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MPs criticise 'boom and bust' NHS planning - The Guardian 23rd March 2007
A "disastrous failure" in the government's strategic planning allowed NHS trusts to indulge in reckless recruitment of extra staff causing unsustainable pressure on the pay bill, a Labour-controlled Commons select committee said yesterday. Between 1999 and 2004 the number of nurses employed by the NHS in England increased by more than 67,000 - about 340% more than the Department of Health intended. Over the same period the number of GPs grew by 4,098 - or 105% more than the official plan.
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NHS 'recklessly' hired staff to meet its targets - The Independent 23rd March 2007
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Reckless NHS recruitment blamed for cash shortage - The Times 23rd March 2007
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Reckless boom in jobs caused crisis in NHS, say MPs - The Telegraph 23rd March 2007
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The great NHS staff disaster: From boom to bust - Daily Mail 22nd March 2007
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NHS staff planning 'disastrous' - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
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NHS 'recklessly' hired staff to meet its targets - The Independent 23rd March 2007
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Reckless NHS recruitment blamed for cash shortage - The Times 23rd March 2007
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Reckless boom in jobs caused crisis in NHS, say MPs - The Telegraph 23rd March 2007
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The great NHS staff disaster: From boom to bust - Daily Mail 22nd March 2007
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NHS staff planning 'disastrous' - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
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Some of Britain's leading drug experts demand today that the government's classification regime be scrapped and replaced by one that more honestly reflects the harm caused by alcohol and tobacco. They say the current ABC system is "arbitrary" and not based on evidence. The scientists, including members of the government's top advisory committee on drug classification, have produced a rigorous assessment of the social and individual harm caused by 20 substances, and believe this should form the basis of any future ranking.
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Tobacco and alcohol 'are more dangerous than LSD' - The Independent 23rd March 2007
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Alcohol and tobacco cause more harm than Ecstasy, study claims - The Times 23rd March 2007
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Alcohol 'should be considered a Class A drug' say experts - Daily Mail 22nd March 2007
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Scientists want new drug rankings - BBC Health News 23rd March 2007
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Alcohol and tobacco cause more harm than Ecstasy, study claims - The Times 23rd March 2007
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Alcohol 'should be considered a Class A drug' say experts - Daily Mail 22nd March 2007
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Scientists want new drug rankings - BBC Health News 23rd March 2007
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The publishers of The Lancet are under fire from leading doctors who are complaining about their escalating involvement in arms fairs. Across three pages of today's edition the medical journal publishes letters from top doctors, led by the Royal College of Physicians, who say that Reed Elsevier's commercial interest in the arms trade undermines the journal's efforts to improve health worldwide.
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Bethany Walton leads me inside the art school she attends in Lincoln, powering enthusiastically up the stairs ahead of me. We are bound for the fine art room, whose paint-daubed denizens have headed off for lunch, leaving their sketches pinned artlessly around the room. With a flash of green nail varnish, Bethany shows me her latest work. She is on a one-year art foundation course, specialising in photography, and her recent images include a monochrome still-life of an egg box, open and filled with hollow shells. "I need to do that one again," she says thoughtfully, motioning to a shadowy area. "It's not quite dark enough."
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Mancunians spend more on alcohol at the supermarket than shoppers from any other region, according to a survey which also reveals soaring champagne sales alongside a slump in alcopops. After analysis of 8,000 weekly supermarket shops, Manchester was named Britain's booziest city, with its adults spending 20% of their bill on alcohol - a third more than anywhere else. Households spend an average of £600 on alcohol for home consumption each year.
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Women should be warned that babies born at home have a higher risk of dying, the health watchdog warns today. But prospective mothers should still be offered the choice of a home birth, as well as going to a midwife unit or hospital. Final draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) suggests that women should be reassured that the risk of their baby dying during childbirth is low wherever they are born - 5.1 deaths per 1,000 births - although risks are higher if serious complications occur at home, rather than in hospital.
