Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade
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National News
A controversial new selection process for junior doctors could be scrapped by a high-level review, announced by the government last night, following an outcry over the failure of some of the best-qualified to get a single job interview. The review will be led by the medical royal colleges. In an urgent attempt to sort out perceived injustices and regain the confidence of doctors, the first meeting will take place today. Decisions on whether to continue with the first round of interviews will be taken tomorrow.
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Health chiefs retreat in row over training for junior doctors - The Times 7th March 2007
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Climb-down over junior doctor fiasco - The Telegraph 7th March 2007
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Who would be an NHS doctor? - The Telegraph 7th March 2007
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Doctor recruitment system 'fatally flawed' - Daily Mail 6th March 2007
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Diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, Gul Davis waited 11 years before he started to receive effective treatment. Now, after nearly 21 years in psychiatric hospitals, his future is still uncertain. Mark Gould reports
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Every charity must benefit the public. That sounds so obvious, doesn't it? Naturally, activity meriting charitable status should mean more than pursuing a private interest. It should mean more than benefiting a narrow, exclusive group. And it should mean, surely, those on low incomes can benefit too. In fact, shouldn't public benefit be something we all understand? Perhaps not always something we can hold in our hands or measure - for example, how do you quantify a beautiful landscape? - but none the less something we all recognise as valuable to society.
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The graffiti artist known as Banksy recently put Bristol council in a quandary. Last September, one of his creations appeared on the side of a council building. Was it vandalism or public art? In January, the council decided it was a work of art, and voted to keep it, making an exception to its policy of removing graffiti. It is possible that the city's councillors possess a refined aesthetic sensibility, not to mention an acute awareness of the high monetary value of the work in the global art market, but the reality is that the citizens of Bristol in effect made the decision for them.
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The leader of Westminster council Sir Simon Milton reflects on the Shirley Porter scandal, the similarities between New Labour and the Tories, and the wider role that local authorities can play, including in the NHS.
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A predictable chorus of synthetic outrage greeted last week's revelation that NHS chief executives are fed up with the government. The managers, it seems, do not like the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, or reorganisations, or financial pressures. And, for reasons unknown, they do like Gordon Brown - or at least they prefer him to David Cameron.
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The British Medical Association accused the government yesterday of instilling "a culture of fear" across the NHS to stop doctors revealing how health service reforms are putting patients' lives at risk. The BMA surveyed senior consultants in hospitals throughout England and found 56% knew of clinically effective treatments being withdrawn by their NHS trust to save money or comply with policy directives.
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Patient care 'held back by reforms' - The Telegraph 7th March 2007
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Pregnant women who are obese are having a "massive impact" on the NHS due to the increased risk of complications, the need for more senior staff, and the cost of extra equipment. Maternal obesity is having a knock-on effect, with scheduled operations being cancelled when doctors need to use extra large operating tables in theatres normally used for gynaecological surgery.
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Extra care for fat mothers 'a burden on NHS' - The Telegraph 7th March 2007
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Obese mothers-to-be 'burden NHS' - BBC Health News 7th March 2007
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Extra care for fat mothers 'a burden on NHS' - The Telegraph 7th March 2007
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Obese mothers-to-be 'burden NHS' - BBC Health News 7th March 2007
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Why have you made this film for the army? It's essential that soldiers are healthy, but lectures about smoking, drinking and eating junk food are boring. The army needed a different and vibrant approach to grab the attention of soldiers.
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Peter Beresford's article (Final choices, February 28) stresses the importance of specialist palliative care social workers in end-of-life care, but was implicitly against assisted dying, implying that somehow specialist palliative care could magic away all patients' problems.
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Like 2 million other viewers, I tuned in to The Verdict on BBC2 recently, curious to witness the goings-on behind the closed doors of a jury room in a major criminal trial - albeit a fictional one. Unlike most of my fellow viewers, however, I know that I will never be called to sit on such a jury. My mental health status rules me out. My judgment is invalid.
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There is a buzz of activity in the office of the Oxfordshire User Team (Out). Volunteers and the founder, Glenda Daniels, who are all former drug users, are preparing for the weekly overdose and hepatitis C workshops. "I remember at my worst waking up daily with a needle still in my arm and feeling pins and needles," says Daniels, who for eight years was addicted to crack and heroin. "That is the first symptom of an OD [overdose]. Most drug users think it's because you've had 'good gear', but it's not at all, and we explain these kinds of facts at the workshops from first hand experiences."
