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Mouth swab could have huge effect on NHS screening programme All women could soon be offered a genetic test which would tell them whether they were likely or unlikely to contract breast cancer, scientists will say today. The test could have profound implications for the NHS breast screening programme. Researchers from Cambridge University say that women whose test result shows they are at high risk could be called for screening at a much younger age, while those at low risk could defer mammograms until they are 55 or older.
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Genetic test will identify those most at risk of breast cancer - The Independent 26th June 2008
Test to determine each woman's chances of breast cancer - The Telegraph 26th June 2008
Women in their 30s will be offered gene test to check risk of breast cancer - Daily Mail 26th June 2008
Families in Northampton and Daventry rushed to stock up on bottled water yesterday after their tap water was found to be contaminated. Shops in the area reported a surge in demand after traces of the cryptosporidium bug were found by Anglian Water during routine tests at Pitsford water treatment works. Officials said the alert could last for several weeks.
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Sickness bug found in tap water - BBC Health News 25th June 2008
A pill to shed pounds would be a miracle. Diets are no fun and exercise is hard work. Unfortunately, diet drugs have a chequered history, and the decision by the National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence to allow rimonabant - which its French manufacturers, Sanofi-Aventis, call Acomplia - to be prescribed on the NHS changes nothing.
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I was delighted to read of Sally Hurst's recovery from osteosarcoma (Something was obviously wrong, G2, June 24). She is spot on about early detection. My brother-in-law's "bad knee" was taken seriously by his GP who referred him to the local orthopaedic clinic. They did not recognise his condition. Some months later he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma during a further referral to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex.
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James Laird claims that cereals are not "sugary junk", and yet we found in the Cereal Reoffenders report in 2006 that 88% of cereals targeting children were high in sugar, 13% high in salt and 10% high in saturated fat (Cereals are not 'sugary' junk, June 24).
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An NHS trust at the forefront of a nationwide drive to reduce the risks of hospital care has cut its death rate by 22 per cent in four years. As hospitals across Britain prepare to implement aircraft-style checks before operations to reduce complications and save lives – reported in yesterday's Independent – Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust in Bedfordshire said it planned to be the safest hospital in Britain by 2011.
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The removal of anonymity from sperm and egg donors has provoked a crisis in fertility treatment that is denying couples the chance to try for a baby. Infertility therapy with donated sperm has collapsed to the lowest levels since records began, according to the first official figures, seen by The Times, since the Government banned anonymous donation in 2005.
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A mother who wanted to lose weight for the sake of her son died from complications days after undergoing gastric bypass surgery. Suzanne Murphy, 29, visited a surgeon in desperation because she felt her obesity was stopping her from doing the things she wanted to with her five-year-old son Jacob.
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Britain's highest earners are now bringing home 15 times more money than those on the lowest incomes, according to official figures which show the gap between rich and poor is widening. The Office for National Statistics said the richest fifth of households had average incomes of £72,900 before tax and benefits in 2006-7, compared with just £4,900 for the poorest fifth.
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Parents have sent sales of oily fish soaring in a bid to give young children the 'brain food' that can lead to higher scores at school. Sales of sardines, salmon and anchovy have increased by 23per cent in the past year, according to industry body Seafish.
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Thousands of people are still not receiving a radical treatment that unblocks arteries during a heart attack. Figures released yesterday show that one in five patients are benefiting from primary angioplasty - which involves inflating a small balloon to prop open the artery.
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Variations in heart attack care - BBC Health News 25th June 2008
A natural sugar found in fruit is fuelling the obesity epidemic, scientists say. A study has shown that fructose - which is used to sweeten soft drinks and junk food - might be more harmful than other types of sugar.
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A Mediterranean-style diet can significantly reduce the risk of asthma attacks, a study shows. Asthmatics who eat lots of fish, grains and fruit are up to 78 per cent less likely to suffer a worsening in their condition than those who don't, researchers found.
