Thursday, April 19, 2007

Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade



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Dentists were yesterday ordered to stop reusing instruments in root canal treatments after fears that they could spread the infection of variant CJD. The chief dental officer, Barry Cockcroft, issued the edict after evidence that vCJD could hypothetically survive the sterilisation techniques used between surgeries. He emphasised that the move was precautionary, and there had been no reported cases of anyone contracting vCJD from dental procedures.


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Use instruments once to avoid vCJD risk, dentists are warned - The Times 20th April 2007


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Science minister Malcolm Wicks yesterday defended his suggestion that satellite technology could be used to track vulnerable older people, but said the government had no plans to pursue the idea. His comments on Wednesday, when he was questioned by the Commons science select committee about potential uses of satellite technology, attracted immediate criticism from charities. Help the Aged said the proposal smacked of Big Brother. Speaking at a meeting of specialists on ageing at the Royal Society yesterday, Mr Wicks said he had been surprised by the severity of some of the criticisms, and called for a public discussion.


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Tag elderly people, says science minister - The Independent 19th April 2007


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Tag dementia sufferers - minister - BBC Health News 19th March 2007


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he inquiry into contaminated blood is very welcome. Maybe we will find out why the government failed to act after advice from the World Health Organisation and others (Widow accuses doctors over donor blood risks, April 19). I received contaminated blood during a bone-marrow transplant in 1986. The effect of this has devastated not only my life, but friends and family as well. Health minister Caroline Flint informs us she's glad the introduction of HIV therapy has kept some of us alive. Taking medication may have kept us alive, but it is also a constant reminder of what has happened to us.


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Hospitals were yesterday ordered to assess every patient on admission to hospital for their risk of developing deadly blood clots, in an attempt to prevent the 25,000 deaths a year from clots. The risk of developing a fatal blood clot rises eightfold when people are admitted to hospital and doctors could prevent many of the deaths if they were on the look out for those most at risk, according to a high level report ordered by the chief medical officer.


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Blood-clot checks would save ‘thousands’ of lives - The Times 20th April 2007


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'Test every patient for clotting that kills 25,000 every year' - The Telegraph 20th April 2007


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Plan to tackle deadly blood clots - BBC Health News 19th April 2007


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Abortion: Medics and morals - The Guardian 19th April 2007


A growing number of doctors are voicing their opposition to abortions. David Batty investigates why, and what it might mean for patients


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The NHS was bitten by another of those ferocious Whitehall watchdogs yesterday when the National Audit Office sank its teeth into the consultants' juicy new contract. The consultants' 25% pay rise has cost £150m over budget without delivering promised efficiency gains. As she auditions to keep her job under prime minister Brown the NAO's report couldn't have come at a much worse time for the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt. Jobless junior doctors and striking nurses, angry midwives and dentists, budget cuts - all that is left to go wobbly is the NHS's £12bn new IT system. Ah, it just did.


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Many women who have late abortions do so because they had not realised they were pregnant, according to the first in-depth research into the issue. The study, by researchers at Southampton and Kent universities, set out to examine the reasons for the one in ten abortions that are carried out between 13 and 24 weeks into a pregnancy - known as the second trimester.


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The decision to withhold nurses' pay rise is shameful, and must be reversed or nurses will take industrial action, says Dr Peter Carter


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Why NHS nurses may back action - BBC Health News 19th April 2007


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Slack financial management at the Department of Health allowed NHS consultants in hospitals across England to get a 25% pay increase for doing less work, parliament's spending watchdog reveals in a critical report today. The National Audit Office said a revised contract - approved by John Reid when health secretary in 2003 - was supposed to give hospital managers more control over how 32,000 consultants organised their time.


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NHS consultants 'work less for 25% more pay' - The Independent 19th April 2007


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Consultants given 25% pay rise for fewer hours - The Times 19th March 2007


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NHS consultant pay soars as workload falls - The Telegraph 19th March 2007


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Another NHS pay blunder - Daily Mail 19th March


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NHS consultant contract attacked - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


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Government scientists in the 1970s and 1980s tested plutonium levels in tissue samples taken from the organs of Sellafield workers to establish whether they were being exposed to the highly radioactive material, the Guardian has learned. Details of the tests - designed to establish whether nuclear workers were receiving potentially dangerous doses compared with local people - emerged amid an outcry about claims that the dead workers were examined without consent of next of kin.


