Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade
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Nearly 400 lives and £189m are wasted every year in England through a catalogue of failures in the care and treatment of epilepsy, according to a report published today by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Epilepsy. The report - Wasted Money, Wasted Lives - concludes that, despite effective treatments, there are 365 avoidable deaths a year from epilepsy, 69,000 people are living with unnecessary seizures, and 74,000 people are taking anti-epilepsy drugs they do not need.
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Care of epilepsy sufferers is a national scandal, says MPs - The Independent 27th June 2007
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Care of epilepsy sufferers is a national scandal, says MPs - The Independent 27th June 2007
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Thousands of children - most of them girls - are ending up in hospital in England every year because of binge drinking, according to figures released yesterday. Statistics from the government's information centre for health and social care reveal that last year 5,280 children younger than 16 were admitted because of their drinking - of whom 59% were girls. The numbers have risen by a third in the last 10 years, while adult admissions have almost doubled to 187,640.
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Alcohol-linked NHS admissions double in 10 years - The Independent 27th June 2007
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Epidemic of drunk teenagers in hospital - The Telegraph 27th June 2007
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Hospitals see a 14pc rise in drink victims - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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Alcohol-linked NHS admissions double in 10 years - The Independent 27th June 2007
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Epidemic of drunk teenagers in hospital - The Telegraph 27th June 2007
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Hospitals see a 14pc rise in drink victims - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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After nearly 200 years the stigmatising legal term "common prostitute" which dates back to the 1824 Vagrancy Act is to be removed from the statute book, under a package of criminal justice reforms unveiled yesterday. The shake-up in the sex offences laws will also see women who are persistently involved in prostitution facing compulsory drug and alcohol rehabilitation courses on pain of 72 hours' detention if they fail to attend.
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Fewer offenders to be jailed under prostitution reforms - The Times 27th June 2007
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Fewer offenders to be jailed under prostitution reforms - The Times 27th June 2007
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Young volunteers helping out at a day centre have had their perceptions of older people changed. This time last year, Janey Begum, who is 16, didn't think much of older people. "I thought they were boring, that all they do is sit around," she says. That was before she started volunteering at a day centre for older people near her home in Newham, east London, which changed her perceptions. "I really enjoyed it," she says. "They told me interesting stories and lots of stuff I didn't know. Now I can see they are very active. It changed my mind."
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Sunday's smoking ban may clear the air, but it is unlikely to cut deaths among the poorest people. Six weeks ago, Ronnie Prest called his local smoking cessation service and invited them to hold sessions on Thursday nights at the Horden Conservative club in Easington, Co Durham, where he works as club steward. Prest, 55, has smoked for 40 years and was anxious to kick his 60-a-day habit before the ban on smoking in public enclosed areas comes into force in England on Sunday.
Gordon Brown promised in his leadership acceptance speech to make the NHS his immediate priority. He has a string of policy adjustments up his sleeve, but he must know the most urgent task is to tackle the service's poor industrial relations. In spite of record spending on health, NHS staff across England are in revolt. Nurses are heading for industrial action if Mr Brown does not abandon a decision to phase this year's pay award. Doctors are furious about "political meddling" in the NHS.
Alison Benjamin's opinion piece (Voluntary sector and the dangers of hype) suggests the overriding message from the recent report published by the NCC is "don't believe the hype". Research like that published by the NCC is both challenging and constructive to the sector and is to be welcomed. However, a key finding of the report was also that the private and third sectors perform above the public sector in user involvement. For those involved in delivering public services, the message is that partnership working is crucial to our success in reform. It is now widely acknowledged that the third sector has its part to play in engaging users in services, providing a consumer choice and a citizen voice. Now is the time to move this partnership working to drive real and tangible change.
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After a winter slumped in front of screens, the kids are out in front of the garages. The street football season has started. Problem is that, on the other side of the garages, there's an older persons' unit. "They should never have built it there," says Jane, defending her kids. "Where else is there to play round here?" And defence is needed because, oops, the football keeps being kicked over the top of the garages into the gardens and patios of the elderly residents. This has led to the battle of the balls, with the young intent on retrieval, the old on retention.
