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National News
The prime minister's definition of a family friendly policy - that is one based purely on attacking Conservatives and ticking the box for the number of shiny new buildings constructed - just won't wash anymore. Conservatives have always supported Sure Start and its funding. But we have concerns that the investment in it is being concentrated on creating new, often unsustainable nursery places at the expense of existing independent providers, rather than promoting broad-based early-years support for parents and children, especially in the most deprived areas.
My elderly mum lives on her own and has modest assets (about £75,000, but she does not own her own home). She is fit and well but I am worried about the future and am thinking of paying someone a modest weekly wage as a full-time live-in carer. Is this the best option or are there other ways of tackling this without incurring huge costs?
Amid reports of salmonella, crunchy cockroaches and 22% fat, Bibi van der Zee asks what one of the nation's favourite fast foods is really made of
Specialists seek trials of cheaper drug to prevent blindness - The Guardian 05/10/06
Eye specialists are calling for trials which would set a hugely expensive new blindness-preventing drug against a cheap alternative which many doctors are already using on their patients.
Scientists hail cure for most common cause of blindness - The Independent 05/10/06
Drug lifts blindness threat for thousands - The Times 05/10/06
Drug combats vision loss disorder - BBC Health News 04/09/06
Organ failure victim spoke to 8 doctors - The Guardian 05/10/06 A journalist who died from multiple organ failure spoke to eight different doctors in the days before her death in an attempt to find out what was wrong with her, an inquest was told yesterday.
Doctors failed to spot fatal illness bug - The Independent 05/10/06
Woman died 'after eight doctors made wrong diagnoses' - The Telegraph 05/10/06
Leo Benedictus: Why Baby can only get dumber - The Guardian 05/10/06 So yet another intelligence myth has been squashed: breastfeeding, whatever its other benefits, does not increase your baby's IQ. In the largest study on the subject ever conducted, scientists at the University of Edinburgh announced this week that the reason breastfed babies are cleverer than average is because, er, mothers who breastfeed are cleverer than average, and much of intelligence is hereditary. So what will actually improve a person's IQ? Well, the first thing to be clear about is that we can only work with what we're given. The current understanding is that each individual is probably born with a maximum attainable IQ, as determined by their DNA. As long as we and our parents do everything right throughout our life, we will reach our optimum intelligence. Simple.
Breastfeeding doesn't make babies more intelligent - Daily Mail 04/10/06
Is Cameron really equipped to deal with social division? - The Guardian 05/10/06 Tory fortunes now rest on a man who is more interested in effective process than in tax cuts or public sector reduction
A tug of war over the common ground - The Guardian 05/10/06
Letters: Don't trust David's easy promises - The Guardian 05/10/06
NHS, tax and electable Tories - The Times 05/10/06
Europe has the answer to NHS woes - The Telegraph 05/10/06
NHS safe in my hands says Cameron - BBC Health News 04/09/06
Gym shirkers unite! - The Guardian 05/10/06 A good boogie, Hoovering or sex might feel like a high-impact work-out but are we kidding ourselves? Vicky Frost investigates
NHS praised for speeding up cancer treatment - The Guardian 05/10/06
The NHS has met almost all the tough cancer waiting times targets set by the government six years ago, a report from the cancer tsar will say today.
Killer in the ward - The Guardian 05/10/06 While hospitals struggle to combat virtually indestructible superbugs, Emine Saner finds out what patients can do to avoid catching them
He has turned thousands of his teenage peers into master chefs by encouraging them to take things nice and steady at the stove, so the many followers of Sam Stern, the Yorkshire schoolboy turned culinary star, could be forgiven for imagining he would turn his nose up at fast food.
Carl Griffiths’ feet have grown to a massive size 18 — double the average for adult men in Britain — after he was treated for leukaemia.
Obesity leads to more caesarean births - The Telegraph 06/10/06Obese mothers-to-be are three times more likely to need caesarean section births than slimmer women, researchers have found.
