Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade
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National News
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NHS £6bn IT system poor value, say experts - The Guardian 22nd January 2007
Leading healthcare IT experts have warned that the NHS's troubled £6.2bn system upgrade is costing taxpayers substantially more than it should. They claim the same functions could be delivered for considerably less outsid e of the national programme for IT, dogged by delays and software setbacks. Stephen Critchlow, executive chairman of software group Ascribe, said he "could not see where value for money is coming from". There was evidence, he added, to suggest the NPfIT was installing and running systems for several times the going rate.
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GP pay and private profit in the NHS - The Guardian 22nd January 2007
If Polly Toynbee had dug a little deeper she would have discovered some fundamental errors in her arguments against the new GP contract (GPs who can't manage themselves should be brought back into the NHS, January 19). It isn't "odd" that the BMA has submitted evidence to the doctors' independent pay review body on GP pay. It has always done so since the review body was set up. What's more, the government sends in evidence too. For the first years of the new contract the BMA submitted joint evidence with the Department of Health precisely on GP pay. This year the DoH has decided it doesn't want to, but it is wrong to say it is the BMA which has changed its mind.
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Tories aim to scrap NHS targets - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
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Out of control - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
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Hewitt sparks pay row with GPs - The Guardian 20th January 2007
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Hewitt: GP pay rise too high - The Independent 20th January 2007
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Doctors' anger over plan to limit pay - The Times 20th January 2007
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Hewitt: we should have capped GP salaries - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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Analysis - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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Now £100,000 GPs face pay cap after ministers' blunder - Daily Mail 19th January 2007
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GP profit cap may be in pipeline - BBC Health News 19th January 2007
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Cancer fear as fewer women take routine smear tests - The Guardian 22nd January 2007
Doctors are predicting a surge in cervical cancer rates because younger women are abandoning smear tests, a report shows today. Last year 1,300 fewer women aged 25 to 29 in England had smear tests every week than 10 years earlier. More than 30% now ignore their invitation to take part in the national screening programme.
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Decline in smears raises risk - The Independent 22nd January 2007
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Women at cancer risk shunning smear test - The Times 22nd January 2007
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Women risk cancer by skipping smear test - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
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Sweet natural solution to treating disease - The Observer 21st January 2007
A spoonful of sugar may soon take the place of pills and other medicines, thanks to Leeds scientists. A team led by Professor Simon Carding has adapted a bacterium in our own bodies to make it produce substances called human growth factors which help to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The bacterium has been engineered so it makes these factors only when a special type of sugar - called xylan, which is found in tree bark - is eaten. The treatment is switched off simply by stopping consumption of the sugar.
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Study proves school meals help learning - The Observer 21st January 2007
Children who ate healthy school meals instead of packed lunches scored higher marks in tests, were less disruptive and concentrated longer in the classroom. A study involving thousands of pupils and hundreds of parents and schoolteachers has confirmed the theory that transforming a child's diet improves how they learn and behave.
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Cameron calls for legalisation of 'medical marijuana' - The Independent 22nd January 2007
David Cameron has supported calls for cannabis to be legalised for medical use provided that clear health benefits can be shown. The Tory leader, who has refused to answer media questions about whether he used drugs before entering politics, ruled out a wider legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.
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Cameron hint on cannabis medicine - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
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Cancer scientists' gene research offers new treatment hope - The Independent 22nd January 2007
Scientists are developing a new weapon in the war on cancer by targeting the human genes that allow tumours to grow unchecked in the body. Two separate teams of researchers have found a way of switching off critical genes within a tumour cell that would otherwise stimulate the spread of the cancer. Although the research is still at an early stage, scientists are describing the approach as potentially one of the most important developments since the former US president Richard Nixon declared his "war in cancer" in 1971.
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IVF doctor 'overwhelmed' by support - The Independent 22nd January 2007
A controversial fertility doctor yesterday said he felt "overwhelmed" after dozens of families gathered to back him following an official investigation and allegations in a BBC documentary over his practice. Parents and children gathered outside Mohamed Taranissi's clinic in central London to say they would not have had a family without his help.