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My teenage daughter has put on a lot of weight and I'm worried that it's going to make her unhappy. I've tried offering advice and I've tried leaving her to her own devices, but neither strategy seems to work


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Disquiet over pay to 'bird flu farmer' - The Independent 20th April 2007


Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons, said he was "uncomfortable" with the payment of £589,000 in compensation by the taxpayer to Bernard Matthews, the turkey products company at the centre of the bird flu outbreak. Some 159,000 turkeys were culled at Bernard Matthews' Suffolk farm to prevent the H5N1 virus spreading. The firm will be reimbursed between £3 and £4 per bird, depending on their age, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).


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Bird flu deal for Bernard Matthews criticised - The Telegraph 20th April 2007


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A terminally ill woman has been forced to abandon a ground-breaking bid to end her own life, it was announced today. Kelly Taylor, 30, had begun a court case to force doctors to give her a massive morphine dose which would lead to her death, but asked for the case to be postponed while she investigated alternatives.


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I've changed my mind, says woman in right-to-die case - Daily Mail 19th March


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Euthanasia woman withdraws case - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


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Family fears that Sellafield burnt body parts of father - The Times 20th April 2007


The daughter of a former Sellafield worker wept yesterday after learning that organs and bones were removed from her father’s body and taken away for testing after his death at the age of 36. Angela Christie, 47, is hoping that the inquiry announced by Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will establish what happened to her father’s lungs, liver and vertebrae. She fears that they have been incinerated and the ash stored with radioactive waste at Drigg complex, near Sellafield, on the Cumbrian coast.


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Sellafield organ removal inquiry - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


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Women were advised yesterday to think “very carefully” about taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after evidence was published showing that it has killed 1,000 women in Britain since 1991 by increasing their risk of ovarian cancer. HRT increases the risk of the disease by 20 per cent, the biggest investigation of links between HRT and cancer has found. Although the absolute risk is low, millions of women took HRT in the 1990s and so the total impact is large: an extra 1,300 cases of the disease and 1,000 deaths between 1991 and 2005, according to the Million Women Study.


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A pensioner who won a campaign for NHS provision of treatment to save his sight has died after contracting an infection in the hospital assessing him for the treatment. Ron Roberts, 81, a Second World War veteran and former military code-breaker, had wet age-related macular degeneration diagnosed after Christmas last year. His wife Olive, 79, had had the same condition diagnosed days earlier.


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Patients are at risk of malnutrition because of a shortage of nursing staff to feed them properly, a survey suggests. Almost half of the 2,000 nurses questioned by the Royal College of Nursing said that they did not have enough time to make sure that patients got their meals and were able to eat them because they were too busy. The findings come six years after the Government spent £40 million to improve nutrition in hospitals.


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Busy nurses can't monitor patients' food - The Telegraph 19th March 2007


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Lack of nurses 'nutrition fear' - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


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I am travelling to Thailand in May. In the past I have been found to have a duodenal ulcer and IBS, so my GP has warned me that I shouldn’t take aspirin. Is there any other preparation that I can take instead? Incidentally, my father suffered a DVT ten years ago after a long flight to Australia.


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Rates of family breakdown, domestic violence, crime and juvenile delinquency will rise if the Government goes ahead with plans to liberalise gambling, public health experts said yesterday. Medics and leading nurses condemned ministers for their "blinkered and pig-headed" attempts to allow the building of Britain's first Las Vegas-style super-casino in Manchester and 16 other casinos. Ministers are expected to amend plans for new gaming laws following their defeat in the House of Lords.


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Doctors attack gambling policies - BBC Health News 19th April 2007


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David Cameron was under pressure last night to review his opposition to tough new mental health laws following the Virginia Tech shootings. Concerns were raised over the mental state of the killer before the attacks.


