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The government yesterday launched a strategy to tackle more than 7 million "hazardous and harmful" drinkers in the UK, but was immediately criticised for soft-pedalling by postponing action to deal with cut-price alcohol promotions. The 10-year strategy, launched jointly by the Home Office and Department of Health, called for a radical shift in British drinking culture and for drinkers, at home as well as in the pub, to take personal responsibility for sensible consumption.
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Marcel Berlins: The new anti-booze campaign is patronising and futile - The Guardian 6th June 2007
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Middle-class wine drinkers 'at risk' - The Independent 6th June 2007
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Shops to face restrictions on cut-price alcohol deals - The Times 6th June 2007
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Shops to face restrictions on cut-price alcohol deals - The Times 6th June 2007
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Supermarkets where drink is sold like water - The Telegraph 6th June 2007
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Shocking figures reveal more than 8 million Britons are 'problem drinkers' - Daily Mail 6th June 2007
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The number of women undergoing fertility treatment in their 40s has increased tenfold in the last 15 years, according to figures released yesterday by the government's fertility watchdog. In 1991, fewer than 600 women were being treated to help them conceive, but by 2006 the number had risen to 6,000.
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Tenfold increase in IVF for over-40s - Daily Mail 6th June 2007
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Surge in older women seeking IVF - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
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Hospital plumber Jimmy McGannon and his maintenance colleagues make unlikely health activists. Most of the joiners, fitters and electricians from Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals, on the Wirral, can only boast "a sense of humour ... and my mother's good looks", he says. But this may well be what it takes to succeed in their campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer among men. They believe the most effective approach is a direct one. In the maintenance department, a giant poster board sports a comically large tap attached to the silhouette of a man. It doesn't beat about the bush. The bold message reads: "Do you have a problem with your waterworks? Call a plumber."
The NHS is on the brink of collapse and cannot be saved unless Gordon Brown intervenes when he becomes prime minister to give doctors the authority to organise a recovery, the leader of Britain's 33,000 hospital consultants will claim today. Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants committee, will tell Mr Brown: "Political meddling has brought the NHS to its knees. Unshackle the profession, give us back the health service, and we will rebuild it. Fail to do so and you will rightly be condemned for destroying the best piece of social capital the country has ever had."
With his crucial reforms only half-finished, Tony Blair was shunted out of office by an ungrateful Labour party. In David Cameron, however, Britain at last has the man to finish the job. That will be the story on public services at the next election - or, at least, it will be if the Tories get their way. Ever since the schools bill was rescued from Labour rebellion by Tory MPs, Cameron's game plan has been clear. It is to make common cause with the prime minister against those who flinch from his style of reform. By portraying Gordon Brown as one of the flinchers, the Tory leader is trying to position himself as the true heir to Blair.
With an income of some £200m, children's charity Barnardo's is ranked eighth of the big charities. From Victorian beginnings, it has evolved from building orphanages for Dickensian waifs to helping young people gain NVQs in hairdressing. The last Barnardo's residential home shut in 1984. Now it is primarily a public services delivery charity. But new chief executive Martin Narey has orders from trustees also to campaign harder to try to sway government policy.
Entrepreneurs who take risks are lauded by politicians of all stripes; move away from the business field, however, and there are signs, including two developments yesterday, that both the government and the governed are becoming risk-allergic. Weeks before the smoking ban is enforced, the government opened a new front against hazards to health with an alcohol strategy targeting not only legless youths on the streets but also older adults drinking at home. At the same time, the Children's Society released research showing the freedom of youngsters to play outside is being curtailed by anxious adults.
The government is failing to protect people against hepatitis B, which can cause liver cancer, and should vaccinate all children, experts say today. In a review published online by the Lancet, a group of specialists in infectious diseases and travel medicine say that the UK is wrong to flout a recommendation 12 years ago from the World Health Organisation that all countries should introduce universal vaccination against hepatitis B.
Max Hastings describes the 2005 pensions settlement in disgracefully misleading terms - he may be unaware of the facts (Brown's defining moment, June 4). The arrangement, which he dismisses as a government "surrender", has in reality begun the radical reform of public-service pensions and will secure every penny of the £13bn savings that the Treasury had always earmarked.
Survey after survey has linked hormone replacement therapy to cancer, strokes, blood clots and heart disease. Why, then, are so many women so relaxed about using it? And why do some doctors insist that the dangers are exaggerated? Sarah Boseley investigates
The two-year-old daughter of a senior executive, who suffered severe head injuries while with her parents at the family's London home, died last night. Yanire Izaga, who had been in a critical condition at St Thomas's hospital for two days, was pronounced dead at 6:30pm.
