http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/health_direct_RSS.xml Health Direct.co.uk- blog for the latest NHS news and advice on how the Labour government is saving the NHS. en-gb health NHS Bliar New-Labour UK-blogs health direct Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT mrsa@healthdirect.co.uk (Simon Dye) Copyright: (C) 1998-2007 HealthDirect.co.uk Ltd Patricia Hewitt, the former health secretary who left the government six months ago, has been offered jobs with at least five companies with links to the health sector http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/patricia-hewitt-cashes-in-on-health.html Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/patricia-hewitt-cashes-in-on-health.html Family doctors face working unorthodox hours in so called super surgeries under a radical pilot scheme that could turn into a nationwide blueprint for medical care. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/ministers-back-gp-plan-that-sidesteps.html Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/ministers-back-gp-plan-that-sidesteps.html A woman will be denied free National Health Service treatment for breast cancer if she seeks to improve her chances by paying privately for an additional drug. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-threat-to-halt-care-for-cancer.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-threat-to-halt-care-for-cancer.html As 2007 draws to a close it is sad to contemplate that during the year another 10,000 men in the UK will have lost their lives to prostate cancer, and that 10,000 families this Christmas will be grieving the loss of a loved one as a result http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/prostate-cancer-health-disservice.html Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/prostate-cancer-health-disservice.html A life saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-turn by the NHS rationing body NICE. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-u-turn-on-prostate-cancer-treatment.html Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-u-turn-on-prostate-cancer-treatment.html Patients' confidential medical records are regularly being accessed by people who have no right to them, research by the BBC has revealed. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that in the last year there have been several data security breaches in the West of England. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-patients-records-frequently-leaks.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-patients-records-frequently-leaks.html Both private sector and NHS-run organisations are failing to meet core minimum standards for patient care, with neither outperforming the other, says the UK health sectors inspectorate. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/core-health-standards-being-missed.html Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:52:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/core-health-standards-being-missed.html The advice of a high powered board of business people set up to counsel the labour government on working with the private sector was systematically ignored by ministers and civil servants, according to a resignation letter seen by the Financial Times. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/quango-advisers-hit-out-on-nhs-wasted.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:12:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/quango-advisers-hit-out-on-nhs-wasted.html Thousands of health workers from across Britain have held silent protests against the sacking of a Manchester nurse. Members if Unison took to the streets wearing gags a month after psychiatric nurse Karen Reissmann, who criticised NHS cuts, was fired for speaking to the media. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nurses-hold-silent-protest-at-sacking.html Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nurses-hold-silent-protest-at-sacking.html The charity Diabetes UK is calling for more access to insulin pumps for people with diabetes as new research shows they are more effective in improving blood glucose control and reducing hypoglycaemic episodes than traditional insulin injections. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/50000-people-denied-insulin-pumps-in-uk.html Fri, 7 Dec 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/50000-people-denied-insulin-pumps-in-uk.html Hospitals are still failing to treat people with dignity and respect as complaints reveal patients left unwashed, in soiled bedding and in humiliating open-backed gowns, the Healthcare Commission has said. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-patients-face-humiliating-treatment.html Thu, 6 Dec 2007 19:26:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-patients-face-humiliating-treatment.html Thousands of stroke victims die unnecessarily every year because access to the best care is subject to a postcode lottery, campaigners have said. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/strokes-postcode-lottery-for-stroke.html Wed, 5 Dec 2007 19:26:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/strokes-postcode-lottery-for-stroke.html The UK is lagging behind "nearly every other" European country when it comes to investment in cancer services and has some of the poorest survival rates for the disease. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/uk-among-europes-worst-for-cancer.html Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/uk-among-europes-worst-for-cancer.html The NHS is holding thousands of people with learning disabilities in bleak accommodation with scant regard to their human rights, inspectors warn today. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-ignoring-human-rights-of-people.html Mon, 3 Dec 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/12/nhs-ignoring-human-rights-of-people.html The 50m Pounds a year that the labour government is to spend on routinely deep cleaning hospital wards is being spent to reassure the public rather than as a provenly effective way to tackle hospital acquired infections like MRSA admitted Alan Johnson the Health Secretary. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/ward-cleaning-is-reassurance-spin.html Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/ward-cleaning-is-reassurance-spin.html Accidents, errors and mishaps in hospital affect as many as one in 10 in-patients, claim researchers. The report in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care said up to half of these were preventable. Checks on 1,000 cases in just one hospital found examples of fatal surgical errors, infections and drug complications. