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A row between the Department of Health and the NHS standards watchdog is threatening to undermine the government's drive to combat hospital superbugs, the Guardian has learned. The dispute flared last week after the department told a journalist that Alan Johnson, the health secretary, was angry with the Healthcare Commission, the body that inspects standards of hygiene and infection control in hospitals across England. The commission had found management failings at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust in Kent that contributed to the deaths of 90 patients during two outbreaks of the superbug Clostridium difficile.
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Kent hospitals - The Times 29th October 2007
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Germ warfare system to kill hospital bugs - The Sunday Times 28th October 2007
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Cold war weaponry to tackle superbugs - The Sunday Telegraph 28th October 2007
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Nurse to sue over her parents’ deaths from hospital superbug - The Times 27th October 2007
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It is not anti-choice to want a more thoughtful debate on why women have so many abortions One of my favourite emails from a reader told me, "I wish I was as certain of anything as you are of everything." The latter is far from the case, but it served as a salutary reminder that the certainty columnists are paid to produce can sometimes cripple public debate, alienating readers and reducing complexity to wittily phrased polemic. There's been evidence of that in the debate about abortion law reform. While lobbyists and commentators lambast each other with withering contempt, the majority shift uncomfortably in their seats, committed to legal abortion but still feeling uncertain on this most emotive of subjects.
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Accusations fly as pro-life groups clash - The Observer 28th October 2007
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Where's the morality in unwanted births? - The Observer 28th October 2007
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Forty years on - The Guardian 27th October 2007
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MPs call for clarity on grounds for abortion - The Telegraph 30th October 2007
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MPs back lower time limit for abortions - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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MPs want clearer rules on abortion of the disabled - Daily Mail 29th October 2007
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Forty years on - The Guardian 27th October 2007
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MPs call for clarity on grounds for abortion - The Telegraph 30th October 2007
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MPs back lower time limit for abortions - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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MPs want clearer rules on abortion of the disabled - Daily Mail 29th October 2007
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It is enough to make Scotland's best-loved matriarch blurt out "aw crivens!" in disgust. After 70 years feeding her comic strip family of 11 on dumplings, fry-ups and Scotch eggs, Maw Broon's home cooking has been condemned by nutritionists. Her traditional recipes - complete with bacon and egg pie; tablet, a sweet made from sugar and condensed milk; and Forfar bridies heavy in suet - have been published for the first time, hitting the top three in Scotland's bestseller lists.
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Comic diet carries health warning - BBC Health News 29th October 2007
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The policy director of the King's Fund should be able to do better than repeat the government's unfounded claims about independent sector treatment centres (Letters, October 26). First, patient satisfaction surveys, such as the Healthcare Commission's, which she says show satisfaction with ISTCs to be "significantly higher than with NHS providers", are an unsatisfactory index of quality. Patients treated by ISTCs are lower-risk than NHS patients and less likely to have difficult recovery experiences - and the differences claimed are small, anyway. At a minimum, the extensive evidence which exists of poor-quality clinical performance in some ISTCs should be set against the results of patient satisfaction surveys.
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Patients are forced to go to hospital for treatment because out-of-hours care is often inadequate, according to a report today. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) study said fewer GPs now offer out-of-hours care so others need to step into the breach to boost community medical care.
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Study brands out-of-hours care inadequate - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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Out-of-hours NHS care 'failing' - BBC Health News 29th October 2007
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When a child dies, their school must manage the grief and shock of pupils, staff and the family. Louise Tickle reports
When he consulted a cardiologist about his angina, Malcolm Smith was told to drink three glasses of red wine daily. Could it really be good for him?
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Organic food is healthier: study - The Guardian 29th October 2007
Some organic foods, including fruit, vegetables and milk, may be more nutritious than non-organic produce, according to an investigation by British scientists. Early results from a £12m study showed that organic fruit and vegetables contained up to 40% more antioxidants than non-organic varieties, according to Professor Carlo Leifert at Newcastle University, who leads the EU-funded Quality Low Input Food project.
