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The maximum wait for NHS hearing tests is to be slashed from more than two years to less than two months, as new technology is introduced to accelerate fitting of digital aids for hundreds of thousands of older people, the government said yesterday. Ivan Lewis, the health minister, said the average wait for a hearing assessment in south-east England was 45 weeks. It could then take years for patients to be fitted with a digital hearing aid.
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NHS trusts set hearing aid target - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
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NHS trusts set hearing aid target - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
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An NHS heart surgeon who was on sick leave was working at a private hospital in Sicily as director of cardiac surgery, the Guardian has discovered. Vincenzo Argano, who worked at a troubled cardiac unit in Wales which was riven by allegations of bullying and harassment, took a six months' sabbatical followed by more than eight months' sick leave, said to be due to stress.
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Family doctors will be allowed to use NHS money to prescribe social care support such as home helps and respite breaks for carers under plans to be announced by the government today. GPs will also be encouraged to spend NHS funds on home aids or adaptations such as grab rails or even relaying carpets where an elderly or disabled person may be at risk of falling or tripping - avoiding a large health service bill for emergency hospital treatment.
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Given all the emphasis on investing in and improving the NHS, the idea of a wave of doctor unemployment seems a nonsense. Alarmingly, however, it is very much a reality. Last week, the fears of thousands of junior doctors were realised when they failed to secure interviews for trainee consultant posts under a new fast-track system called Modernising Medical Careers. The doctors who missed out are left wondering whether to try to retrain in another speciality, emigrate, or leave medicine altogether.
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Peter (not his real name) is one of many students at Stoke Newington school in Hackney, London, to have benefited in the past three years from counselling in school. Peter had made a suicide attempt, which left him in hospital for 12 days, as a result of problems at home. Lisa-Marie Serinda, a counsellor employed by the NSPCC but providing a service in the school, was able to create a rapport with Peter. "So much so that even when he was bunking off school, he just came in for the sessions ... and then bunked back off."
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When you take your rash to the GP and he prescribes a cream, do you wonder why he's chosen that one? Assiduous doctors will trawl the evidence to be sure they're giving the perfect treatment for your ailment. Others prescribe what they've sworn by for decades, or something brand new and touted as state-of-the-art. Cynics might suggest that a refreshing conference in Monaco paid for by the drug company and a pen flashing a product name as the doctor reaches for the prescription pad will be as close as some get to evidence-based judgment.
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Many academics may not realise that recently proposed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) could close an important route to information held by public bodies. Since 2005, FOI has been fully operational (Scotland has its own comparable legislation) and has put in place a statutory "right to know" for the first time. Applicants have the right to request information held by public bodies and to have the information communicated to them. Bodies covered include departments of state, local councils, the NHS, police and schools.
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Nightclubs, bars and festivals that sell nitrous oxide face prosecution as part of a purge on the recreational use of the chemical. Drug regulators said yesterday that anyone supplying the compound, commonly known as laughing gas, for recreational inhalation was complicit in an activity that carried serious health risks and would be prosecuted.
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Laughing gas craze is no joke, health watchdog warns club - Daily Mail 5th March 2007
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Laughing gas craze is no joke, health watchdog warns club - Daily Mail 5th March 2007
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The new scheme for selecting doctors for specialist training lurched closer towards chaos yesterday when a panel of consultants refused to conduct job interviews on the ground that they were unfair. The walkout came as the royal colleges issued a joint statement urging the Government to conduct an immediate review of the new selection programme, which contained “serious weaknesses”. The statement gave warning of a “crisis of confidence” in the process.
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Top surgeons risk their jobs to defy 'flawed' interview system - The Telegraph 6th March 2007
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Top surgeons risk their jobs to defy 'flawed' interview system - The Telegraph 6th March 2007
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A student knocked unconscious by muggers on mopeds is making a remarkable recovery after two weeks in a coma, her mother said yesterday. Jane Gauntlett recently walked for the first time since falling from her bicycle during the attack and suffering head injuries. Doctors feared that she would be left with brain damage, if she survived at all.