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Letters to The Daily Telegraph - The Telegraph 20th April 2007


Recently, I came up against the full might of our proud nation's new NHS computer system (Letters, April 19). We all, our dear leader tells us, want choice. I was offered "Choose and Book", which is supposedly a part of the system that is actually beginning to work.


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Letters to The Daily Telegraph - The Telegraph 19th March 2007


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A family GP who killed a grandmother after injecting her with six times the correct dose of morphine was spared jail yesterday. Dr Michael Stevenson, 54, confessed to the manslaughter of Marjorie Wright, 58, after he accidentally gave her a 30mg dose of Diamorphine instead of 5mg. Stevenson, who had 25 years experience as a doctor, said he had worked an average of two double night shifts each day for the two weeks before Mrs Wright's death.


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Overdose killing GP spared jail - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


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A row broke out last night over the state of Britain's hospitals after a retired consultant complained that his wife received far better treatment in India. Opposition parties accused Labour of running down the NHS and failing to put patients first.


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Drug-related crime costs England and Wales more than £13 billion a year and damages the health of hundreds of thousands of addicts, according to a report. The UK has the highest levels of addiction and multi-drug consumption and the second-highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, the document claimed.


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Labour's ten-year drugs war has achieved nothing but lower street prices, says experts - Daily Mail 19th March


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Two cups of a tea day may slash the risk of skin cancer, according to new research. Scientists found tea-drinkers were at least 65 per cent less likely to get certain types of tumour.


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Tea 'could cut skin cancer risk' - BBC Health News 19th April 2007


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Ambulance services are being stretched to "breaking point" because GPs have opted out of out of hours care, a union has claimed. The debt-ridden NHS is facing a shortfall of around 2,000 ambulance workers - with remaining staff having to work extra shifts to take up the burden, according to public sector union Unison.


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A shortage of specialist care for post-natal depression could drive more and more women to commit suicide, nurses warned yesterday. Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death and every year a small number even kill their own children.


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Making the morning-after pill more readily available does not cut teenage pregnancy rates, a leading healthcare organisation has warned. Despite the use of emergency contraception doubling in the past six years, research shows it has failed to cut unplanned pregnancies or make a difference in the levels of sexually-transmitted diseases and abortions.


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Hayfever and asthma sufferers were warned today to prepare for what could be the worst summer on record for allergies. Met Office experts say there is an unusually high risk for sufferers because of predicted high temperatures and the heat and an increase in storms and smog could cause major problems for people with respiratory conditions.


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Road traffic accidents, not Aids, cancer or any other disease, are the biggest killer of young people worldwide, experts warn. Nearly 400,000 young people under the age of 25 are killed in road traffic crashes every year. Millions more are injured or disabled.


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Missed and cancelled hospital outpatient appointments cost the health service in Northern Ireland more than £11m, an Audit Office report has said. It said about one in 10 outpatient appointments does not take place.


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Crematoria are struggling to deal with spiralling rates of obesity. Expanding waistlines are forcing many councils to spend thousands widening their furnaces, the Local Government Association has warned.


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A mobile phone that gives its owner a health check is being developed by experts at Leeds University. The device can be used to check vital signs, glucose and blood oxygen levels. The results are then sent straight to a remote computer where a nurse or doctor can analyse them and contact the patient if anything is wrong.


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The Welsh NHS is continuing to get into debt, with managers forecasting a £33m overspend for the last 12 months, according to research by BBC Wales. The debt was calculated from a survey of all Welsh NHS Trusts, local health boards and Health Commission Wales.


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Women are being let down by a lack of services for those with postnatal mental health problems, nurses say. Health visitors that help women with post-natal depression are being cut, the Royal College of Nursing said.


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Sally's husband had been drinking heavily and her son was always asking for money. One day she turned around and said: "You're just like a drug addict!"

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International News

Biotechnology company Antisoma, which specialises in cancer treatment, yesterday signed a deal worth up to $890m (£445m) with Swiss drug group Novartis to develop its experimental lung cancer drug. AS1404 is in phase-two trials. It is aimed at stemming the flow of blood to tumours to kill them off. If successful, it could become a blockbuster as it would be the first drug on the market to work in this way. Swiss drug group Roche has a similar drug, Avastin, but it stops the growth of new tumour blood vessels, not existing ones. AS1404 is expected to go into phase-three studies, the last stage before market approval, next year.


