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Government advice to pregnant women to cut back on caffeine may be too cautious, according to new research. Pregnant women are advised to drink no more than three mugs of instant coffee a day and are often urged to cut out caffeine altogether because of fears that it can cause premature birth and low birth weight.
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Carry on with the coffee, pregnant women are told - Daily Mail 25th January 2007
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Pregnancy caffeine 'reassurance' - BBC Health News 26th January 2007
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Carry on with the coffee, pregnant women are told - Daily Mail 25th January 2007
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Pregnancy caffeine 'reassurance' - BBC Health News 26th January 2007
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The father of a 13-month-old boy who died after "incomplete information" was passed from one hospital to another is considering suing a hospital trust. An inquest heard how Zia Islam's son, Ahil, waited for hours for medical help and was then treated for a chest infection when in fact he had blood poisoning.
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Father may sue after baby dies in hospital - The Telegraph 26th January 2007
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Father may sue after baby dies in hospital - The Telegraph 26th January 2007
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Like Prof John Fabre (Letters, January 24) I have a GP wife. Her partnership's recruitment of salaried GPs is based not on avarice, as he suggests, but on the market force of reluctant recruits. Today's successful self-employed GP partners need to be visionary entrepreneurs, tight-disciplined business administrators, IT/telecoms analysts, shrewd buyers, motivational leaders, HR managers, local health political schmoozers and national health political second-guessers. Top that with a long-term commitment to the partnership, the role of mother as most GPs are female, and the small matter of sympathetically eared patient contact and the diagnostic doctor bit. Quite a skill set. Most young GPs shirk full responsibility, opting only for medicine and mothering down a salaried, flexible route, leaving the rest to the established partners. My wife's practice has tried to tempt salaried GPs into full partnership, They are having none of it.
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Anthony McCarthy (Letters, January 20) is mistaken to suppose that all those who wish to be assisted in dying - whether by act or omission - simply need access to palliative care. Indeed the 2004-05 House of Lords select committee concluded that a small but significant group of determined, terminally ill individuals are "unlikely to be deflected from their wish to end their lives by more or better palliative care". The BMA and even the National Council for Palliative Care have expressed similar sentiments.
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Stroke patients who are treated in specialised units are almost 20 per cent less likely to die or suffer disability than those on conventional wards, according to a recent study. The study, which was carried out in Italy and published in The Lancet, followed more than 11,000 patients who had suffered strokes and had been admitted to hospital within 48 hours.
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The NHS is to pursue employers to recover the cost of treating employees injured at work, ministers will announce today. Rules that allow the NHS to claim back money for patients who have been paid personal injury compensation could see more than £150 million refunded each year, the Government says. But insurers, who will bear the brunt of the costs, gave warning yesterday that the move could provoke a multimillion-pound increase in premiums.
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More than 300 passengers and crew on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 have caught the highly infectious norovirus during a world cruise. In what health officials have called an unusually large outbreak, nearly 17 per cent of the 1,652 predominantly American passengers on the Cunard Line’s flagship were confined to their cabins for two or three days by the bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea.
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Norovirus, the curse of the cruise ships - The Telegraph 26th January 2007
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Vomiting virus sweeps through QE2 - BBC Health News 25th January 2007
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Vomiting virus sweeps through QE2 - BBC Health News 25th January 2007
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Once again, the so-called "skinny models" debate is sandwiched between famine in Africa and yet another salvo from the government in the war against obesity in our children, says Hilary Alexander in an online exclusive
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Youngsters in Britain consume more sweets and fizzy drinks than any others in Europe, fuelling an obesity crisis linked to ill health and early death. Ten to 13-year-olds eat an average of £128.40 of confectionery a year - which is equivalent to 1,167 two-finger KitKat bars or almost 400 Cadbury Creme Eggs.
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Pregnant women who take folic acid can dramatically cut the chances of their baby having a harelip, say researchers. Mothers-to-be are already advised to take supplements of the B vitamin to help prevent conditions such as spina bifida.
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Obese people are gorging themselves in order to qualify for stomach-stapling surgery on the NHS. Overweight patients are being forced to pile on the pounds after trusts raised the level of obesity they must reach to get the treatment, a patients' association claimed yesterday.
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It is the magic bean that has virtually all the health benefits of eating meat, but none of the blood and gore. Edamame (or soya beans), which looks something like a cross between a broad bean and a pea, is being hailed as a new super-food. Soya beans have been used for generations in food manufacture and as a meat alternative for vegetarians. However, the humble bean has been given a make-over, dressed up with a new name and sold as a green vegetable in its own right.