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A drug to treat osteoporosis and prevent broken bones should be limited to women over the age of 70, it was recommended yesterday. According to draft advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the drug, alendronate, can be prescribed to 70-year-olds who are underweight and have low bone density, both risk factors for breaking bones.
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The NHS brought my daughter into this world, saved my father's life, and kept me and my family bumping along, despite flu, ear infections and a bad cut on my hand. If I were asked to give a little more in taxes to save it, I would. But what if someone were to ask if I would give up my hospital bed because there were others with greater claim to it? Or express my gratitude to the grumpy receptionist at my local surgery, rather than grind my teeth when she puts me on hold once more? What if I were told to accept cheerfully that an operation on some man's arthritic knee took precedence over my mother's hip replacement? No way. I'm a patient, not a saint.
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Patients' lives are being put at risk by a massive rise in the number of ambulance call-outs caused by the shake-up in out-of-hours GP services. The mass opt-out of round-the-clock care by family doctors has lead to a surge in patients ringing 999 for minor complaints leaving paramedics struggling to cope with genuine life-threatening cases.
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Single parents could be forced into jobs once their youngest child turns three under ambitious welfare reforms that set the scene for Gordon Brown's first big battle with Left-wing Labour MPs. The policy overhaul is designed to get almost one third of Britain's long-term jobless off benefit, with private firms contracted to cajole them back to work.
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Pilates has fast become the fitness craze of the Noughties. Favoured by celebrities and sports people alike, it is widely considered the best form of exercise for improving back pain and poor posture.
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A teenager who battled incurable cancer recorded her two-year fight in the hope that her story would inspire others. Zoe Kilby, 17, of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, died in January from the muscle cancer which had spread throughout her body.
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Last week, Prince Charles suggested that banning the Big Mac would be an important step towards improving people's diets. The comments, made during a visit to the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre in Abu Dhabi, were intended to steer the public away from the dangers of junk food.
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Scientists believe that some cases of infertility might be treated by injections of a hormone. A team at London's Hammersmith Hospital has shown that shots of the hormone kisspeptin stimulate the release of the hormones that control periods.
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Diabetes in Scotland is being described by doctors as an epidemic - a label normally reserved for infectious diseases like flu. New research, exclusively available to BBC Radio Scotland's "Investigation", makes alarming reading.
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More young people are being diagnosed with skin cancer, a consultant dermatologist has claimed. Dr Sharon Blackford from Singleton Hospital in Swansea, said she was treating people in their 30s for skin cancers more commonly found in the old.
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A 54-year-old woman and her husband are advertising for an egg donor on London buses in a last-ditch attempt to try to have a baby. Linda Weeks, from Maidstone, Kent, is spending £2,000 on the appeal, which will run for a month from 19 March.
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A Wiltshire man who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and was planning to host his own living wake has died. Andy Fitchett, from Wroughton, was planning a 'final fling' to say goodbye to his friends and family at Swindon Town Football Club on 17 March.
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A new robot - which is claimed will save more than 1,200 hours of staff time per year - has been installed in the pharmacy of a Somerset hospital. The machine at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, uses barcodes to identify and collect patients' medication.
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TB alert for patients at hospital - BBC Health News 5th March 2007
Patients have been contacted by a hospital in West Sussex after a health worker was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Fourteen patients who came into contact with the employee at Worthing Hospital have been traced and advised of the symptoms of TB as a precaution.
