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The case of a celebrity whose medical records were illicitly viewed by more than 50 members of an NHS hospital's staff raised doubts yesterday about the security of the government's £12.4bn scheme to upgrade the NHS's IT systems. The prying was revealed in board papers for North Tees primary care trust as a warning to managers to tighten procedures requiring doctors and nurses to log on individually before being allowed access to sensitive personal material.
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The government's Food Standards Agency today comes under fresh attack from two leading academics who have joined forces to urge the watchdog to act "more firmly and responsibly" on behalf of consumers over the dangers of chemical food additives. On the eve of a crucial FSA meeting tomorrow, they have written to its 13 board members expressing concern that the watchdog is not being proactive enough on an important scientific issue which has ramifications for public health.
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Inactivity disorder - The Guardian September 19th 2007
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Food watchdog must act on additives - The Guardian September 19th 2007
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Food producers respond to consumer pressure with ‘additive-free’ tags - The Times 19th September 2007
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Kate Carter: Doctors are scrubbing up their image - The Guardian September 19th 2007
The traditional image of the white-coated, stethoscope-draped medic may soon be consigned to repeats of Carry on Doctor. First came the news that, in an attempt to stop the spread of MRSA, the NHS is to ban the white coat. From next year, doctors must adopt a more hygienic "bare below the elbows" look. And yesterday it emerged that the stethoscope, too, is under threat - from modern technology. According to researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, an MP3 recorder pressed against the patient's chest can give clearer results, with the added bonus that results can be replayed, or even stored in the patient's file.
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Dirty doctors - The Times 19th September 2007
The traditional image of the white-coated, stethoscope-draped medic may soon be consigned to repeats of Carry on Doctor. First came the news that, in an attempt to stop the spread of MRSA, the NHS is to ban the white coat. From next year, doctors must adopt a more hygienic "bare below the elbows" look. And yesterday it emerged that the stethoscope, too, is under threat - from modern technology. According to researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, an MP3 recorder pressed against the patient's chest can give clearer results, with the added bonus that results can be replayed, or even stored in the patient's file.
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Dirty doctors - The Times 19th September 2007
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has come under attack for "sidelining" public service charities and awarding the bulk of its £250m Pathway to Work contracts to private companies. Despite the work and pensions secretary, Peter Hain, declaring that the voluntary sector should have an enhanced role in delivering the Pathways to Work scheme, only one charity - the Shaw Trust - was included on the list of successful bids. The other 15 contracts were awarded to private companies.
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The new standing commission for carers will put them at the heart of government policy and service provision, says its head. Annie Kelly finds out how it will achieve its aims and if the enthusiasm is shared Q&A: carers
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Working for a housing association isn't just about collecting rent. Below, we profile four London-based housing workers at East Thames Group who describe the broad reach of their jobs. Annie Kelly reports
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Thank goodness for the King's Fund. If the healthcare thinktank had not taken the initiative, and underwritten the cost, we would not have the considerable benefit of Sir Derek Wanless's five-year progress report on his government review of NHS funding, after ministers studiously ignored his recommendation that they commission one.
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There's no such thing as a cure-all, but Vitamin D comes pretty close. Jeremy Laurance explains how a little sunshine could help you live a lot longer
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Government overpays private groups £222m for NHS treatments - The Times 19th September 2007
The Government is overpaying private hospital operators by more than £200 million to carry out surgery for NHS patients. In an effort to cut waiting lists, the Government launched a programme in 2005 to outsource some routine surgery to the private sector. It says that it is committed to buying £1.4 billion of services from independent surgical treatment centres (ISTC), including hip replacements, cataract surgery and diagnostics, during the initial phase of this programme.
Peter Crutchfield and his PA, Jacqui McNish, have worked together for more than 15 years, but in two very different fields — first banking, and now charity. When he moved, so did she, and when he planned to spend a two-year sabbatical doing something worthy before heading back to the affluent corporate lifestyle, she shared the same goal.
BUPA has reported a 47 per cent increase in profits, driven by strong growth in its expatriate health insurance business. The private healthcare group, in its first set of results since selling its private hospitals unit to become a pure health insurer and operator of care homes, said that pretax profits had risen to £166 million for the six months to June 30.
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The menopause exists to ensure that women have free time to help to look after their young grandchildren, new research has suggested. A study of two African villages stretching back to 1950 has found that children have a distinct survival advantage if they have a maternal grandmother with no infants of her own to help their mother to look after them.
Tens of thousands are suffering broken hips unnecessarily each year, experts claim today. About 50,000 fractures could be prevented annually if doctors heeded the early warning signs and put patients on medication to strengthen bones.
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Fracture care overhaul demanded - BBC Health News 19th September 2007
A world-renowned cancer expert is turning to Pizza Express to help him deliver the care he believes British patients are entitled to expect. Decades of experience have led Professor Karol Sikora to despair of the varying standards in the NHS, and he has long been thwarted in his efforts to change the system internally.
