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C difficile outbreak which killed 90 patients may trigger criminal charges. Scores of NHS patients were killed during Britain's deadliest outbreak of a hospital superbug, a damning report by the government's health watchdog reveals today.
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How hospitals failed to stop spread of superbug that killed 90 in two years - The Times 11th October 2007
Contrary to popular belief, the proportion of single-parent families has barely changed, says Kate Bell. The Guardian reported Conservative claims that lone parents are currently favoured in the tax and benefit system (Focus on couples with children and first-time buyers in tax plans, October 1); and, days later, you cited figures from the Office for National Statistics showing an increase in the total number of families headed by a lone parent (Marriage still the best way to play happy, healthy families, says study, October 5).
It is easy to imagine that holding an exhibition of surrealism or funding an institute for animal-health research, for example, would have varied and far-reaching benefits to society and the economy. But measuring these impacts is a much more difficult.
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People who take cholesterol-lowering drugs are protected from heart disease and premature death years after they stop taking them, a major study has shown. New research into statins – the world’s biggest-selling medication – offers dramatic evidence of their long-lasting ability to halt and even reverse the progression of heart disease.
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Statins are the right prescription - The Times 11th October 2007
Statin therapy provides more than just hope - The Times 11th October 2007
Statins can lower risk of heart attack ‘for life’ - Daily Mail 11th October 2007
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Family doctors will be forced to open surgeries on Saturday mornings or in the evenings or risk losing almost £7,500 in income under radical plans to improve GP access. The proposal involves paying for out-of-hours services by taking money out of the budget used to reward GPs for providing good clinical care.
Nearly a million more people will benefit from cognitive behavioural therapy after an extra £170 million was pledged yesterday by Alan Johnson. It is a “talking therapy” that guides people with conditions such as depression and anxiety into changing the way they feel about themselves.
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More funds for talking therapies - BBC Health News 10th October 2007
Whatever you made of the Chancellor’s various sleights of hand on Tuesday, lurking beneath his Budget plans was one inescapable fact. The hungry maw of the NHS is swallowing more and more resources, at the expense of virtually everything else. The defence budget is at its lowest since 1930, despite our dwindling troops being dotted across three continents. Prison overcrowding is at such record levels that Jack Straw will have to release even more inmates early in a few weeks’ time. But the health service marches relentlessly on, having hoovered up two thirds of the increase in public spending in the past five years.
Parents are toilet-training their toddlers later than ever. Is there any good reason for this? A generation ago, most parents began toilet-training their toddlers around their second birthday. Today the average age for completing training in the UK is nearer 3. There is no physiological reason for this delay, it’s a Western phenomenon. In developing countries most children are trained by 18 months.
The gentry has to work for its money now, and the stress of urban life is taking its toll on their bowels Reviews of Peter York’s new book about the evolution of the Sloane Ranger suggests that its habitat is changing. The unreconstructed Barbour-and-tweed clan is now found predominantly in the country, and when spotted in Chelsea it is usually because it has been blown off-course by an ill wind. The last time a flock of Sloane Rangers in their true plumage was seen en masse in London was on the Countryside March in September 2002.
A philosopher and performance artist announced that he has acquired an ear on his arm. It took Stelarc, 61, ten years to find a surgeon willing to perform the controversial operation. The ear was grown from cells in a laboratory and implanted on his left forearm in 2006.
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My four-year-old child suffers from what our GP calls absences. He is very reassuring about this and tells me that it is likely to be resolved during adolescence. He has prescribed medicine and all now seems well. Is the doctor’s optimism justified?
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Close by Gray's Inn at the heart of legal London stands a building of striking anonymity. Its entrance is hidden behind doors of mirrored glass. No nameplate identifies the people who work within. They hold no press conferences, publish no press releases. Their annual report, illustrated with grey, passport-style photographs of anxious-looking staff, is not routinely distributed to reporters.
Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people who need long-term care at home could soon have most of their costs met by the state under plans being considered by ministers. The proposals for sweeping reform of the social care system, which experts say would benefit 450,000 people in England who currently pay their own bills, were buried away in Alistair's Darling's Pre-Budget Report on Tuesday.
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Review of long-term care funding - BBC Health News 10th October 2007
Claims that billions have been saved in the war on Whitehall bureaucracy have been thrown into doubt. MPs said there were question marks over almost three-quarters of them. When Gordon Brown was chancellor, the Treasury-commissioned Gershon Report of 2004 set a target of £21.5 billion annual savings by the end of this financial year.
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Vulnerable missing youngsters are to be featured on television screens in waiting rooms of hospitals and GP surgeries. Ben Needham was 21 months old when he went missing. Police have released a released a computer-generated image of how he could now look now Ben Needham as a toddler, and a computer-generated image of what he could like now look now that he is 18 Police and agencies tackling cases of missing children hope that a million people a month will see the images and appeals on "Missing Children's TV" and believe that doctors and health professionals can play a key role in identifying such youngsters.
Letters and articles in your paper this week have addressed the issue of students refusing to participate in parts of the medical curriculum on religious grounds. The General Medical Council is explicit about the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes required of medical students by the time they graduate. It is not possible for students to opt out of any of the curricular outcomes set in our guidance for medical schools.
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A group of young scientists today challenged the marketing claims made by 11 companies of 'health products' ranging from sandwiches to health spas. Their report, called There Goes the Science Bit was funded by the charity Sense About Science and criticised 11 companies for making 'pseudo-scientific' claims that did not stand up to scrutiny.
