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A hospital consultant who helped to hasten the deaths of two dying premature babies was cleared of misconduct by the General Medical Council yesterday. Michael Munro, 41, a consultant neonatologist at Aberdeen maternity hospital, injected a large dose of a muscle relaxant into the babies moments before their deaths in 2005 to ease their distress.
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We must debate end-of-life issues, says doctor cleared of misconduct - The Times 12th July 2007
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We must debate end-of-life issues, says doctor cleared of misconduct - The Times 12th July 2007
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Health and social care bill Creates Ofcare, new health and adult social care regulator. Would require General Medical Council and other health bodies to use civil standard of proof - "the balance of probabilities" - in disciplining professionals. Provides for one-off payment to expectant mothers in 29th week of pregnancy. Human tissue and embryos bill Bans selection of sex of child for non-medical reasons. Removes requirement for a father to be involved in fertility treatment. Brings all human embryos outside the body under regulation but increases scope of embryo research.
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The 23 Bills in full - The Times 12th July 2007
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Brown plans new health regulation - BBC Health News 11th July 2007
Nearly 3,000 hospital patients were given the wrong treatment last year because of inaccurate or confusing information on their identification wristband, according to the National Patient Safety Agency. The results, the agency said, could be potentially devastating, especially in surgery. In one mix-up a diabetic patient was given an almost fatal dose of insulin.
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New rules on patient wristbands after 25,000 hospital errors - The Times 12th July 2007
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NHS gives wrong treatment to 500 patients a week - Daily Mail 11th July 2007
Models under 16 should be banned from the runways, designers should be trained to help models with eating disorders and shows should be "demonstrably" drug-free, an investigation into the fashion industry has concluded.
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Banning under-16s from catwalk 'will cut rate of eating disorders' - The Independent 12th July 2007
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Young models may face catwalk ban - The Times 12th July 2007
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Under-16 models face ban from catwalk - The Telegraph 12th July 2007
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London catwalk may ban models under 16 - Daily Mail 12th May 2007
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Patrick Barkham: Stoke-on-Trent's smokers flout the ban at the last-gasp saloon - The Guardian 11th July 2007Additional Story
London catwalk may ban models under 16 - Daily Mail 12th May 2007
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No one has lit up inside the Glebe or in the Famous Lion. And there's that familiar pavement-bound cluster of smokers outside Gray's Corner pub. This is supposed to be Smoke-on-Trent, the last haven both for addicts desperate for an indoor gasper and those of us who would take a lungful of nicotine over the new pub eau de stale-BO-and-farts any day.
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Welcome to Smoke-on-Trent... the only British city where smokers can still light up thanks to a council blunder - Daily Mail 11th July 2007
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Hey kids! How about some healthy free fruit? No thanks, we'll stick with crisps - The Guardian 11th July 2007
The scale of the initiative was immense; 44m pieces of fruit or veg served up every year to 2 million children in 18,000 schools across the country. The point of the plan was laudable; to make children healthier, and give them a real appetite for fresh food. But there is one great problem with the scheme that was launched with such fanfare three years ago; children just won't eat their greens.
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Free fruit at school ‘has little benefit’ - The Times 12th July 2007
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'Extra fruit and veg give no long-term benefits' - The Telegraph 12th July 2007
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Our heart assessments are not endangering the public - The Guardian 11th July 2007
No one is being wrongly labelled as at risk, and we're not over-prescribing drugs, says Roger Boyle Your front-page article is wrong to assert that "thousands of people have wrongly been told they are in danger of developing life-threatening heart diseases" because their risk has been miscalculated (1.5m wrongly told they risk heart disease, July 6). The article goes on to imply a link between the prevention of cardiovascular disease and treatment for heart failure, which is hugely misleading and risks alarming a lot of people for no good reason.
