Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade
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A voice of sanity at the NHS - The Observer 31st December 2006
Sometimes, it takes an outsider to say what experts have not found ways of voicing. Sir Gerry Robinson, the former chairman of Granada, has spent six months working at an NHS hospital. He has not been impressed, finding it gripped by 'a collective inertia' which has strangled attempts to change services. At the same time, managers concentrate on blue-sky thinking and ignore workers. There is a desire to improve, but timidity makes managers afraid to impose their will. However, Robinson believes an NHS body is not a singularly different creature from a business: the key to improving its performance lies in motivating staff and explaining to them there must be change. He does not believe that bureaucracy, or the intransigence of some consultants, or political reforms, need stymie progress.
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Simon Caulkin: Good cheer will be in short supply in the new year for the BBC and NHS - The Observer 31st December 2006
After Christmas, the hangover. Good cheer will be in short supply in the new year for the BBC, the NHS and many other organisations in both public and private sectors that face debilitating rounds of cost-cutting.
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Christmas Appeal: How you can make a difference - The Observer 31st December 2006
The heads of our three charities explain why your money will help to transform lives
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In 2007, my alter ego is resolved to... - The Observer 31st December 2006
Karol Sikora is Patricia Hewitt, Health Secretary. I'm going to tell you the truth about the NHS. It's a reasonably fair insurance policy, but it can't provide all the latest wizardry regardless of cost. There is a limit, after which it will go bust. You'll have to take responsibility for your health. If you want something the NHS thinks is not worth the money, you'll have to pay for it. But I'll ensure that what it does is equitable and not based on where you live or your ability to argue with a clerk. Efficiency, responsiveness and consumerism in a competitive marketplace will change you from being service users into valued customers.
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Labour's NHS is a real tonic for the Tories - The Observer 31st December 2006
The sight of Hazel Blears standing on a picket line outside a Salford hospital seemed a traditional scene from the last days of a Labour government. From 1929 to 1974, radical politicians would come to power determined to make the lives of the majority a little bit better. Invariably, there would be a run on the pound and a crisis of confidence and, far from strengthening the welfare state, Labour Prime Ministers would order huge reductions in public spending, as Ramsay MacDonald did in 1931, or a cut in the free treatments offered by the NHS, as Clement Attlee did in 1951, or the imposition of an austerity package drawn up by the International Monetary Fund, as James Callaghan did in 1976.
A good week for.... A bad week for... - The Observer 31st December 2006
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Show me a slimmer: I'll show you a sucker - The Observer 31st December 2006
They've done it! After more than a century during which we've been obsessed with slimming, scientists have finally unveiled a little yellow pill that will have you drop two dress sizes. Excalia, the newest weight-loss pill, has the magical powers of Excalibur, and will cut through your fat by 12 per cent in a year to release the leaner, better you. The NHS is thrilled: obesity costs it £1bn a year. The government is thrilled: Britain holds the shameful record of being Europe's fattest nation. And we are thrilled: nothing, not even wrinkles, worries us more than our weight. Shrinks, school counsellors, agony aunts and teen mag editors all concur: our body image is tied first and foremost to pounds and inches.
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Last-gasp saloon: Paid leave and free patches for smokers in year of the ban - The Independent on Sunday 31st December 2006
Scotland and Ireland have done it, and the results have been positive. But what will happen in England in July when the law against smoking in public places comes into effect? Francis Elliott and Nina Lakhani report on the Government's drive to kick the habit
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Motherhood begins at 45 - The Independent on Sunday 31st December 2006
Improved fertility treatments - and the desire to put off starting a family - mean that the number of older women giving birth has more than doubled in a decade
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Smoking age limit to rise to 18 - The Sunday Times 31st December 2006
THE minimum legal age for smoking is to be raised after almost a century from 16 to 18, the government will announce this week. Caroline Flint, the public health minister, will announce that from October 2007 it will become illegal for 16 and 17-year-olds to buy cigarettes.
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MMR doctor given legal aid thousands - The Sunday Times 31st December 2006
ANDREW WAKEFIELD, the former surgeon whose campaign linking the MMR vaccine with autism caused a collapse in immunisation rates, was paid more than £400,000 by lawyers trying to prove that the vaccine was unsafe. The payments, unearthed by The Sunday Times, were part of £3.4m distributed from the legal aid fund to doctors and scientists who had been recruited to support a now failed lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers.
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Comment: Tim Luckhurst: High taxes on drink won't stop the addicts - The Sunday Times 31st December 2006
Raucous Hogmanay is a myth. The thousands expected to celebrate in Princes Street Gardens tonight are a minority for whom hope has triumphed over climate. Fewer than one in nine of us will go first footing and just 6% will attend a party. But one tradition endures. Most people will see in the new year by drinking a toast with family and significant others. At least, they will this year. By 2008 the bottles to render an evening sociable may be prohibitively expensive – more remortgage than modest tipple.