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High-stress lifestyles fuelled by alcohol and fast food that leave no time for exercise are leading to more cases of high blood pressure and threaten an epidemic of heart disease across the globe. Known as the "silent killer" because it is symptomless but deadly, high blood pressure can damage major organs and lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and dementia.


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'Stress threatens epidemic of heart disease' - The Telegraph 20th April 2007


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It all began five years ago with a chance conversation over dinner during a relaxed holiday in the Eastern Cape. The publisher John Brown, who made his name and fortune through Viz magazine, was on holiday with his family, staying with friends in the small and disarmingly beautiful town of Hamburg. He spent a relaxed week, walking on the beach, swimming and eating at the beach-shack restaurant Dorrigo's, a laid-back sort of place run by a Portuguese from Mozambique. Setting up an Aids charity was not on his agenda. But midway through his stay, he and his wife, Claudia, had a meal with a remarkable couple, Carol and Justas Hofmeyr.


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US troops are fighting a high-tech war. Yet, as in the mud of the Somme, soldiers are suffering from the effects of fear and bombs


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Eating less salt reduces the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, the first long-term study of salt’s impact on health confirms today. The findings, from a 15-year study, offer the clearest evidence yet that cutting salt consumption saves lives by reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease. People who ate less salty food were found to have a 25 per cent lower risk of cardiac arrest or stroke, and a 20 per cent lower risk of premature death. The results, published in the British Medical Journal, underline the need for population-wide salt reductions in the diet, the scientists conclude.


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Cutting salt 'reduces heart risk' - BBC Health News 19th April 2007


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Strawberries are good for you but having them in a cocktail may make them even healthier, a study suggests. The fruit contains compounds that can protect against cancer, heart disease and arthritis.


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Strawberry daiquiris can 'help fight cancer' - Daily Mail 18th March


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Drinking just two cups of tea per day could cut the risk of developing skin cancer, a study suggests. The US research compared the tea-drinking habits of 1,400 people with skin cancer and 700 who had not developed the disease.


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The US supreme court signalled a shift towards a more conservative approach to abortion yesterday as it upheld a nationwide ban on a procedure that pro-life activists regard as infanticide. The court ruled by five votes to four to allow to stand a law passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2003 which bans the type of termination of pregnancy which is known by anti-abortionists as "partial-birth abortion".


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Catching flu increases the risk of dying from a heart attack by a third, say researchers. A major study has shown epidemics trigger a rise in sudden coronary deaths thought to be caused by inflammations that destabilise "silent" clots in the arteries.


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Strong demand for Herceptin and other cancer treatments have boosted sales at Swiss drugmaker Roche. Roche said sales rose 16% to 11.4bn Swiss francs (£4.7bn) between January and March, prompting it to raise its profit forecast for the current year.


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Caterpillar robot 'treats hearts' - BBC Health News 18th March 2007


A robotic caterpillar has been designed which can crawl across the surface of the heart to deliver treatment. New Scientist reports a prototype of the HeartLander device, created by US researchers, has been tested on pigs.

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Cheshire and Merseyside News

WARRINGTON Hospital - which covers Runcorn and Widnes - is one of the worst-affected areas. The figures count the number of people admitted with alcoholic liver disease, mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of alcohol and because of the toxic effect of alcohol


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A FORMER assistant manager at a Widnes care home has been struck off the nursing register after being found guilty of a catalogue of cruelty towards vulnerable patients. Nurse James Snow, 55, who was at the Bankfield Road Home from 1991-2003, refused to appear in person before a committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London.




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AN EXPLOSION in hospital admissions for drink-and-drug-related illnesses in Cheshire and Merseyside has been revealed. The number of people treated in casualty departments after drinking too much alcohol has leapt by 26% in just five years, Government figures show.


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HALTON residents looking to make the change to a healthier lifestyle are to be offered places on a free ten-week course. The Fresh Start programme is a joint effort between Halton's Healthy Living Programme and the Dietetics Department of North Cheshire Hospitals, and will include nutritional advice, cooking and tasting workshops, and two sessions of exercise a week.