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/one-in-10-suffers-hospital-harm-as.html Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/one-in-10-suffers-hospital-harm-as.html Ambulances may be spreading infections because they are not being cleaned properly, union leaders warn. An investigation by Unison found large variations in cleaning practices at ambulance trusts in the UK. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/dirty-ambulances-spread-mrsa-superbugs.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/dirty-ambulances-spread-mrsa-superbugs.html NHS hospitals and primary care trusts are paying private hospitals excessive prices because they treat patients at the last minute, the industry says. This is despite the availability of more than 120 independent hospitals and surgical centres that will treat patients at NHS prices or just above. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/last-minute-private-operations-cost-nhs.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/last-minute-private-operations-cost-nhs.html The NHS is heading for a record 1.8bn Pounds underspend this financial year, Health Direct can reveal. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-underspends-by-18bn.html Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-underspends-by-18bn.html Paramedics are treating patients in ambulances outside the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and ambulances are queuing outside the hospital because of a major alert which has left it with no beds available to new admissions. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/ambulances-queue-at-full-hospital-at.html Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/ambulances-queue-at-full-hospital-at.html The man in charge of setting up the NHS medical records database has admitted that you cannot stop the wicked doing wicked things with information. Richard Jeavons, director of IT implementation at the Department of Health, said there were instances where staff abuse their privileges. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-database-will-weaken-patient.html Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:21:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-database-will-weaken-patient.html Health Direct asks if you remember all those labour MPs who supported the national ID card scheme, the DNA database and the NHS IT system? They said we had nothing to fear.....labour said that your data will be safe with them. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/shocking-labour-incompetent-data-misuse.html Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:48:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/shocking-labour-incompetent-data-misuse.html One of Britains most eminent consultants has claimed white male doctors are being denied bonuses because of politically correct reverse discrimination by the National Health Service. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/doctors-revolt-at-anti-white-bias.html Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/doctors-revolt-at-anti-white-bias.html The Financial Times last week criticised labour's health services incompetent U Turn. Health Direct reproduces the Editorial below. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-must-keep-taking-tablets-financial.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-must-keep-taking-tablets-financial.html Alan Johnson, the health secretary, yesterday slashed a long planned expansion of the private sectors role in the National Health Service, in effect confirming that contracts originally meant to be worth about 6bn Pounds for surgical treatments and diagnostic services are likely to amount to well under half that sum. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/private-sector-sees-nhs-role-slashed.html Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/private-sector-sees-nhs-role-slashed.html Junior doctors beginning their training in hospitals will no longer have their accommodation found or paid for, it emerged today. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/housing-blow-for-junior-doctors-in-new.html Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:26:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/housing-blow-for-junior-doctors-in-new.html A deepening divide is emerging between NHS organisations that are managing their finances well and the nearly one third that remain in poor financial health, the Audit Commission has warned. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-deficits-leading-to-quality-divide.html Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/nhs-deficits-leading-to-quality-divide.html A pioneering 700m Pound a year labour government scheme to buy surgical treatment centres and diagnostic services from the private sector is set to be more than halved by ministers. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/private-sector-role-in-pioneering.html Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:30:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/private-sector-role-in-pioneering.html A new inquiry into lifestyle and cancer has issued several stark recommendations. They include not gaining weight as an adult, avoiding sugary drinks and alcohol, and not eating bacon or ham. Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/labours-nanny-state-wants-us-to-stop.html Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:30:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/labours-nanny-state-wants-us-to-stop.html Ben Bradshaw is trying to break the labour promise that no patient should wait more than 18 weeks from seeing their GP to completing their hospital treatment as new figures confirm that they will fail to keep their word. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/labour-tries-to-move-18-week-hospital.html Fri, 9 Nov 2007 10:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/labour-tries-to-move-18-week-hospital.html Following Health Direct's post last month that Record numbers go abroad for health treatments, we profile a number of case studies where UK patients have given up on the NHS and experienced foreign health services. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/case-studies-in-foreign-health-services.html Thu, 8 Nov 2007 14:29:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/case-studies-in-foreign-health-services.html The health service would have a clear divide between purchasers and providers with ministers and the Department of Health having much less day to day involvement in its running under a bill published by the Conservatives. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/tory-health-bill-challenges-labour-on.html Wed, 7 Nov 2007 14:29:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/tory-health-bill-challenges-labour-on.html Growing concern among the public about falling standards in the NHS is revealed in another new health survey notes Health Direct. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/patients-losing-faith-in-nhs-claims.html Tue, 6 Nov 2007 14:29:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/patients-losing-faith-in-nhs-claims.html The fourth estate has always had a bad name, but it seems to be getting worse. Journalism should be an honest and useful trade, and often still is. But now that journalism has more power than ever before, it seems to have become ever more disreputable. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/sicko-michael-moore-film-has-mad-view.html Mon, 5 Nov 2007 14:29:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/sicko-michael-moore-film-has-mad-view.html Hospital superbugs are endemic in Britains wards and the Government is failing to meet its targets to reduce them, new watchdog figures have disclosed. Cases of Clostridium difficile increased by seven per cent in hospital patients over the age of 65 from 51,829 in 2005 to 55,620 last year, an extra 3,791 cases. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/hospitals-failing-superbug-targets-as.html Fri, 2 Nov 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/hospitals-failing-superbug-targets-as.html Targeted cleaning to tackle MRSA hotspots is the key to reducing hospital infections, an expert says. Microbiologist Dr Stephanie Dancer said cleaning should focus on objects which people frequently touch rather than on catch-all blitzes. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/targeted-cleaning-is-key-to.html Thu, 1 Nov 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/11/targeted-cleaning-is-key-to.html Further evidence that the Labours choice policy is struggling as a means of driving reform in the National Health Service has come from the latest survey of how far it is being offered to patients. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/only-44pc-recall-hospital-choice.html Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:12:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/only-44pc-recall-hospital-choice.html Record numbers of Britons are flying abroad for medical treatment to escape NHS waiting lists and the rising threat of hospital superbugs. More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year, a figure that is forecast to rise. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/record-numbers-go-abroad-for-health.html Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:12:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/record-numbers-go-abroad-for-health.html Labour's drugs advisory body NICE is issuing poor quality guidance because it excludes experts from the drafting process, doctors told MPs on Friday. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/experts-criticise-nice-drugs-advisory.html Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:12:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/experts-criticise-nice-drugs-advisory.html Labour ministers knew about the findings of a report into 90 patient deaths from Clostridium difficile at Kent hospitals months ago, the Conservative party claimed this week. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/tories-on-attack-over-mrsa-c-diff.html Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/tories-on-attack-over-mrsa-c-diff.html Heroin and cocaine addicts on the labour government's treatment programme are being given drugs as a reward for clean urine samples, Health Direct has learned. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/labour-rewards-drug-addicts-as-only-6pc.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/labour-rewards-drug-addicts-as-only-6pc.html Once again Health Direct learns that labour's ridiculous health targets are resulting in many NHS patients having an early death and or unnecessarily pain. The Financial Times discovered that there is a direct correlation between be occupancy rates and incidents of patients contracting MRSA, C Difficile and other superbugs. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/ministers-bury-report-on-mrsa-c.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/ministers-bury-report-on-mrsa-c.html Problems with getting an NHS dentist are leading some people to pull their own teeth out. If that's not enough to make you wince, then the potential pitfalls will be. There are people out there pulling their own teeth out with pliers. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/diy-dentistry-lack-of-access-to-nhs.html Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/diy-dentistry-lack-of-access-to-nhs.html The National Health Service has spent almost 500m Pounds on services to stop people smoking but with no discernible impact on either the proportion of the adult population that smokes or the numbers smoking http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nanny-state-burns-500m-on-failed-anti.html Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nanny-state-burns-500m-on-failed-anti.html A quarter of hospital trusts in England are failing to meet new standards on infection control, a survey by the Healthcare Commission has found. Forty four trusts were not complying with one or all aspects of the hygiene code, standards seen as key after the recent deaths from hospital infections. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/quarter-of-nhs-trusts-are-failing-on-c.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/quarter-of-nhs-trusts-are-failing-on-c.html Up to three quarters of the 13.3bn Pounds efficiency gains the labour government claims to have made may be based on unreliable and inaccurate estimates, a committee of MPs has found. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/health-efficiency-gains-data-uncertain.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/health-efficiency-gains-data-uncertain.html A big revamp of the National Health Services 12bn Pound IT programme is under way that will see NHS trusts given more choice of how systems are installed and which software they get. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-shakes-up-12bn-it-programme.html Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-shakes-up-12bn-it-programme.html The outbreak of Clostridium difficile at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, in which at least 1,100 were infected and between 90 and 340 died, carries one clear lesson for policymakers and patients alike. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/hospitals-overlook-infection-guidelines.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/hospitals-overlook-infection-guidelines.html Asked what she intended to do about the filthy wards at her hospital, Rose Gibb insisted she had introduced an "action plan" that would "address the issues" of inadequate cleaning. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/superbug-boss-rose-gibb-has-record-of.html Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/superbug-boss-rose-gibb-has-record-of.html Hospital managers could face criminal prosecution for the worst ever recorded outbreaks of the superbug Clostridium difficile which killed at least 90 patients. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/superbug-hospital-may-face-criminal.html Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/superbug-hospital-may-face-criminal.html The Department of Health yesterday reverted to more standard recruitment practices for junior doctors seeking training posts for next year after the chaos that surrounded applications this year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/junior-doctors-training-stil-under-fire.html Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/junior-doctors-training-stil-under-fire.html Almost a third of complaints about NHS standards are not being handled properly, according to the official health watchdog. The Healthcare Commission claims in a report released today that many hospital managers, doctors and nurses do not listen to complaints or learn from their mistakes. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-trusts-are-failing-to-handle.html Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:02:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-trusts-are-failing-to-handle.html Childbirth is claimed to be safer than ever. Yet the price paid by the NHS for deliveries going catastrophically wrong has risen 59 per cent to 259m Pounds enough to fund the consultants and midwives needed to save thousands of babies and mothers from harm. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/labour-in-crisis-as-staff-shortage.html Tue, 9 Oct 2007 15:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/labour-in-crisis-as-staff-shortage.html Fundraiser Jane Tomlinson's husband and the NHS trust that treated her have called for a review of the availability of advanced trial drugs. Mrs Tomlinson's husband Mike said she found it distressing that she could not get access to Lapatinib, when it was available elsewhere in the UK. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/jane-tomlinson-widow-asks-for-cancer.html Mon, 8 Oct 2007 11:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/jane-tomlinson-widow-asks-for-cancer.html A 100m Pound innovation quango is to be created, with half the money, to be spent over five years, coming from the Wellcome Trust. It marks the first adoption of a recommendation from junior health minister Lord Darzis review of the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/new-100m-innovation-health-quango-setup.html Fri, 5 Oct 2007 11:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/new-100m-innovation-health-quango-setup.html Lord Ara Darzi, Health Minister and author of the interim report on the NHS says that every patient who stays in hospital will be screened for the superbug infection MRSA and at least half of GP practices will open on Saturday mornings or one or more evenings per week. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/tonys-crony-lord-darzis-health-review.html Thu, 4 Oct 2007 11:53:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/tonys-crony-lord-darzis-health-review.html The Financial Times recently reviewed the labour government's actions towards the NHS and questioned their muddled directions. Health Direct reproduces their Editorial below. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/unhealthy-signs-financial-times.html Wed, 3 Oct 2007 11:53:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/unhealthy-signs-financial-times.html The UK and other centralised health systems with a single funder perform worse than those financed by multiple insurers, according to a consumer focused survey of European healthcare. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-rated-as-mediocre-only-17-compared.html Tue, 2 Oct 2007 10:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/nhs-rated-as-mediocre-only-17-compared.html James Purnell, the Culture Secretary, came under increasing pressure over a fake photo last night, after two Labour MPs revealed they planned in advance for it be altered. The MPs, who featured alongside Mr Purnell in the doctored photograph, revealed that they had discussed how he would be merged into the shot after failing to turn up for a photocall on time. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/james-purnell-fake-photo-new-labour.html Mon, 1 Oct 2007 16:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/10/james-purnell-fake-photo-new-labour.html Labour government plans for tackling superbugs, such as MRSA, have been condemned by a leading medical journal for not being based on scientific fact. The Lancet said there was little evidence to support hospital "deep cleans" or short sleeves for medical staff as recently proposed. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/brwons-superbug-plans-ignore-evidence.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/brwons-superbug-plans-ignore-evidence.html Poor care and confusing advice is being used to deal with an allergy epidemic in the UK, experts have said. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee warned there were not enough specialist services and that food labelling was inadequate. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/allergy-epidemic-gets-poor-care-in-uk.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/allergy-epidemic-gets-poor-care-in-uk.html Hospitals are to use new deep clean techniques in which wards are stripped and subjected to steam cleaning and high-strength disinfectant in an attempt to reduce outbreaks of MRSA and C difficle superbugs. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/gordon-stalinist-brown-pledge-on-nhs.