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Drugs price fixing scheme costs health service millions, says OFT - The Guardian 20th February 2007
A secretive price-fixing scheme operated between the Department of Health and the major pharmaceutical companies has resulted in the NHS spending many millions of pounds more than it should have for drugs, the Office of Fair Trading is expected to say today. The OFT report is expected to recommend major changes in the way drug prices are decided. It will call for a far more transparent system, which could lead to lower prices for innovative medicines like Herceptin when they first arrive on the market. The high price of such drugs has caused some primary care trusts, who hold the purse strings, to drag their feet over paying for them.
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NHS 'paying too much' for branded drugs - The Independent 20th February 2007
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Drugs giants to be told ‘cut prices you charge NHS’ - The Times 20th February 2007
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'Multi-million pound overspend' on NHS drugs - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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It is the ultimate excuse for every video-gamer accused of spending too long hunched over a console: "I'm not addicted. I'm just honing my surgical skills." A study has found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery. Young surgeons who spent at least three hours a week playing video games in the past made 37% fewer errors, were 27% faster, and scored 42% better overall than surgeons who had never played a video game at all.
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Peers defeated the government yesterday again over its plans to detain and treat people with mental health problems who have committed no offence. Conservative, Liberal Democrat, crossbench and rebel Labour peers voted by 186 to 115 to ensure that detention and compulsory treatment is permitted only if it is "likely" to help the patient.
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Triple defeat on mental health Bill - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
first made headlines three years ago, and it's not going away. The H5N1 bird flu virus was originally a news scare from faraway places, but it has come home to roost and Bernard Matthews, of Golden Drummers and Turkey Twizzler fame, has had to slaughter 160,000 turkeys. The H5N1 virus may be only a breath away from mutating into a virulent human form. For our students, flu pandemics are a footnote from history, but the advance of H5N1 emphasises what many scientists feel - that a flu pandemic is overdue. It is a grimly fascinating subject, and pertinent to many areas of the curriculum, including science, maths, geography and even art.
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More and more parents are taking their children to complementary therapists. But just how safe and effective are such treatments?
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Back in the 1970s, Patricia Hewitt's friendship with William "Bill" Birtles caused MI5 to classify her a "Communist sympathiser". The young man, a hard leftie, later (curiously) became a judge. She is now the Health Secretary; he's her husband. Bill Birtles' political opinions are again causing Hewitt headaches. The couple live in a fancy square in Camden, north London. Birtles is making a racket about a proposed new pharmacy nearby, which he believes will bring more drug addicts to the area.
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Britain faces a health and pensions crisis as baby-boomers fall prey to heart disease and stroke, a leading heart charity said yesterday. Far from working longer to ease pension concerns, millions of people in their fifties and sixties are likely to be forced into early retirement and disablement unless more is done to limit the impact of heart disease.
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‘I needed a coronary bypass. It was scary’ - The Times 20th February 2007
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‘I needed a coronary bypass. It was scary’ - The Times 20th February 2007
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A doctor who prescribed large quantities of addictive drugs over the internet has been condemned for his “cavalier approach” to medicine. The General Medical Council’s fitness to practise panel yesterday upheld a string of charges against Julien Eden, a GP accused of prescribing drugs online to “line his pockets”. Patients whom he supplied but never saw were left to descend into “dependency and abuse”.
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Women with an average-sized waist of 34ins are more likely to develop womb cancer than those who are slimmer, researchers say. Those with a 34in waist were found to have almost double the risk compared with those whose waists were 31 inches or less, an international study of 223,000 women suggests.
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Cancer of the womb linked to large waist - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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A 34inch waist doubles the risk of womb cancer - Daily Mail 19th February 2007
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Cancer of the womb linked to large waist - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
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A 34inch waist doubles the risk of womb cancer - Daily Mail 19th February 2007
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Drinking two cups of spearmint tea a day could help women to get rid of excess body hair, researchers claim. Hirsutism is a condition which leads some women to grow extra hair on their faces, breasts and stomachs, because of abnormally high levels of “masculine” androgen hormones such as testosterone, found naturally in both sexes but in greater quantities in men. The condition can be a symptom of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). But a study of 21 women in Phytotherapy Research, suggests that spearmint tea can have a beneficial effect.
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Is anyone out there still ignorant about cholesterol? Heart UK thinks that there may be: living in a cave, maybe, or up a tree. Since the 1950s a clear link has been established between cholesterol levels and heart disease. For a long time, however, that’s all it was. Cholesterol levels can be cut by improving diet and taking more exercise, but it is demanding work. Outside clinical trials, there was little evidence that real people living real lives could make much of a difference.
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A pilot scheme that gives heroin on prescription to addicts should be expanded, a police chief said yesterday. Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), called for the drug to be made available to "hard core" users so they no longer need commit crime to fund their addiction.
Doctors will have to submit to checks every five years to ensure they are fit to practise and not a danger to patients under new rules to be published tomorrow. The regular MoTs will end the system under which 130,000 doctors, on entering independent practice as a GP or consultant, face no formal re-assessment of their competence, clinical skills or performance until they retire.
A new Government drive to cut NHS waiting lists by asking hospitals to carry out operations in the evenings and at weekends came under fire from doctors' leaders yesterday. Tony Blair promised that cutting waiting times to a maximum of 18 weeks — from first seeing a GP to the operating theatre — would be part of his political legacy.