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"Don't put women off home births" - The Telegraph 23rd March 2007
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"Don't put women off home births" - The Telegraph 23rd March 2007
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Autistic children find it hard to interpret facial expressions. But the adventures of a cartoon cast of toy vehicles could help to change that. Charlotte Moore reports
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Older people are needlessly suffering because they fail to receive pain relief for chronic conditions such as arthritis, according to a survey published today. The poll by consumer group, the Patients Association, found care home residents were offered poor standards of pain relief.
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Nursing home residents 'in pain' - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
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Nursing home residents 'in pain' - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
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More than half of patients in mental hospitals are treated in mixed-sex wards, in breach of a government pledge to abolish them. The Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog, said yesterday that a census last March found 55 per cent of in-patients in mental hospitals and 57 per cent of intellectually disabled people were in mixed accommodation, putting their safety at risk.
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David Cameron tore into the Budget for "wasting money on an industrial scale" as he mocked the Chancellor as the pilot of a sinking New Labour ship. The Conservative leader derided Gordon Brown's 10 years at No 11, telling MPs: "His great experiment in tax and spending has failed. He is an out-of-date politician wedded to state control. The question everyone is asking is, 'Where has the money gone?'"
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Spending on the NHS in England will rise by £8bn in 2007-08 in what is certain to be the last of the years of plenty. Next year's rise, set before the Budget and confirmed by Gordon Brown yesterday, will be the biggest cash increase ever. It will mark the end of five years of record growth in NHS spending which has averaged 7 per cent a year in real terms since 2002-03.
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We are all tax cutters now. Or so the politicians would like us to believe. The Budget may be remembered less for the largely offsetting changes in income tax than for the broader shift in the political debate. All parties, Labour as well as the Tories and Liberal Democrats, want to be seen as favouring tax cuts. Gordon Brown now accepts the public’s resistance to higher taxes. This mirrors the Conservative acceptance of the thrust of Mr Brown’s spending plans. By contrast, since 1997 Labour has pushed up the tax burden, either explicitly via the rise in national insurance contributions to pay for the expansion in the NHS, or through stealth taxes.
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Thousands of patients with heart disease may be being denied their best chance of long-term survival. Rather than having a heart bypass to replace diseased arteries, more patients now undergo stenting, a procedure that props open the arteries with fine mesh grids. Stenting is popular because it is less invasive than bypass surgery. But three papers in the British Medical Journal question whether stenting is as effective or as cost-effective as surgery.
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A doctor who authorised dozens of cremations without the proper paperwork could be struck off after the GMC ruled that his behaviour was dishonest, misleading and unprofessional. Stuart Edwards pocketed thousands of pounds by signing off cremation certificates without making the correct checks.
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Police have been asked to begin an investigation into accusations that Britain’s most successful fertility doctor committed a criminal offence by treating patients without a licence. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) referred the case of Mohammed Taranissi to Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate after documents seized during a raid on his two London clinics in January suggested that he performed 104 procedures in the first half of last year at an unlicensed centre.
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A pioneering NHS diagnostic service has been suspended over doubts about the quality of its work. Family doctors from eight primary care trusts (PCTs) in the North West of England have been told to send no more patients to the centre run by Atos Origin, a French company, while the results of 1,600 ultrasound and MRI scans are reexamined.
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The Chancellor promised that the National Health Service in England would have an additional £8 billion to spend in 2007-08 and the UK as a whole an additional £10 billion. This was, he said, the biggest cash increase ever, a rise in cash terms of 10 per cent and in real terms of 7 per cent. However, the figures were not new, as they reflect promises made in an earlier spending review that will end next year.
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Children who contract meningitis as babies may suffer long-term damage that limits their educational attainments, the first study of its kind has shown. Research has revealed that about 25 per cent fail to pass any GCSEs above grade C, compared with just 6 per cent of children who have not suffered the infection. Almost 8 per cent of those who caught bacterial meningitis before their first birthday go to schools for children with special educational needs — about four times the national average.
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I have read that children who grow a lot before the age of 2 and after the age of 15 have a better chance of avoiding heart disease in adulthood. My 18-month-old son is very large for his age. Does this mean that he has a better chance of avoiding high cholesterol later in life?