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International News
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Girls weighing less than 2.5kg (5.5lbs) at birth are significantly more likely to be depressed as teenagers than those with a normal birth weight, according to research published yesterday. Nearly four out of 10 of the underweight girls (38%) developed depression between the ages of 13 and 16, against 8.4% of those born weighing more. But low birthweight boys appear to be unaffected, according to the study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
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'Depression link' to small babies - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
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'Depression link' to small babies - BBC Health News 6th March 2007
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According to new research, there might be an easy way to keep trim... stay in bed. Roger Highfield reports on evidence linking obesity with sleep deprivation The discovery is enough to make you lose sleep: evidence is emerging of a link between a drop in the time society spends slumbering and the dramatic rise in obesity and associated diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
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The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production. The laboratory-created rice produces some of the human proteins found in breast milk and saliva.
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In the third of a series of articles from the Thai-Burma border, the BBC's Kate McGeown looks at the medical teams who do their best to help Burmese civilians in the region - sometimes risking their lives in the process. If you were to trek into the jungle in eastern Burma, and mention the name Dr Cynthia, people would know immediately who you meant.
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Woman dies from bird flu in Laos - BBC Health News 4th March 2007
A 42-year-old woman has become the first person to die from avian influenza in Laos, officials have said. Authorities said they were awaiting further tests to see if the woman was infected with the H5N1 strain.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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A NURSE last night spoke of how she went to “hell and back” after being pricked with a needle hidden in a tissue on a drug-user’s hospital bed-tray. Paula Rollinson waited an agonising 18 months to find out whether she had potentially fatal Hepatitis, with which she believed the patient was infected. Mrs Rollinson, from Liverpool, spoke out after winning what her lawyers described as an important compensation claim against Aintree NHS Hospitals Trust.
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PARTIALLY sighted Merseyside singer Andrew Coleman is recovering after doctors used human tissue to repair an eye damaged by thugs. The 21 year-old, who rose to fame in Popstars: The Rivals, was left practically housebound after he was attacked last December as he returned home on a bus.
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Mass screening to fight cancer - Liverpool Daily Post 5th March 2007
EVERYONE in Wirral aged between 60 and 69 is to be asked to take part in a mass screening for bowel cancer. Almost 45,000 people will be invited to take part in the programme to diagnose the disease, which is the third most common form of cancer in the borough and the second deadliest.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
A CARLISLE teenager who shed five stone in a year is setting up a new club to help overweight kids. Fourteen-year-old Jess Barnes battled with her weight all of her life. Backed by mum Carol she has visited doctors, dietitians and weight-loss clubs but received little support.
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YEWDALE ward at Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital will get one year’s grace before a smoking ban is introduced. The rest of the hospital, along with Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary, have already gone smoke-free
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A PIONEERING medical treatment using live maggots could be rolled out across the UK following a successful trial in west Cumbria. MPs are calling for other hospitals to follow the example of the West Cumberland in Whitehaven and use maggots more widely on the NHS to treat infected wounds.
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Lifts 'catastrophe' fear at hospital - Lancashire Telegraph 5th March 2007
THREE lifts have broken down at the £113million Royal Blackburn Hospital - just eight months after it opened. A hospital spokeswoman said that there had been "short-term" problems but patient care had "not been affected in any way".
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Greater Manchester News
HUNDREDS of angry health workers took to the streets of Manchester to protest at on-going cuts to NHS jobs and services. Staff who say they are determined to make it clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair that they will not tolerate a relentless drive to slash budgets, staged a march through the city centre, then a rally in Albert Square.
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I HAVE been dismayed to read the many letters expressing concern over fluoridation of the water supply which appear to me to be expressions of fear (of the unknown?) rather than fact. And there has been a remarkable lack of evidence presented to substantiate the opinions expressed.
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Dean wins £88,000 battle with insurers - The Bolton News 5th March 2007
A HEART-ATTACK victim has won a David and Goliath battle with one of the country's biggest insurance companies. Dean Turrell has been awarded an £88,815 payout from Norwich Union.
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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Dean wins £88,000 battle with insurers - The Bolton News 5th March 2007
A HEART-ATTACK victim has won a David and Goliath battle with one of the country's biggest insurance companies. Dean Turrell has been awarded an £88,815 payout from Norwich Union.
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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