Gay couples and women over 40 will be entitled to the same free IVF treatment as heterosexual couples on the NHS for the first time under new guidelines published today.Same sex couples will be given the same rights as heterosexual couples under guidance issued by the killer quango National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE).

The NHS will also extend the upper age limit for IVF by three years to 42, following advice that suggests many women in their late 30s and early 40s could conceive after treatment.

Fertility experts questioned whether health authorities could afford to widen eligibility criteria, when only a quarter currently fund three cycles of IVF for infertile couples, as recommended by Nice.

Gedis Grudzinskas, emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Barts and the Royal London Hospital, said that while the new guidance reflects “social changes” there were questions over whether NHS trusts could afford it.

“How do we reconcile the changes in society and equality of access to healthcare, with the economic predicament?” he said.

The new guidelines call on health authorities in England and Wales to fund fertility treatment known as intra-uterine insemination (IUI), using donor sperm, for people in same-sex relationships.

The move follows a relaxation in the law, made under Labour in 2008, to put same sex parenting on an equal legal footing.

The recommendation follows implementation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. It abolished requirement for fertility clinics to take into account a child’s need for a father or a male role model before agreeing to treatment. Gay couples or single women now need only show they can provide “supportive parenting”.

Demand from gay couples paying privately for fertility services has subsequently boomed, say clinics. Official figures show the number of lesbian couples undergoing IVF rose from 178 in 2007 to 417 in 2010.

One cycle of IVF can cost up to £8,000 privately. Because success rates are low – typically 20 per cent for a 38-year-old – couples can spend tens of thousands on treatment.

Meanwhile Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, described the same-sex move as “absurd”.

She said: “We are not prepared to accept what constitutes fertility from a biological perspective. Fertility treatment is very important but in this case what we are trying to do is rewrite biology.”

Under the Nice guidelines, women aged 40 to 42 deemed to have no chance of conceiving naturally should be offered one full IVF cycle. In this age group one in eight will give birth after one cycle.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Gay-couples-and-women-over-40-to-get-free-IVF-treatment-on-NHS

NHS patients will be able to book GP appointments online and get test results online within three years from a new health direct website.The moves are part of a new Information Strategy designed to “take the hassle out of the health service”.

Online communications between patients and their doctors is already happening in some places.

But the strategy sets out plans to ensure there is universal adoption of digital technologies.

The Department of Health is also encouraging the NHS and private companies to develop new health apps for smart phones and tablet computers.

Repeat prescriptions will also be available from 2015 too.

The deadline mirrors the goal of giving patients access to electronic medical records – something thatwas part of tony bliar’s vision for the NHS in his NPfIT £12 billion dream.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Our NHS reforms are about making life easier for patients.

“By allowing people to access the NHS online, we will put an end to the 8am rush to phone your GP to try and book an appointment. Reforms like this will take the hassle out of the health service.”

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs Committee, said: “There are GP surgeries which have been pioneering online booking and repeat prescriptions for a while now so we would support the wider implementation of this, as long as it doesn’t impact on patients without IT access who can continue to book appointments in the usual way.

“However, we would caution against the potential use of email for consultations, because compared to a telephone or face-to-face consultation it is difficult for GPs to assess someone quickly and safely this way.

“When it comes to patients being able to view their records online, we believe patients should have access to their health records but we’d want to be satisfied that their records would remain secure before this was implemented – for example it would be important to be certain that it couldn’t be an abusive partner or a parent trying to access their teenager’s records. All patients need to be confident that their records are held safely otherwise they may not feel comfortable talking to their GP about confidential issues.”

Given that the government has an appalling record on leaking and losing your records from everything from DVLA to the tax office we caution against rushing out and signing up for similar treatments.

One in six cancers – two million a year globally – are caused by largely treatable or preventable infections according to new research.The Lancet Infectious Diseases review, which looked at incidence rates for 27 cancers in 184 countries, found four main infections are responsible.

These four – human papillomaviruses, Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis B and C viruses – account for 1.9m cases of cervical, gut and liver cancers.

The team from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France says more efforts are needed to tackle these avoidable cases and recognise cancer as a communicable disease.

Most cases are in the developing world. The proportion of cancers related to infection is about three times higher in parts of the developing world, such as east Asia, than in developed countries like the UK – 22.9% versus 7.4%, respectively.

