News

Liver Transplantation and COVID-19

We know that a lot of the information about COVID-19 for the general public may not answer the concerns of people with a liver transplant. So far, experience from other countries have not shown that immunosuppressed patients are at increased risk of severe lung infection. However, it is important that you take all precautions to reduce your risk of exposure to the virus.

Reducing the exposure:
Like the common cold, COVID-19 infection usually occurs through close contact with a person with the virus, via cough, sneezes or hand contact. Washing your hands frequently reduces the contamination risk. The benefits of using masks in public is unclear even for transplant recipients and wearing a mask on its own may not prevent infection. Most masks are not tightfitting so aerosols can get through, but they may prevent you touching your nose and mouth.

To reduce your visit to hospitals and GP surgeries, doctors are looking at clinic lists to see if you could have a telephone consultation instead. You will be notified if there are any changes to your hospital appointments. We would recommend the following measures to try to reduce your risk of exposure to COVID-19 as much as possible until the pandemic is over;

Treatment:
Please do not stop any treatment for your liver transplant (especially your immunosuppression) without discussing this with your consultant or a member of their team first.

We want to reassure you that doctors & nurses are doing all they can to ensure that they can continue your care & treatment safely. If you have specific questions about your treatment or hospital appointments please get in touch with your local team.

If you think you might have been exposed to the virus, you should follow the same instructions as those for the general public & phone NHS 111.
Make sure you tell the person you speak to about your liver transplant & treatment. If on immunosuppression or chemotherapy you should also phone your normal liver and chemotherapy team so they are aware. 

For the latest NHS information: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/common-questions/ .

The 2020 ACCEA round opens on Friday 13th March 2020 and closes at 17:00 on Thursday 7th May 2020.

DEADLINE for applying for BASL support is 09:00 WEDNESDAY 8th APRIL 2020.

BASL will need to have completed the process of selecting those applicants who will receive our support well before the ACCEA deadline date.

If you wish to be considered for a national award in the 2020 round and seek BASL support, you should submit a copy of your ACCEA Application Form, along with any other supplementary CVQs; Research & Innovation (Form D), Teaching & Training (Form E), Leadership & Management (Form F).

Applications should be sent to the BASL Secretariat to Judy Hawksworth at judy@basl.org.uk .

When submitting your application to BASL, please provide the name of an individual who has agreed to write your supporting citation.  Please note: we will need to request a citation for every applicant even if the member is not successful in gaining BASL support, in order to meet the tight deadlines imposed by the ACCEA.

ACCEA regard the citations provided by BASL as important: they give added value to the process. The citation helps clarify information in the application and can put an individual's contribution into the wider context.

Eligibility
As in previous years BASL are able to support colleagues (BASL members) directly by nomination for national Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. As a specialist society, BASL cannot make nominations for Platinum awards; this must be done through the applicant’s University/Research Body and Universities UK. BASL can however provide a citation to support an application for a Platinum award.

How to apply for BASL support:
1. Send a copy of your completed ACCEA Application Form and other supplementary CVQs to the BASL Secretariat to judy@basl.org.uk .  BASL also requires a short piece on your work with BASL and why you feel you should be supported by them.

Deadline to submit your application to BASL is 09:00 WEDNESDAY 8th APRIL 2020.

All applications are completed through the ACCEA on line system. Downloadable copies of the application form and CVQ’s will be on the ACCEA website from 20th February 2020 and are intended to help those who wish to work on their application offline before completing online.

2. When submitting your application to BASL, please provide the name and email address of an individual who has agreed to write your supporting citation. 

3. Applications are scored independently by a panel of 3 or 4 members of the BASL Committee.

4. If you are successful of BASL support we will upload your citation to your application on the ACCEA website. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have completed your on line application to ACCEA as per their instructions and regulations.

5. BASL will upload their supporting citations separately to their ranked lists. Individual scores are not submitted to the national panel but a ranked order for each award category is stated.

Please understand that in fairness to all applicants, late submissions will not be considered.

Further information on how BASL decides whom to support can be found in the document below:
Download How BASL Decides_ACCEA 2020.pdf

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact judy@basl.org.uk .

A rise in alcohol duty in the upcoming Budget could help fund thousands of new jobs in health and public services, say top health experts.

In a letter to the Chancellor, the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), a coalition of more than 50 leading UK health organisations, call for an increase in alcohol duty by 2% above inflation to ease pressure on public finances, tackle the harm caused by alcohol and fund our NHS.

Recent cuts to alcohol duty have cost the government more than £1 billion every year – enough to fund the salaries of 40,000 nurses or 29,000 police officers.

Current levels of duty – and the constant pressure to reduce them further – have been immensely costly to the Government and wider society.

Research from the University of Sheffield shows that cuts in alcohol duty since 2012 have led to:
• 1,969 additional deaths
• 61,386 additional hospitalisations
• £317 million in additional costs to the NHS
• 111,062 additional criminal offences
• 484,727 additional days of workplace sickness absence

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “Alcohol is 64% cheaper than it was thirty years ago, and its availability at these prices is encouraging more of us to drink at unhealthy levels. It is no coincidence that deaths from liver disease have increased in line with alcohol’s affordability in the UK.  In order to protect the future health of our society, the Government must take action now by increasing duty on alcohol and investing that money into our over-stretched and underfunded NHS and public services.”