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A girl who made history when she was fitted with the world's smallest pacemaker no bigger than a thumbnail - has just finished her GCSE's and is looking forward to her 16th birthday. Kirsty Sanderson, now 15, was given just weeks to live by doctors after being born with a hole in her heart.
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Campaigners have called for better labels on takeaway food after revealing massive levels of fat, salt and sugar in some of the UK's favourite dishes. Which? magazine revealed that a woman eating a portion of curry could be consuming more than a whole day's recommended saturated fat intake.
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Scientists have located a region of the brain that encourages humans to indulge in adventurous behaviour. Sophisticated scans showed the region, located in a primitive area of the brain, is activated when people choose unfamiliar options.
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It may seem surprising now, but in the months and years leading up to the creation of the NHS not everyone was in favour of a universal health system. The Labour government had made healthcare for all a priority after being elected in the wake of the Second World War.
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A hospital has defended its decision to recruit a £32,000-a-year art director. University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which is building a new £400m hospital, wants to fit wards with paintings. The trust's chairman Mike Brereton said research showed that less-clinical hospital environments could help patients recover quicker.
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A government committee in Romania will decide tomorrow whether an 11-year-old who was raped by her uncle can travel to Britain for an abortion, the health minister, Eugen Nicolaescu, said yesterday. He said the case, which has divided the medical community, children's rights groups and the public, was delicate because it involved medicine, the law and morality.
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The Pill is “outdated” and leading to more unwanted pregnancies and abortions because so few women take it correctly, a leading academic has said. Nearly one in 12 women who takes the Pill stands to become pregnant each year by missing occasional tablets, James Trussell, of Princeton University, New Jersey, says.
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It's time to ditch the 'outdated' Pill, women told - Daily Mail 25th June 2008
A British tourist has died of suspected food poisoning at a luxury hotel at Lake Garda, northern Italy. Geoffrey Appleyard, 71, from Evesham in Worcs, died early on Sunday after falling ill after dinner hours earlier.
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Articles relating to mass media Health news about the Cheshire and Merseyside patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
A NEW report has revealed some alarming statistics on the health of Wirral people. And it has again exposed the health divide between the poorer districts and richer areas such as West Wirral. Parts of the borough have lower income, more children living in poverty, more deaths from smoking, and early deaths caused by heart disease, strokes and cancer than many other areas around the country.
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WITH regards to the article on the Primary Care Trust survey ("Low response to £222,000 survey", June 4), I was one of the 3% who replied to the health survey brochure. At the time I felt that the feedback form provided wasn't user-friendly.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Cumbria and Lancashire patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
The many visitors who come to Cumbria each year are likely to leave the county with the image that it is an ideal place to live a long and healthy life. And while they may come here to admire the beautiful scenery and enjoy the fresh country air they are no doubt unaware that underneath this idyllic image lies some alarming statistics concerning its residents.
I am writing on behalf of the Intensive Care staff at the West Cumberland Hospital. We were saddened and upset by the comments made by Ms Banks in The Whitehaven News on June 4.
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FIVE new NHS dentists are to be be provided in the Whitehaven, Egremont and Maryport areas. It is to address the lengthy waiting lists – there are currently 3,500 people waiting for a dentist in the Whitehaven area, 3,400 in the Egremont area and 1,300 in Maryport.
THE BMA is very concerned at the Government's proposal for the new large health clinics. Currently NHS GP practices are run by local GPs on behalf of their patients. The Government is now encouraging commercial companies to run GP surgeries.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Greater Manchester patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
A SUPERBUG-beating robot is being tested in Manchester hospitals. The machine sprays powerful bleach into isolation wards to kill deadly infections including MRSA and C-difficile. Central Manchester hospitals trust has begun a four-month trial of the 'bioquell' robot, which deep-cleans rooms with hydrogen peroxide vapour in between patients.
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A JUNIOR doctor lied to try to get a job as a consultant after being kicked off a training course. Dr Gideon Ubochi, from Manchester, was working in occupational medicine, but his training place was withdrawn after a series of poor assessments, a General Medical Council hearing was told.