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Smoking ban is £10bn drag for employers - The Telegraph 31st December 2006
If you are among the thousands of smokers resolved to give up the habit ahead of next summer's smoking ban, you might want to spare a thought for your employer. While not smoking may be good for your health, it is not so good for the financial health of the company you work for. New analysis from the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the increase in life expectancy of employees that is expected to accompany the ban could cost British companies an additional £10bn in pension liabilities. The figure applies only to defined benefit pension schemes and is based on the assumption of a 20 per cent reduction in consumption – equivalent to the average smoker cutting down by two to three cigarettes a day.
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Government accused of selling off NHS brand - The Telegraph 31st December 2006
The Government has been accused of "selling off" the NHS brand, after it emerged that a German parcel company has been given the right to use the blue and white logo. A private consortium, headed by DHL, the delivery company, now holds a licence "for use of the NHS marks". It was granted by the Department of Health, as part of the consortium's £1.6 billion, 10-year contract to supply healthcare products to hospitals and GP surgeries around Britain.
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Stressful tasks better with a spouse beside you - The Telegraph 31st December 2006
It may surprise many couples recovering from cooking the Christmas lunch or taking a trip to the sales, but having your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend by your side during stressful tasks can have a calming effect and improve performance, according to researchers. Public health experts at the University of Birmingham found that people who have their loved ones in the room during high-pressure situations benefit from lower blood pressure and heart rates. Dr Anna Phillips, who led the research, said the effect was particularly pronounced in women when their husbands were in the room.
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International News
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Fatal brittle bone gene is found - BBC Health News 31st December 2006
Scientists have discovered the cause of a fatal form of brittle bone disease. All forms of the condition, also called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, weaken bones causing frequent fractures.
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'Molecular condom' to combat HIV - BBC Health News 31st December 2006
A "molecular condom" to protect women against HIV is being developed by US scientists. The liquid formulated by a University of Utah team turns into a gel-like coating when inserted into the vagina.
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Spanish woman 'is oldest mother' - BBC Health News 30th December 2006
A 67-year-old Spanish woman is reported to have given birth to twins according to hospital officials in Barcelona, becoming the world's oldest mother. The woman, whose name has not been revealed, became pregnant after fertility treatment in Latin America.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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We're praying this is the year our kids' lives are saved - Liverpool Echo 30th December 2006
MERSEYSIDE’S favourite brother and sister are hoping 2007 brings them a lifesaving bone marrow donor. Ella and Sam Wright, who have a rare immune deficiency, have defied the doctors this year. Their only hope is to find a stranger, whose lifesaving marrow is a match.
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Sick targeted in ward crime - Southport Visiter 29th December 2006
Surgery patient’s cash stolen during spate of thefts spate of thefts. Thieves are targeting patients in Southport Hospital. Around 15 patients from ward 14B are believed to have lodged complaints after having cash stolen.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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Mum's legacy is gifts to hospital - Lancashire Telegraph 30th December 2006
THREE daughters of a cancer victim who died earlier this year have donated equipment to the hospital wards where she was treated. The planned admissions ward, chemotherapy suite, and ward C14, a general surgical unit, at Royal Blackburn Hospital will benefit from Annette Scott's daughters' generosity.
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Hospital to scrap phone booking line - Chorley Citizen 29th December 2006
Hospital bosses are set to scrap a telephone booking system after it repeatedly cut off patients.
Patients ringing their Outpatient Services, which deals with appointments for both Royal Preston Hospital and Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, are met with recorded message that warns them that if their calls are not answered within six minutes, they will be cut off.
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Blind woman welcomes taxi decision - Lancashire Telegraph 29th December 2006
A BLIND pensioner has welcomed the decision to withdraw the licence of a taxi firm that refused to let her guide dog on board. And Brenda Midgeley said she hoped that what had happened to Nelson-based Four Star Taxis would serve as a warning to other companies.
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Casualty staff under pressure - Lancashire Telegraph 29th December 2006
MORE than 30 patients were left waiting over four hours in casualty on Boxing Day - more than five times higher than the rest of this month. A surge in numbers during the afternoon has been blamed, but bosses said this was a one-off due to extra pressures from a road accident and they were due to meet their target for the month.
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Greater Manchester News
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Blears accused of hypocrisy over NHS changes - Manchester Evening News 29th December 2006
CABINET minister Hazel Blears is facing accusations of hypocrisy after joining protests against the closure of the maternity unit of a hospital in her constituency. The Labour Party chairman insisted yesterday that she supported the Government's plans to "reconfigure" services in the NHS but said that this should not stop her from opposing a particular closure as a constituency MP.
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Parents should act in obesity fight, says expert - The Bolton News 29th December 2006
A LEADING Bolton dietician has urged parents to drastically alter their children's diets to save the town's youth from obesity. Jill Prime, a senior dietician at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said a departure from un-healthy eating patterns is the best way to achieve weight loss success - not crash diets.
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Fairfield closure: Top level meeting - Bury Times 29th December 2006
BURY Council's three party leaders and Bury North MP David Chaytor will be meeting with the top boss of NHS North West to discuss plans to close Fairfield Hospital's maternity department.
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Dental check promise for elderly residents - Altrincham Messenger 29th December 2006
HEALTH chiefs have promised to act to provide dental checks for residents at an elderly person's home in Sale. Messenger reported last month (November) that the occupants of the 40-bed Atkinson Court Residential Home had been left without dental checks, following a massive shake-up of the dental service on April 1.
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