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Trainee doctors are not always able to spot very ill patients on arrival at A&E and consultants do not review the cases quickly enough, an inquiry says. Patients should be seen by a specialist within 12 hours, the independent watchdog NCEPOD said, but in 40% of cases examined this had not happened.
Services for sick and premature babies are being stretched to the limit, according to a leading charity. Bliss said the majority of the neonatal units who replied to its survey were operating at or below half their minimum staffing levels.
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Former Celtic captain Neil Lennon has said he is recovering from depression, which has affected him throughout his football career. The Nottingham Forest midfielder said he had not experienced depression, with the help of medication, for a year.
It has been estimated most drugs work in only a third of patients, and around 10% of NHS beds are occupied as a result of adverse drug reactions. That is the equivalent of seven large general hospitals full at any one time.
When the Crichton "Institution for Lunatics" opened its doors in Dumfries in 1839, many people thought most of its 100 beds would lie empty. They questioned both the need for such a mental health facility and the scale on which it was constructed.
Research into the brain's response to speech when under sedation has revealed reduced activity in areas critical for memory and understanding language. Cambridge University scientists used brain imaging to find evidence which may influence the amount of anaesthetic given to patients undergoing surgery.
A drug regularly prescribed for heart conditions could help pensioners to exercise more, according to scientists from Dundee University. Researchers discovered older people became more active when they were given an ACE inhibitor called perindopril.
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International Health News
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Life-or-death decisions depend on doctors thinking on their feet. Australian doctors, it appears, are also trained to think with their drink. Doctors in a city 600 miles north of Brisbane have saved the life of an Italian tourist by administering rum, vodka and whisky for three days through a tube into his stomach.
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Doctors save man with vodka drip - BBC Health News 10th October 2007
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An increase in low birthweight babies born in and around New York in the months after 9/11 has been blamed on stress caused by the attacks. The journal Human Reproduction reported a two-thirds increase in the risk of giving birth to a slightly underweight baby in the week after 9/11.
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Donor knocks on US patient's door - BBC Health News 10th October 2007
Doctors were initially sceptical about the 'miracle match' An American kidney patient spent four years on a donor waiting list only to find his perfect match through a chance knock on his Idaho front door. Travelling salesman Jamie Howard offered up one of his kidneys after asking Paul Sucher to explain why he could not afford a new vacuum cleaner.
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Cheshire and Merseyside Health News
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A WIDOW is warning of the dangers of deep vein thrombosis after her husband succumbed to the condition while mountaineering in China. Mother-of-two Katharine Peacock is coming to terms with the death of her husband, Runcorn-born Jonathan, in July.
WITH rates of diabetes rising in Halton, a group of volunteers has set out to tackle the issue and provide support to sufferers across Runcorn and Widnes. The Halton Diabetes UK Voluntary Support Group was formed to raise awareness of the condition and regularly works with staff at Halton Hospital in a bid to improve services.
AN AIR stewardess who battled to save a 1lb premature baby at 30,000ft was last night reunited with the youngster’s parents at an awards ceremony to celebrate Britain’s unsung heroes.
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Hospital to be renamed - Liverpool Daily Post 10th October 2007
THE BUPA Murrayfield Hospital in Wirral is to be renamed. From next Monday, it will be known as Spire Murrayfield Hospital. Murrayfield was one of 25 acute care hospitals and one treatment centre bought by European firm Cinven.
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Cumbria and Lancashire Health News
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A CARLISLE nurse who faced two disciplinary hearings against her on the same day is free to go back to work after being cleared of both. Clair Hugill, 47, was suspended from her job at the Blackwell Vale Nursing Home in Durdar in March.
NORTH Cumbria’s two main hospitals are among the worst in the country at dealing with patient complaints, say national inspectors. The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) was also named and shamed in a report by independent watchdog the Healthcare Commission.
HEALTH bosses are to review their procedures after a family criticised the care given to a pensioner who died after a fall. The son of an 81-year-old Ethel French told an inquest he felt the NHS had "washed its hands" of his mother because she had dementia.
AN EXPERT in hospital infections has slammed the Royal Blackburn Hospital for not making public details of an MRSA outbreak in a baby unit. Bosses at the hospital said that they did not want to reveal that babies in the neo natal unit were infected with the superbug until it was discovered exactly what strain had been found.
BLACKBURN Rovers bosses are unsure how many of their players have fulfilled a pledge to give a day's pay to nurses. It came after it was revealed that the Mayday for Nurses appeal had collected just a quarter of the £750,000 pledged by 255 Premiership footballers.
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£2.5m boost for health services - Lancashire Telegraph 10th October 2007
MEDICAL treatment is moving closer to home thanks to a £2.5m investment in East Lancashire's health service. A series of initiatives are being started to improve provisions for patients living in Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale and the Ribble Valley, so that they do not have to travel to centralised hospital sites for treatment.
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Greater Manchester Health News
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Health trust acts in bid to reassure patients - Bury Times 10th October 2007
HEALTH bosses have moved swiftly to reassure hospital patients that their care won't be compromised should they, their carers, or family, lodge a complaint. Pennine Acute Trust, which runs Fairfield Hospital and North Manchester General, has now added this pledge to their existing complaints system following concern expressed by the Healthcare Commission.
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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