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Britain's armed forces and their families should be given preferential access to schools, hospitals and dental surgeries as a reward for the sacrifices they make for their country, the chief of the defence staff declared yesterday.
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Military 'should have preferential NHS treatment' - The Independent 25th June 2008
Driven by a personal tragedy, Josephine Ocloo campaigns to give a voice to those who feel they have been wronged by the medical profession and to make healthcare in Britain safer. Mark Gould reports
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Mark Brown is editor of One in Four, a new lifestyle magazine for people with mental health difficulties Why do people with mental health difficulties need a lifestyle magazine? They want the same things out of life as people who do not experience mental health difficulties, but have more challenges to overcome in achieving them.
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Peter, 18, leaves school this summer, hopefully with three A-levels. He wants an NHS career but doesn't want to go to university 1 Some primary care trusts are offering apprenticeships in NHS management for people such as Peter. He would earn between £14,437 to £17,257 as a management trainee and would receive training in a variety of management skills including problem-solving and leadership. The apprenticeship scheme is an alternative route into management to the established NHS graduate training scheme.
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Tom Clark says: "The enthusiasm the Conservatives showed in the last two elections for dismantling the [national health] service has cooled" (Opinion, June 18). Of course it has. New Labour is doing it for them. But the disintegration of the NHS - so that former colleagues have to compete against one another - is only one part of the story. The other is that we know so much more about the conditions in which people become ill, or fail to get better, than in 1948.
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As someone who has worked in the NHS for 27 years, I found your special Society Guardian (An enduring faith in fair treatment) fascinating. I particularly liked the view of workers from each of the decades from 1948. However, there two points which you may wish to peruse. First the NHS in the UK is now four health services in each of the four UK countries. They all have the same principles but the structures and priorities do differ - eg "free" prescriptions in Wales and being planned in Scotland.
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We were delighted to see that Alan Johnson (Nurses to be rated on how compassionate and smiley they are, June 18) has stressed the importance of nurses' compassion and smiles to ensure patients receive good care, which in turn may aid their recovery. We would like to draw attention to research that was done in the 1970s and 1980s.
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An aircraft-style safety test is to be implemented in all British hospitals to reduce the risks of surgery, using a simple checklist that has been proved to save thousands of lives. Surgeons and nurses will run through the checks before each operation in the same way that pilots check their aircraft before take-off. In Michigan, a similar checklist to reduce hospital infections is estimated to have saved 1,500 lives in the first 18 months.
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I became a consultant a year ago and I do operations for cancer of the stomach and gullet – complex operations lasting six to eight hours on patients who are quite sick and have a lot of problems.
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The Government introduced performance targets into the National Health Service for the noblest of reasons: to make the system more responsive to the needs of patients. Since 1997, health ministers have stuck to their demands that operation waiting lists and waiting times must be drastically reduced. And so they have. But the management technique has been taken to a damaging extreme. Ministers have attempted to govern almost exclusively through targets, rather than using them as a general guide. The 2000 NHS plan notoriously set more than 200 specific objectives, covering everything from staff levels to the numbers of patients on drug treatment programmes.
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Children are dying and being disabled because doctors in Britain take three times longer to diagnose a paediatric brain tumour than in countries including Poland and Mexico. There is a chronic lack of funding into the causes of brain cancer, even though it causes more deaths among the under-40s than any other type of cancer, campaigners say.
A weight-loss drug banned in the U.S. over fears it can heighten the risk of suicide has been given the go-ahead in Britain. Acomplia will be available to overweight or obese patients who cannot take, or who have had no success with, the two other weight-loss drugs available on the Health Service. But a series of scientific studies have raised concerns that it can induce suicidal thoughts in those already suffering from depression.
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Controversial diet drug approved - BBC Health News 24th June 2008
A cancer patient killed himself after being told he had been refused a wonder drug by his local primary care trust. Albert Baxter, 77, was terminally ill. But he was turned down for a drug which could have prolonged his life and shrunk his tumour. In desperation, he offered to pay for the treatment. But he was told if he did so, he would also have to foot the bill for the rest of his treatment, which he could not afford.