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Organic food really IS better for you, claims study - Daily Mail 28th October 2007
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Police demand doctors report gun victims - The Guardian 29th OCtober 2007
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Organic food really IS better for you, claims study - Daily Mail 28th October 2007
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Police demand doctors report gun victims - The Guardian 29th OCtober 2007
Concerns over senior officers' threat to patient confidentiality Sign appealing for information regarding a shooting in Brixton Eleven teenagers have been shot dead in Britain this year. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty Police chiefs want doctors to break medical confidentiality and report patients they treat who have suffered knife or gun shot wounds, the Guardian has learned.
That Keith Richards yesterday marched against proposed cutbacks at his local hospital in West Sussex proves the 63-year-old Rolling Stone is still a street fighting man. Some might suggest he has acted out of self-interest: his personal proximity to a working hospital being a concern next time he falls out of a tree. But Keith has always been something of a spokesman on issues of public health. 'Don't do drugs,' he once wheezed, an imperative that prompted comedian Denis Leary to retort: 'We can't, Keith, you've done them all.' In this, though, the era of apparent political apathy, it is heartwarming to see a wizened rock star setting an example we hope his peers will follow. Perhaps Robert Plant could speak up on the importance of a fibrous diet or Roger Daltrey become an advocate for regular flossing.
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Puffalong Keith Richards on a health crusade to save hospital - Daily Mail 27th October 2007
Child poverty is costing British taxpayers more than £40bn a year through crime, ill-health and low employment, according to new research by the children's charity Barnardo's. Tomorrow, the charity will call for a UK commission on child poverty to set out policies and investment to hit government targets to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.
My teenage daughter has developed a bald patch. She's a private person and is reluctant to talk about it. Could the stress of her studies be to blame? And if so, how can we help her?
To its fans, homeopathy is the ultimate cure-all. In fact, its effects can be positively deadly On 1 December, faith healers will meet at Roots & Shoots in south London to discuss how to treat Aids with magic pills. They won't call themselves faith healers, of course, or shamans or juju men. They will present themselves as 'homeopaths': serious men and women whose remedies are as good as conventional medicine.
Parents are to be sent letters telling them that their children are obese, as if they were blind to their offspring ballooning before their eyes. Children aren't obese just for the heck of it, but because many low-income families survive on a diet that went out of fashion in the late Seventies. Today, for many adults and children, food is something mysterious that comes ready made in clingfilm, not a collection of ingredients. Cheap food nowadays is invariably bad food.
In her first interview as head of a government review of video games' effect on children, TV psychologist Tanya Byron tells David Smith that being a mother will help in her new role
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Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will this week be honoured for helping to draw attention to the plight of those affected by the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, which killed her mother and her grandmother. She will receive the 2007 Kohn Award in recognition of her work in raising money and visiting hospitals in an effort to ensure the NHS gives the crippling condition a higher priority.
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Although they are often criticised for delaying childbearing, a new study shows that older mothers are making a wise choice. Women who leave it late to embrace motherhood are often criticised for gambling with their fertility and risking their own and their baby's health. But now a leading academic says it's better for many women to delay getting pregnant.
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Why women who wait until their thirties ‘make better mothers’ - Daily Mail 29th October 2007
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Critics warn of more superbug outbreaks - and investors could catch a cold. The rise of the superbug has added a new dimension to debates about the role of private investors running UK hospitals, with patients perhaps more preoccupied by the march of Clostridium difficile in hospital wards than progress made by an equally aggressive life form - the private equity profiteer.
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Senior nurses to decide whether patients should be resuscitated - The Guardian 27th October 2007
Senior nurses will be allowed to veto the resuscitation of patients under new guidelines issued yesterday by the medical profession. The British Medical Association said patients should be spared "undignified and unnecessary" attempts to revive them when there could be no realistic hope of success.
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Guidance published to cut 'unnecessary' resuscitation - The Independent 27th October 2007
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Nurses to decide if patients are revived - The Times 27th October 2007
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Letters to the Telegraph - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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Inquiry into Bringing up Baby nanny - The Guardian 27th October 2007Additional Story
Letters to the Telegraph - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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Channel 4 has launched an investigation into the qualifications of Claire Verity, the nanny who appears on its television series Bringing Up Baby, in which she advocates a 1950s-style approach to parenting. A spokeswoman for Channel 4 yesterday confirmed that an inquiry into Ms Verity's qualifications was under way after indications from the awarding bodies where she is said to have received her accreditation that they had no records of her attendance. The spokeswoman stressed that a maternity nurse did not need any formal qualification to practise.