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Girl, 2, dies as her father faces psychiatric tests - The Times 6th June 2007
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Millionaire faces murder charge after two-year-old daughter dies - Daily Mail 5th June 2007
Despite their importance, it's an uphill struggle for local voluntary sector bodies to get funding. As Kevin Curley tells Annie Kelly, this contradicts the government's commitment to building community engagement
Speaking Up is a charity that does exactly what the government wants: listens to, and involves, its users. So how does it help?
Girls are a growing feature of street gangs. They perpetrate high levels of violence, but are often sexually exploited, finds Mary O'Hara. So why is government ignoring them?
There's a growing income gap between the largest charities and all the others as reliance on sales becomes more important, says David Brindle. So how will this affect their services?
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MP Tony Wright on third-sector involvement in commissioning public services - The Guardian 6th June 2007
"Central to the argument for commissioning from the third sector is that it can offer "added value" in the services it provides. But what is that added value?"
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Caspar van Vark talks to last year's Guardian Charity Awards winners - The Guardian 6th June 2007
There's a new gym and nutrition centre at the east London centre of Motorvations, a vibrant and fast-growing charity that offers teenagers from troubled backgrounds training in motor mechanics alongside help with basic skills and personal health issues. "We're keen on teaching the importance of health and nutrition for young people," says Chris Lee, the charity's development manager. "They're not going to function well at work or school without this knowledge about what to eat and how to look after themselves properly."
The new leadership of Sport England is coming under fire from sports' governing bodies, with executives privately expressing frustration and anger at the organisation's new direction. Under Derek Mapp as chairman and Jennie Price as chief executive, Sport England has opted to focus exclusively on increasing the participation of those over 16 years of age.
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Organisers of the official website of the 2012 Olympics in London were last night forced to remove animated footage from the site after reports that the use of flash imagery had triggered epileptic seizures. Organisers said they had removed the footage after the charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered seizures after watching it. The charity said the images could be a danger to anyone with photosensitive epilepsy, which affects around 23,000 people in the UK.
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Extra police will be deployed on the streets of Brighton during full moons after officers linked levels of violent crime and the lunar cycle. Sussex Police said research by the force into factors which influenced people's behaviour found a correlation between violent and unruly incidents and full moons, with a rise in aggressive behaviour in pubs and nightclubs in the south coast resort. A Sussex Police spokeswoman said more officers would be assigned to street patrol duties during full moons over the summer months.
British scientists hope to deliver the world's first stem-cell treatment for blindness within five years. A team of leading researchers and clinicians is being assembled for the project, which will use embryonic stem cells to repair damaged retinas. Their target is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in the developed world.
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GlaxoSmithKline stepped up its defence of Avandia, the diabetes medicine, last night after the release of fresh data that the company claimed showed little significant difference between the drug’s safety record and that of other common diabetes treatments. However, critics said that the results were inconclusive and would not end the debate surrounding the drug’s alleged link with an increased risk of heart problems.
The humble bidet has a fine comedic heritage in Britain, combining as it does something foreign with something to do with your unmentionables. Billy Connolly used to imagine that they were for washing your socks, or for confused travelling football fans to throw up in. So it is unlikely that an object with such an unprepossessing name as the Nose Bidet will catch on here.
Last year the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) issued the laudable requirement that processes for recruitment, selection and appointment into specialist run-through training programmes should be open, fair and effective. Subsequently, the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) has failed to achieve them. An independent judicial review branded the system flawed and disastrous, and Mr Justice Goldring accepted that many junior doctors could have an entirely justifiable sense of grievance.
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The Australian healthcare company that is trying to buy iSoft, the troubled NHS software supplier, has been told by its lawyers that it has grounds to sue the Government and the American contractor that is trying to block the deal. Gary Cohen, the executive chairman of IBA, said that the company could begin legal proceedings against Connecting for Health (CFH), the quango that has already doubled its budget for the computerisation of patient records, as well as Computer Sciences (CSC), iSoft’s partner in the £12.4 billion CFH contract.
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Some backbench Bills are destined for stillbirth, and Ann Winterton’s Bill yesterday was one of them. It would have compelled women who wanted an abortion to have counselling and to be given information about the possible effects. It was seen off, terminated, 107 votes for, 182 against. Pity. There was a useful point of principle there.
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It’s the most surprising and delightful arts story of the year. The Zimmers, a pop group with a 90-year-old lead singer, an 83-year-old guitarist and a backing chorus of 40 pensioners (including two aged 99 and 100), has soared up the charts with a version of (what else?) My Generation – The Who’s classic song, with its suddenly very ironic line: “Hope I die before I get old”.
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Dentists are earning more than half of their income from the private sector for the first time since the NHS was founded almost 50 years ago, the latest Government figures disclose. In 2004-05, 52 per cent of dentists' incomes came from private patients compared 42 per cent five years ago. The result was that average salaries rose by 11 per cent, from £77,400 to £86,009, statistics from the NHS information centre show.
