarian cancer
• Tamsulosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia and risk of severe hypotension
• Socioeconomic disadvantage and onset of disabling chronic conditions in childhood

You can find all the previous issues of Eyes on Evidence or subscribe to receive the bulletin by email on the NICE Evidence Services site.

Books for review

We have just had our new selection of on approval books. The scheme gives you a chance to review a selection of newly published titles covering a variety of health care topics and let us know if we should buy them for the Library's collection.

Our current selections are available at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries until the 25th of April. the topics covered include:

• Anaesthetics
• Cardiovascular medicine
• Geriatrics
• Nursing
• Oncology
• Psychology & psychotherapy
• Psychiatry
• Study/revision guides
• ...and many more

Of course we are always happy to have recommendations for new stock on any health related topic.

You can also find a list of titles we have recently purchased (including previous On Approvals) on our web site and all of our stock via the library catalogue. 

No Smoking Day 12th March

The 12th of March is No Smoking Day. This year’s No Smoking Day has a ‘V for Victory’ theme which is set to inspire hundreds of thousands of smokers to win the fight against cigarettes. The campaign will help smokers on the road to victory, providing information, support and encouragement to put together a personal battle plan so that they are in the best possible position to make a successful quit attempt on the day.

One in five UK adults smoke. Locally data shows smoking rates are 28% in Corby, 23% in Northampton and 22% in Wellingborough. But studies show around two thirds of smokers want to quit.

On the No Smoking Day site you can find support for those wanting to quit, advice for smokers on how to start their quit attempt and the facts around smoking.

For health professionals, in the Downloads section of the site you can find a campaign handbook to help you plan activities as well as posters, statistics, press release templates, banners for Facebook and lots of other useful material to support the campaign.

NHS Employers have produced an Infographic showing the impact of smoking to support the campaign, which features a lot of useful information.

You can also source smoking and tobacco related resources from the Northamptonshire County Council Health Promotion Resource Unit.

They stock leaflets, posters, and physical resources such as Tar Jars and the Big Cig costume, as well as display boards and other useful campaign items.

The great library book sale bonanza starts Monday 3rd of March

We are having a sale of recently withdrawn stock at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries starting on  Monday the 3rd of March.

On offer will be a variety of titles covering lots of different topics and disciplines, including previous editions of current text books.

Costing just £1 or £2 each, you could find yourself a real bargain. You'll need to be quick though as they tend to sell fast.

Web site of the month: Richard Lehman's Journal Watch

Journal Watch is a weekly blog written by Oxfordshire GP Richard Lehman, and hosted by the BMJ (although you can find an archive of blog posts going back to 2005 on the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine site).

Every week Richard reviews the content of some of the main medical journals (the BMJ, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine). He picks articles that will be of interest to most doctors and writes short, pithy summaries of them, often with a wry commentary.

The blog is humourous, irreverent and informative (and even includes a "Plant of the week" section for those with a more horticultural bent).

Journal Watch is well worth a look for those wanting to keep up with new medical research whilst simultaneously being entertained. You can also find Richard on Twitter.