Tonight the clocks go back, and though I always enjoy that extra hour beneath the covers the following morning, and try to get excited about open fires and toasted teacakes, my heart does sink when the sun disappears at 4pm.
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Clock change may cause tiredness - BBC Health News 27th October 2007
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If there's anything worse than having a cold, it's being kept up all night by a cold. But salvation is at hand. All you have to do is: i4 (x X t3) (y X i1) - a1 - t4 t2 – i3 (2 X (p p2)) L1. This, er, simple formula is the brainchild of Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. It is based on a survey of 2,000 people and combines four groups of factors that influence getting to sleep when you're sick: temperature, position, light and the food and drink you've taken.
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There were at least 140,000 night-time cases of slips, falls and medical errors involving NHS patients last year. Figures from the National Patient Safety Agency, analysed by Reader’s Digest, show that 22 per cent of incidents linked to patient safety happened at night, despite there being no scheduled operations, consultations or tests occurring then.
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Blundering into a big pay-off - The Times 30th October 2007
MOST people would not expect to walk away with a pocketful of cash after being sacked for messing up. So it’s not surprising that people get upset when chief executives in the NHS get this privilege. “It is just wrong for payouts to be made to chief executives and other senior staff where there is a suggestion of incompetence or gross misconduct, which would have led to the dismissal of more junior staff,” says Nigel Edwards, policy director of the NHS Confederation, in Health Service Journal (Oct 25).
BRIDGET JONES was one step ahead of conventional medical practice with her reliance on self-help books. GPs in the North West are catching up fast though. In Halton and St Helens the primary care trust is allowing GPs to prescribe literary tablets as an alternative to the type that you pick up at the chemist, reports Health Service Journal (Oct 25).
Health officials have been so alarmed by increasing cases of rickets among the Asian population of Blackburn that children and mothers will be offered vitamin supplements next year. Rickets, a softening of bone tissue often characterised by bowed legs, is caused by a vitamin D deficiency and was associated with Victorian slums. But a study found that there were 56 suspected cases between 2003 and 2005 in the catchment area of two primary care trusts that cover Blackburn with Darwen and Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, in Lancashire. A large proportion of the cases came from the Asian community of Blackburn with Darwen.
A new targeted therapy against cancer has shown impressive results in animal experiments. By using a beam of ultraviolet light to activate antibodies inside the tumour, a team at Newcastle University has created “magic bullets” that can use the body’s immune system to destroy tumours while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.
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Light activated cancer drug hope - BBC Health News 30th October 2007
Women want to talk about it, but men are more likely to retreat into stoney silence. Our correspondent investigates the science behind how we argue
Bad behaviour in children could be the result of an undiagnosed brain injury, a charity has said. The Children’s Trust, based in Tadworth, Surrey, wants to raise awareness among parents and teachers of acquired brain injury (ABI) because the effects, which can be more noticeable at times of stress, such as moving from primary to secondary school, can be misdiagnosed or perceived as bad behaviour. The charity is meeting MPs this week and is calling for statistics to be made available so that the extent of ABI, which can alter a child’s personality, can be uncovered.
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Head injury warning for children - BBC Health News 29th October 2007
Swimming with dolphins is promoted as one of the few treatments that can help children with disabilities such as autism. But it should be banned because it is cruel to the animals and dangerous to patients, and there is no evidence that it actually works, a report from a leading conservation group says.
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Our son couldn’t talk, play or show emotion . . . now he’s so switched on - The Times 30th October 2007
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David Cameron will enter the political minefield of immigration today with a call for measures to meet the challenge of rapid population growth. In his first major speech on immigration and population, the Conservative leader will attack Gordon Brown for failing to tackle the root causes of Britain’s growing demographic problems, ensuring that it will become an issue for the next election.