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A father of three died after he contracted an infection from a hospital shower on the day that he was due to be discharged after successful treatment for leukaemia. The hospital had failed for many years to act on guidance about the safety of its ageing hot water system, a court was told. The failure led to Daryl Eyles, 37, contracting legionnaires’ disease from a dirty shower head. He had just been told that he was in complete remission after enduring months of chemotherapy.
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British universities are dishonest and undermining science by offering bachelor of science (BSc) degrees in homoeopathy, a leading medical researcher said yesterday. David Colquhoun, Professor of Pharmacology at University College London (UCL), said that the courses were fundamentally dishonest because homoeopathic medicine was not founded on science, yet was being presented as such by reputable universities.
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Principles of homoeopathy - The Telegraph 22nd March 2007
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Alternative medicine degrees 'anti-scientific' - The Telegraph March 22nd 2007
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Alternative therapy degree attack - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
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After 30 years of medical service to our neighbourhood and leadership of the local health centre, my doctor is retiring at the end of this month. On account of his age? I suppose so, though lately I have diagnosed just a hint of weariness in him with the ways of our National Health Service. All the years I have known him, my doctor has been a strong supporter of the NHS.
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Pressure on the Government to abandon the flawed new system for recruiting new consultants grew yesterday as more senior doctors voiced their concerns. Calls for the computerised Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) to be revised are hardening into demands for it to be dropped altogether.
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Nearly 500 miss deadline for drawing up anti-discrimination plans, says Roland Gribben Almost 500 public sector bodies are being asked to explain why they have failed to meet a deadline for producing details of plans to counter discrimination against disabled employees, and have been warned they could face legal action. The Disability Rights Commission has given the institutions – which include executive agencies and regulators – until next week to provide answers before deciding whether further action is needed. Failure to furnish the details could result in the commission launching proceedings for contempt, and senior officials in the organisations facing a prison stretch if found guilty.
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Elderly people in nursing homes are being left in "shocking pain" says a survey today, with two in five saying they are in constant agony, and others admitting to having suicidal thoughts. The research, conducted confidentially among residents whose average age was 82, reveals the extent to which the frail and vulnerable are made to suffer unnecessarily.
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For most people talking on a mobile phone, cooking dinner in the microwave or driving in a car is simply part of modern living in 21st century Britain. But completing any such tasks is impossible for Debbie Bird - because she is allergic to modern technology.
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No justice for the baby killed by midwives' errors - Daily Mail 21st March 2007New Story
A mother whose newborn baby died after mistakes by two midwives is horrified that both have been allowed to return to work. Gail Brandon's daughter Faye died at just 17 hours old after major errors by midwives Ailean Anderson and Jenny Gray.
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Campaigners have welcomed the move to cut VAT on nicotine patches and gum announced in the Budget. Chancellor Gordon Brown said he would reduce the rate from 17.5% to 5% from July 1 - to coincide with the introduction of the smoking ban.
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There should be a clampdown on private medical screening, government advisors are set to recommend. The National Screening Committee is considering how best to regulate the industry, Pulse magazine reports.
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The NHS should record the ethnicity of all patients to ensure people with mental illness are not discriminated against, a watchdog has said. The Healthcare Commission said some black and ethnic minority groups were three times more likely than average to be admitted to mental health hospitals.
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Thousands of patients with heart disease may be missing out on best care, an expert has warned. Stents - small tubes - are used at least four times more often than bypass surgery to treat clogged arteries.
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They entered nursing with high hopes of working in a valued profession which made a difference to people's lives. But the staff shortages and cash cutbacks have taken their toll on nurses such as Sarah Hector and Rob Carey who have joined the exodus of staff heading for Australia.
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Cases of tuberculosis are increasing, official figures show. Provisional data from the Health Protection Agency show a rise of 2% from 2005 to 2006 to 8,171 cases across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Cutting junior doctors' working hours will not reduce fatigue and the risk of errors on its own, a study says. Researchers found changes in rotas and working nights were at the heart of the problem in a poll of 1,400 medics.
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International News
Concerns about the anti-flu drug Tamiflu deepened yesterday after doctors in Japan were warned against prescribing it to teenagers because of several cases in which young patients committed suicide or harmed themselves. Japan's health ministry decided to act after a boy and a girl, both 14, fell to their deaths in suspected suicides last month and two 12-year-old boys suffered minor injuries after falling from buildings.