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A nanny accused of shaking a baby to death was suspected of drinking while caring for him, a court heard yesterday. Linda Wise had a 'glazed' expression and 'slurred speech' as she was looking after three-month-old Isaac Rowlinson, it was alleged.
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Holly Paige couldn't understand why her children, Bertie, then four, and Lizzie, three, were looking so drawn and skinny, yet their stomachs were full. Then when Lizzie smiled at her one day, Holly was horrified to see that her top row of teeth were brown and full of cavities.
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Infant mortality rates are much higher among some ethnic groups in England and Wales, figures show. The death rate among babies from Pakistani and Caribbean communities born in 2005 was twice as high as that among white babies.
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Thousands of infertile couples are missing out on the recommended level of IVF on the NHS because health trusts are refusing to fund it. Only nine out of 151 English health trusts offer three IVF cycles, despite guidelines issued four years ago.
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Premature babies undergoing medical procedures may be in pain even if there is no obvious physical hint of it, brain scans reveal. University College London researchers found changes in brain oxygen levels - a response to pain - did not match other signs.
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Some general anaesthetics could actually worsen the pain following surgery, say scientists. So-called "noxious" anaesthesia drugs - used commonly worldwide - stimulate nerves to cause irritation long after the operation is over.
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The Welsh Ambulance service has been given six months to turn itself around and reach performance targets. It follows a review of the service for the Welsh Assembly Government which found evidence of a "bullying culture" and poor morale amongst staff.
The first NHS screening programme offered just to men is to be rolled out in Scotland in three years' time, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said. From 2011 all men over the age of 65 will be screened by ultrasound for aortic aneurysm - a potentially fatal blood vessel condition.
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Medical students at the University of Glamorgan are to train on a revolutionary dummy which moves and feels like a real patient. The state-of-the art simulator has a human-like skeletal structure that provides lifelike movement.
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A £67m investment by the government has cleared the way for the rebuilding of the internationally-renowned Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). The Cambridge-based laboratory has produced 13 Nobel Prize winners and is where DNA coding was first unravelled.
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A British tourist has died after becoming ill at an Italian hotel where 30 other British tourists have been struck down by suspected food poisoning. Geoffrey Appleyard, 71, who was on holiday with his 74-year-old wife Jean, began complaining of stomach pains a few hours after having dinner at their four-star hotel.
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Lifesaving equipment in hospitals may be switched off by radio-frequency devices used to track people and machines, Dutch scientists claim. Radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) are on the rise in healthcare, helping identify patients, and reveal the location of equipment.
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A faulty gene closely associated with breast cancer is also responsible for a particularly dangerous form of prostate cancer, research has confirmed. A University of Toronto team found prostate cancer patients carrying the BRCA2 gene lived on average for four years after diagnosis.
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A free and simple piece of open source software is helping manage the spread of disease in developing countries. The Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS) is providing countries, such as South Africa, with an online patient medical record system.
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EU agriculture ministers have approved stricter controls on the use of pesticides, after two years of debate. The package - which still needs the backing of the European Parliament - would force farmers to abandon substances found to be toxic to humans.
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When Rahim Ahmedy was an Afghan refugee in neighbouring Iran, he and his friends would go on three-day picnics. They would slaughter sheep for feasting and take drugs such as opium and heroin.
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Articles relating to mass media Health news about the Cheshire and Merseyside patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
LIVERPOOL’S flagship cancer research charity is moving to new premises later this year after outgrowing its present site. The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation has been based in London Road for the past decade.
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A MERSEYSIDE mother whose schizophrenic son attacked her and stabbed her husband to death is suing the NHS. Pauline Reece is claiming £100,000 in damages after her son’s mental condition spiralled out of control.
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HOSPITAL visitors were today advised to ditch cards and cuddly toys as part of the fight against superbugs. Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge said toiletries and tissues were better get-well gifts for patients.
