Neil Bottle: Focus

A new exhibition of printed textiles inspired by the landscapes of the Middle East will be opening at Contemporary Applied Arts, London, in March. The pieces in the collection, which range from large wall hangings to wearable items such as scarves, were produced by UCA Canterbury Senior Lecturer Neil Bottle who has been a member of the gallery for twenty years. Much of the inspiration for this latest collection was gained during a secondment at the University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates

Neil Bottle exhibition catalogue

Neil Bottle exhibition catalogue with a critical review by Sue Prichard, Curator of Fashion and Textiles at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The text is in Welsh and English. The exhibition took place during September 2010 at the Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, Wales

An assessment of failure to rescue derived from routine NHS data as a nursing sensitive patient safety indicator (report to Policy Research Programme)

Objectives: This study aims to assess the potential for deriving 2 mortality based failure to rescue indicators and a proxy measure, based on exceptionally long length of stay, from English hospital administrative data by exploring change in coding practice over time and measuring associations between failure to rescue and factors which would suggest indicators derived from these data are valid.Design: Cross sectional observational study of routinely collected administrative data.Setting: 146 general acute hospital trusts in England.Participants: Discharge data from 66,100,672 surgical admissions (1997 to 2009).Results: Median percentage of surgical admissions with at least one secondary diagnosis recorded increased from 26% in 1997/8 to 40% in 2008/9. The failure to rescue rate for a hospital appears to be relatively stable over time: inter-year correlations between 2007/8 and 2008/9 were r=0.92 to r=0.94. No failure to rescue indicator was significantly correlated with average number of secondary diagnoses coded per hospital. Regression analyses showed that failure to rescue was significantly associated (p<0.05) with several hospital characteristics previously associated with quality including staffing levels. Higher medical staffing (doctors + nurses) per bed and more doctors relative to the number of nurses were associated with lower failure to rescue. Conclusion: Coding practice has improved, and failure to rescue can be derived from English administrative data. The suggestion that it is particularly sensitive to nursing is not clearly supported. Although the patient population is more homogenous than for other mortality measures, risk adjustment is still required

TechnoCraft collection

The collection evolved into a series of printed and pleated, sculptural textile pieces. Three-dimensional treatments, such as shobori and pleating, further explore the "hidden and revealed" concept by creating an interaction between the physical movement of the pleated surfaces and the fragmented printed imagery. The TechnoCraft collection was launched in September 2010 at a Focus Showcase exhibition at the Ruthin Craft Centre in Denbighshire. Sue Prichard, Curator of Fashion & Textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum reviewed the new collection in July 2010, saying: "This relentless pursuit of the creative possibilities still to be discovered by a combination of the artisan with high tech applications is risk taking at its most exciting. Bottle delights in pushing the boundaries – this is a cause for both celebration and breathless anticipation for the future.

Use of hospital services by age and comorbidity after an index heart failure admission in England: an observational study

© Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited.Objectives To describe hospital inpatient, emergency department (ED) and outpatient department (OPD) activity for patients in the year following their first emergency admission for heart failure (HF). To assess the proportion receiving specialist assessment within 2â €...weeks of hospital discharge, as now recommended by guidelines. Design Observational study of national administrative data. Setting All acute NHS hospitals in England. Participants 82â €...241 patients with an index emergency admission between April 2009 and March 2011 with a primary diagnosis of HF. Main outcome measures Cardiology OPD appointment within 2â €...weeks and within a year of discharge from the index admission; emergency department (ED) and inpatient use within a year. Results 15.1% died during the admission. Of the 69â €...848 survivors, 19.7% were readmitted within 30â €...days and half within a year, the majority for non-HF diagnoses. 6.7% returned to the ED within a week of discharge, of whom the majority (77.6%) were admitted. The two most common OPD specialties during the year were cardiology (24.7% of the total appointments) and anticoagulant services (12.5%). Although half of all patients had a cardiology appointment within a year, the proportion within the recommended 2â €...weeks of discharge was just 6.8% overall and varied by age, from 2.4% in those aged 90+ to 19.6% in those aged 18-45 (p<0.0001); appointments in other specialties made up only some of the shortfall. More comorbidity at any age was associated with higher rates of cardiology OPD follow-up. Conclusions Patients with HF are high users of hospital services. Postdischarge cardiology OPD follow-up rates fell well below current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, particularly for the elderly and those with less comorbidity

The effect of new oral anticoagulants and extended thromboprophylaxis policy on hip and knee arthroplasty outcomes: observational study

The efficacy and safety of the new oral anticoagulants (NOAC) and the benefits of extended duration thromboprophylaxis following hip and knee replacements remain uncertain. This observational study describes the relations between thromboprophylaxis policies following hip and knee replacements across England's NHS and patient outcomes between January 2008 and December 2011. From the national administrative database, we analyzed mortality, thromboembolic complications, emergency readmission, and bleeding rates for 201,418 hip and 230,282 knee replacements. There were no differences in outcomes for either LMWH or NOAC. We found no advantage in favor of any single anticoagulation policy or in changing policy. This study supports the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' recommendation that the choice and duration of thromboprophylaxis prophylaxis be decided by the treating surgeon