In the final days of the Blair leadership, the government has got its act together on one of our most shameful social failures. At a Downing St seminar last autumn, Tony Blair reportedly asked Maxine Wrigley, of the care leavers' organisation A National Voice and who was in care herself as a teenager, what might improve things for looked-after children. "Three things," she replied. "Stability, stability, and stability."
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Quest for quality - The Guardian 27th June 2007
It is positive that section 9 of the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act has been dropped (U-turn on care threat to failed asylum seekers' children, June 26). However, in the great scheme of things many asylum-seeking and other migrant younger people and families will remain at risk because of the broader government strategy aimed at reducing the irregular migrant population.
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The family of a premature baby who died after emergency surgery to the wrong lung have agreed an out-of-court settlement with the hospital trust concerned. Clarke Jackson was born three months prematurely at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, in April 2004, weighing 2.2lb (1kg). He died less than 11 hours later.
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My baby died after doctors operated on the wrong lung - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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My baby died after doctors operated on the wrong lung - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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Doctors called yesterday for the nationwide adoption of bylaws banning people from drinking in the streets, as new statistics highlighted the damage to health caused by alcohol. Many local authorities have already brought in bylaws to prevent drinking on town-centre streets, and the British Medical Association wants to see them used much more widely to combat what it calls “an extremely worrying rise in alcohol-related morbidity”.
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Cut drink-drive limit and ban drinking on the streets, say doctors - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
Caroline Flint’s outspoken campaigns as health minister have aroused reactions matched only in their ferocity by the passions driving her on. She is the minister called Supernanny for her ceaseless struggles to promote sensible drinking, ban smoking and cut teenage pregnancies. For her efforts, however, Caroline Flint has endured some of the most vicious personal abuse thrown at any politician since Margaret Thatcher.
A seriously ill teenager is being kept alive by horse and rabbit blood. Cara Heaney, 14, was told that she had the rare illness aplastic anaemia in January. It has left her weak and confined to a wheelchair. Now antibodies drawn from animals’ blood are giving her a chance of survival as she fights bone-marrow failure.
Excessive alcohol intake can lead to several different forms of liver disease. These include alcoholic fatty livers, chronic and acute alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Amazingly, most heavy drinkers avoid potentially fatal liver damage but the young woman who is an occasional modest drinker may develop it.
Yesterday we reported on child depression in the UK. Here, we list the telltale signs and explain what may help, and Dr Tanya Bryon argues against the tendency to ‘medicalise’ unhappiness. There is probably not a child in the country who hasn’t, at one point or another, said to his parents “I’m depressed”. Children and teenagers tend to use exaggerated language to describe quite ordinary occurences – an unpleasant experience is a “nightmare”, a minor problem becomes a “disaster”, a period of unhappiness with the world is “depression”.
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Thousands of elderly people will continue to be hit by a postcode lottery in free nursing care despite new guidelines to tackle the problem, campaigners warned last night. Ministers unveiled proposals yesterday which they claimed would address "anomalies" in the current system that mean a person in one part of the country can receive free nursing care while someone in a different area with identical needs can be refused support.
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60,000 elderly who need social care will not qualify in shake-up branded 'weak' - Daily Mail 27th June 2007
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National rules for funding care - BBC Health News 26th June 2007
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National rules for funding care - BBC Health News 26th June 2007
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Millions of people could be prescribed cholesterol-reducing statins under guidelines published today by the Government's drug-rationing watchdog. GPs will be told to draw up a "systematic strategy" to identify which patients on their books are most at risk of developing heart disease. These patients will then be called to their local clinic or health centre for blood tests to measure their cholesterol levels, the guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will say.
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Artificial skin developed by British scientists could revolutionise the treatment of burns victims and put an end to painful grafts. Currently, badly burned sections of skin are usually replaced with healthy sections of skin taken from other areas of the body. However, the painful procedure is far from ideal, as it creates an extra wound on an already badly injured patient.
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Artificial skin 'cuts scarring' - BBC Health News 26th June 2007
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Almost a quarter of all births are now caesareans despite a Government campaign to promote normal deliveries. Statistics show 23.5 per cent of all babies were born by caesarean section in 2005/6, up from 22.9 per cent the year before.
After three failed attempts at IVF, Julia Kantecki began to lose hope that she and her husband Robert would ever conceive a child. "My baby dream was slipping away. I was 40 and fearful of shrivelling into menopause and a childless future," says Julia, 45, a former marketing director.