AN EXTRA £600,000 is to be spent improving Liverpool maternity services. Liverpool primary care trust (PCT) said the money for the Women’s Hospital would increase access to antenatal care, improve safety in childbirth and provide a full-time mental health nurse.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Cumbria and Lancashire patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
A drugs charity has launched a campaign to help Cumbria’s growing number of cocaine addicts after revealing the victims include a child aged 12.
FOUR children have been infected with E coli in a Barrow outbreak. Barrow Borough Council, the Health Protection Agency and Cumbrian Health Services are jointly investigating an outbreak of E coli O157.
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A NEW £100 million hospital that will care for critically-ill Cumbrian children is to be built. Plans were revealed yesterday for the groundbreaking development on the site of Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. The regional treatment centre, due to open in 2010, will bring together
world-leading staff and pioneering treatments on a single state-of-the-art centre.
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TOP officials from Hong Kong travelled all the way to Burnley - and have delivered their verdict on the local health care. Members visited the town's flagship St Peter's Centre to explore how a combined health and leisure site works. The £28million facility, in Church Street, features a health centre run by East Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) as well two swimming pools, a fitness suite and sports halls.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Greater Manchester patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
A COMEDY writer claims poorly-marked wheelchair ramps are no laughing matter. Wheelchair user Peter Keeley has come a cropper on ramps around Manchester after falling off the edge, leaving him bruised. Now he wants council bosses to paint warning marks on ramps to make the size and shape clear.
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A STARK picture of public health in Bolton has been painted by a new set of Government figures. Statistics show youngsters in the borough are more likely to be obese than their peers nationally, while tooth decay and teenage pregnancy are more prevalent than in the average UK town.
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Big disparities in the health and behaviour of people in different parts of England are revealed for the first time today in research from the Association of Public Health Observatories. The research reveals some remarkable findings, among them the fact that women in Blackpool are eight times more likely to smoke during pregnancy than their counterparts in Richmond upon Thames, west London, while the average five-year-old in Blackburn arrives at school with more than seven times as much tooth decay as contemporaries in Lichfield, Staffordshire. The teenage pregnancy rate in Lambeth, south London, is more than six times that in Rutland. And the obesity rate among children starting school in Hackney, east London, is three times the rate in Teesdale.
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Call for health inequalities push - BBC Health News 24th June 2008
Lack of radical initiatives from PM has led to increased satisfaction in healthcare, writes John Carvel Gordon Brown's health policy is a dog that did not bark. A year ago the change-weary NHS was nervously anticipating a switch in direction. Managers running hospitals and primary care services across England knew that Team Brown had been beavering away at the Treasury on policies that might distinguish his administration from Tony Blair's.
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A Tory government would aim to save more than 100,000 lives a year by scrapping all central NHS targets in favour of a system to measure "health outcomes", David Cameron will say today. In a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the Tory leader will say "centrally imposed targets" have worsened the NHS by creating a "tick boxes" culture. A Tory green paper on the NHS, to be launched by Cameron today, will say a Conservative government would aim to raise NHS standards to the same level as the best health services in the world, by focusing on survival rates and the general wellbeing of patients.
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Tories promise NHS targets revamp - BBC Health News 24th June 2008
Gordon Brown was facing his most serious strike threat from the public sector last night when 600,000 local government workers voted to take industrial action and reject a 2.45% pay offer. Unison, the country's second biggest union and normally one of the most loyal of Labour affiliates, will meet today to decide on a programme of disruption.
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Many local authorities are not following guidance; only one third of children in need have been identified. Anna Bawden reports
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Emily Persaud wants to shine some light on mental health issues I was diagnosed with depression when I was 15. Everything just came to a head. I'd had a difficult childhood, suffering physical and emotional abuse from a family member. I'd sleep for hours on end, then wake up feeling sick in the morning. My appetite disappeared. I just couldn't stop crying. All I wanted to do was curl up into a ball in bed. I started to suffer panic attacks.