Tom Leonard has no objection to the new law on child seats - lambasted by other commentators as 'health and safety tyranny' - if it means his children can't attack each other. Or him
Civilian hospitals are no place for a soldier - The Telegraph 05/10/06
As one who has been wounded twice in action, I have much sympathy with those injured British Servicemen who are not getting the full medical support they deserve.
MoD pays NHS to speed up care of troops - The Telegraph 05/10/06
Soldiers 'on NHS waiting lists' - BBC Health News 04/09/06
'They made me feel like a leper. It is disgusting' - The Telegraph 05/10/06 Donna Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago and had surgery almost immediately.
Cancer patients' 'misery at work' - BBC Health News 05/09/06
Health service doomed whoever is in power - The Telegraph 05/10/06 It is at least arguable that the Labour Party has, for almost 10 years, tested to destruction the notion that spending more and more public money on the NHS will bring a commensurate improvement in health care.
Council ordered to pay back £27,000 for wrongly charged care fees error - The Telegraph 05/10/06 A council was ordered today to reimburse a woman for £27,000 wrongly paid out in nursing fees for her elderly mother.
Baby killer that doctors don't talk about - The Telegraph 05/10/06 Nine in 10 pregnant women are unaware of a potentially fatal bacterial infection that claims the lives of up to two newborn babies in Britain a week, says a report.
Tea soothes a troubled mind, say scientists - The Telegraph 05/10/06
The soothing power of a regular cup of tea has been given more backing from science with research that shows it can reduce the harmful effects of stress.
Drinking tea 'reduces stress' - Daily Mail 04/10/06
Black Tea Soothes Away Stress - Medical News Today 05/10/06
Pregnant teens take up smoking to avoid pain of childbirth - Daily Mail 04/10/06 Pregnant teenagers are taking up smoking in the hope of having smaller babies so that childbirth is less painful, a Government minister warned.
Teenagers 'smoke to ease labour' - BBC Health News 04/09/06
Pay organ donors, expert suggests - BBC Health News 06/10/06People should be paid for living organ donations, a US surgeon has said in an article in the British Medical Journal.
All schoolgirls should be routinely vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, a leading medical journal has said.
Nursery children need an hour of physical exercise each day to burn off their energy and stave off the threat of obesity, researchers have warned.
Withhold drugs to save money - BBC Health News 05/10/06Doctors in Northamptonshire have been told to withhold drugs from patients to save their health trust £40 million.
Junior doctors are being put at increased risk of road traffic accidents because of exhaustion.
Aspirin 'can block tumour growth' - BBC Health News 05/10/06
Researchers believe they have found how aspirin helps to fight cancer.
Mental health wards 'unpleasant' - BBC Health News 04/09/06 Elderly patient Many patients were unhappy with their wards More than half (56%) of recent mental health inpatients rated their ward as unpleasant or very unpleasant, a survey has found.
Cancer drugs man strangled wife - BBC Health News 04/09/06 A "loving and caring" husband strangled his wife after he suffered mood swings from medication treating his prostate cancer, Cardiff Crown Court has heard.
Osteoporosis drug advice concerns - BBC Health News 04/09/06
Campaigners say draft NHS plans look like condemning some women to a future of "pain and misery" by denying them access to vital osteoporosis drugs.
Nurses offered jobs in Australia - BBC Health News 04/09/06
More than 80 nurses from Staffordshire have been offered jobs at a hospital in Australia.
Midwife move to cut smoking rates - BBC Health News 04/10/06
A midwife is to be recruited by NHS Highland and trained to help pregnant women give up smoking.
Recent research from the University of Surrey, UK, has indicated that the UK's dietary needs are not being met as a result of the change in our trading patterns since joining the EU.
Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Ltd has been suspended from membership of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) for a minimum of three months in connection with serious breaches of the ABPI Code of Practice, it was announced on Monday.