The microwave, the supermarket and the end of the Second World War are among the reasons being proposed for the obesity epidemic. Experts will today debate these theories and determine when precisely the nation's waistline began to expand.
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Britain's traditional barometer makers and restorers were facing closure last night after the European Parliament voted to uphold a ban on the use of mercury. The decision effectively consigns more than 350 years of unique British tradition and craft to history.
Babies are being washed far too often, according to the latest wisdom from childcare experts. A survey found that many are given nightly baths, when the Department of Health advises they should be bathed only two or three times a week.
As a lifelong non-smoker I have little sympathy for anyone who damages his health by smoking. But I have grave concerns that the NHS is considering penalising smokers, should they require hospital treatment (report, June 4).
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Hospital staff have been ordered to take home the leftovers from their packed lunches and snacks instead of throwing them in the bin, it emerged yesterday. Offices at debt-ridden Ipswich Hospital are to be cleaned just once a week instead of daily to cut costs.
A teenager died from complications following a routine operation on her tonsils. Kayleigh Kennard, 18, had suffered throat infections for two years before she agreed to have the surgery. But she had a severe haemorrhage in her throat just one week after the surgery and died.
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Doctors' leaders last night called for abortion on demand on the NHS. They want a wholesale revision of the law to slash the restrictions on procedures during the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.
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In less than a month, England's millions of smokers will no longer be able to light up in bars, restaurants and offices - a ban pioneered by Wales and Scotland. In anticipation of the new law - which bans smoking in enclosed public spaces and workplaces from July 1 - many will try to quit. But it won't be easy. Going cold turkey is the least effective approach with only a 3 per cent chance. You're more likely to give up with nicotine replacement therapy, prescription drugs, counselling and support.
Michelle Vinall cannot recall what she did with the letter inviting her to book her three-yearly smear test at her local health centre. Nor can she remember where the reminder went, although she suspects it may have ended up in the bin. 'I was busy, with a hectic job, two children, a husband, a puppy, and a house to run, and it was yet one more thing to organise.
Kidney tumours account for 3 per cent of all cancers in the UK. The usual treatment is open surgery to remove the affected organ. But Ian Kinch, 56, a salesman from Farnborough, Hants, underwent an innovative keyhole treatment to remove his tumour. Here, he tells THEA JOURDAN about his experience, while his surgeon explains the procedure
Hundreds of women who paid up to £4,500 for an anti-wrinkle treatment are considering legal action after claiming it did not work. Isolagen was billed as a nonsurgical facelift when it was launched amid a huge publicity campaign four years ago.
Ministers are to confirm the NHS has balanced its books - although many hospitals and other parts of the service are still struggling with debt. A year ago the NHS finished with a deficit of more than £500m, but Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt staked her job on wiping out the debt in 2006-7.
Police investigating the deaths of seven elderly care home residents were due to exhume the first of three bodies last night. The remains of Nellie Mary Pickford were being removed from a graveyard for a postmortem examination to be carried out.
Fears have been raised about the government's handling of the NHS as figures show the emergency readmission rates to hospital are rising. The number of people being readmitted after discharge has gone up by nearly a quarter since 1998, NHS figures show.
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A critical report into why more than 800 patients were given potentially ineffective vaccines is to be released. Jabs for illnesses such as hepatitis and meningitis were kept in fridges at the wrong temperature at the Northfield practise in Aberdeen.
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Swift treatment to re-open the arteries at a specialist centre significantly increases the chances of surviving a heart attack, a study has found. Doctors at Harefield Hospital found under 3% of patients treated with angioplasty at the specialist heart centre had died after 30 days.
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Swift care was so crucial for me - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
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Abortion 'is a conscience is - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
Politicians should be free to form their own opinion on abortion - even if Church leaders tell them otherwise, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly says. She told BBC Radio's Today "politicians have to make up their own minds based on their individual conscience".
Late on Saturday night, there are crowds at the arrival hall at Beijing airport. The Tahiliani family walks past customs. Priti pushes her daughter Shonia in a small wheelchair.
Claims that ambulance staff made fun of a woman for being overweight moments before she died are being investigated. Sandra Teague's husband John said the paramedics joked about calling the fire brigade to move his 17.5st (111kg) wife out of their home in Gloucester.
A medical experiment aiming to be the biggest in the world is appealing for volunteers to help end Scotland's reputation as the "sick man of Europe". The £61m UK Biobank project will track the health of thousands of people for up to 30 years.
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Cigarette buying age to increase - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
The Scottish government has decided to increase the legal age for buying tobacco from 16 to 18 in October. The move was backed by the previous Scottish Executive and will also come into force in England and Wales.