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Our society's immature attitude to young people and sex leaves them ill-informed and at risk Over the past week, the media spotlight has focused unrelentingly on the darker corners of the teenage bedroom. First came news of a 10% rise in abortions among under-16s. Then there was the "pregnancy pact" apparently made by up to 18 high school pupils in Massachusetts in the US, who are believed to have planned to conceive at the same time. And, at the weekend, headlines screamed about condoms and morning-after pills being handed out to children as young as 11 by school nurses.
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An experienced children's nanny shook the baby son of two police officers, causing brain injuries which led to his death 10 months later, Liverpool crown court heard yesterday. Linda Wise, 47, from Anglesey, north Wales, caused brain damage to Isaac Rowlinson, who was three months old when she was caring for him, which led to his death last July from an epileptic fit, the jury was told. She denies manslaughter.
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Additional Stories
Baby died ‘after shaking by nanny caused epilepsy’ - The Times 24th June 2008
Nanny accused of shaking police officers' baby so violently he died of brain damage months later - Daily Mail 24th June 2008
The year 1931 stands out in the history of research about mentally ill people's favourite colours. That summer, Siegfried E Katz of the New York state psychiatric institute and hospital published a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology called Colour Preference in the Insane.
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Sally Hurst lost her leg to cancer at the age of 27, and is suing her GP for failing to spot it sooner. Bob Chaundy discovers the traumas she faced
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Since a fall last year I'd suffered an acute lower-back pain caused by a displaced and twisted coccyx. My GP had suggested acupuncture, so I threw my scepticism - and crippling fear of needles - to one side and booked four sessions with a British Acupuncture Council practitioner called Mike. He wasn't too confident that he'd be able to rid me of the discomfort in my coccyx but was adamant that he could make a difference to other back pain I felt.
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The government's 'happiness tsar', Richard Layard, thinks he knows why we're all so miserable - we're overpaid, over-materialistic and lonely. But, he tells Stuart Jeffries, he has a plan to banish the blues in Britain, once and for all
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A website offering the contraceptive pill isn't as scary as some make out, though there's still no substitute for a chat with your GP Shock horror! Anyone can get the contraceptive pill from a UK website. The Daily Mail's up in arms. So I'm immediately torn. If the Mail hates it, I want to love the idea. But is that a responsible stance for a GP to take?
Overcrowding of wards and staff shortages are contributing to a worldwide boom in hospital infections that are putting patients at risk, researchers say. One in 10 patients admitted to hospital in Britain acquires an infection and the threat from MRSA and Clostridium difficile is the direct result of efforts to reduce beds and increase efficiency, the analysts report in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In England, the number of hospital beds has been cut by more than 25 per cent since 1981, from more than 200,000 to fewer than 140,000, but patient numbers have soared.
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Like many of you, I grew up with the adhesive morals of Blue Peter threatening to stick to my character. It was all about making do and mending, being a good citizen, liking animals and helping others.
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Eighteen months ago Jonathan Tull, 36, the director of a property investment company, found a lump in his chest. Around one in 1,000 men develops breast cancer, although it is not clear why. Here, Jonathan, who lives in Tatsfield, Kent, with his wife Caroline, 37, and three children, aged between five and 18 months, tells NATASHA COURTENAY-SMITH about his experience and warns other men not to ignore their symptoms.
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What do you think about diets based on metabolism type? They seem to be increasingly popular, but I just don't understand it. I have been told I am a 'protein' type and my diet should be 70 per cent protein, 30 per cent carbs.
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For anyone who wears contact lenses, the rule is simple: remove them before going to bed, or risk a nasty eye infection. Now there are new contact lenses designed to be worn only at night. What's more, the lenses promise to correct your sight overnight, so you won't need to wear contact lenses or glasses the next day.
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Need a vaccination but hate needles, or just can't get an appointment at your local GP? Scientists believe they have found the solution: a 'needle-free' vaccine that could be sent to you through the post. The vaccine comes in the form of a skin patch and, unlike conventional vaccinations, can be self-administered.