It is, on the face of it, a frankly random connection, as random as the distribution of those highly pigmented blotches - yes, often on faces (see Scarlett Johansson) - tends to be. But the answer, according to researchers at King's College, London, is yes. The effect is even quantifiable: if you have always resented your 100-plus moles, you can now take comfort from the fact that you will probably live six or seven years longer than someone with only 25 or so of the pesky things. That is, if a malignant melanoma doesn't get you first.
"Madchester" band the Happy Mondays, best known for their album Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, are helping to buy a cancer drug for the former Factory Records boss Tony Wilson. The £3,500 a month treatment will keep Mr Wilson's kidney cancer at bay after the NHS refused to fund his treatment. He was diagnosed with cancer last year, and has had a kidney removed.
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Older women should not start taking hormone replacement therapy many years after the menopause because of the health risks, researchers say. The results of a study examining the effects of HRT in postmenopausal women were finally published online by the British Medical Journal yesterday, five years after the trial was abandoned because of fears of increased risks of heart disease and cancer.
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Warning on HRT risks for older women - The Telegraph 12th July 2007
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Warning on HRT risks for older women - The Telegraph 12th July 2007
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Sam Townsend has his eyes on a place at the Olympic Games rather than on food, but is he a Labour success story. As if to fuel the debate on overpricing at Wembley, the Labour Party is charging £1,000 to attend a fund-raising dinner this evening, the theme of which is a celebration of a decade of sport under its governance. Those staying away have been asking the obvious: what is there to celebrate? The story of Sam Townsend may be considered a start.
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Those concerned with the health risks of mobile phones will say they microwave your brain, while others insist that they do no such thing. But as we wait for more studies for and against, one thing appears to be certain: mobile phones can fry your brains in the metaphorical sense. If you are predisposed to a psychological or emotional ailment, your trouble can manifest itself in the way you use your mobile phone.
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It is not target-driven healthcare in itself which NHS staff loathe (Leading article, July 10). Many of us would say that these were essential to deliver rapid improvements in quality. What many staff do object to is the overreaction to early successes and the raising of the bar to levels where attainment of targets became highly sensitive to peaks in demand. This resulted in disproportionate effort and reallocation of resources to achieve small improvements in performance.
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As the leaked and incomplete results of a study on autism again raise fears among parents, the scientist leading the research tells our correspondent that the new reports are alarmist and wrong If you want to stoke parental anxiety, there are few better ways than announcing a dramatic rise in the incidence of autism. That is exactly what happened at the weekend with a story that the incidence of autism was far higher than previously thought – as many as one in 58 children – with the MMR vaccine back in the dock as a possible culprit.
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Genetics and the link between maths and autism - The Times 12th July 2007
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Who is telling the truth about MMR jabs and autism? - Daily Mail 11th July 2007
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Take a siesta to wake yourself up - The Times 12th July 2007
I have read that siestas are making a comeback in Spain and I am about to go on holiday to Italy, where I hope to enjoy later nights and longer lunches than usual. Are there any rules to having a siesta?
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A French woman shattered the life of a British psychologist during an obsessive 16-year campaign of stalking and harassment, a court has been told. Anna Smirnoff, now 49, was a trainee psychologist at Newcastle University when she spent a mere 16 days being mentored by the man who was to become her victim.
A tax on unhealthy food could prevent more than 3,200 deaths every year in the UK, experts said yesterday. A quarter of the population is obese and 216,000 people die each year from cardiovascular disease.
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A pint of milk a day could cut the risk of heart disease and stroke by two thirds, scientists said yesterday. A study in Wales found that consuming dairy products protects against metabolic syndrome, which is thought to affect a quarter of Britons. The condition is linked to a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
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Drinking a pint of milk a day keeps your heart healthy - Daily Mail 11th May 2007
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Poor security in hospitals could give terrorists working in the NHS easy access to deadly chemicals and viruses, an expert warned yesterday. Hospitals are "just as vulnerable as any nightclub", a security management specialist based in a London hospital told the Health Service Journal.