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:56:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/gordon-stalinist-brown-pledge-on-nhs.html Foundation trusts, a flagship of the labour governments National Health Service reforms, are building a growing cash mountain that they appear unable or unwilling to invest in improved services. The sums involved are up by more than 300m Pounds from about 1bn Pounds at the end of the last financial year to 1.32bn Pounds in the first three months of this year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/foundation-trusts-increase-cash-as.html Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/foundation-trusts-increase-cash-as.html The NHS is facing 4.5bn Pounds in compensation claims over alleged blunders by midwives and doctors that have left babies suffering severe brain damage, The Observer and Health Direct reveals. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-is-facing-45bn-compensation-bill.html Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-is-facing-45bn-compensation-bill.html Labours Brown bounce in the polls has receded as far as public services are concerned, according to polling by Ipsos Mori. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/brown-bounce-wanes-on-public-services.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:51:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/brown-bounce-wanes-on-public-services.html One in 10 girls under 16, the age of consent, has a sexually transmitted disease that could lead to cervical cancer, a government agency has found. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/sex-virus-carried-by-1-in-10-girls.html Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/sex-virus-carried-by-1-in-10-girls.html The Labour government is overpaying private hospital operators by more than 200 million Pounds to carry out surgery for NHS patients. In an effort to cut waiting lists, labour launched a programme in 2005 to outsource some routine surgery to the private sector. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/labour-govt-overpays-private-groups.html Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:16:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/labour-govt-overpays-private-groups.html Gordon Stalinist Browns opinion poll lead has halved in the space of a month, making an early election much less likely, according to the latest Sunday Times-YouGov poll of more than 1,800 people. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/labour-lead-halved-as-voters-feel-pinch.html Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:16:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/labour-lead-halved-as-voters-feel-pinch.html Doctors will be banned from wearing their traditional white coats as part of a drive to protect patients from contracting MRSA and C Difficle superbugs in hospital, Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary announces. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/mrsa-to-force-ban-on-doctors-white.html Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:16:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/mrsa-to-force-ban-on-doctors-white.html Ben Bradshaw was forced to defend the incompetence of his Department of Health this week after a detailed analysis by the Financial Times found that fully a quarter of the population would have to wait longer than the basic 18 weeks between referral by a GP and treatment which labour promised. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/ben-bradshaw-is-confident-of-achieving.html Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/ben-bradshaw-is-confident-of-achieving.html Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is a suitably Orwellian name for a Stalinist new system for training doctors in the National Health Service. The phrase is a perfect example of newspeak. To oppose a "modern" system is to be a conservative, if not a reactionary. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/terrible-way-to-treat-our-doctors.html Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/terrible-way-to-treat-our-doctors.html The amount of taxpayers money spent on the National Health Service has more than doubled in the last five years. The annual cost of our system of universal public healthcare is now approaching 100bn Pounds- more than 1,500 Pounds a year for every man, woman and child. But is our money being spent wisely? http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/gordon-stalinist-browns-careless-health.htm Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/gordon-stalinist-browns-careless-health.htm Sir Derek Wanless says billions of pounds poured into the NHS has not made it more efficient. The money poured into the NHS has failed to produce a more efficient service, or to reduce unhealthy lifestyles. As a result even more cash will be needed in the future. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/man-who-helped-nhs-to-46bn-says-it.html Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/man-who-helped-nhs-to-46bn-says-it.html The National Health Service is set to fall well short of its target of ensuring that no one waits more than 18 weeks from seeing a family doctor to completion of treatment, latest official figures suggest. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-to-miss-treatment-wait-targets.html Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-to-miss-treatment-wait-targets.html From the letters section of the Financial Times- Sir, Margaret McCartney's view would be endorsed by the majority of the medical profession, and shows the hollowness of the labour government's stated policy of a patient-led NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-is-service-not-business.html Fri, 7 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-is-service-not-business.html The European Commission has been asked to investigate whether a local health authority can refuse to pay for drugs when funding is available elsewhere. Tory MEP Chris Heaton-Harris claims the so called NHS postcode lottery breaks European anti-discrimination laws. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-postcode-lottery-to-be-challenged.html Thu, 6 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/nhs-postcode-lottery-to-be-challenged.html Almost one in five dental students plans to shun NHS work completely, a study has suggested. The results suggest that the new contract which was designed to make NHS work more attractive has had limited success. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/dental-students-will-shun-nhs-when.html Wed, 5 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/dental-students-will-shun-nhs-when.html A new NHS complaints service is being launched by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and will be rolled out across Scotland ahead of a national roll-out of the service. The confidential scheme helps patients take forward grievances about the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/new-nhs-complaints-service-launched-by.html Tue, 4 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/new-nhs-complaints-service-launched-by.html Nearly 5,000 more midwives will be needed by 2012 if the Government is to meet its target for maternity services, the Royal College of Midwives said. The college has increased its target from 3,000 because of a rising birthrate, which has exceeded government estimates, and a reassessment of present shortages. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/5000-midwives-are-needed-to-cope-with.html Mon, 3 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/09/5000-midwives-are-needed-to-cope-with.html Parents are being urged to give their children the measles, mumps and rubella jab before the start of the new school year after an unprecedented surge of measles cases was recorded over the summer holidays. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/measles-cases-triple-with-no-backup.html Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/measles-cases-triple-with-no-backup.html The long term health of mothers and babies is being put at risk by UK hospitals that have failed to introduce pro-breastfeeding policies, the United Nations says. UNICEF, the UN children's fund, today releases a report showing that four out of 10 maternity hospitals have not implemented guidance from the National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE) that was published a year ago. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/unicef-blasts-labours-breastfeeding.html Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/unicef-blasts-labours-breastfeeding.html More than half of nurses would not report the abuse of an elderly person in their care, according to a survey published today. The poll of NHS and private sector nurses, conducted for Help the Aged, found that a lack of training, heavy workloads and fear of confrontation or of upsetting the victim all prevent nurses taking action. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nurses-dont-report-abuse-of-elderly.html Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nurses-dont-report-abuse-of-elderly.html More than 10000 people are dying needlessly each year after being denied intensive care treatment, according to senior doctors. They have written to the Health Secretary Alan Johnson, warning that many patients are dying after routine surgery because of a failure to identify them as high risk cases. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-deaths-could-be-halved-say-doctors.html Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-deaths-could-be-halved-say-doctors.html The UK has the worst outcome for strokes in western Europe despite spending the same amount or more on care as other countries, a leading article in the British Medical Journal warned. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/uk-stroke-treatment-is-worst-in-europe.html Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/uk-stroke-treatment-is-worst-in-europe.html The reorganisation of strategic health authorities (SHAs) in England has seen the NHS pay out more than 80m Pounds in redundancy costs, Health Direct and the BBC has learned. More than 700 staff lost their jobs in last years shake up, which saw the number of SHAs reduced from 28 to 10. The cost of the average redundancy package for senior managers was more than 350,000 Pounds. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/labour-red-tape-shake-up-costs-nhs-140.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/labour-red-tape-shake-up-costs-nhs-140.html Thousands of newly qualified nurses are facing unemployment because of labours NHS hospital cutbacks, with vacancies at their lowest for 10 years. New National Health Service figures have revealed how difficult it is for nurses, physiotherapists, scientists and doctors to find jobs. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/new-nurses-left-jobless-by-labours-nhs.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:08:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/new-nurses-left-jobless-by-labours-nhs.html Cancer survival in the UK is still below the European average, despite recent improvements, a report says. Survival rates in lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer were lower in the UK compared with everywhere except eastern Europe. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/cancer-survival-rates-uk-patients-are.html Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:28:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/cancer-survival-rates-uk-patients-are.html Having disastrously fouled up the GPs service contract last year the Dept of Heath is now aggressively bullying GPs to work weekends again. Family doctors have been warned that unless they agree to open at evenings and on Saturdays, private companies will be contracted to take over their practices. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/gps-given-ultimatum-to-open-at-night.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:56:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/gps-given-ultimatum-to-open-at-night.html David Cameron the Conservative leader, attempted to regain the political initiative today by promising a bare knuckle fight with the Government to save local NHS hospitals from closure. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/cameron-promises-bare-knuckle-fight-to.html Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/cameron-promises-bare-knuckle-fight-to.html The crisis facing Britain's mental health wards is laid bare. Speaking exclusively, a senior consultant psychiatrist, who cannot be named, painted a picture of a service at breaking point. The wards are overcrowded, staff are overstretched and seriously ill psychotic patients are often forced to sleep on a sofa because beds have been cut to balance the books elsewhere in the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/psychiatric-wards-at-crisis-point-says.html Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/psychiatric-wards-at-crisis-point-says.html Patients are paying less for some private dental treatment than they do on the NHS because of controversial untested changes introduced by the labour Government last year. The price for a filling on the NHS is now 43.60 Pounds but some private surgeries charge just 35 Pounds, Health Direct and the Daily Telegraph can reveal. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-dentists-can-cost-more-than-private.html Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-dentists-can-cost-more-than-private.html Health Direct has been vindicated by official NHS staffing data which shows that the number of National Health Service workers fell last year for the first time since comparable records began in 1996 a year before Labour came to power. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/health-direct-official-nhs-staffing.html Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/health-direct-official-nhs-staffing.html A searing indictment of the cleanliness of UK hospital kitchens is revealed in research showing that almost half are plagued by vermin, risk infections by storing food incorrectly or employ staff with poor personal hygiene. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/scandal-of-filthy-hospital-kitchens.html Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/scandal-of-filthy-hospital-kitchens.html NHS Choices the Department of Health's flagship website is to ask primary care trusts and GP practices to correct widespread mistakes on the Department of Health's flagship NHS Choices website. Half of the NHS Choices website's information on GP opening hours and a third of practitioners' names are thought to be incorrect, Health Direct and HSJ can reveal. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-choices-massive-inaccuracies-mar-gp.html Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-choices-massive-inaccuracies-mar-gp.html NICE has thwarted campaigners who have failed in their High Court bid to force the NHS to fund Alzheimer's drugs in people with early stage disease. However, the National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE) has been told to rewrite guidance on how the disease is assessed. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nices-alzheimers-court-win-condems.html Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nices-alzheimers-court-win-condems.html A shake up in NHS dentistry in England has failed to increase access to services, labour government figures show. A Department of Health report showed 28.1m people had been to an NHS dentist in the previous 24 months. This was 50,000 down on the figures on the eve of the changes in April 2006. The number of dentists in the system has also fallen. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-dentistry-access-is-not-improving.html Thu, 9 Aug 2007 13:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-dentistry-access-is-not-improving.html A London hospital is to become the first in Britain to privatise all surgery, prompting charges of rank Government hypocrisy from supporters of the NHS. Kingston Hospital, in south west London, is to hand over control of its operating theatres to a private firm under a 10 year contract which has alarmed staff. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/private-surgery-deal-shows-labour.html Wed, 8 Aug 2007 10:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/private-surgery-deal-shows-labour.html Specialist wards full to breaking point. Patients with serious injuries denied care. A health service paralysed by arguments about funding. Martin Bircher, one of Britain's most senior consultants, speaks out. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/whistleblower-surgeon-breaks-cover-over.html Tue, 7 Aug 2007 10:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/whistleblower-surgeon-breaks-cover-over.html Three quarters of GPs who referred patients to hospital have had their decisions blocked, a poll for The Sunday Telegraph reveals. Family doctors say that new referral management systems, set up to allow primary care trusts (PCTs) to overrule decisions taken in the surgery, are being used to delay and cancel hospital care, and to divert patients referred to a hospital consultant to cheaper clinics in the community. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-managers-blocked-75pc-of-gp.html Mon, 6 Aug 2007 10:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-managers-blocked-75pc-of-gp.html Hundreds of operations in hospitals across England will be cancelled in the chaos as 30,000 junior doctors start new jobs this week. The British Medical Association said that because of the scramble to fill posts ahead of Wednesday's deadline after the collapse of the recruitment system, consultants have been left unable to plan theatre time. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/junior-doctors-still-jobless-in-mtas.html Fri, 3 Aug 2007 08:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/junior-doctors-still-jobless-in-mtas.html The introduction of the most ambitious pay reform in the National Health Services history cost far more than expected and failed to deliver the intended increases in productivity, a study by the King's Fund health think-tank has found. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-pay-deal-cost-more-and-brought-less.html Thu, 2 Aug 2007 12:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/nhs-pay-deal-cost-more-and-brought-less.html The flagship labour government scheme for treating drug addicts faces swingeing budget cuts of 50 million Pounds. Plans to slash total funding by more than 12 per cent, outlined in an email leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, come less than a fortnight after Stalinist Brown tried to show off his anti-drug credentials by signalling his desire to reclassify Cannabis from Class C to the more serious Class B. The Conservatives accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/hypocrite-stalinist-brown-cuts-50m-from.html Wed, 1 Aug 2007 10:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/08/hypocrite-stalinist-brown-cuts-50m-from.html A quarter of patients still cannot book advance appointments with their GP - more than two years after Tony Bliar promised to solve the problem. The results from an unfair and biased 12m Pound survey of more than two million people about services at their GP surgery found doctors are still manipulating their appointments system to hit targets. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/gps-quarter-of-patients-cant-book-in.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/gps-quarter-of-patients-cant-book-in.html Off balance sheet accounting has a long and often dishonourable history. Just think of Enron. The Treasury now has a chance to fix one of the most inconsistent and problematic examples of its use, in the way the private finance initiative is accounted for, by using the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards as a chance to bring all PFI projects on to the public balance sheet. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/pfi-time-to-set-record-straight-claims.