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Measures to cut the risk of cot death must be taken for day-time naps as well as night-time sleeps, expert say. Researchers said this includes both the advice that babies should sleep on their backs and that they should be in the same room as their parents.
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Warning over temporary nurse use - BBC Health News 25th January 2007New Story
A public sector watchdog has warned health officials to monitor their use of temporary nurses. Audit Scotland highlighted the growing use of bank nursing staff by NHS bosses as a way to cope with staff shortages.
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International News
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New fears of the harmful effects of traffic emissions are raised today in a major study linking motorway pollution with permanent and life-limiting damage to children's lungs. People who live within 500 metres of a motorway grow up with significantly reduced lung capacity, and even children who have never experienced asthma are at risk, scientists warn. Environmental campaigners described the research published by the Lancet as a "bombshell" and the Liberal Democrats said it provided fresh impetus to reduce car emissions. Government health officials are considering the findings to decide if any action is needed.
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Children growing up near roads suffer serious damage to lungs - The Independent 26th January 2007
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Cycling can also take your breath away - The Times 26th January 2007
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Major roads 'harm children's lungs' - The Telegraph 26th January 2007
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Car fumes stunt child lung growth - BBC Health News 26th January 2007
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Major roads 'harm children's lungs' - The Telegraph 26th January 2007
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Car fumes stunt child lung growth - BBC Health News 26th January 2007
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Smokers who suffer damage to a particular part of the brain can give up quickly and easily without feeling any urge for a cigarette, according to research that promises new approaches to treating nicotine addiction. A study of smokers who suffered strokes has shown that part of the brain, the insula, appears to be intimately involved in their addiction, indicating that it could be targeted to help people to give up the habit.
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Cheshire and Merseyside News
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A PIONEERING crackdown on anti-social behaviour and drug crime has led to more than 1,000 arrests by Merseyside police. The landmark figure was revealed yesterday as the force announced its Total Policing operation had also broken the record for the highest number of arrests in any single day.
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Two of three NHS trusts without a boss - Warrington Guardian 25th January 2007
TWO of the town's three NHS trusts remain without bosses at the helm. Both Judith Holbrey, chief executive of the 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust, Warrington's mental healthcare service provider, and Allison Cooke, boss of Warrington Primary Care Trust, quit their posts in December.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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A POISONS expert says a man who died of an overdose at Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital would have survived if he had been given the proper treatment, a court heard. Dr Simon Thomas, of Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, was giving evidence at the trial of Peter Fisher at Carlisle Crown Court.
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HUNDREDS of pupils at Cumbrian primary schools will be given pedometers in a bid to tackle child obesity. The Government is to dish out the devices, which allow children to keep track of how far they have walked each day, in an attempt to encourage physical activity.
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STAFF at north Cumbria’s main hospitals will not be expected to police the controversial no-smoking ban which recently came into force. In September bosses outlawed smoking at both the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, and the West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven.
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220 hospital jobs under threat - Chorley Citizen 25th January 2007
AT least 220 hospital jobs in Lancashire will be at risk under controversial plans to use a private firm to treat NHS patients, a senior manager has warned. A leaked document states up to 360 posts could go at Chorley and South Ribble District General Hospital and Royal Preston Hospital.
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Greater Manchester News
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MP Ivan Lewis is Labour's junior health minister responsible for maternity services. It says so on the Department of Health website. As he is proud to claim in his Bury Times letter last week, the policy he is responsible for is designed to reduce the overall number of maternity units.
I am disgusted at the decision to close wards in hospitals all around the country to save money. In my own hospital, Fairfield in Bury, they plan to close children's wards including the special care baby unit.
NEW Year resolutions to embark on a healthy lifestyle may have already fallen by the wayside, but help is now just a phone call away thanks to the launch of Bury's Health Trainers. Advice on healthy eating, quitting smoking and becoming more active are just some of topics the 40 trainers can offer.
BURY residents are being invited to have their say on the future of mental care services at Fairfield Hospital. Pennine Care NHS Trust, which provides mental health and specialist substance misuse services at hospitals across the region, is planning on becoming a Foundation Trust to allow people to become "members" of the trust and be consulted on plans for future developments.
FOOTBALLERS at Bolton Wanderers have signed up to help people suffering from mental health problems. Manager Sam Allardyce and his players said the issue, particularly depression among men, was a serious one.
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Hospital staff in protest at £3.7m cuts plan - The Bolton News 25th January 2007
PROTESTERS angry at proposed cuts in jobs and services gathered outside the Royal Bolton Hospital to demonstrate. The protest was organised by the hospital's biggest staff union, Unison, and began outside Bolton's Trinity Street train station.
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