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Warrington Hospital radio has picked up three awards from the Hospital Broadcasting Association. The 35 volunteers were overwhelmed' - though it is the third year in a row they have been honoured.


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A GRANDFATHER was saved from cancer after sending off for a free test kit in the post. Roy Thompson, 63, ordered one of the screening packs despite suffering no symptoms.


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THE UK charity for people with diabetes has cautioned against giving false hope to people with Type 1 diabetes in light of a new study.


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A LIVERPOOL family was the first called to testify at an independent public inquiry into what has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. Nearly 2,000 haemophiliacs, who were exposed to fatal viruses in contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s, have since died and many others are said to be terminally ill. The tragedy should never have happened, victims and their relatives told day one of the inquiry yesterday.


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WITH the continual expansion of the population in the Vale Royal area and the prospect of further increases with the urban village project at Winnington, is it not time a major appraisal of Northwich Infirmary is due? I feel it is ludicrous for the people in this area to be referred to Leighton Hospital when our hospital could be upgraded to account for this prospective rise in patient numbers.


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Cuppas back on menu thanks to Guardian - Northwich Guardian 18th March 2007


CUPS of tea will be flowing regularly once more at Victoria Infirmary Northwich thanks to a little help from the Guardian. Earlier this month, the tea bar at the Winnington hospital was in desperate need of volunteers to keep up its vital service, which provides more than just refreshments to the hundreds of patients who visit.

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Cumbria and Lancashire News

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A FAMILY doctor who was warned about over-working has admitted killing a patient in Cumbria after giving her a massive overdose of painkiller while treating her migraine. Dr Michael Stevenson, 54, was given a suspended 15-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Workington woman Marjorie Wright by injecting her with 30mg of diamorphine – six times the normal amount.


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A PERVERT who prompted a judge to call for urgent action after he flouted a community order by refusing medication for tuberculosis is now receiving treatment. Shahfasal Pervez, 20, was given a three-year community punishment, after pouncing on a woman as she walked to work in Ormerod Street, Accrington, in January last year.


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I'VE just read that the NHS is unlikely to be free at the point of use within 10 years according to doctors. A BMA poll of 964 young GPs and hospital doctors found 61 per cent thought some patients would have to pay for some treatment by 2017.


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The daughter of a former Sellafield worker wept yesterday after learning that organs and bones were removed from her father’s body and taken away for testing after his death at the age of 36. Angela Christie, 47, is hoping that the inquiry announced by Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will establish what happened to her father’s lungs, liver and vertebrae. She fears that they have been incinerated and the ash stored with radioactive waste at Drigg complex, near Sellafield, on the Cumbrian coast.


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Sellafield organ removal inquiry - BBC Health News 18th March 2007

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Greater Manchester News

A SUPPORT centre which offers patients with cancer the chance to enjoy complementary therapies as they fight the disease, had a special guest when MP David Chaytor visited. The Bury North MP fulfilled a promise to visit the Bury Cancer Support Centre, based in St James Church Hall in Walshaw, after he was unable to accept a previous invitation for a tour of the facilities.


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A CAMPAIGN has been launched to dramatically cut the number of bowel cancer deaths in Greater Manchester. The Don't Be A Cancer Chancer campaign urges people to visit their GP early with possible cancer symptoms.


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A FORMER haemophiliac who told an inquiry how his liver was irreparably damaged by a contaminated blood transfusion has said all he wants is an apology. David Fielding, from Farnworth, was diagnosed with haemophilia as an infant. The condition is usually inherited and occurs when the blood cannot clot properly because it has low levels of clotting factors eight or nine, causing bruising and internal bleeding.


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Parents tell of heartache after baby died in sleep - The Bolton News 19th April 2007


A COUPLE say their heartache continues after an inquest could not find a reason why their baby died in her sleep. Kodi Lei Christian-Somers, who should have been celebrating her first birthday today, died suddenly at her home in Cobham Avenue, Great Lever, on November 16, 2006.

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