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Families show support for controversial fertility doctor - The Times 22nd January 2007
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IVF doctor is the victim of a witch hunt, claim patients - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
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Parents protest at IVF doctor's 'trial by television' - The Guardian 20th January 2007
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Health hijack - The Guardian 20th January 2007
Like the sorcerer's apprentice, Tony Blair's 'modernising' reforms of the NHS now threaten to lurch out of control. A brand new hospital in the New Forest, to be paid for by the NHS, is handed over to the management of a private company before it even opens: in Oxfordshire a long-standing NHS orthopaedic hospital, which has just spent millions on rebuilding work, faces the threat of closure or merger as private sector treatment centres hijack the simplest routine cases. Two Essex NHS trusts scrap plans for new hospitals because they face massive losses under the new system of payment by results: west Hertfordshire residents fight the "centralisation" of A&E services on the condemned crumbling site of Watford General, now plans for a £550m super-hospital have been binned. In Bolton 132 medical and nursing staff face the axe as a strategic health suthority opts to divert work to a private treatment centre.
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Looking after Mother - The Guardian 20th January 2007
Filling in a form at the doctor's recently, I found myself answering "Yes" to the question: "Is anyone dependent on you for their care?" It was a sobering moment, a confirmation that somehow I have acquired a new role in life - principal carer for my mother, who has been diagnosed as being in the early stages of dementia. My mother is one of the growing number of vulnerable elderly who the government wants to "support" living independently in their own homes. It's also what she wants. "I'm so lucky," she says on good days. "I've got everything I want." The local social services leap on her upbeat assessment, so the support they provide, which we pay for, often requires more effort to organise than doing it yourself. The reality of "independent" living for me is that I am on call most days, responding to crises, checking she has food, calling in to give her company, collecting her medicine, and organising the so-called support.
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When toys take over - The Guardian 20th January 2007
Liz Hollis's mother still fondly remembers the three toys she had as a child in the 50s. Liz herself also recalls most of her own from the 70s. But her children have so many that now even their toys have toys. Should we be concerned at such an excess?
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All you need to know about strength training - The Guardian 20th January 2007
Anita Bean is a former British Bodybuilding Champion, and author of The Complete Guide To Strength Training. Select your moves There are countless strength-training moves, so which do you choose? Unless you are training for a specific sport, opt for movements that mimic the ones you use in daily life, as their benefits will carry over more. If time is limited, dispense with isolated moves and stick to multi-muscle lifts such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses.
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Sarah Hooper: I've escaped the homeless trap - The Guardian 20th January 2007
I was on the homeless persons list from February 2003 until October 2006. I was living in a private rented property when the owner sold it. I had a new baby and a toddler. On benefit, it is hard to find landlords to take you on. I went to so many estate agents and they all said they didn't take DSS clients. I had to go to the council housing office for help and they put me in bed and breakfast accommodation. We were all in one room - to sleep, cook and eat - and with no cot for the baby. I didn't feel safe there - I could smell the man in the next room burning his drugs most of the night.
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Jail for cheat who claimed disability benefits but took part in marathons - The Guardian 20th January 2007
A man who claimed more than £22,000 in disability benefits and told officials he could only walk using two sticks or a frame was jailed yesterday after it emerged he was a competitive marathon runner. Paul Appleby, 47, told officials that he was largely confined to a wheelchair and needed help eating and going to the toilet. But the court heard that the former miner from Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was actually a club runner who regularly completed full and half marathons across the country.
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Part of Ashworth special hospital will become jail to ease crisis - The Guardian 20th January 2007
A disused wing of Ashworth special psychiatric hospital on Merseyside is to undergo a £19m conversion in an attempt to cope with a renewed surge in jail numbers. Ministers have been alarmed by the fact that prison numbers have risen by more than 200 in the last week alone to reach 79,375 yesterday, with more than 400 being held every night in emergency accommodation in police cells. Earlier this week some prisoners in London were locked out of full-to-capacity prisons and police cells and had to spend the night in court cells. The provision of emergency accommodation in police cells proved insufficient even though the number of forces involved has been expanded to 35 in the past few months.