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Edwina Jarvis ought to be having the time of her life. Single, aged 33, and with a high-flying job as client manger for a software company, one would expect her to be living life to the full. Instead, she has found herself catapulted into a nightmare of worry and distress. Her beloved father, Raymond, 75, suffers from Alzheimer's disease. But Edwina has found herself not simply grieving for the vibrant, charismatic father she's lost, she's also battling a system weighted against him and other vulnerable people with dementia.
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Personality types are the sort of subject you might glance at while flicking through a magazine in the GP's waiting room. Pretty frivolous stuff, you perhaps think. However, new research suggests our personality traits are more significant than previously thought, and can play a key role in future health.
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Babies may find heel prick blood tests far more painful than doctors realise, a study suggests. Researchers say some procedures often carried out on newborn infants trigger a pain response in the brain – even though the children appear to be unperturbed.
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Singer Amy Winehouse has "traces" of the lung disease emphysema but is "responding brilliantly to treatment", her father has said. Mitch Winehouse told BBC Radio 1 his daughter would recover "completely" as long as she stopped smoking.
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Nurses across Wales are to be issued with the same uniform so that patients can easily see who is in control and to help stop infection spreading. Health Minister Edwina Hart is to announce plans to introduce an all-Wales uniform within about two years.
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A new £100m children's hospital is to be built in Newcastle. The 245-bed complex will be in the grounds of the existing Royal Victoria Infirmary and will feature "clown doctors" and a 50-seat cinema.
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Wellies packed? Glastonbury starts this weekend and prayers are being said for good weather. Because last year's mud bath resulted for some in trench foot. Every year I can, I go to the Glastonbury Festival and pick up a T-shirt or two as a memento. But last year's souvenir was unexpected and certainly unwelcome. I came home with trench foot.
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A year ago, 88-year-old Jean Lavender used to find walking any distance a struggle. Now she is keen to get outside for a walk most days. And she puts the transformation down to the most simple of medicines - water.
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The Scottish Ambulance Service has admitted that a package containing contact information has been lost. The computer disk from its Paisley Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre (EMDC) was lost by the courier, TNT.
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Being exposed to cat allergens early in life may spark eczema - if you carry a key gene fault, a study has suggested. Scientists found having the mutant FLG gene increased the risk of eczema in a baby's first year twofold, but adding exposure to a cat quadrupled that risk.
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The number of girls born and surviving in India has hit an all time low compared to boys, ActionAid says. A report by the UK charity says increasing numbers of female foetuses were being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die.
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Articles relating to mass media Health news about the Cheshire and Merseyside patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
THE ambulance service will use mounted medics to deliver rapid response first-aid at Merseyside’s biggest events. Paramedics will use mountain bikes to cut through crowds and provide emergency treatment until ambulances can get to the scene – if required.
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A BUSY supermarket has been given permission to sell booze round the clock, despite opposition from residents. More than 250 people signed petitions objecting to Asda’s plans for its store in Utting Avenue, Walton. They feared problems with nuisance youths in the area would spiral out of control if they could buy alcohol around the clock.
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Wirral Primary Care Trust has become the first NHS organisation in the country to offer an alcohol screening and treatment service through chemist shops. The trust launched the programme in GP surgeries throughout the borough last year - the first of its kind anywhere in the UK. Now the service has been extended into chemist shops.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Cumbria and Lancashire patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
ONLY three family doctors in Cumbria are opening surgeries in the evenings and at weekends. According to the Department of Health (DoH) only three of the county's 93 GP surgeries offered extended opening hours last month. It follows changes to the GP contract – agreed with the British Medical Association in March – to reward practices that extend their opening hours by an average of three hours a week at times that reflect the needs of patients.
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A KEY part of the NHS’s National Programme for IT due to go live at Furness General last week has been put on hold after the trust revealed doubts about the quality of the software.
Doctors feared the worst for baby Cameron Armstrong and gave him a mere 50 per cent chance of survival when he arrived 14 weeks early.