One mother has no regrets about helping her daughters win places at medical school. . . and is now sharing her secrets
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Andrew King is 44, and last year was diagnosed with early onset dementia. He and his family talk about the disease’s devastating impact on all their lives
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Cervical cancer jabs for pre-teen girls could save 400 lives a year - The Times 27th October 2007
Girls as young as 12 will be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer from next September in a programme that aims to save 400 lives a year, the Government has said. Girls aged 12 to 13 will be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted infection human papilloma virus (HPV). The project will cost as much as £100 million a year in England alone. A catch-up campaign for girls up to the age of 18, costing as much as £200 million a year, will start in 2009.
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Cervical cancer drug Gardasil linked to deaths - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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Cervical cancer drug Gardasil linked to deaths - The Telegraph 29th October 2007
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I don’t want to spoil your day, but you’ve got to accept that you’re going to die. Just face it, some day a paramedic will label you “DRT” (died right there) and your remains will be bagged, tagged and shipped to the undertakers. It’s OK, you can go back into denial now, especially if you’re reading this over your breakfast of porridge and oatcakes north of the border.
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Almost one in six 15-year-old girls were given contraception last year, despite being too young to legally have sex. Recent figures show that 50,000 girls aged 15 attended contraception clinics in 2006-07, along with another 31,000 aged 13 or 14.
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More men visit NHS contraception clinics - Daily Mail 29th October 2007
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Female sterilisation 'in decline' - BBC Health News 29th October 2007
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Obesity policy can either sink or swim - The Telegraph 30th October 2007
A spate of announcements and reports on fitness and health has come from Government in the last month. Tackling obesity is the new obsession now that smoking in public places has been banned. The Department for children, schools and families, the Department of culture, media and sport and the Department of health are tripping over each other publishing statistics and research and – of course – setting targets.
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Ministers are to unveil a ten-point nutrition plan this week as part of a campaign to stop patients starving to death in hospitals and care homes. The plan follows revelations that thousands of elderly patients are being neglected, with a record 2,265 leaving hospital lacking basic nourishment last year.
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As many as 10 elderly people could die from the cold every hour this winter, according to campaigners who accuse the Government of abandoning a generation of pensioners. The National Pensioners Convention (NPC), Britain's biggest organisation representing older people, said 260,000 people had died of cold-related illnesses in the past decade.
Hotel receptions are apparently thronged with nude sleepwalkers, while an epidemic of insomnia grips the country. Victoria Lambert outlines the best ways to rest in peace Somnambulists are on the move. Last week, Travelodge hotels revealed that staff dealt with more than 400 cases of sleepwalking last year, a seven-fold increase.
Abortion is allowed yet euthanasia is illegal – our medical ethics are flawed, says Max Pemberton The origins of medical ethics can be traced back to the 4th century BC. They encompass the Hippocratic writings and ancient Rabbinical and early Christian works; over time, contributions were made by Islamic physicians, liberal theorists and moral theologians.
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Syphilis and gonorrhoea are making a comeback as the number of sexually transmitted diseases in the UK continues to rise, figures released next week are set to show. The Office of National Statistics is releasing new figures on Monday, and they are expected to reveal that diseases which were thought to have died out years ago have risen dramatically in the last decade.
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Obesity has become the main cause of cancer in non-smokers, a global conference will hear next week. The World Cancer Research Fund has spent five years collecting information about the effect bodyweight, diet and physical activity has on the risk of developing cancer and will present its findings on Thursday.
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Nina Grunfeld's four steps to being yourself. 3: 'I don't like me' Some of us don't like being ourselves. For years I wanted straight hair because my frizzy hair always drew lots of attention to me. Being ''me" meant sticking out, being different and getting noticed — often negatively.
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Cradling his baby boy in his arms, accident victim Chris Cook is again getting to know the son he had 'forgotten' all about. The father-of-three suffered serious head injuries and almost died when he fell from a cherry picker while carrying out repairs to the side of his house in York.
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A schoolgirl saved her three year old cousin's life just three days after learning how to perform first aid. Ashleigh Robson, 14, leapt into action after noticing little Summer Horton had stopped breathing and was slumped in her car seat.