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Euthanasia danger - The Guardian 20th January 2007
Peter Singer (Comment, January 17) manages to conflate a patient's reasonable refusal of treatment deemed to be burdensome with a patient's suicidal claim to be assisted (by act or omission) in ending his or her life. Singer claims that in the latter case the patient is merely seeking to escape the illness which "makes life burdensome". But to refuse treatment with the aim of ending one's life is to commit suicide: to make the ending of one's life the means of achieving one's end of being relieved of a particular condition. People in such a depressed state need palliative care and social support. They do not need to be encouraged in taking a false and negative view of the value of their lives.
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How a dog's life can make you happier - The Independent 22nd January 2007
If you are looking for a healthier life, get a dog. Scientists have long believed that the companionship of a pet can be good for you, but new research suggests that dog owners are physically healthier than cat owners. According to Deborah Wells from Queen's University, Belfast, dog owners tend to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, possibly thanks to regular walks with their four-legged friends.
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Improve your health, become a dog owner - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
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Dog-owners 'lead healthier lives' - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
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How to be happy- The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
As an introduction to her new column starting next week, Dr Cecilia d'Felice explains how therapy offers a proven, scientific route to feeling good about yourself.
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Happy now? - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
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What are you optimistic about? - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
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New York and London reignite size-zero debate - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
Britain's fashion industry will this week issue new guidelines on the use of skinny models, reigniting the debate about size zero. The British Fashion Council will tell its members they should not use models who are obviously anorexic, following hard on the heels of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which last week issued its own guidelines.
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Pasta and milk are root cause of ill health for millions - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
Almost half the population is suffering from common complaints such as exhaustion, colds and migraines because of food intolerance, according to a new report published tomorrow. "Around 20 million people are suffering from symptoms that impact on their daily lives and yet they are not able to get help from the NHS," said Muriel Simmons, Allergy UK's chief executive.
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Half of Britons suffer headaches and bloating due to food intolerance', says charity - Daily Mail 21st January 2007
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After a lifetime in Broadmoor, the writer Janet Cresswell is free at last - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
For the first time in more than 30 years, Janet Cresswell spent Christmas at home with her daughter, grandchildren and their pet rabbit. It was a happy occasion that many families take for granted. Not Ms Cresswell. The 75-year-old grandmother and award-winning writer had feared she would end up dying among murderers and rapists in Broadmoor, the psychiatric hospital in Berkshire where she spent a third of her life.
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Mental health 'helped by birdsong' - The Independent 20th January 2007
Birdsong has a powerful healing effect which can improve mental health and benefit hospital patients, according to a health expert. Dr William Bird, GP, who is a health adviser for the countryside agency, Natural England, said tests had proven the effect. He cites a 2004 report in the prestigious medical journal, Thorax, on the effects of birdsong on patients recovering from a lung operation. "They needed less pain relief and were far more relaxed," he said.
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We will scrap targets and give GPs freedom, say Tories - The Times 22nd January 2007
Most of the Government’s centralised health targets would be scrapped and family doctors given the freedom to run their own budgets and decide where their patients are treated under Conservative plans released today. Measures such as waiting times would no longer be targeted but instead the health service would be asked to focus on the outcomes it should achieve. For breast cancer, according to the Conservatives, better care would be achieved if the NHS abandoned its target of a two-month waiting time to first treatment and concentrated on improving the five-year survival rate.
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We'll free doctors from Whitehall, say Tories - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
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Conservatives to scrap NHS targets - Daily Mail 21st January 2007
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Tories aim to scrap NHS targets - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
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Tories plan to let GPs hold the purse strings - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
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NHS threatened - The Times 22nd January 2007
It is time for an honest and open discussion about what kind of National Health Service the public wants. Over the past year we have seen a dramatic acceleration of reforms to put the NHS on a market footing. This has been accompanied by actual privatisations in many areas of the health service. This process is so widespread, and has happened at such a pace that we can only conclude that there is a conscious policy to fragment the NHS and favour the private sector. As research from the Keep Our NHS Public campaign shows, the NHS is experiencing “patchwork privatisation” as sections of it are being handed to private control.