Every Tuesday Britain's leading nutritionist, Jane Clarke, explains how to eat your way to health. This week Jane shares her advice on what to eat after a heart bypass and how a lack of protein can cause tiredness: I've just had an angiogram and now need a heart bypass operation, as some of my blood vessels are blocked. My levels of bad cholesterol are also too high. What can I do after the operation to make sure my arteries don't get blocked again?
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A life on the edge - the sister determined to survive cystic fibrosis - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
Every couple of months, Jacqueline Didsbury visits a cemetery in Bathgate in Scotland. It holds the graves of her two sisters. Claire died at the age of six and Frances Ann passed away three years ago, aged 19.
When John Petri reduced his hospital waiting lists to zero, his patients were delighted, hospital managers sought his advice and Tony Blair sent a team to learn how he'd done it. A year-and-a-half later none of his ideas has been taken up, and now he is so disillusioned he's leaving the country. Here, he explains what went wrong. . .
Crisps are 'bad' for us, thanks to a high fat and salt content. Manufacturers are now making healthier versions, but are they any better for us? MANDY FRANCIS asked nutritionist Elena Hirschowitz to assess a selection of them: WHAT THE FIGURES MEAN Carbohydrates: 60g per 100g is high Fat: 20g per 100g is high Fibre: 6g per 100g is high Sodium (salt): 0.5g per 100g is high GI: Low GI foods have less of an effect on blood sugar levels.
Rachel Findlay had just got back from the supermarket. While putting away her shopping, she was suddenly overwhelmed by a bizarre sensation. 'I'd barely put the bags down on the floor when I felt as if I was falling over to one side. It was as if the ground was swaying underneath me,' she says.
A new, painless device could revolutionise colonoscopies. With no need for the patient to be sedated and little or no discomfort caused, there are hopes that the number of screening procedures will increase significantly. Its developers say more people may opt to have colon cancer screening tests, so diseases such as bowel cancer would be picked up much earlier.
Three months ago, television presenter Nick Knowles sat in the chest clinic at Southampton General Hospital and listened in disbelief as a consultant explained why it was he'd been struggling with fatigue and depression for the past few years. The diagnosis was as unexpected as it was terrifying - Nick, 44, who revels in his image as a high-octane action man, had been laid low by that most old-fashioned of diseases: tuberculosis.
The British Medical Association conference is to consider a call for quicker and easier access to abortion. One proposal at the Torquay conference is a call to scrap the need for two doctors to allow an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.
Fewer teenagers are drinking regularly - partly because it is becoming harder for youngsters to get hold of alcohol, a Trading Standards survey suggests. The number of those who say they never drink at all has climbed from 12% in 2005 to 17% in the latest poll, of 12,000 children in north-west England.
Loyd Grossman, once drafted in to revamp NHS menus, has accused ministers of failing to take hospital patients' nutrition seriously. The broadcaster, famous for Masterchef, said a long line of health ministers had failed to give sufficient political commitment to improving NHS food.
Many births are fairly straightforward, but it is not always the case. And in those situations even doctors are grateful to have a midwife on hand. Simon Minkoff saw the signs almost immediately. His wife's labour was going fine until just before delivery when the baby's
The British Medical Association is to take the government to court over its decision to cap the pensions of GPs. The doctors' body accused Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt of reneging on a deal laid out in a new GP contract on how pensions would be calculated.
Carbon monoxide poisoning has killed 50 people in the UK since the beginning of 2006, according to industry figures. The gas installers' registration body Corgi said 218 people also suffered injuries caused by the "silent killer".
The source of an E.coli O157 outbreak which left five toddlers at a Fife nursery seriously ill has not been identified, more than a year on. A total of 14 people fell ill at the Careshare Lauder Nursery in Dunfermline, in May 2006.
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Hospital may be put on graveyard - BBC Health News 26th June 2007
A public consultation will be held into plans to exhume hundreds of bodies from a graveyard in Omagh in order to make way for a new hospital building. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said the Western Health and Social Care Trust was handling the issue as sensitively as possible.
