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Blair says shake-up of health service crucial to its survival - The Guardian 06/12/06

The future of a tax-funded NHS is at risk if doctors and politicians lack the courage to act quickly to close hospital departments that no longer provide the best patient care, Tony Blair warned yesterday.

Michael White: Counter-intuitive cures - The Guardian 06/12/06

The case for reorganisation - The Guardian 06/12/06

'Closures are not about saving money, but about saving lives' - The Times 06/12/06

The case for and against 'super-units' - The Times 06/12/06

Department perfectly placed for motorway pile-up - The Times 06/12/06

Labour's lethal logic - The Telegraph 06/12/06

Care, not cash, is what counts - The Telegraph 06/12/06

Hospital closures will save lives, says Blair - The Telegraph 06/12/06

The pub bore against the shriller-killer - The Guardian 06/12/06

The Commons debated public health yesterday. It was a Tory choice, so offered a starring role to their health spokesman, Andrew Lansley, one of the less well-known shadow cabinet members. Mr Lansley is a worthy fellow, on top of his brief. On the other hand, he has many of the characteristics of the pub bore. He knows too much. He produces too many figures. Obesity - up from 19% to 24% among women! Smoking - it fell by 10% in 1980-90, but under Labour had dropped by only 3%! And there were plenty more figures where those came from.

The guesthouse that saves lives - The Guardian 06/12/06

Maytree charity's refuge gives the suicidal a break to get out of the crisis zone

Service delivery, complex needs - The Guardian 06/12/06

At her lowest point, Jan had a bag-a-day heroin addiction, and gave up her month-old son to her mother. Homeless and suffering postnatal depression, the 20-year-old became enmeshed in the underworld of drugs. Today her life is unrecognisable as she and her boyfriend, Pete, share a two-bedroom flat in Inverclyde, central Scotland, and relish bringing up a young family.

A working environment - The Guardian 06/12/06

Because of advances in medication, the needs of people with HIV/Aids have changed dramatically. "If you think back, there was this group of people who were told they were going to die, but who haven't," explains Andrew Little, programme director for Ensuring Positive Futures, an employability programme supporting people living with HIV/Aids. "While it's wonderful that their lives have been transformed, many of them haven't had a job for 10 years or more and have lost a huge amount of confidence."

Whet the appetite - The Guardian 06/12/06

Most of us would not expect to choose our meals a day in advance, so why should people in residential care? Residents of Anchor homes are now shown plates of food at each meal time and they choose there and then.

Guardian Public Services Awards 2006: Children's services award - The Guardian 06/12/06

Two years ago, Antonia had a secret she thought was too terrible to tell, and started to believe suicide was the only way out. Like many teenagers, the 14-year-old Italian was suffering from the loss and devastation that comes with a broken relationship. But unlike her peers, Antonia felt isolated and alone in her grief as she had been in a clandestine gay relationship with a teenage family friend.

Guardian Public Services Awards 2006: diversity and equality award - The Guardian 06/12/06

Guardian Public Services Awards 2006: Customer service - The Guardian 06/12/06

A big noise in Knowsley - The Guardian 06/12/06

Older people aren't supposed to like a din, but in Knowsley they are proud of the noise they have made over the past year. As Sheila Bersin, chair of Knowsley Older People's Voice (KOPV) puts it: "We have a voice in Knowsley - hear us roar." Such a declaration is not surprising to those involved in KOPV, a forum designed to ensure older people in the borough have their say influencing services and policies.

Accidental heroes - The Guardian 06/12/06

Millions of people in the UK are caring for family members with little or no support from the authorities - and the numbers are likely to escalate. Judith Cameron reports

Reclaiming the streets - The Guardian 06/12/06

One man is hoping that radical ideas will persuade parents and councils that children must be encouraged to play outside

Wrong turn - The Guardian 06/12/06

The consensus that children in care are failing, and that the system is to blame, is plain wrong

An inspector calls - The Guardian 06/12/06

The publication of star ratings means that the new chief inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspection has barely had time to settle behind his desk before the recriminations begin. By David Brindle

The closed ward allows illogical worlds to flourish - The Guardian 06/12/06

My friend Sam is in hospital. I visit her every week. I've lost count of how many times she has been in, but I know it's a lot. In the 20 years since she first broke down, she's seldom gone more than a few months without an admission. Sometimes she's sectioned; sometimes not. This time she is. Double whammy.

Peter Hetherington: Targeting the young is a soft option - The Guardian 06/12/06

Away from the glare of publicity, antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos) have been under the most rigorous examination since they were introduced in the late 1990s. Under a new Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration, Camden council, in north London, has been engaging professionals from outside the authority - such as the mental health charity Mind, the civil liberties organisation Liberty, the government's Respect Task Force, and the police - in meetings with local residents to consider the authority's tough Asbo regime.