Nearly a third of cases occur in people younger than 50 years.

Among women, cancer of the cervix accounted for about half of the infection-related cancers. In men, more than 80% were liver and gastric cancers.

Drs Catherine de Martel and Martyn Plummer, who led the research, said: “Infections with certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites are some of the biggest and preventable causes of cancer worldwide

“Application of existing public-health methods for infection prevention, such as vaccination, safer injection practice, or antimicrobial treatments, could have a substantial effect on the future burden of cancer worldwide.”

Vaccines are available to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV) – which is linked to cancer of the cervix – and hepatitis B virus – an established cause of liver cancer.

And experts know that stomach cancer can be avoided by clearing the bacterial infection H. pylori from the gut using a course of antibiotics.

Commenting on the work, Dr Goodarz Danaei from Harvard School of Public Medicine in Boston, the US, said: “Since effective and relatively low-cost vaccines for HPV and HBV are available, increasing coverage should be a priority for health systems in high-burden countries.”

Jessica Harris of Cancer Research UK said: “It’s important that authorities worldwide make every effort to reduce the number of infection-related cancers, especially when many of these infections can be prevented. In the UK, infections are thought to be responsible for 3% of cancers, or around 9,700 cases each year.

“Vaccination against HPV, which causes cervical cancer, should go a long way towards reducing rates of this disease in the UK. But it’s important that uptake of the vaccination remains high. At a global level, if the vaccine were available in more countries, many thousands more cases could be prevented.”

Everyone over the age of 50 should be given statins because they reduce the risk of a heart attack even in healthy people, a study has found.The risk of a heart attack or stroke is cut by a fifth in those who have no sign of heart disease, shows research by scientists at Oxford University.

Treatment guidelines should be reviewed in light of the findings, the experts said, and the NHS should impose a blanket policy of prescribing up to 20 million people statins at a potential cost of £240million a year.

Currently, the only people considered at high risk, those with a one in five chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years, are given the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Half of men aged 50 or over and almost a third of women qualify for statin treatment. About five million people are thought to take them.

National guidelines should be amended to lower the threshold for treatment to those with a one-in-10 risk over a decade, the experts said.

As the majority of people in their fifties would qualify for statins under this criteria, it would be cheaper and easier to implement a blanket policy to save money on screening tests — which cost up to £700 per patient — to identify them, it was argued.

The cost of statins, which can cost as little as £1 for a month’s course, would also be offset by the savings they would bring to the NHS in preventing costly operations, rehabilitation and by freeing ward space and places in care homes. A total of £1.3billion is spent annually on cardiovascular drugs alone.

The proposed statins programme would be controversial, as many believe it is unnecessary to medicate otherwise healthy people, and it is not clear how many would take the tablets if they were not experiencing symptoms.

Prof Colin Baigent, co-author of the study, said: “If we want to prevent heart attacks and strokes that come out of the blue in people with no previous evidence of problems — and about half of such events happen in the absence of any prior history of disease — then we have to identify and treat people who are currently healthy but are known to be at increased risk of developing heart disease. Such treatment should, of course, be in addition to obvious things like encouraging better diet, more exercise and avoidance of cigarette smoking.”

A National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE) spokesman said the study findings will be included in the ongoing review of the clinical guidelines on cardiovascular risk assessment and treatment.

The study analysed data from 175,000 people in 27 random trials which compared people on statins with those on a dummy pill.

Researchers found that for every one point reduction in levels of bad cholesterol in the blood, there was a 21 per cent reduction in the risk of serious events, including heart attacks, strokes or surgery for blocked arteries among those with no symptoms of heart disease.

The risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke among those at lowest risk was cut by 15 per cent.

For every 1,000 people in the low-risk group treated with statins for five years there would be 11 fewer major heart attacks or strokes. “A benefit that greatly exceeds any known hazards of statin therapy,” the authors wrote.

Side effects of statins can include muscle aches, stomach disturbances, and altered liver function. Patients have also reported sleep and memory problems, depression and headaches.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/All-over-50s-should-be-taking-statins

NHS hospitals had to be bailed out to the tune of almost £415 million last year after running out of cash according to Department of Health figures.In total 31 hospitals had to be given extra emergency funding to keep them going in 2011-12, up from 21 the previous year.