Key government documents relating to the handling of a blood "disaster", which resulted in thousands of patients being exposed to HIV and hepatitis C, were destroyed to prevent the victims taking legal action, Lord Owen said yesterday. The peer, who as David Owen was health minister at the time, told an independent inquiry into the deaths of almost 2,000 haemophiliacs exposed to the viruses that he found the alleged cover-up "extraordinary".
"The UK needs a new approach to alcohol," says Fiona Dunwoodie who runs One North East, an alcohol rehabilitation centre in Walthamstow, North London, which yesterday received the Maxie Richards Award 2007 from the Centre for Social Justice. Alcohol is a factor in 20-30 per cent of all accidents. It affects not just the liver but the bones, endocrine system and the brain. It is also directly responsible for 22,000 UK deaths a year.
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The health watchdog will not prosecute Britain's richest doctor for treating patients at an unregistered clinic, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. Mohammed Taranissi, who is worth £38 million, is at the centre of a row over the regulation of his two fertility clinics in London and is involved in a legal battle with the BBC after the Panorama programme sent an undercover reporter to pose as a potential patient.
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Reserve forces are facing a crisis in staff numbers, fitness levels and training when the overstretched military desperately needs them, a new report by MPs says. The public accounts committee of the House of Commons says that Territorial Army soldiers have been deployed without proper training or equipment and with inadequate medical support.
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From the moment her son was born, Chris Lister's mother knew he would stand out from the crowd. Doctors on the maternity ward predicted her baby would easily outgrow his mother, who stands 5ft 4ins tall.
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British scientists say they are close to developing a blood test to spot the early signs of Alzheimer's disease. A team from King's College in London have identified a series of proteins they say are present in the blood of those at highest risk of developing the neurological condition.
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London is to undergo the biggest shake-up in the health service ever seen under a blueprint unveiled today. Traditional hospitals will disappear and GP surgeries will be transformed. At present there are 32 acute hospital trusts in London, each trying to provide a comprehensive service across 93 sites.
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It was a day the parents of these quadruplets feared they would never see – their children happily celebrating their first birthday together. At birth the tiniest two, Jack and Luke, were given only a 50 per cent chance of survival. And although all the quads astounded doctors with their progress, Luke developed bowel problems at four weeks and required emergency surgery, with doctors warning his parents that their son might not live.
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More patients are getting life-saving treatment quickly after a heart attack, according to a national survey. An audit by the Royal College of Physicians showed 64% of patients in England and 41% in Wales were given "clot-busting" drugs within an hour.
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When Guardian columnist Dina Rabinovitch was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 she was prescribed the much sought-after drug Herceptin - but she had no idea that the drug could cease to have the desired effect. "I had no sense of being resistant to cancer drugs," she said.
Internet companies have been asked to help with the growing problem of teenage suicides in
Northern Ireland. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has met Bebo, Vodafone and Google in a bid to stop websites being used to promote suicide among young people.
Almost one in 10 patients in Scotland's main hospitals are carrying a secondary infection such as MRSA, according to new figures. The study found hospital associated infections (HAI) in acute hospitals cost the health service £183m a year.
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Court refuses life support plea - BBC Health News 10th July 2007
A High Court judge has refused to intervene in how a hospital is treating a dying woman. The 51-year-old woman was admitted to a Western Health and Social Trust hospital last month with liver failure.
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International News
German police are trying to identify a man they believe to be British, who has a detailed knowledge of military planes but cannot tell them where he comes from. The man, who calls himself Karl, has been cared for in a nursing home. He was found in a confused state in the city of Heidelberg three days ago.
French teenagers see wine and alcohol as "old France" and are increasingly turning to cannabis to let their hair down, according to a national study on its consumption. Jean-Michel Costes, head of the French drugs and addiction watchdog, OFDT, said yesterday that French cannabis use has soared in the past 15 years and is now almost on a par with Britain.
Libya's Supreme Court has upheld death sentences imposed in 2004 on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for infecting children with HIV. However, a mediating body is now said to have agreed a financial settlement with the children's families.