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Mobile phones and microwave sickness - The Times 22nd January 2007
As your report suggests, there is indeed a significant health risk posed by devices that emit non-ionising radio-frequency radiation (“Cancer study ordered into mobile phones”, report, Jan 20).
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Mobile risks 'need further study' - BBC Health News 20th January 2007
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Cancer study ordered into mobile phones - The Times 20th January 2007
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Could these be the cigarettes of the 21st century? 'Absolutely' - The Times 20th January 2007
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We need £3m more, says phone scientists - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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NHS can’t afford Robinson reform - The Sunday Times 21st January 2007
IT WAS unfortunate that Simon Jenkins assumed that Rotherham hospital was representative of the NHS as a whole: many hospitals instituted the type of change advocated by Gerry Robinson some time ago (Brown can’t cure this paralysed NHS, so he plans to privatise it, Comment, last week). A shame too that he chose not to point out that when Robinson’s intervention resulted in an increase in patient throughput, the commissioning primary care trusts (PCTs) didn’t have the money to pay for the extra work. This is happening across the country, with clinical teams made to rein in their activity until the new financial year.
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By gum, I'm full up - The Times 20th January 2007
“Hope over obesity-busting gum” was a headline that provided more to chew on than most this week. It arose because a team at Imperial College is developing a drug based on a natural gut hormone that tells the brain you are full up. The idea is to try to incorporate it into a gum that could be chewed before meals.
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Website for patients to rate GPs and hospitals - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
The Government is creating a website where the public can publish their views on hospitals and doctors. Patients will be able to "review" the performance of their GP or hospital to help others decide where they should go for treatment.
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Rate your doctor, NHS asks patients - The Sunday Times 21st January 2007
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British cancer boy needs £375,000 for pioneering US care - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
A detective whose family has had to move from London to New York to obtain pioneering cancer treatment for her five-year-old son blamed NHS under-funding yesterday. Yvonne Brown and her husband, Richard, both former Scotland Yard officers, have been living with their children in one room in Manhattan since Dec 1 while their youngest child, Jack, receives treatment at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center.
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How have we fallen so far behind in battle to beat MRSA? - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
As a new and deadly strain of the superbug is identified, Victoria Lambert examines Britain's track record All across Europe, virulent bacteria are on the march, constantly mutating to resist the means that we invent to destroy them. Ironically, the better we get at creating antibiotic drugs that can wipe them out, the more inventive and resistant the bacteria must become to survive and multiply.
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The battle of the bugs: is it over? - The Telegraph 21st January 2007
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Care home elderly go hungry, says minister - The Telegraph 22nd January 2007
Pensioners are being left hungry and undernourished in care homes and hospitals, a Government minister has admitted. Ivan Lewis, the parliamentary under secretary of state for care services, said some elderly people were given only "a single scoop of mashed potato" for lunch while others were forced to eat with plastic cutlery.
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Starving of the elderly - Daily Mail 21st January 2007
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Anorexia: a mother reflects - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Your 14-year-old daughter weighs 5st and refuses to eat. What do you do? In despair, Harriet Brown and her husband turned to a controversial treatment in which parents take the place of doctor and nurse. Here she describes how, in one year, they coaxed Kitty back to health
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It's a perfectly healthy system, minister, that you plan to make worse - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Regrettably nowadays, whenever a minister threatens a "radical overhaul" of some long-established policy, it is inevitably for the worse. And so it will be with prescription charges: not perhaps the most thrilling of subjects, but important and difficult to balance – not penalising the sick while discouraging excess prescribing. The present system has worked pretty well for 50 years, with generous exemptions for the young and old and those on low incomes, and a ceiling of £100 per year (the cost of a pre-payment certificate that covers all prescription charges for 12 months) for those who do pay. And, importantly, it is easy to administer. Not so the various "options" recently outlined by the minister of state, Lord Warner. These include a lower flat rate but no exemptions, or basing exemptions solely on income (that will require all to be means-tested). The logistics of both are daunting.