Helen Donovan, Professional Lead for Public Health at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Alcohol abuse continues to do serious damage to people’s lives and it is often society’s most vulnerable who are hit hardest by our failure to confront it.  With alcohol-related admissions to hospitals have rising year-on-year in England and thousands of lives continuing to be cut short, it is clear that urgent action is needed to tackle the ill-effects of alcohol abuse.  Increasing the duty on alcohol sales is just one step required to relieve pressure on NHS services; this revenue could be invested in nursing staff and services based within communities that aim to change cultural and social attitudes towards alcohol and provide world-class health protection programmes.“

BMA Board of Science Chair Professor Dame Parveen Kumar said: “Despite having a wealth of evidence to show the devastating impact that alcohol has on health, families and society, nowhere near enough is being done to reduce the risks to the public’s health.  As doctors, we see the detrimental impact that alcohol has on health on a daily basis. Not only the impact on physical health, being linked to conditions such as cancer and liver cirrhosis, but also the profoundly destructive impact it can have on mental health.  At a time when NHS resources and staff are in short supply, the extra funding raised from the increase in alcohol duty could go directly back into NHS services, as well as funding local alcohol prevention and support programmes.  Increasing duty on alcohol is one of the wider measures that the Government must take if we are to stop alcohol resulting in more lives being ruined, or worse still, lost.”

Professor Julia Sinclair, Chair of the Addictions Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “As a frontline addiction psychiatrist I see first-hand the damage alcohol causes to the health of individuals, their families and wider society.  Alcohol related hospital admissions have reached record levels, costing the NHS millions, and comes at a time when devastating cuts have been made to addiction services.  The Chancellor should increase alcohol duty to protect people’s health and to reduce the increasing pressures on the NHS.”

Dr Zulfiquar Mirza, Alcohol Lead at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: “We are concerned by the harm attributable to alcohol in our society, particularly those relating to short- and long-term health, crime and disorder. The brunt of the short-term health consequences of excess and irresponsible alcohol consumption falls on the ambulance service and the UK’s already hard-pressed Emergency Departments.  Many alcohol related attendances to the ED are preventable and hamper the ability of our emergency care systems to look after other patients, so we welcome the Alcohol Health Alliance’s move to increase alcohol duty.”

The Commission on Alcohol Harm is today launching a call for evidence as part of its inquiry into alcohol harm and the changes needed to reduce the harm caused by alcohol.

The Commission will hold three oral evidence sessions across the UK later this year, and has launched a call for written evidence, with submissions welcomed before the deadline of 12 noon on 17 February 2020.

The Commission is interested in receiving evidence from academic researchers, charities, healthcare professionals, professional bodies, commissioners and those affected by alcohol harm in their personal, professional or family life.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said: “The Commission on Alcohol Harm is an extremely important investigation into how all parts of our society are impacted by our drinking habits.

“We need to have voices representing the wide range of experiences of alcohol harm; including those on the front-line, researchers and those with first hand experience of alcohol harm. Together, we can build a solid case for change.”

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Chair of the Commission on Alcohol Harm, said: “Alcohol plays a huge part of the everyday lives of many people across the UK, and therefore it is important to examine its impact on our society more closely. We need to understand how our drinking habits affect our own health as well as the way alcohol can affect those around us.

“We welcome the input of those who face the effects of alcohol harm in their professional or personal lives in order to help us make meaningful recommendations on a vision for the future.”

To share your views, please submit written evidence to harms_commission@ahauk.org  by 17 February 2020.

Visit the AHA website for submission guidelines: http://ahauk.org/commission-on-alcohol-harm/  .

The tenure of the current Communications and Website Lead will come to an end in January 2020 and as such, BASL are now seeking expressions of interest for this post.

The Communications and Website Lead is elected by the membership to serve for a period of up to three years and may be re-elected once. 

In addition to his/her role on the Governing Board, the post holder is responsible for working with the BASL Secretariat on any website upgrades, to increase BASL’s presence on social media and to work with the committee on developing the BASL member’s portal. A working knowledge of Twitter is desirable.

The post holder will be registered with Companies House in the UK as a Director of BASL and registered with the Charities Commission as a Trustee.

Nomination Process
Please send your nominations, clearly stating the position that your nomination is for, to the BASL Secretariat at judy@basl.org.uk by the deadline of 17:00 on Friday 13th December 2019.

Candidates wishing to be considered for this post require one BASL member to propose them and a second BASL member to confirm their suitability for the role in writing.

If more than one candidate is nominated, the Secretariat will arrange for an election of all members. He/she will be elected by simple majority of those members voting. A personal statement, containing no more than approx. 300 words, will be required from the candidate should an election need to take place.

The newly elected post will be announced in the January 2020 newsletter to members.

If you need any more information, please do not hesitate to contact judy@basl.org.uk .