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Bottled mineral water is now out-selling cola in London, a report reveals today, and health conscious consumers are helping to fuel a continued growth in the soft drinks market, opting increasingly for still products such as water and juices rather than fizzy substitutes. The research by the manufacturer Britvic finds pure juice, "sports" drinks and blended beverages known as smoothies have shown the fastest percentage growth in the take-home sector. And sales of water have risen by 11% to achieve £643m in sales.
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Worried patients who search the web for health advice often reject the best sites in favour of those with a human touch, researchers have found. Despite the boom in online self-help, patients’ search strategies often deny them the best sources of information, such as sites run by drug companies or by NHS Direct.
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'Personal' health websites sought - BBC Health News 7th March 2007
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'Personal' health websites sought - BBC Health News 7th March 2007
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An elderly couple who faced having to choose which of them should go blind because they could not both afford sight-saving drugs have finally been saved by the NHS. Olive Roberts, 79, and her husband, Ron, 81, both suffer from wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of blindness in Britain. They were told that the only way to treat their condition quickly enough was to go private. However, the treatment would have cost them more than £14,000 each.
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Yesterday, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced an immediate review of selection procedures for junior doctor recruitment. Today, a further blow to the Government's credibility on healthcare was landed - this time by a survey of consultants, the most senior and prestigious medical professionals in the NHS. The poll, carried out for the BMA, has found an extraordinary level of dissatisfaction with some of Labour's key reform policies for modernising the delivery of healthcare, as well as immense frustration with funding limits.
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Seaside resorts and coastal towns around England have been systematically failed by the Government, a report by MPs claims today. Ministers are accused of ignoring the difficulties of communities along the coastline by the Labour-dominated Communities and Local Government committee.
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A total of 23 NHS trusts in England are to be inspected amid concerns that they are failing to feed frail and vulnerable elderly people properly, the Healthcare Commission announced today. Inspectors will go through files, observe wards and speak to staff who will be interviewed anonymously.
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The Government was accused yesterday of not doing enough to tackle the growing levels of pollution in towns and cities. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, an environmental watchdog, said it was "astonished" that the Government had no over-arching plan to deal with the environmental impacts of housing, transport and energy use in the urban areas where four out of five people live.
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UK 'needs urban health strategy' - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
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Three years ago, the Reform think-tank expressed serious concern about how record spending on the NHS would be used. We feared that only a slight improvement in the service would be achieved at great expense. This is exactly what has happened. Last year, for example, three quarters of the annual spending increase was taken up in higher costs. It is little wonder that improvements in performance have been highly disappointing to politicians and patients.
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Pregnant women should get out into the sunshine to help protect their unborn baby from diabetes, research has indicated. Vitamin D - which the body makes from sunlight - can cut the risk of the child developing diseases such as diabetes and thyroid problems.
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Students at Cambridge are drinking so much that they are putting the health of university staff at risk. Porters at one college are being vaccinated against hepatitis B as they spend so much time clearing up vomit.
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As Camilla has a hysterectomy - one of 40,000 women to lose their wombs each year - do doctors realise the shattering emotional impact of an operation that is often utterly unnecessary?
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Every Tuesday, Britain's leading nutritionist explains how to eat your way to health. This week she tackles the issue of adult spots and how cutting out alcohol can really help you lose weight. I am 38 and my skin is becoming spotty - something I never suffered with in my teens. I've started drinking cooled boiled water in the hope that this would help, but my skin still seems dull. I like a glass of red wine and try to eat healthily. Is there anything else I could do to give my skin a boost?
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Omega 3 essential fatty acids have a lot going for them. From making kids brainier to preventing heart disease, easing creaking joints and even fighting depression, it seems omega 3 can do it all. They are found in oily fish such as salmon, sardines and mackerel. Plant sources, which are not as rich, include flaxseed oil and sesame seeds.
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Around 110,000 people in Britain have an inherited condition which puts them at risk of an early heart attack or stroke. Most can be treated with statins, but Cheryl Smith's neck arteries were so clogged that at just 45, she had them scraped clean. Here, she describes the experience to Thea Jourdan, while her surgeon explains the life-saving procedure.