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Patients with a slipped disc could be cured by transplant - The Independent 23rd March 2007
Surgeons have pioneered a radical cure for the slipped disc, a common cause of back pain, by using transplants from donors. In the first operation of its kind, orthopaedic specialists in Hong Kong replaced slipped discs in five patients, who had suffered long-standing pain, with discs removed from three women aged between 20 and 30 who had died in accidents.
The greed of Chinese doctors was revealed after investigative reporters gave tea instead of urine samples and were prescribed costly treatments for nonexistent ailments. The scandal broke only days after Gao Qiang, the Health Minister, gave warning that the failures and high cost of healthcare were causing widespread discontent and posing a serious threat to stability.
The campaign to add folic acid to bread in an attempt to stop hundreds of babies from being born with disabilities has been bolstered by research suggesting that the move was probably safe. A study carried out in Dublin found no evidence of health risks in average consumption of folic acid from fortified flour. One group of volunteers consumed bread containing the equivalent of 100ug (micrograms) per day of folic acid, a second group 200ug and a third 400ug.
Victims of chronic back pain were offered fresh hope with news of successful 'spinal transplant' surgery. Spinal discs from accident victims were transplanted into patients with disc degeneration in the cervical spine, the area nearest the neck.
Eating junk food raises women's risk of developing a range of cancers, researchers said yesterday. Two studies demonstrated the dangers of a diet that includes high levels of fat and processed foods.
Dr Haidr al-Maliki was as an army psychiatrist during Saddam Hussein's regime. He now works as a child psychiatrist at Ab Ibn Rushed Hospital in Baghdad. He lives with his wife and four children.
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Blood sugar 'boosts cancer risk' - BBC Health News 22nd March 2007
Women with high blood sugar levels are at an increased risk of developing cancer, a major European study finds. Diabetes causes high blood sugar, as does eating too much sugary food. The Swedish research, which looked at 64,500 people, linked raised blood sugar with pancreas, skin, womb, and urinary tract cancers in women.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
A NURSE at Southport Hospital was punched in the face by a patient. Hospital spokesman Matthew King said: “I can confirm that there was an incident and that we treat such matters very seriously and are currently investigating the reasons behind it.”
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FIVE-YEAR-OLD liver transplant patient Jordan Roberts is making good progress just weeks after life-saving surgery. Mum Wendy Harvey is delighted with her son's progress, despite a setback when the youngster suffered a chest infection.
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Vow to repay dedication of hospital staff- Runcorn Weekly News 22nd March 2007
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MORE than 100 Merseyside parents have been sent “back to school” to learn how to control their unruly children. They were subject to parenting orders, introduced five years ago as part of the war on yob culture, because their offspring are persistent truants or are turning into hooligans.
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EXTRA services are not in place to cope with the closure of a Liverpool elderly care ward, a councillor claimed. Liverpool’s Liberal leader, Cllr Steve Radford, a member of the health and social care committee, said: “We don’t have the support services to look after vulnerable people.”
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A HOSPITAL car park that made more than £1m last year from charges is now putting its prices up by more than 300% Prices for a day’s parking at Fazakerley and Walton hospitals will rise from £1.50 to £5 from April 1.
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Elderly at risk if ward closes down - Liverpool Daily Post 21st March 2007
EXTRA services are not in place to cope with the planned closure of a 24-bed elderly care ward in Liverpool in less than a fortnight, it was claimed last night. Health officials believe it is more “efficient” to treat as many vulnerable patients as possible in the community.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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SHE’S been called names like ‘psycho’ and ‘nutter’ for harming her own body but now a Carlisle woman is writing a book to raise awareness of her condition. Annette Baillie, 39, has been going through the psychiatric system since she was 19.
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A DRUNK 14-year-old girl abused hospital staff who were trying to help her after she was found in Workington at 2am. Whitehaven Youth Court heard that police found the girl, from Workington, on Salterbeck Road on January 21. She smelled of alcohol and was taken by police to Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital.