The payments have risen dramatically since 2009-10, when the department started collating full figures.

That year, they were £187.1 million, while in 2010-11 they rose slightly to £223.0 million, before jumping to £414.2 million.

The big rise coincided with a tighter budget settlement for the NHS as a whole,which has resulted in drops in referrals to hospitals and tighter restrictions on surgery for operations like hip and knee replacements.

Andrew Lansley said: “Labour left us a dismal legacy of challenged hospitals, burdening some of them with PFI deals they could not afford, huge debts, and poor financial governance.

“Even with the Government’s decision to protect NHS spending, the challenges of an ageing population and rising costs mean that these problems cannot be swept under the carpet any longer.

“For some hospital trusts, the challenges they face may be too great for them to take on alone.  That is why we are helping them overcome their problems, with short-term support if necessary, so that they become sustainable in the long-term.”

The largest single bailout was for South London Healthcare Trust, which received £79.2 million last year. Over three years it has been handed £168.7 million. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust was the second biggest recipient in 2011-12, taking £57.7 million in total.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Hospital-bailouts-top-400m

Medicine shortages are having an “adverse” impact on patients, including vulnerable groups such as those with mental health problems, the House of Commons All Party Pharmacy Group said.In a report detailing its inquiry into medicine shortages, the group said the shortages had been mainly caused by the export of medicines intended for the UK market to other EU countries.

This exporting is conducted by speculators and is legal under EU and UK law, the report noted.

Highly qualified pharmacists are having to spend time locating medicines in short supply, the MPs noted.

But in spite of the best efforts of pharmacists, the group said it had been told of cases involving vulnerable patients not receiving the medicine they need because of shortages.

These included patients with mental health problems, epilepsy sufferers, diabetics, and even pregnant women in need of medicine to stabilise their pregnancy.

“Evidence we received highlights the stress, anxiety and sometimes harm that patients suffer,” the MPs said in their report.

The group warned that the UK has been experiencing shortages of NHS prescription medicines for four years.

“We have no objection to the export of medicines in principle, so long as this practice does not harm patients,” they said.

“However, throughout this inquiry, we have seen evidence that patients are suffering and that pharmacists’ time and resources are being diverted away from patient care as a result of medicines being in short supply.”

In its report, the group calls for a “renewed sense of urgency” to deal with the problem by those organisations involved in the supply of medicine.

The Government must “unequivocally” state that the interests of UK patients must come first and not provisions concerning the free movement of goods, it said.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “The very least patients should be able to expect is for prescribed medicines to be available to them when required.

“However, all too often this simple expectation is not being met and as a result patients, some of whom have serious medical conditions that require medicine to remain stable, are being put at risk.

“The Government needs to investigate this problem as a matter of urgency, using the findings of this report as a starting point.”

Savage cuts to nursing are stretching resources “to breaking point”, the largest nursing union says today at it’s conference.Government plans to shift care out of hospital and closer to patients’ homes are being used as a cover for the cuts, the Royal College of Nursing warns. It is also leading to patients being discharged too early, the RCN reports.

Over 26,000 nursing posts have been cut in the last two years and a further 61,000 are at risk, according to the RCN.

The college says that, despite government rhetoric claiming more care is being provided outside hospital, there has been less than a 1 per cent increase in the community nursing workforce in the last decade and community nursing is “stretched to breaking point”.

The figures come as Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, prepares to address the RCN congress today. In an interview with The Independent ahead of the speech, Mr Lansley denied there were mass reductions in nurse numbers.

He also said staffing numbers were not the only factor in providing good patient care. “In some hospitals the staffing ratios are exactly what we would expect, but some wards are really excellent and some are really bad. This is about leadership,” he said.

Mr Lansley added that a recent staff survey shows that, across the NHS, only 65 per cent of staff would recommend their hospital to friends or family.

A poll conducted for the college on the eve of its annual congress in Harrogate found 90 per cent of respondents agreed patients were being discharged sooner from hospital and with more complex needs than a year ago.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the RCN, said: “Nurses are stretched too thin and many are approaching breaking point. Inevitably patients are going to suffer.” The RCN supported a shift from hospital to community care but nurses reported patients being discharged from hospital before social-care support was in place.