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Nish Joshi's Q&A - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Over the past three years I have developed rosacea on both cheeks, with redness and visible capillaries. At times it seems to fade, but then it reappears. I eat a balanced diet, I take multivitamins and I am not constipated. I eat spicy food about every ten days. I have been using metronidazole cream and although it has been suggested that long-term antibiotics might help, I'd really prefer a holistic approach.
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Private firms 'to get £23 billion from NHS' - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
The private sector will pocket at least £23 billion of NHS money in profits and interest over 30 years, according to figures published today. The Private Finance Initiative hospital building scheme offers big rewards for the private sector, according to calculations made by the Keep Our NHS Public campaign.
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PFI firms 'make £23bn NHS profit' - BBC Health News 20th January 2007
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Blair said hospital 'would not close' - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
A hospital looks doomed despite a pre-election promise from the Prime Minister that there was "no question" of it being shut down. A review of health services in Teesside has recommended that two hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton should be replaced with a single "super-hospital".
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Cut-price breast implants to combat cowboy clinics - Daily Mail 22nd January 2007
Leading plastic surgeons have joined together to offer breast implant surgery at a cut price to spare women from potentially dangerous cheap clinics. The complete Mybreast package costs £4,250 – up to £3,000 less than in some London clinics – with a lifetime follow-up.
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Teenage pregnancy myth dismissed - BBC Health News 22nd January 2007
The perception that teenage girls with unwanted pregnancies have been less careful about contraception than older women has been dismissed by a study.
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Vitamin pill for prostate cancer - BBC Health News 20th January 2007
Scientists have developed a vitamin D pill to treat advanced prostate cancer. Exposure to Vitamin D from sunlight is known to improve the prognosis of certain cancers.
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'Community superbug tests' needed - BBC Health News 19th January 2007
Rapid tests for deadly superbugs that are spreading in the community are urgently needed, an expert is warning. Professor Richard James of the Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections at Nottingham University says Britain is vulnerable to the types of MRSA.
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Folic acid boosts elderly brains - BBC Health News 19th January 2007
Folic acid supplements can improve the memory and brain power of ageing brains, research shows. Men and women aged 50 to 70 who took daily supplements had similar mental abilities to contemporaries almost five years younger, The Lancet study found.
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International News
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No way to treat an Aids hero - The Guardian 20th January 2007
If you think the nutritionists and vitamin peddlers in the UK are weird, you really want to go to South Africa, where President Thabo Mbeki has a long history of siding with the HIV denialists, who believe that HIV does not cause Aids (but that treatments for it do), and where his health minister talks up fruit and vegetables as a treatment, as we have previously covered here. In this world, which is not as remote as you might think from where you're sat, Zackie Achmat is a hero: the founder of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, he recently won a breakthrough in his long battle against the vitamin-loving Aids denialists of Mbeki's government, to make HIV medication available through the public health system.
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Health scares - The Guardian 20th January 2007
This Christmas, Tala was given a Barbie microphone set. The present has proved useful, helping her sing along to her favourite pop star, Haifa; her little sister, Maya, received a doll that makes baby noises. No sooner had Christmas finished than Eid arrived. But the mood in Lebanon was hardly joyous this holiday season: the gruelling summer war has offset a fragile political balance, with protesters squatting in downtown Beirut demanding the fall of the current government.
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Trans fats 'raise infertility risk' - The Independent 20th January 2007
Eating more unhealthy trans fats could make it harder for women to get pregnant, according to new US research. Scientists found that for every 2 per cent increase in the amount of calories a woman got from trans fats instead of carbohydrates, her risk of infertility increased by 73 per cent.