My wife has suffered from Alzheimer's for many years and in a search for urgent help over the recent August bank holiday weekend, our district hospital told us to seek assistance first from "our GP's out-of-hours service" (Letters, September 17). In due course, a doctor arrived and, unwilling to take any notice of me and my family, set about trying to establish whether my wife did in fact suffer from Alzheimer's.
A leading obstetrician who is a strong advocate of natural births is accused of causing the death of a baby by failing to perform a caesarean section soon enough. Dr Susan Bewley, who has spoken out against the rise in "unnecessary" caesareans, allegedly delayed carrying out the emergency procedure until it was too late to save the child.
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Bob Bowen had been diabetic for 18 years when his doctor switched him to a newly licensed drug called Avandia. The effect was devastating. 'After a month, my feet, legs and thighs suddenly swelled to twice their normal size and I was diagnosed with heart failure,' he says.
When Nicholas Peake first developed a tickly cough in the winter of 1993 he assumed it was the tail end of a cold. But today, more than a decade on, he still wakes every morning to hacking, spluttering fits that render him almost speechless for hours. The 57-year-old has been coughing up to 100 times an hour for the past 14 years.
Family doctors are costing business a billion pounds a year because it is so hard to see them outside normal working hours, employers said. The Confederation of British Industry said millions of staff were forced to take time off work to visit GPs because they could not get evening or weekend appointments.
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Patients will be allowed two GPs to cut days off work - Daily Mail 18th September 2007
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Brown pledges to expand GP access - BBC Health News 18th September 2007
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Patients will be allowed two GPs to cut days off work - Daily Mail 18th September 2007
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Brown pledges to expand GP access - BBC Health News 18th September 2007
Young children who wear socks that are too tight could be left with permanent scars, experts have warned today. Specialists noted that elastic bands on infant socks could cause reddish, raised marks around the ankle or leg after wearing a tight pair just once.
A simple, effective device promises to help the three million women in the UK affected by incontinence. The Flexiprobe works by electrically stimulating the nerves of the pelvic floor. In an early trial, 75 per cent of the women experienced significant improvement.
The symptoms sound like something from The X Files - sufferers complain of a crawling sensation all over the body, egg-like lumps under the skin and, even more bizarrely, cuts which produce tiny red and blue fibres. Many doctors, however, are highly sceptical - dismissing the symptoms as imaginary and patients as delusional.
Three million Britons are suffering from "imaginary" food intolerances, according to researchers. Up to 12million claim to be intolerant to foods from milk to mustard - but less than a quarter have had their condition medically diagnosed.
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Breast cancer survivor poses topless for daring poster campaign - Daily Mail 18th September 2007
Emma was just 31 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but sadly it didn't come as much of a surprise. She had already survived the disease once and lost her mother to the condition when she was just nine years old. Now 33, Emma remains unbowed by breast cancer and has posed topless for a cancer charity campaign to raise awareness and funding.
You might think that your sports bra offers proper support as you pound the treadmill - but it seems that it could be doing you more harm than good. Research published last week found that exercising while wearing the wrong type of sports bra, or an ill-fitting one, caused breast pain in up to 60 per cent of women, putting some off exercise altogether.
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As some patients are left in pain for months - even years- after surgery, why is physiotherapy such a low priority on the NHS? A bad fall left James Corrigan fearful he'd never play sport again. The 23-year-old tore a ligament in his knee, leaving him unable to run or take part in games with friends in the park.
It rots your teeth, wrecks your heart and even causes mood swings - yet a typical family eats an astonishing FIFTY POUNDS of sugar a month. So what happened when we asked one household to end its addiction?
Britain could be heading for an "epidemic" of winter blues following one of the most miserable summers in memory, mental health experts are warning. The relentless rain and dark skies mean that many sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will be starting the autumn already depressed.
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Tim Thompson was horrified at the state of the care home where his 96-year-old grandmother lived. It was not just the soiled carpets that worried him but his grandmother's rapid deterioration in the Edendale Care Home, Wisbech, Cambs.
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The government is promising a fresh look at the need for an independent complaints process for vulnerable elderly people in care. The BBC has found the Commission for Social Care Inspection, which regulates care homes, has decided it has no power to investigate individual complaints.
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Toxic soil 'unlikely' cancer link - BBC Health News 18th September 2007
An inquiry has declared it unlikely that chemicals found in soil caused two toddlers to develop a very rare cancer. Traces of toxins were found in Leftwich near Northwich, Cheshire, where 19-month-old Rebecca Watts and Sharon Pymer, 18 months, were neighbours.
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International Health News
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One of the world's oldest maternity hospitals, the Rotunda in Dublin, is transferring pregnant women to rented hotel rooms because of a lack of beds.
The traditional image of the white-coated, stethoscope-draped medic may soon be consigned to repeats of Carry on Doctor. First came the news that, in an attempt to stop the spread of MRSA, the NHS is to ban the white coat. From next year, doctors must adopt a more hygienic "bare below the elbows" look. And yesterday it emerged that the stethoscope, too, is under threat - from modern technology. According to researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, an MP3 recorder pressed against the patient's chest can give clearer results, with the added bonus that results can be replayed, or even stored in the patient's file.