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International News
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The Nigerian government is suing the world's largest drug manufacturer, Pfizer, for £3.5bn in damages for allegedly carrying out illegal trials of an anti-meningitis drug that killed and disabled children. The children died or suffered serious side effects when the antibiotic Trovan was administered in Kano during a meningitis outbreak in 1996.
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Nigeria sues drugs giant Pfizer - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
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Nigeria sues drugs giant Pfizer - BBC Health News 5th June 2007
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Divers have found human remains during a search for six members of an organ transplant team who were on board a small aircraft that crashed into Lake Michigan. The two pilots declared an emergency about five minutes after take-off. Also on board were two surgeons and two donor specialists. No one is believed to have survived.
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Macho men could live longer because they have high testosterone levels, according to a study. Men with low testosterone levels tend to have fatter waists, high blood pressure and higher blood sugar levels, researchers found. Those with high levels of the male sex hormone tended to have a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes in later life.
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A 40-minute operation is being used to treat the most common form of diabetes. The surgery bypasses part of the digestive system and appears to tackle the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes, although it is not yet clear how it works. In patients with diabetes, blood glucose or sugar levels are above normal, the symptoms of this include unusual thirst, tiredness, loss of weight, increased appetite and blurred vision.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
THE family of an 11-year-old Wirral youngster who has an extremely rare and aggressive cancer have claimed that he is being denied potentially life-saving scans costing £780. Nathaniel Fletcher, from Moreton, was diagnosed with clear cell sarcoma on his neck. He has had two operations and six weeks of radiotherapy.
HOLLYOAKS beauty Gemma Atkinson has launched a week devoted to looking after your heart. The 22-year-old’s father died of a heart attack seven years ago, and she has backed the British Heart Foundation ever since.
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Plumbers tap into health concerns - The Guardian 6th June 2007
Hospital plumber Jimmy McGannon and his maintenance colleagues make unlikely health activists. Most of the joiners, fitters and electricians from Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals, on the Wirral, can only boast "a sense of humour ... and my mother's good looks", he says. But this may well be what it takes to succeed in their campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer among men. They believe the most effective approach is a direct one. In the maintenance department, a giant poster board sports a comically large tap attached to the silhouette of a man. It doesn't beat about the bush. The bold message reads: "Do you have a problem with your waterworks? Call a plumber."
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SMOKERS in the north of England are being offered free help to those wanting to kick the habit before the country goes smoke-free next month. The new law, banning smoking in enclosed public places, comes into force on July 1.
CUMBRIAN patients in need of lifesaving organ transplants will benefit from new European legislation, a north west MEP has claimed. Liberal Democrat Chris Davies has backed plans for a new organ donor scheme to be set up across the wider European Union (EU).
A CARLISLE optician is urging those over 40 to have regular eye examinations to help detect glaucoma, the UK's leading cause of blindness. To support National Glaucoma Action Week, from June 11 to 17, Specsavers in Castle Street is offering eyecare advice and promoting the need for regular eye tests at least every two years.
CONVICTED council architect Gillian Beckingham will not give evidence at this week’s Legionnaires’ Disease inquest. South Lakeland coroner Ian Smith said yesterday he first rejected a doctor’s note claiming Ms Beckingham was “unfit to attend”.
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‘Incompetent anaesthetist could have caused death of girl' - Lancashire Telegraph 5th June 2007
AN ANAESTHETIST has been accused of incompetence after botching an operation on a nine-year-old girl. The girl could have died had Dr Mariyappan Balasubramanian not sought the help of a colleague, the General Medical Council was told. After the incident, an investigation was launched into Dr Balasubramanian, who worked in hospitals in Burnley and Blackburn, which found further shortcomings in his work, the hearing was told.
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'Groping' doctor spared jail - Lancashire Telegraph 5th June 2007
A DOCTOR who grabbed two nurses in bearhugs and groped them while working at a Blackburn hospital has been spared jail by a judge. One victim of Dr Patrick Chanda threatened to scream if he didn't release her - but he just laughed, Preston Crown Court was told.
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Greater Manchester News
PERSONAL details of families whose children have died at Manchester's specialist children's hospital have been stolen. A computer memory stick - containing the names and addresses of around 200 families who lost children while being cared for at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital , in Pendlebury - was taken from the hospital's bereavement office on May 9.
WORK has started on the construction of a £12m super health centre in Pendleton (pictured). The clinic, in Lime Court, Broadwalk, will be home to seven GPs, health clinics and Broadwalk Library.
LIFE-SAVING breast screening tests are being delayed for three out of four women in Greater Manchester. The screening programme is designed to detect early cancer in women aged 50-70, giving them a better chance of survival.
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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