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Chips 'can increase the risk of infertility' - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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Food fats threaten women's fertility - Daily Mail 19th January 2007
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Low-drug IVF reduces health risks - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Women who undergo conventional IVF produce significantly higher numbers of abnormal embryos than those using a more "natural" version, research has found. The results suggest that a regime using fewer fertility drugs could increase the chances of taking home a baby and reduce health risks for the mother. They come amid mounting concern that some treatments may be doing more harm than good.
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Brain cancers shrink in drug test - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
A treatment to starve brain tumours of blood has shown positive results in clinical trials. However, US doctors say it is not yet clear whether the drug, AZD2171, will extend the lives of patients with some of the deadliest cancers.
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Scientists unravel superbug that kills in 24 hours - Daily Mail 19th January 2007
Scientists have unlocked the secrets of a deadly superbug that attacks healthy young people and can kill within 24 hours. The news is a vital first step in attempts to find a cure for the virulent disease, PVL-MRSA, that is highly resistant to current antibiotic treatments.
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'Altruistic' brain region found - BBC Health News 22nd January 2007
Scientists say they have found the part of the brain that predicts whether a person will be selfish or an altruist. Altruism - the tendency to help others without obvious benefit to oneself - appears to be linked to an area called the posterior superior temporal sulcus.
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Defence cell genetics unscrambled - BBC Health News 22nd January 2007
The genetic make-up of key immune system cells has been unravelled by researchers, offering clues to diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Scientists at two US centres scanned the genome of T-cells - a vital part of the body's defences against infection.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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The Phil Monty - Liverpool Echo 19th January 2007
A MERSEYSIDE man who survived testicular cancer is stripping off to raise awareness of the disease. Phil Morris, from Oxton, will be showing his wares to the world when he poses nude in a national magazine.
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Boy dies following dental operation - Chester Chronicle 19th January 2007
THE Countess of Chester Hospital says a dental operation under-gone by a youngster who later died was carried out by an outside organisation. Jamie Evans, 10, was rushed to Alder Hey's Children's Hospital in Liverpool after dental treatment at the Countess but died last Tuesday.
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Concern mounts over GP service - Midweek Visiter 17th January 2007
MP John Pugh has demanded a full log of complaints about Southport and Formby’s GP out-of-hours call handling service amid fears over patient safety. Mr Pugh met with health chiefs at Sefton PCT on Friday following numerous complaints about Urgent Care 24 (UC24), which took over the service last November.
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Part of Ashworth special hospital will become jail to ease crisis - The Guardian 20th January 2007
A disused wing of Ashworth special psychiatric hospital on Merseyside is to undergo a £19m conversion in an attempt to cope with a renewed surge in jail numbers. Ministers have been alarmed by the fact that prison numbers have risen by more than 200 in the last week alone to reach 79,375 yesterday, with more than 400 being held every night in emergency accommodation in police cells. Earlier this week some prisoners in London were locked out of full-to-capacity prisons and police cells and had to spend the night in court cells. The provision of emergency accommodation in police cells proved insufficient even though the number of forces involved has been expanded to 35 in the past few months.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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My reaction was one of disbelief. I thought only old people had strokes - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
A WEBSITE has been set up by West Cumbrian stroke victims to warn of the tell-tale signs of a stroke. Strokelink West Cumbria, a support group started by High Harrington couple John and Alison Hunter, along with others affected by the condition, wants to dispel the idea that strokes only happen to the elderly.
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Private clinics threat to new hospital bid - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
PLANS to build a new hospital in west Cumbria will be threatened by the proposed introduction of privately-run treatment centres, it is claimed. The controversial CATS centres, which aim to reduce waiting lists, are currently planned for Workington, Carlisle and Ulverston.
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Have your say on NHS proposals - Blackpool Citizen 19th January December 2007
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Patients, doctors and public asked to join health debate - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
DOCTORS and patients are to have more say about the way health services are run in their community. That was the promise made this week by the new Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT).
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MP’s fury as respite care plans revealed - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
CARLISLE MP Eric Martlew has condemned the new Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT) over plans to close two respite care centres for disabled children. Bosses announced this week that they want to close Orton Lea in Carlisle and Seacroft at St Bees, which both provide overnight respite care.