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Sixties children are developing a rare and deadly cancer - a legacy of asbestos in schools and homes. And as this sufferer reveals, they're being denied the one drug that could save them: The consultant and I were alone together in a tiny room on the umpteenth floor of a large London NHS hospital. He was looking at the results of a recently completed scan on my lungs. It was late summer 2005, a day of unbroken sun, and I'd ridden to the hospital on my mountain bike, revelling in the freedom.
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Women from deprived backgrounds are treated differently and have a lower breast cancer survival rate than more affluent women, a study suggests. The charity Cancer Research UK studied nearly 13,000 patients from England's Northern and Yorkshire health regions.
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Staff, patients and visitors at a city hospital who do not wash their hands properly are being shown the error of their ways by a new "glow bug" machine. Nurses at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital are inviting people to see how clean their hands are and then advising them how to wash them properly.
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Techniques developed by atomic physicists are being used to develop the first of what promises to be a new generation of cancer treatments in place of conventional radiotherapy. One day doctors could even be using anti-matter.
A mother who had surgery to remove her "dead" unborn baby then found she was still pregnant has told of her relief after her son was born healthy. Julie Brown, 29, from Livingston, was told by staff at the town's St John's Hospital that her child had died in the womb five weeks into her pregnancy.
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International News
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In the US, a group of mothers - Moms Rising - has appeared almost overnight. What do they want? And can they get it? Viv Groskop reports on a quiet revolution
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group, yesterday faced angry protests over its decision to press on with a legal challenge to Indian patent law that health activists claim threatens to create a “medical apartheid” by restricting poor countries’ access to cheap drugs. Campaigners distributing leaflets at the company’s annual meeting in Basle urged shareholders to force Daniel Vasella, the chief executive, to drop two lawsuits they say jeopardise India’s position as “the pharmacy of the developing world”.
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An ingredient used in cough medicine for more than 50 years could be a powerful new treatment for prostate cancer. Noscapine, a drug derived from opium, has been found to stunt tumour growth and reduce the risk of cancer spreading by up to 65 per cent.
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Chillies could be a magic ingredient in the fight against flab. Research shows that capsaicin, the compound which gives the peppers their zing, makes fat cells self-destruct.
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Older men who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may function better physically than either those who abstain completely or those who abuse alcohol, according to a new study. Moderate drinkers tend to be healthier in general than teetotallers or problem drinkers, Dr Peggy Cawthon of California Pacific Medical Centre in San Francisco and colleagues said.
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US mulls backing 'medicine rice' - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
Authorities in the United States have given preliminary approval to a plan to grow rice genetically modified to produce human proteins. Rice plants including human genes involved in producing breast milk would be grown in the state of Kansas.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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STAB-PROOF vests, helmets and shields are becoming essential kit in Merseyside hospitals. The protective measures are vital because figures show about two hospital workers are attacked in the region every day.
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Hospital staff fear for jobs - Liverpool Echo 6th February 2007
MORE than 60 staff at a Merseyside psychiatric hospital fear for their jobs. Workers at 54-bed Capio Nightingale in Waterloo say they have been asked to attend a meeting today to discuss ward closures.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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BOSSES at the Cumberland Infirmary and West Cumberland Hospital are to apply to the Department of Health for a £12m loan. They need the extra money – to be paid back over 15 years with interest – to balance their books before the end of the financial year. Like many health trusts across the country, the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been struggling to meet ends meet.
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PARENTS with young children in the south of Carlisle are being encouraged to stop smoking thanks to a new Sure Start initiative. To coincide with National No Smoking Day on Wednesday, March 14, the organisation has come up with a range of awareness projects.
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We need to find a cure for NHS’s ills - Lancashire Telegraph 6th March 2007
BRITAIN has 8,000 doctors, expensively trained, and now without any chance, it seems, of a job. A few years ago the government launched a huge training programme to overcome the shortage of doctors, who are now ready.
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Greater Manchester News
Chris Brookes is a leading NHS dentist and member of the Bolton Dental Society. He wants to see fluoride added to Bolton's water supply. "WE all know that prevention is better than cure. Because of the powerful benefits of fluoride, water fluoridation programmes have been established in many countries since the 1930s, when its ability to prevent decay was first recognised.
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Bug alert at hospital and care home - The Bolton News 6th February 2007
A HOSPITAL ward and a care home have been closed to new admissions after an outbreak of a vomiting bug. Fourteen patients and one member of staff on a medical ward at the Royal Bolton Hospital have been struck down with the virus, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting
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