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Round-the-clock surgery will not save the NHS - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
It is a sad but interesting fact of modern political life that when government does something right little credit is given. There have been dramatic falls in the time patients wait for hospital treatment and if we want an honest assessment of this administration's achievements as well as its failures that should be acknowledged.
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Whitehall's 'vote of no confidence' - The Telegraph 20th January 2007
Fewer than two in 10 senior civil servants at the Department of Health believe it is well-managed, according to figures highlighted yesterday. Only four per cent — less than one in 20 — think the department is able to manage change well.
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Senior DoH staff 'dissatisfied' - BBC Health News 19th February 2007
It is the modern equivalent of living in a sealed plastic bubble. And it is also the best chance of survival for a desperately ill five-year-old.
A controversial plastic surgery group is offering interest-free loans for patients seeking operations. Transform claims to be the first to offer the scheme, which experts say entices patients to have operations.
Singer Russell Watson is known as The Voice. His soaring tenor has earned him that soubriquet - as well as five million record sales worldwide. He also likes to talk. But suddenly, midsentence, his effortless eloquence deserts him. He chokes on his words; tears spring to his eyes.
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NHS deficits progress report due - BBC Health News 20th February 2007
The government is due to announce what progress the NHS in England has made towards balancing its books by the end of the financial year. It will use Strategic Health Authority data for April to December to predict what the NHS's financial position will be on 31 March.
Hundreds of health officials from across Britain are due to take part in an exercise later to see how a flu pandemic would be dealt with. Officials will stay in a bunker at the Department of Health, in London, as part of the logistical exercise.
Some 51% of young women would have surgery to improve their looks and a third of those who are a size 12 think they are overweight, a survey suggests. BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat and 1xtra's TXU asked 25,000 people, mostly aged 17 to 34, how they felt about their bodies.
A man stabbed outside a pub was taken to hospital in a fire engine because the area's three ambulances were busy. An investigation has been launched by the Welsh Ambulance Service, which said it was taking it very seriously.
A teenager has been awarded £6.6m in damages after negligence during his birth left him with brain damage. Ryan Garrigan, 15, has cerebral palsy and mental impairment, suffered after he was starved of oxygen during birth at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
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Playing new style computer games can help people burn up a significant amount of calories, research has found. Games consoles such as Nintendo Wii require players to use body movements to control the action.
A Devon MP has attacked police for preparing to hand out nicotine gum to people being held in custody. The move follows a ban on smoking in Devon and Cornwall Police custody centres last year.
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Teachers back TV viewing concerns - BBC Health News 19th February 2007
Teachers have backed concerns about the negative impact of TV on children. John Bangs of the National Union of Teachers says children can arrive in school "tired and exhausted" from watching too much television.
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A premature baby that doctors say spent less time in the womb than any other surviving infant is to be allowed home from a Florida hospital today. Amillia Sonja Taylor was just 24.13cm (9.5in) long and weighed less than 284g (10 ounces) when she was born on October 24. She was delivered after just under 22 weeks of pregnancy; full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks.
Goji berries, the latest super-food advocated by celebrities such as Madonna, Kate Moss and Liz Hurley, may have to be removed from sale. The berries, full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and little-known on the high street two years ago, have become such a fashionable “miracle” food that they have caught the attention of the regulators.
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Sexualisation 'harms' young girls - BBC Health News 20th February 2007
The media's portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls' mental and physical health, US experts warn. Magazines, television, video games and music videos all have a detrimental effect, a task force from the American Psychological Association reported.
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How irises 'reveal personalities' - BBC Health News 19th February 2007
It may be possible to read a person's personality through their eyes, Swedish researchers have said. They have detected patterns which show warm-heartedness and trust or neuroticism and impulsiveness.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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A MERSEYSIDE mother who lost two children within three weeks of each other to cystic fibrosis has died of the same disease. Last night, the family of Jackie Culshaw paid tribute to the mother-of-nine for selflessly nursing her children through their illness, despite knowing she was risking her own health by coming into close contact with them.
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Barrage of questions over NHS 'supermarkets' - Warrington Guardian 19th February 2007
HEALTH chiefs briefed councillors on the new Primary Care Strategy last week and faced a barrage of questions. Kate Abendstern, director of commissioning at the Primary Care Trust, presented the strategy to members of the borough council's health overview and scrutiny committee last Tuesday.
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Full-time flying doc - Carlisle News & Star 19th February 2007
A HIGH-FLYING medic has become the first full-time doctor with the Pride of Cumbria air ambulance service. Susie Pritchard, who previously worked in the Cumberland Infirmary’s accident and emergency department in Carlisle, started working for the Great North Air Ambulance as a volunteer but loved the job so much jumped at the chance to go full-time.
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Greater Manchester News
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TODDLER Erin Cottington takes a Viagra tablet every day - to stay alive. She was given the drug - better known for treating impotence - to help the blood flow to her lungs when she was born. Almost two years on, the Manchester youngster still has a small dose each day.
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Bug Closes Three Hospital Wards - The Bolton News 20th February 2007
THREE wards at the Royal Bolton Hospital were closed following an outbreak of a winter vomiting virus. A cardiology ward and a short stay ward were re-opened yesterday but a third ward, the C2 ward is still closed to new admissions after nine patients and several members of staff were struck down with the bug.
Full links to the articles detailed can be found at www(dot) fade the blog 2 (dot)blogspot (dot)com, This has been a Podcast of Another 15 Minutes ... Health News from the Fade Library.
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