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Doc’s last chat with hospital death patient - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
A HEALTHCARE assistant from Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital told a jury of her last conversation with psychiatric patient Peter Weighman after he took an overdose. Susan Wright was giving evidence yesterday in the trial of unregistered psychiatrist Peter Fisher, 46, who denies manslaughter through gross negligence.
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Smoking ban to come in at Turf Moor - Lancashire Telegraph 20th January 2007
SMOKING will be banned from Turf Moor from July. Smokers will not be able to light up in any part of the Burnley FC ground, including the executive suites and boardroom. Accrington Stanley is also planning to introduce a ban, although the club said it was trying to find an small area where fans could still have a cigarette.
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Doc ‘sex assault’ jury fails to reach verdict - Lancashire Telegraph 20th January 2007
THE jury in the case of a doctor accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year-old girl has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict. Judge Edward Slinger took the decision yesterday afternoon in the case of Doctor Naveen Shivan, who worked at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.
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Gambling 'epidemic' warning from BMA - Blackpool Citizen 19th January December 2007
Gambling can lead to depression and alcoholism, according to a new report published by the British Medical Association (BMA) this week. It comes a fortnight before Blackpool finds out if it has been selected to have the country's first regional casino.
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‘Help to save lives' is mum's plea - Lancashire Telegraph 19th January 2007
THE mother of a 16-year-old who died from leukaemia has urged East Lancashire residents to pledge their organs to save lives. Christopher Smith developed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in November and died five weeks later on Christmas Eve.
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Hospitals pay system review call - Lancashire Telegraph 19th January 2007
NEW rules on how hospitals are paid do not do enough to improve quality of care for patients, East Lancashire health bosses have said. They said paying hospitals for the number of operations they carry out was "limited" as it did not measure how well the operation was carried out.
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Greater Manchester News
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Hospital is to be put in picture - The Bolton News 20th January 2007
PHOTOGRAPHERS are being offered the chance to display their work in a gallery with a difference - a restaurant wall at Fairfield Hospital in Bury. The Broadoak restaurant is being refurbished and will feature a ten-metre long photograph.
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Viruses come under the spotlight - Altrincham Messenger 20th January 2007
A HALE virologist is taking to the airwaves to raise awareness of a little known virus and the potentially devastating effects it can have for children. Twenty-eight-year-old Julia Duffey has been invited to take the reins on the Radio Five Live Matthew Bannister show as a citizen journalist on Thursday.
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Mental health staff to strike over job cuts - Manchester Evening News 19th Jnuary 2007
MEDICAL staff have voted to strike over plans which they say will `devastate' Manchester's mental health care and put patients and the public in danger. Community nurses, occupational therapists and administration staff voted overwhelmingly for a walkout over proposals to cut 33 community nurses and eight occupational therapists from the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care trust, while increasing the number of managers and social workers.
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Mental health team are so caring - The Bolton News 19th January 2007
WHILE it seems to be the "in thing" to criticise social care and other services, I am writing to congratulate several agencies in Bolton for all they have done for my mother during the past three years. Since she developed Alzheimer's and required help in her own home initially and then later in residential and nursing care, I have nothing but praise for everyone involved in her care. The advice and help we received, I believe, was second to none. It would be difficult to single out individuals, but I would like to express my appreciation to the social worker who first assessed my mother's needs and the speedy way in which community services were provided. My mother's neighbours were also caring as they "looked out" for her and contacted us when they had concerns.
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Service was there for my baby - Altrincham Messenger 19th January 2007
MY EIGHT-month-old baby became ill a couple of weeks ago, I rang the on call' doctor to be told that he was very busy and due to her high temperature he suggested I attend A&E at Trafford General Hospital. To be honest, I thought they would think I was wasting their time but from entering the department I was treated as a high priority and was totally put at ease as they treated my baby. The staff on this ward were extremely professional. The paediatrician I saw was so friendly, she was brilliant with my baby and explained about her illness and the treatment. Not once was I made to feel like a timewaster, in fact they treated us with a matter of urgency.
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