Being the life and soul of the party may cut your chances of a fatal heart or stroke, research suggests. A 30-year study by Chicago Northwestern University suggested shy or antisocial men were 50% more likely to die this way, compared with outgoing men.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
EX-Reds boss Gerard Houllier said he would be forever grateful to the surgeons at a Liverpool hospital who saved his life. The former manager was speaking as he opened a new theatre at the Cardiothoracic Centre in Broadgreen.
A MERSEYSIDE family today spoke of their anger after the brain haemorrhage death of a mother-of-six misdiagnosed by a hospital. Maria Gaughan’s relatives were awarded a £225,000 pay-out after doctors said her severe headaches were caused by a water infection.
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HITTING the big 50 was less of a trauma for Elaine Hughes because she gave her birthday cash to the Crewe Cancer Unit Appeal at Leighton Hospital And she was able to double the amount she made by having a joint birthday party with her husband, Alan, who was 50 a few weeks earlier.
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THE Patient and Public Involvement Forum for Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust held its last Annual General Meeting. Forum chairwoman Pat Roberts announced the PPI would continue with their proposed work plan in the coming months until the Local Involvement Networks (LINKs) take over in March next year.
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SOUTHPORT and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust will apply for NHS Foundation Trust status. If the application is successful, it would devolve decision-making from central Government control and give the community a greater say in how our hospitals are run, said Sir Ron Watson, chairman of the Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust.
HOSPITAL bosses have written to staff to say they are pushing ahead with car parking charges. The letter says they will have to buy permits from October 1, or use the existing pay and display machines. The permits do not guarantee a space.
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YOU are a lucky person if you have not being cared for by doctor Steve Owen. It's not that there's anything wrong with him. He's a friendly and experienced consultant at Warrington Hospital.
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IT is interesting to see caring for the elderly gathering more publicity and momentum. As an 80-year-old I favour sheltered accommodation when one needs help but still compos mentis.
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Patients will pay - Knutsford Guardian 11th July 2007
A RETIRED engineer believes plans to put the town's three doctors' surgeries under one roof could cost patients £234,000 a year. John Bealey, 81, calculated the potential travelling cost for people currently served by the Annandale surgery, assuming 50% of patients had to start using taxis.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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TWO hundred students spelt out an important message - the figure 2,520 which represents the estimated number of people who will die from smoking related illnesses across Lancashire this year. Health chiefs in Central Lancashire believe the number of smokers in this region will be cut by around 6% as a direct result of new legislation which makes it an offence to smoke in any public place. This could be as many as 7,200 people quitting.
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Top doc’s evidence at tribunal - Carlisle News & Star 11th July 2007
A LEADING doctor at the Sellafield nuclear plant has explained why a worker with mental health problems was not offered retirement on medical grounds. Doctor Graham Adkins was giving evidence on the second day of an employment tribunal brought by Eric Graham who was sacked in November after being off work for three years.
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Greater Manchester News
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MIGRAINE and backache could be cured thanks to a breakthrough in Manchester. Scientists at Manchester University have unravelled the structure of a key molecule that controls pain.
DISGRACED pop mogul Jonathan King has sparked outrage by writing a song which says serial killer Harold Shipman was a victim of the media. King, 62, jailed for sexually abusing young boys, has penned The True Story of Harold Shipman, which he has been released on a website.
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THE significant drop in numbers having school meals since chef Jamie Oliver took them in hand two years ago is not generally about the quality of the meals. If children don't have other, less healthy choices available and are not allowed out at dinner-time - this is really significant - then they will eat what's on offer because they're hungry.
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PATIENTS and health campaigners in Radcliffe can access a new resource offering news, information and contacts. For the Patients' Council, an independent group of people with long-term health conditions, has launched its new website.
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Keep hospitals clean - Altrincham Messenger 11th July 2007
IT'S good to see Trafford General Hospital getting microbotic cleaning equipment to stop MRSA bugs. But I can't understand why the hospital management let nearly all of their uniformed staff wear their uniform away from the hospital. You see nurses in their uniforms shopping getting petrol and even walking their dogs.
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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