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Health-conscious Britons are resisting the temptation of indulging themselves with their favourite chocolate biscuit treats and choosing healthier biscuits, a new report has revealed. According to trade magazine The Grocer the healthy biscuit sector grew 9.4 per cent in value to £352million last year while sales of chocolate biscuit bars slumped by 6.5 per cent to £334million.
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A family doctor who made a fatal error as a newly-qualified hospital junior hid her guilty secret for 16 years. Rosalind Deering prescribed too much sedative to a seriously-ill patient, then hid her mistake by altering medical records.
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Middle-class parents are timing the birth of their babies to boost their children's chances of doing well at school. They appear to be planning autumn births to ensure their offspring are among the oldest in their year at school, researchers claim.
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When Nia Wyn's son Joe was born nine years ago, blind and disabled, doctors diagnosed cerebral palsy and warned he would never see or even understand his own mother - let alone walk. But Nia, a 41-year-old journalist, from Cardiff, refused to give in and started a diary of his story, celebrating each small breakthrough.
Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year. And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.
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Now the DIY liver test kit that tells you when you've had enough - Daily Mail 27th October 2007
A do-it-yourself test has been created to show drinkers if their livers are damaged. The home kit, which is due to be launched next week, provides a quick and accurate diagnosis.
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Caution sounded on DIY liver test - BBC Health News 30th October 2007
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Caution sounded on DIY liver test - BBC Health News 30th October 2007
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Weighing up the benefits of being slimmer is easy for Laurence Willshire. After losing four stone, the 16-year-old is happier, confident and has a busy social life – all thanks to a computerised scale that ensures his diet stays on track. The scale, known as a mandometer, does not actually weigh Laurence.
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Treatment services in England have made slow progress in increasing the numbers of people they get off drugs, despite a £130m rise in their budget. Spending on drugs services rose from £253m in 2004-05 to £384m last year, National Treatment Agency figures show.
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Nearly 39,000 people across the Forth Valley have signed up for a new scheme to have health advice provided by pharmacists rather than their GP. The service is available only to those patients exempt from prescription charges and who present with minor illnesses.
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Lizzie Butler has always been big and curvy. From the age of eight she started over-eating and gradually her weight crept up. Her confidence fell, leaving her shy about her body and feeling she was missing out.
More and more people in the UK are following America's lead in spending hundreds of pounds on private genetic tests.
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When Esther Bissessar became pregnant with her third child she knew just what to expect from the first few months - extreme and unremitting sickness. During her first pregnancy Esther was admitted to hospital several times with hyperemesis - extreme pregnancy sickness.
Elizabete Gouveia has cerebral palsy, cannot stand or sit up by herself and needs regular physiotherapy. But for the last few months she has been enjoying horse riding as part of her treatment regime.
Troops exposed to explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be checked for brain injury, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The MoD said questionnaires had been sent to troops to see if they had signs of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
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Map of 'coldest homes' published - BBC Health News 26th October 2007
A map showing the coldest homes in England has been published to encourage vulnerable people to stay warm and healthy during the winter. The Department of Health (DoH) map marks the launch of the Keep Warm Keep Well campaign advising the elderly, poor and disabled on how to stay warm.
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Deforestation and climate change are returning the mosquito-borne disease to parts of Peru after 40 years
After tackling the indifference of big business to its redundant workers in Roger and Me, gun control (or, rather, the lack of it) in Bowling for Columbine and the national and international consequences of 9/11 in Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore turns his polemical blunderbuss on the American health business in Sicko. None of these films can be described as even-handed documentary investigations. They're highly personal combinations of editorial cartooning, alarming statistics, anecdotal evidence of a powerful kind, lampooning use of newsreels and other film material, grandstanding stunts and knockabout humour, in the cause of benign propaganda.
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Quack Michael Moore has mad view of the NHS - The Sunday Times 28th October 2007
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Sicko - The Sunday Times 28th October 2007
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Red meat and alcohol 'raise the risk of cancer' - The Observer 28th October 2007
Eating red meat and drinking alcohol in even small quantities increases the risk of developing cancer, a group of world renowned scientists will warn this week. People should minimise their consumption of both in order to safeguard their health, the biggest inquiry ever undertaken into lifestyle and cancer will recommend.