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Articles relating to mass media Health Stories about the Greater Manchester patch of the NHS in the North West of England.
THE mother of a young woman kicked to death by a gang of thugs because she was a Goth says her daughter was a victim of binge-drinking culture. Sylvia Lancaster has made a plea to the government to follow the example of other European countries, where attitudes to drinking and the family are radically different.
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Town praised for leading by example' THE BIG Bolton Health Check has won praise from the country's top heart disease expert. Professor Roger Boyle, the national director for heart disease and strokes at the Department of Health, said the campaign was "innovative" and an "excellent example". Health chiefs want Bolton to become the first town in the country to test every resident aged over 45 to determine if they are at risk of developing cardiovascular disease within the next 10 years.
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I HAVE made the same point several times to the media, including The Bolton News, that Mr R Swindells made in his letter of June 6) - it is impossible to keep male and female patients apart at The Royal Bolton Hospital in its A&E, medical assessment, coronary and intensive and high dependency units. Therefore, from me there is "no answer to provide". Mr Swindells should check his facts before he calls me "silly" in The Bolton News.
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It is an undisputed fact that the government has poured unprecedented monies into the NHS and education. However, it is also a fact that the NHS, in particular, is now in a worse state than ever. Ignore the ridiculous situation of the NHS trust system.
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THE Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson MP, visited Wythenshawe Hospital to officially open a new 26-bed cardio-thoracic critical care unit (CCU). The CCU is part of the new £22m North West Heart Centre, which was last month unveiled by Princess Anne.
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Ministers will today propose £200 one-off payments to families that are failing to take up services offered by the Sure Start scheme, such as health jabs, help with children's reading and parenting. The payments will be announced as part of a speech by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, on social mobility, to be delivered at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which manages the government's specialist schools programme.
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A toddler who underwent a series of operations to improve her hearing is facing a lifetime of total deafness after the Home Office refused her family permission to stay in the UK. Fatima Chaw's hearing was damaged when she contracted meningitis a few weeks after she was born in Crawley, south London. Doctors at Great Ormond Street hospital decided to replace her inner ear with cochlear implants and her hearing has steadily improved.
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Britain is at war over rubbish. Exasperated householders are attacking refuse collectors and stealing their neighbours' bins. What's going on? Why can't we change our dirty habits? And since when was waste such an emotive issue anyway?
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Thousands of children are being taken to hospital for emergency treatment for diabetes, amid concern that the illness is going undiagnosed. Experts said that parents and health workers were failing to recognise the early symptoms of diabetes, putting many lives at risk.
Occasional work as a “guinea-pig” has some strong plus-points. It is unskilled, often fun, pays well and helps others - furthering medicine, for example, or enabling retailers to improve customer service. Here Times Money rounds up the options.
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Being diagnosed with fibroids left actress Juanne Fuller with a difficult choice It sometimes feels that whenever I turn on the TV, I am confronted with my dilemma. Casualty. EastEnders. When I checked out Holby City recently, there it was again: Alex Deacon, a woman in her thirties with fibroids. She faced the agonising choice of either having a hysterectomy or risk bleeding to death. Of course, if you have children, it's a no-brainer. But what if, like me, you haven't?
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Tired of spending a fortune in the pharmacy, Maria Fitzpatrick learns how to treat her hayfever with wild plants As anyone who has ever applied fresh aloe vera to a cut, burn or blister knows, nature's power to heal can be awesome. But while we're content to let eucalyptus and palm oil extracts do their work on our skin and hair, and embrace the health benefits of cooking with wild herbs, leaves and superberries, when it comes to common ailments many of us don't even think to look to nature for help.
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With society now obsessed by the desire to prolong life, Elizabeth Grice asks if we have lost the art of dying well and examines practical steps to change our attitudes Death got a rave review the other day. That doesn't happen often. Just off one of London's traffic thoroughfares, there was a profound little exhibition of photographs taken of people before and immediately after they died.
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