Collaboration is key to improving social services, says Julia Ross - The Guardian 06/12/06

Collaboration is key to improving social services, says Julia Ross

Law change threat to family care unit - The Guardian 06/12/06

Whether it is dispatching supernannies or penalising parents for their children's truancy, the government's fervour for managing the lives of families in difficulty appears to know no bounds. It's no surprise, therefore, that doctors at the only national NHS specialist centre offering intensive therapeutic care to families most in need of help are angry that the unit is under threat.

Eat better, do better: teachers - The Guardian 06/12/06

In this programme, we explore the crucial role that teachers have in ensuring new government food standards are a success in schools. Throughout the UK, teachers, assistants and heads are working towards a healthier life for their pupils. We meet a selection of these teachers and reveal how they have succeeded in changing children's attitudes to food.

The independent living bill - The Guardian 06/12/06

"It is now time to ... adopt a master plan which guarantees - yes, guarantees - genuine independent living for disabled people, and we should underpin civil rights with entitlements to practical support. Disabled people have as strong a claim to a normal life as anyone else, and this Bill seeks to provide basic rights which have long eluded them."

Case study: Back to work at BT - The Guardian 06/12/06

Since Paul Litchfield, BT's group chief medical officer, joined the company, mental health sickness absence has been cut by 30% and the medical retirement rate for mental illness by 80%.

State of mind - The Guardian 06/12/06

While people with physical disabilities are entering the workforce in ever greater numbers, those with mental health problems still face discrimination and a lack of understanding about their condition

A journey towards equality - The Guardian 06/12/06

Access to public transport is improving: all new buses and trains are now accessible and £370m has been set aside for future improvements. But there is still a long way to go

A step in the right direction - The Guardian 06/12/06

The government is backing individual budgets - where disabled people receive, and decide how to spend, a single payment for support services - as a way of promoting and supporting independent living.

Learning to be included - The Guardian 06/12/06

Changing attitudes to people with learning disabilities will go some way to improving the lives of one of the most marginalised of all groups of disabled people

The challenge of self-advocacy - The Guardian 06/12/06

User-led groups provide effective representation and personal expertise, which is why their deployment is being recommended to local authorities in a new protocol

Search for the holy grail - The Guardian 06/12/06

Although rights for disabled people have improved dramatically, for many, independent living is not yet a reality. But there is now considerable political debate on the issue and a promise of action

Nothing short of a transformation - The Guardian 06/12/06

Public authorities, from health and housing to police and schools, will now have to promote equality for disabled people, thanks to new laws

The campaign for real choice - The Guardian 06/12/06

A year after the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act, Ben Furner looks at what has been achieved since, and what remains to be done to improve the lives of disabled people

Cannabis chocolate 'made to ease MS' - The Times 06/12/06

Multiple sclerosis sufferers around the world swore by the chocolate bars made at Mark and Lezley Gibson’s gift shop in the Lake District.

Sufferers get worst of both worlds - The Times 06/12/06

The life of any patient with anorexia centres on an all absorbing desire to lose weight and a fear of gaining it. This obsession is associated with a distorted view of their own body shape. Bulimia is classically associated with binge eating or drinking followed by self-induced vomiting.

Health Check - The Times 06/12/06

In a speech last week on schools Tony Blair admitted that he had come to office with the view that it was “standards not structures” that really mattered, only to discover that structures have a substantial impact on standards. If he had been as frank in his address to the NHS Confederation yesterday, he would have conceded that Labour approached the health service in a spirit of “spending not structures” for too long before realising that cash alone would not solve the system’s problems. In retrospect, the optimal outcome for the NHS over the past decade would have been an extension of the changes introduced by the Conservatives, alongside an expansion of resources of the sort to which Labour has been committed.

The town where they're taking on the bureaucrats - The Telegraph 06/12/06

A fierce struggle in West Sussex provides an early glimpse of the battles likely to be seen in many parts of the country.

Can you sleep yourself slim? - Daily Mail 05/12/06

Do you find it impossible to lose those unwanted pounds — even though you've tried to cut down on fatty foods and exercise regularly?

What your GP takes for a hangover - Daily Mail 05/12/06

The sad fact of life is that if you drink too much alcohol, you will end up with the pounding headache, queasy stomach or fuzzy-headed feeling that is a hangover.

Could a dose of vitamin B save you from a heart attack? - Daily Mail 05/12/06

Could taking a few B vitamins cut your risk of a heart attack or a stroke? That's the suggestion from a study published last week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

My bowel cancer was removed without a single incision or anaesthetic - Daily Mail 05/12/06

Bowel cancer is one of the country's biggest killers — 16,000 die from it every year. Treatment usually involves radical surgery to remove part of the bowel under general anaesthetic. However, a new technique means the disease can now be diagnosed and simultaneously treated at a far earlier stage — without the need for an invasive operation, and possible complications such as a colostomy bag. Here John Goddard, 68, a retired engineer from Sheffield, tells ANGELA EPSTEIN his story, while his surgeon who pioneered the treatment in the UK, explains the procedure.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

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