The Health minister Simon Burns said he did not recognise the RCN’s figures: “There are only 450 fewer qualified nursing staff in England than in 2009 and in 2011-12 we expect to train 2,300 community nurses and health visitors.”

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/government-is-cutting-nursing-numbers-by-stealth

The campaign to improve hand hygiene in hospitals in England and Wales is contributing to a significant fall in the rates of superbug infections, according to a report.The study published on the BMJ website showed the amount of soap and hand gel being used tripled during the campaign.

At the same time, levels of MRSA and C. difficile infections in hospitals fell.

The government has since dropped the campaign, but said its ambition was to “wipe out” such infections.

Hospital superbugs were once a real fear for many patients. In response the Clean Your Hands campaign, funded by the Department of Health, was introduced in all hospitals by June 2005.

Alcohol gels were put by bedsides, posters reminded staff to wash their hands and there were regular checks to ensure hands were kept clean.

By 2008, the total amount of soap and alcohol gel being purchased by hospitals trebled, going from 22ml per patient per day to 60ml per patient per day.

Rates of MRSA more than halved in the same time period and C. diff infections fell by more than 40%.

One of the report’s authors, Dr Sheldon Stone from the Royal Free University College London Medical School, estimated that around 10,000 lives were saved because of the campaign.

He told the BBC: “It’s been a real British success story, we’ve gone from being the dirty man of Europe to being world leaders.

“What we need to do is keep up the momentum and stay at the forefront of world hand hygiene.”

A spokesman from the Department of Health said: “The Clean Your Hands campaign was successful in its aim to highlight the importance of good hand hygiene practice across the NHS. We know this has been successful.

“The challenge now is to ensure the NHS embeds the good practice highlighted in the campaign to achieve our ambition to wipe out avoidable healthcare-associated infection.

“We know real progress has been made in this area as MRSA bloodstream infections have dropped by 41% and C. difficile by 30% across the NHS in England since 2009/10.”

From:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17942182

Sleeping for more than nine hours a night may help those with a genetic predisposition to being overweight stay healthy, a study suggests. A study of twins has found that sleeping for less than seven hours a night was linked to higher bodyweights and a greater susceptibility to genetic factors that influence weight.

However the opposite was true in people who slept for nine hours or more.

Several genes have been found to be associated with obesity and this is thought to be the first study to examine how sleep interacts with them.

The genes affect how the body uses energy, how fat is stored, the feeling of being full after a meal and how quickly sugar is used up.

A team at the University of Washington studied 1,088 pairs of twins and found that the genetic influence on their body mass index was twice as great in those who slept for less than seven hours compared to those who slept for nine hours a night.

The findings were published in the journal, Sleep.  Lead author Dr Nathaniel Watson, said: “The results suggest that shorter sleep provides a more permissive environment for the expression of obesity related genes. Or it may be that extended sleep is protective by suppressing expression of obesity genes.”

Dr Watson said the results were preliminary but may suggest that weight loss measures would be most effective when the genetic influences on obesity were mitigated through sleep extension.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Sleeping-for-more-than-nine-hours-may-help-weight-loss-research

The perfect age is 70 years old according to research showing the extent to which pensioners benefited from the post war boom.Previous generations have handed over an ever more prosperous legacy to their children. But those born after the Second World War appear to have snatched the lot.

Typically, they had a state education and their university fees were paid by the state. Even those from middle class homes got a student grant.

They also took the first step on the property ladder in their twenties — years before the current first time buyers.

Their mortgages were comfortably less than three times their salary.

The analysis to find the perfect age was commissioned for the British Airways Business Life magazine, which asked the leading financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown to examine the numbers and trends.

It found that 70 — or approaching it — was the best age to be. And 45 was the worst.

While someone in their sixties might be suffering thanks to a flat market and low savings growth, they also have the legacy of years of low taxation, good equity in their homes and a pension driven by a 20 year bull run in stock markets.

Those in their forties face high school and university fees for their children, and have few savings and low pensions.

At their time of maximum expenditure they may be in negative equity in their home and there’s little sign of good news on the horizon.

Figures show that life can also be tough for anyone in their twenties. Saddled with student debt, they are finding it difficult to get a job, can’t afford a house, have no savings, high costs and, if they are in work, a low salary.