International & National & Local News
A traditional Mediterranean diet 'helps you live longer'
A traditional Mediterranean diet featuring fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil is not only fashionable - research suggests it can cut premature deaths by up to 25 per cent.
The Independent 27/06/03
Childcare for all - now
There was a startling government promise this week. Until now, ministers had balked, but this week Margaret Hodge, the new children's minister, put out a statement that should mark a whole new era. She promised to fill in the great missing slice of the welfare state: cradle-to-grave will finally get its cradle.
The Guardian 27/06/03
Developing world faces cancer crisis
The number of new cancer patients in the developing world reach 10 million per year by 2015 unless access to radiation therapy is improved, say experts.
BBC Health News 27/06/03
Dr Reid's diagnosis
The new health secretary could not have asked for an easier introduction to the health service. For his first public speech since his appointment two weeks ago, John Reid spoke to 1,800 senior NHS managers at their annual conference in Glasgow yesterday.
The Guardian 27/06/03
Failure to test chemicals 'puts lives at risk'
The government is experimenting with people's lives by failing to test properly tens of thousands of man-made chemicals used in everyday life, according to a leading biochemist who chairs the royal commission on environmental pollution.
The Guardian 27/06/03
The Independent 27/06/03
Home abortions call triggers row
A proposal to allow women to have early medical terminations at home has provoked controversy. Doctors have backed the plans, which they say will benefit women who want terminate their pregnancy as early as possible, eliminating the need for a surgical abortion.
BBC Health News 27/06/03
Incapacitated patients to get new right on deciding treatment
A new right for people to appoint friends or relatives to take decisions about medical treatment if they become mentally incapable will be unveiled by the government in a bill today.
The Guardian 27/06/03
Millions of children dying needlessly
More than six million children under the age of five needlessly die around the world each year, according to experts. They are killed by diseases that can either be prevented or treated. These include Aids, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and pneumonia.
BBC Health News 27/06/03
NHS spending gives Isoft a boost
Isoft saw profits and turnover increase by more than 50 per cent last year as the software vendor benefited from sustained IT spending in the healthcare sector. Its shares yesterday closed 26½p higher, or 10.2 per cent, at 286½p after the company said its outlook was "very positive" in a dynamic market.
The Financial Times 27/06/03
Once-a-day pill 'cuts heart attacks by 80%
A once-a-day pill for everyone over 55 could undo some of the ill-effects of our sedentary, high-cholesterol, western lifestyle and slash the rate of strokes and heart attacks by more than 80%, doctors said yesterday.
The Guardian 27/06/03
The Independent 27/06/03
The Times 27/06/03
Poor get less NHS choice than middle class, says Reid
The middle classes have more choice in an NHS that has failed poorer groups in society, the new health secretary, John Reid, admitted yesterday.
The Guardian 27/06/03
The Independent 27/06/03
Reid set to press on with NHS reforms
John Reid, the new health secretary, pledged yesterday there would be no change of direction over the controversial health service reforms as he argued that increased use of the private sector and more choice for patients were the key to greater equality in NHS care.
The Financial Times 27/06/03
Women's baby hopes cut back, study shows
Women are waiting longer to have children and then settling for fewer babies than they intended, according to figures released yesterday. Research from the office for national statistics suggests that the number of women who want to have babies in their early 20s is declining.
The Guardian 27/06/03
The Times 27/06/03
Cheshire & Mersey News
Campaign bids to strip services from hospital
FURIOUS campaigners have demanded that vital hospital services for children are taken away from Ormskirk and sent back to Southport.
The Liverpool Post 26/06/03
Fazakerley closes its maternity unit
CONSULTANTS and midwives last night reacted angrily to the decision to shut maternity services at University Hospital Aintree.
The Liverpool Post 26/06/03
Reid pledges to create fairer NHS
John Reid has used his first speech as Health Secretary to call for greater fairness in the NHS.
Liverpool Echo 27/06/03
'Safe sex' call after shock new figures
THE sexually transmitted infection chlamydia has increased by 367% in Ormskirk and Southport from 1996 to 2001 and gonorrhoea by 612%.
Ormskirk Advertiser 26/06/03
Cumbria & Lancashire News
Factors that have led to NHS dispute
I AM writing in support of the cleaning and portering staff currently in dispute with their employers, ISS Mediclean, contracted to work at the Royal Bolton Hospital.
'Health risk' of factory site homes
HOME owners in Bolton could suffer chronic health problems if their house is built on a former factory or landfill site, a report has warned. The British Medical Journal report uncovered a high rate of kidney disease among those who live in homes built on former industrial sites -- known as 'brown field' developments.
Bolton Evening News 27/06/03
Bolton Evening News 26/06/03
Union backs ambulance centre plan
UNION leaders are backing plans to close a Bolton ambulance centre and move its 127 staff to a central base. Representatives from Unison -- the workers' union that includes ambulance staff among its members -- has welcomed a scheme to centralise Greater Manchester Ambulance Service (GMAS), which has been passed by NHS bosses.
Bolton Evening News 26/06/03
'Wonder' drug ruined my life
A YOUNG father who claims his life has been ruined by a "wonder" acne treatment is planning to sue the pharmaceutical giants Roche.
Bolton Evening News 26/06/03
Greater Manchester News
Hope nurses tiniest baby to health
THIS tiny bundle of joy is Amaad Mahmood, the smallest baby ever to survive in Hope Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Amaad should have arrived next month but he came 15 weeks premature in March weighing just 1lb.
The Salford Advertiser 27/06/03