Final results from a large, open-label study(1) demonstrate that repeated treatment with botulinum toxin type A (or BoNTA, marketed as BOTOX(R) by Allergan, Inc.) safely reduces upper limb (wrist, finger and/or arm) spasticity following stroke, and is associated with significant improvements in patients' ability to function in their daily lives
Cancer Research UK funded scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have unravelled a complex chain of molecular triggers involved in the development of malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, a study published in Cancer Research reveals today (Monday).
The UK government has confirmed that some people may have to wait for their flu jab this year.
The Healthcare Commission is launching the NHS Staff Survey for 2006, giving staff a chance to have their voices heard about what it is like working in the NHS.
International News
AN OUTBREAK of dengue fever has penetrated the residence of the Indian Prime Minister, infecting members of his family and putting pressure on his Government to declare an epidemic.
Everyone has moles. Most of the time, they are nothing but a cosmetic nuisance. But sometimes pigment-producing cells in moles called melanocytes start dividing abnormally to form a deadly form of skin cancer called melanoma. About one in 65 Americans born this year will be diagnosed with melanoma at some point during their lifetime.
If you've had a heart attack or stroke, paramedics, doctors, and nurses follow standardized protocols for what to do right away, and their efforts improve your odds for a full recovery. That's not the case if you have a body-wide infection known as sepsis, which can be fatal within a few hours and is often not diagnosed until it is too late.
Hospital admissions for acute heart attack in people under 60 fell by 11% in the Piedmont region of Italy in the five months after the introduction of a ban on smoking in indoor public places, compared with admissions for the same period in the previous year.
Patients with severe coronary artery disease live longer if they receive coronary artery bypass surgery as their initial treatment instead of artery-opening angioplasty or heart medications, according to a Duke University Medical Center analysis.
Thanks to the availability of two new blood tests called T-SPOT.TB and QuantiFERON-TB Gold, physicians around the world can better detect latent tuberculosis (TB) infection. The tests, which reduce the number of false positive and negative results inherent to the old tuberculin skin test, are just two examples of clinical advances in TB control that could potentially eliminate the disease during the 21st century.
Patients with symptomatic moderate asthma who were treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha, an anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibody, experienced significantly fewer disease exacerbations than individuals taking a placebo.
Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and the Brooklyn VA Hospital have found that when a human protein, PNC-28, is administered to pancreatic tumor cells in animals, the tumors are destroyed. The research was reported in the October 1st edition of the International Journal of Cancer.
Genetic factors may be at play when it comes to the link between the personality trait of neuroticism and vulnerability for depression, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.
Sixteen-year-olds who weighed less than 2,000 grams (about 4.5 pounds) at birth and are not disabled are still more likely than the average teenager to have physical and mental difficulties, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) use more health services in the two years before and two years after they are diagnosed than do children without ADHD, with white children accumulating more expenses than those of other ethnicities, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Infection with Entercoccus faecalis can cause bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves that if not treated with antibiotics results in death. The number of infections with antibiotic-resistant E. faecalis is increasing. So, researchers are looking for alternative strategies for treating individuals who become infected with this bacterium. Now, in a study appearing in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers from University of Texas Medical School at Houston have identified proteins that are required for E. faecalis to cause endocarditis in rats and that might make good vaccine candidates.
Relapse to uncontrolled drinking after periods of sobriety is a defining characteristic of alcoholism and is often triggered by stress. A new study in rats reports that a specific receptor for a stress-response transmitter may play an important role in stress-induced relapse. The study, a collaboration between scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and at Camerino University, Italy, appearede online in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 2, 2006.
A new study at the Universite de Montreal has concluded that people drinking coffee to get through a night shift or a night of studying will strongly hurt their recovery sleep the next day. The study published in the current issue of Neuropsychopharmacology was conducted by Dr. Julie Carrier from the Department of Psychology at the Universite de Montreal. Dr. Carrier runs the Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hopital du Sacre-Coeur de Montreal.
UCB (Euronext Brussels: UCB) and Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) today announced a global collaboration to jointly develop and commercialize CDP323 for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) and other potential indications. CDP323 is an orally active small molecule alpha4-integrin inhibitor expected to enter Phase II clinical trials next year.