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THE gap between health and social care is set to narrow thanks to a new partnership between Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Primary Care Trust. The Health and Wellbeing Board was recently set up to combine the expertise of both organisations.
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HEALTH staff were congratulated for their hard work at an Oscar style award ceremony. The first East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust's Excellence Awards celebrated the outstanding efforts of individuals and groups across the area including Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital.
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A DOCTOR has admitted telling a series of fibs on his CV to get a better job but denied putting patients at risk. Dr Kelvin Chatoor, 40, claimed he had passed a Bachelor of Science with first class honours and that he was the top in a class of 2,700 pupils.
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Doctor cleared of 16 charges - Lancashire Telegraph 21st March 2007
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Baby died of rare disease - Lancashire Telegraph 22nd March 2007
A BABY has died after being struck down by a disease so rare that it affects two children in every million. Six-week-old Mohammed Iqbal died days before he was due to have a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
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A PATIENT who claimed she was groped by a doctor may have been suffering from the side-effects of powerful pain-killing drugs, a hearing was told. Pharmacology expert Prof Nicholas Birch said the patient, who cannot be named for legal reasons, may have been suffering from hallucinations around the time she believed she was indecently examined by Dr Shakir Laher, in January and February 2004.
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The Duke of Gloucester visited East Lancashire today to officially open the Royal Blackburn Hospital and the £30m Phase Five Development at Burnley General Hospital. Before unveiling a plaque to officially open the Royal Blackburn, which began taking patients last July, he said: "I would like to congratulate everybody who has played a role. It must be a relief to see it all working.
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A FORMER hospital vice-chairman has slammed the removal of a plaque bearing the name of her outspoken boss as "offensive and disrespectful". Indira Batra said bosses must put back the plaque, which honoured former hospital chairman Ian Woolley.
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A DENTIST has denied claims that he sexually assaulted two members of staff at a Blackburn practice. Martin Kono Abe is accused of grabbing one woman's breasts - on one occasion while she was working on a computer.
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Greater Manchester News
A HEALTH scanning project to cut waiting lists at Greater Manchester hospitals has been halted after the private company running it was accused of a series of blunders. Two contracts have been suspended with Atos Origin which was paid to carry out hi-tech checks on NHS patients.
TWO new state-of the-art health centres are to be built in Bury as the transformation of the town centre races on. Costing £10 million each, one of the Primary Care Resource Centres will be sited on Moorgate as part of the redevelopment of The Rock, while the other will be at Townside Fields, directly opposite the town hall.
HEALTH services in Bolton have received a record amount of cash in Gordon Brown's Budget. An additional £33.2 million will be ploughed into health care in the town - taking the total cash for the next financial year to more than £400 million.
VOLUNTEERS are being sought to help care for disabled children and young people. Bolton Shared Care is appealing for people aged over 18 to help out parents as part of national Share The Care Week, which runs until Monday.
BACKING has been given in Bolton to a national campaign to increase the number of ethnic minority organ donors. A major drive to tackle the growing "donor gap" has been launched by UK Transplant, the NHS organisation responsible for matching and allocating donated organs.
PATIENTS face longer waits for potentially life-saving scans after the private company running the mobile service at Bolton Diabetes Centre has been accused of a series of errors. The NHS ultrasound and MRI scanning service provided by Atos has been suspended while an investigation is carried out into claims doctors were unable to tell which results belonged to which patients in seven cases.
A DOCTOR is calling on schools to devote more time to sports studies and less to academic subjects. Leading Bolton GP Dr Ian James says it would be a perfect way to battle rising levels of obesity among children.
Lovely life with our Down's baby - The Bolton News 22nd March 2007
HOW would you cope if your baby was born with Down's Syndrome? Bolton Wanderers Football Club assistant communications manager Paul Holliday and his wife Nannette found out when baby Isabella was born two years ago. With World Down's Syndrome Day taking place this week, he tells his story. THIS week will perpetually provide a happy coincidence for my family. Two years ago yesterday my second daughter, Isabella Grace, decided to forsake the purity of her mother's pregnancy to experience life on the outside - all 10 pounds and half-an-ounce of her.
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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