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'Health disaster' in French Caribbean linked to pesticides - The Independent 19th September 2007
The indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides on banana plantations in the French Caribbean has left much of the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe poisoned for a century to come, a report to the French parliament warned yesterday. The two islands and their 800,000 inhabitants faced a "health disaster", with soaring rates of cancer and infertility, said Professor Dominique Belpomme, a French cancer specialist.
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A new device clears blocked blood vessels by sanding down hard deposits that build up in the walls. The diamond-coated probe spins at up to 200,000 revolutions a minute as it grinds down material restricting blood flow. It can clear blockages in three minutes and leave the lining of the blood vessel smooth and flexible.
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How mutant gene causes fragile X - BBC Health News 18th September 2007
A mutant gene can trigger learning difficulties by preventing brain cells communicating with each other effectively, research shows. A team from Emory University examined the key gene mutation behind fragile X Syndrome - the most common cause of inherited learning difficulties.
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Cheshire and Merseyside Health News
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PATIENTS who visit their doctors in St Helens could soon be prescribed self-help books rather than conventional medicine. St Helens Council and Halton and St Helens primary care trust (PCT) last night revealed the initiative as part of events to mark World Mental Health day next month. Books on Prescription will allow GPs to recommend a library book to help patients manage the difficulties they are experiencing, including anxiety, stress, abuse, anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.
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Youngsters come up with ideas for a healthier Liverpool - Liverpool Daily Post 18th September 2007
DROP-IN centres for youngsters were among the suggestions for a healthier Liverpool put forward by children from six schools yesterday. Thirty pupils, aged 13 to 18, who all sit on the Liverpool Schools Parliament, took part in the day as part of Liverpool Primary Care Trust’s Big Health Debate, at Greenbank Sports Academy.
THE parents of a seriously-ill tot who has a rare genetic condition are expecting another child. Abbie Tinkley, now three, has faced a battle for life since she was born.
SUPER-STRENGTH skunk seized in Merseyside has doubled in potency in the last decade. It is feared the specialised cannabis strain is increasingly dangerous to the health of users.
COMPLAINTS are soaring at one of Merseyside’s biggest hospital trusts. The number of patients unhappy over their treatment in Fazakerley and Walton hospitals has risen by 50% in a year.
LIVERPOOL’S historic role at the cutting edge of health and medical firsts is inspiring a major new festival. Extraordinary Journey will examine the city’s groundbreaking medical record with a range of free events including exhibitions, walks and talks.
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Toxic soil 'unlikely' cancer link - BBC Health News 18th September 2007
An inquiry has declared it unlikely that chemicals found in soil caused two toddlers to develop a very rare cancer. Traces of toxins were found in Leftwich near Northwich, Cheshire, where 19-month-old Rebecca Watts and Sharon Pymer, 18 months, were neighbours.
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Cumbria and Lancashire Health News
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PEOPLE with embarrassing sexual health conditions are being provided with two new clinics to discuss their most personal problems. Sexual health infection rates in east Lancashire are rising year-on-year for all kinds of conditions, including chlamydia, herpes and genital warts.
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Hospitals need to get basics right - Lancashire Telegraph 18th September 2007
THE report on the clean vases policy (LT, September 6) recognises that hospital superbugs MRSA and C.diff spores survive for long periods on surfaces such as floors, bedpans and worktops - but what about bedding, uniforms and mops? Checking that flowers are kept in fresh water is no doubt a positive step, but why is laundry still overlooked in the war on hospital superbugs?
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Greater Manchester Health News
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MINISTER Ivan Lewis has defended Labour's handling of the NHS, claiming it had been dragged out of a crisis 10 years ago.
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A CAMPAIGN launched by a mother whose young son died from a heart attack, has been backed by her local MP on the second anniversary of his death. Dionne Young launched a battle for the introduction of routine screening of youths in sport, after son, Daniel, suffered a fatal heart attack.
DOCTORS at the Royal Bolton Hospital could be about to swap their traditional white coats as part of the fight to beat hospital superbugs. New government measures to beat superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile unveiled yesterday include a new dress code guidance which wants an end to the use of long sleeved white coats as it is feared that the cuffs could become contaminated.
JUST 43 per cent of people in Bolton would be motivated to do more exercise if their life depended on it, according to a survey carried out by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The results come as the charity launches a dramatic new advertising campaign, aimed at encouraging people to be more physically active.
The Asian community is being urged to give blood as part of the new campaign by the National Blood Service (NBS). The Circle of Life' campaign is aiming to raise awareness on why more people from ethnic communities need to donate blood and why they should join the British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR).
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Sir Alex to open research unit - Altrincham Messenger 18th September 2007
MANCHESTER United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will open a £3 million clinical research unit on the Wythenshawe Hospital site on Friday (September 21).
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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