Results from a recent survey of European women with early breast cancer, presented for the first time at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress, show that the information needs of patients are not being met and that there is an unacceptably low level of patient involvement in potentially life-extending treatment decisions. The survey revealed that older women, those with a low level of education and those without Internet access are particularly uninformed.
Cheshire and Merseyside News
MERSEYSIDE'S flagship cancer hospital is taking far longer to treat new patients than almost all other hospitals in England, a shock report has revealed.
A NEW state-of-the-art diabetes centre has been officially opened at Ormskirk Hospital.
Parents tell coroner of dash to A&E A BABY girl died of a rare heart disorder which had gone undiagnosed by the family doctor, an inquest heard.
TEN more jobs are to go across Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals.
BUS pass holders heading for Southport Hospital will be able to travel for free – and it’s thanks to We st Lancashire District Council.
THERE was just one new arrival to greet our photographer when he called at the maternity unit of Ormskirk Hospital.
Meet the man poaching our hospital staff - Liverpool Echo 05/10/06
A MAN was thrown out of Fazakerley hospital after being found poaching nurses for New Zealand.
Shed the weight by catching the bus - Liverpool Echo 05/10/06 HEALTH chiefs have unveiled the latest weapon in the fight against obesity – a battle bus to tour Liverpool’s primary schools.
Everton stars team up to help youngsters get fit - Liverpool Daily Post 05/10/06
Ex-footballer aims to get executives fit for the top - The Daily Post 05/10/06 A PROFESSIONAL footballer turned businessman is bringing a new fitness plan to Liverpool’s executives.
Flu vaccines delayed by problems - Warrington Guardian 04/09/06 WARRINGTON'S flu vaccination programme is running behind schedule because of a manufacturing problem.
Hospital spent £300k in a bid to solve £10m ‘blackhole’ - Warrington Guardian 04/09/06
HOSPITAL bosses have defended paying thousands of pounds to an outside firm for financial advice on saving money.
Cumbria and Lancashire News
CANCER experts at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are urging women to check themselves for the early signs of breast cancer in an effort to raise awareness of the disease.
HEALTH bosses in Lancashire have voted to close all mental health wards and provide fewer beds in three new hospitals.
A NURSE who was struck off after she locked a mentally ill woman in a room and sprayed her with cleaning fluid has failed in her bid to return to the profession.
Health Trust’s debt to reach nearly £4m - Carlisle News & Star 04/10/06
THE debt of running primary care services across north Cumbria is being forecast to reach £3.7 million by the end of the financial year.
Primary Care Trust launches authority - Lancashire Telegraph 04/10/06 NEARLY 400,000 patients will be covered by the launch of a health authority in charge of East Lancashire GP services.
Greater Manchester News
A GP who took on Harold Shipman's patients has become the first in the world to allow them to see their medical records at home - because they were so suspicious.
THE legacy of serial killer Harold Shipman has left GPs "watching their backs" and more reluctant to issue death certificates, according to a Greater Manchester coroner.
A NEW health centre is being built for residents on the neglected Hall i'th' Wood estate.
THE trust which runs Fairfield Hospital has defended its use of taxis to transfer nurses between its four sites to cover staff shortages.
THE health trust proposing to close a ward at Fairfield Hospital caring for elderly people too ill to live at home will not be consulting the public over the plans - only the staff.
PEOPLE worried about developing osteoporosis can be checked out with a bone density scan courtesy of the Ramsbottom and Tottington Peel Lions.
A CARERS' champion who was honoured by the Queen for her work is offering advice to those looking after people with mental illness.
Mental health question time - The Bury Times 05/10/06
A QUESTION Time event is being held tonight at Bury Town Hall in advance of World Mental Health Day.
HEALTH watchdogs have told maternity bosses at the Royal Bolton Hospital that they are satisfied with progress on an action plan following the deaths of three mothers.