After at least 530 million years of clamming up, the oyster has revealed its secret curative properties to mankind. And they are not only aphrodisiac. French biologists who have been studying the way oysters produce nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, believe the process could be replicated to provide cures and preventative treatments for osteoporosis, arthritis and certain skin complaints.
MRSA is the scourge of the country's hospitals, but now the discovery in France of a volcanic clay with miraculous healing properties raises the prospect of a cure for it, and to other dangerous superbugs
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Could mud from a volcano kill 99 per cent of superbugs? - Daily Mail 29th October 2007
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iPods can cause heart pacemakers to malfunction - The Independent on Sunday 28th October 2007
In only six years, the small, plastic device that can hold your entire record collection has revolutionised the way we listen to music, changed society and turned the ailing Apple computer company into the dominant force in the download music industry. But researchers are so concerned about new evidence of potential effects of MP3 players on heart pacemakers that a major clinical investigation is to start this month.
Next time you take a headache tablet, take care on the roads. New research reveals that taking everyday drugs such as ibuprofen can increase the chances of a car crash by 50 per cent. Other pills are even worse. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health matched prescription drug use with road accidents among about three million people. They looked at seven groups of commonly prescribed drugs including natural opium alkaloids such as codeine and morphine, benzodiazepine tranquillisers, anti-asthmatic drugs and penicillin.
WE CAN all learn lessons from other countries. In particular, the NHS could learn a thing or two from the health system Down Under. This is what the departing Health Service Journal (Oct 25) Australian columnist Anna Donald realised after her recent relocation to Sydney. “I hope that readers... have gleaned that, like film-maker Michael Moore, I love the NHS and am devastated to leave it,” she writes.
Giving physiotherapy to patients on ventilators in intensive care units significantly shortens the time they have to stay in hospital, say Wake Forest University researchers. Flexing patients’ upper and lower limb joints three times a day and increasing the therapy as their conditions improved cut hospital stays by an average of three days, the researchers told the American College of Chest Physicians conference last week.
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Pollution blamed as China confronts surge in number of deformed babies - The Times 30th October 2007
An alarming rise in birth defects was acknowledged by China yesterday, amid concern that heavy pollution is damaging the country’s children. Babies born with conditions such as cleft palates and extra fingers and toes now account for up to 6 per cent of births each year, according to statistics published yesterday. And the number of babies born with disabilities has increased by 40 per cent since 2001 – a period that has coincided with China’s meteoric economic growth – to between two and three million a year. Up to 12 million more develop defects in childhood.
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A leading pediatrician group in America is pushing for all children to be screened for autism twice by the age of two. They said early symptoms included babies who do not babble at nine months and one-year-olds who do not point to toys.
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The strain of the HIV virus which predominates in the United States and Europe has been traced back to Haiti by an international team of scientists. The strain passed from Haiti to the US in about 1969 before spreading further, says the team in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Doctors have for the first time used gene therapy to treat two boys with the rare nervous disorder made famous through the film "Lorenzo's Oil". Treatment for adrenoleukodystrophy has mainly involved bone marrow transplant, but this can be problematic due to lack of donors and rejection by the body.
At her home just outside Toledo, Ohio, Lisa flicks through the well-thumbed photographs of her son, Matthew. She pauses at one particular shot of the handsome 21-year-old soldier taken just before he was sent to Iraq in 2004.
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Smoking 'raises psoriasis risk' - BBC Health News 29th October 2007
Smokers have a higher risk of developing psoriasis, a study suggests. US researchers found that heavier smokers have a greater risk of the skin condition and this only falls back to normal 20 years after quitting.
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Pre-cancer lesions 'remain risk' - BBC Health News 27th October 2007
Women who have been treated for early signs of cervical cancer have a high risk of the disease decades later, say Swedish researchers. Regular smear tests should be offered to those with pre-cancerous lesions for at least 25 years, they said.
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