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NHS phone firm tries to cut debt - BBC Health News 25th June 2007
Struggling hospital phone and television company Patientline says it is in talks to restructure its "unsustainable" £80m debts. The firm made the announcement as it revealed that its losses widened to £30.2m in the year to April, from £24.7m for the previous 12 months.
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International News
Children with type 1 diabetes can have the severity of their disease reduced if they are infused with blood saved from their umbilical cords, a study has found. Scientists think the infusion resets the body's immune system, stopping it from destroying insulin-producing cells that are needed to control blood sugar levels. "After only six months it is too early to tell how long the children will benefit from this therapy, but early signs indicate that it may have helped enhance blood glucose control and management, said Michael Haller of the University of Florida College of Medicine, who led the new research.
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Ramatu Musa has little doubt why her eldest son is deaf. He is, she alleges, a victim of an illegal drug trial in Nigeria by Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company. “I am so bitter because he is my eldest. All my hopes were on him. I expected him to care for me when I am older,” Mrs Musa, 47, told The Times. “We are poor. I have no money to look after him. They [Pfizer] did this to him.”
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Blueberries could hold the key to fighting illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, scientists claimed yesterday. The discovery affects other degenerative conditions that come with old age. While it is unlikely to cure the disease, it may provide a way to prevent, slow down or reduce the impact of such illnesses which affect the mental abilities but not the physical health of sufferers.
At the first sign of flu or a cold, many people reach for echinacea. For years this humble purple flower has been the remedy of choice for those seeking an alternative to over-the-counter drugs. Herbalists routinely recommend it as an immune booster, and even the World Health Organisation acknowledges it as a treatment for the common cold.
Using a simple portion control dinner plate can help people with type 2 diabetes lose weight and decrease reliance on medication, research shows. Canadian researchers put people with type 2 diabetes on a calorie-controlled diet for six months.
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'Teen surgeon' parents arrested - BBC Health News 25th June 2007
Police in southern India have arrested the doctor parents of a 15-year-old boy after they allegedly allowed him to perform surgery on a pregnant woman. Reports said Dileepan Raj carried out a caesarean section to get into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's youngest surgeon.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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LIVERPOOL’S leading anti-smoking campaigner has urged a “sensible” approach to the July 1 ban on lighting up in public places. Riverside Labour MP Louise Ellman warned against over-zealous enforcement which could turn the public mood against the veto.
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DOCTORS in Knutsford last week broke their year-long silence about plans to move their surgeries under one roof. Dr Tim Mallon, speaking for all three practices, revealed they had not yet committed themselves to the project.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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A CARLISLE pensioner has asked the district auditor and the local government ombudsman to investigate a new charge for old folks’ day care. John Thorburn, 74, says he will have to pay £1,926 a year when Cumbria County Council introduces the £10 daily fee in October.
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Survey reveals worries of "under pressure" hospital staff - Lancashire Telegraph 26th June 2007
STAFF in East Lancashire hospitals feel more under pressure than before - and they are more likely to leave for new jobs, a survey has found. Job satisfaction levels are falling and more feel they are working extra hours as the demands presented by their post increase, according to the latest NHS staff survey.
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Greater Manchester News
A HOSPITAL manager leapt to her death from a motorway bridge - driven to suicide by the stress of NHS reforms. Morag Shedden Wilson, 32, stabbed herself with a kitchen knife and then jumped from the top of a bridge into the Manchester Ship Canal.
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A PREMATURE baby died hours after doctors performed emergency treatment - on the wrong lung. Now the family has agreed an out-of-court settlement with Wythenshawe Hospital, in south Manchester. Katrina Jackson, from Timperley, believes medical staff made a series of blunders which cost the life of her son Clarke.
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My baby died after doctors operated on the wrong lung - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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My baby died after doctors operated on the wrong lung - Daily Mail 26th June 2007
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THE 500th home in Bolton has declared itself smoke-free. Health bosses introduced the Smoke Free Homes scheme, which sees smokers stop smoking indoors or in front of their children, more than a year ago. And now 500 families have signed up to the programme in a bid to protect their children from the dangers of passive smoking.
The Christie Hospital in Manchester has become the first in the country to be invited to join a prestigious organisation that brings together the leading cancer centres across Europe. The hospital is now a member of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), which is recognised by the European Union and represents more than 40 of Europe's top centres for cancer care and research.
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