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/pfi-time-to-set-record-straight-claims.html The Medical Training Application System (MTAS) junior doctors appointment fiasco still produces fury in the profession. But why? And how did the labour's defective system get passed in the first place? http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/mtas-disaster-labours-botched-nhs-plan.html Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/mtas-disaster-labours-botched-nhs-plan.html The health secretary, Alan Johnson, yesterday vetoed plans for a third wave of independent sector treatment centres to compete with NHS hospitals. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/johnson-blocks-new-wave-of-private.html Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:40:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/johnson-blocks-new-wave-of-private.html The number of cases of the potentially dangerous Clostridium difficile (C Difficile) is thriving, figures show. A review by the Health Protection Agency showed hospital MRSA cases had fallen by 10 per cent in the first three months of 2007 compared with a year ago. But rates for C. difficile, which mainly strikes the elderly, rose by 22 per cent this quarter. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/c-difficile-and-hospital-bugs-remain.html Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:40:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/c-difficile-and-hospital-bugs-remain.html Drug addicts are to be offered gift vouchers and prizes on the National Health Service under plans by the labour governments medicine watchdog NICE to encourage them to stay clean. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/anger-over-nhs-plan-to-give-addicts.html Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:52:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/anger-over-nhs-plan-to-give-addicts.html The Department of Healths new 14 million Pound flagship website NHS Choices contains GP practice information which in some cases is at much as six years out-of-date, Health Direct and EHI Primary Care has learnt. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/nhs-choices-criticised-over-out-of-date.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:52:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/nhs-choices-criticised-over-out-of-date.html Gordon Stalinist Brown quietly slashed by a third this years hospital building and equipment budget in one of his last acts as chancellor. Prompted by the tightness of the public finances, the new prime minister, who has placed the NHS as his immediate priority, cut the capital budget of the English NHS for 2007-08 from 6.2bn Pounds to 4.2bn Pounds. The move could delay the labour governments hospital building and reconfiguration programme in England. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/cynical-stalinist-brown-cut-budget-for.html Mon, 2 Jul 2007 14:53:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/07/cynical-stalinist-brown-cut-budget-for.html Stalin Browns appointment of Alan Johnson as the new Health Secretary appears to signal a more union friendly approach to the management of public services and possible disappointment for companies looking to offer healthcare services. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/stalin-browns-alan-johnson-signals.html Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:23:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/stalin-browns-alan-johnson-signals.html A hospital manager jumped 100 feet to her death, driven to suicide by the stress of NHS reforms. Morag Shedden Wilson, 32, stabbed herself with a kitchen knife and then jumped from a motorway bridge on the M60 into the Manchester Ship Canal. An inquest heard that Miss Wilson, who was head of dietetics at Wythenshawe Hospital, was under pressure because of reforms introduced by the Agenda for Change, a labour Government review. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labours-nhs-reforms-pushed-hospital.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labours-nhs-reforms-pushed-hospital.html Doctors' leaders this week said the public was as disenchanted with NHS reforms as the medical profession, releasing a survey showing that only a third of patients were happy with the changes of the last 10 years. On the eve of its annual meeting in Torquay, Devon, the British Medical Association (BMA) released a study suggesting that only 34 per cent of the public thought a decade of reform had made the NHS any better, while 42 per cent thought there had been no improvement. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/bma-doctors-survey-finds-public-unhappy.html Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/bma-doctors-survey-finds-public-unhappy.html The health watchdog NICE's decision to deprive 100,000 mild Alzheimer's victims of a 2.50 Pound a day drug that can delay the onset of the disease was condemned as "abhorrent and disgusting" in the High Court yesterday. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/cameron-kills-health-passport-idea.html Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/cameron-kills-health-passport-idea.html Patients are being asked to rate and comment on another NHS services website launched which they launched last week. The Department of Health is ludicrosly comparing the NHS Choices site to tripadvisor.com, which publishes travellers' holiday reviews. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labour-wastes-14-million-on-another.html Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:33:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labour-wastes-14-million-on-another.html The increased use of external consultants by the labour government is costing the taxpayer nearly 2bn Pounds a year and is failing to ensure value for money, according to the public accounts committee. In a report published on Tuesday, the PAC estimates that in the past three years, spending on consultants in the public sector has risen by a third from 2.1bn Pounds in 2003-04 to 2.8bn Pounds in 2005-06, with central government accounting for 1.8bn Pounds, largely to increases in the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labours-whitehall-advisers-now-cost-2bn.html Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labours-whitehall-advisers-now-cost-2bn.html The NHS could face pressure from its big three IT suppliers- BT, CSC and Fujitsu- to change the 6bn Pound contracts they have signed, following Richard Granger's departure from the helm of the world's biggest civil IT project. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/software-suppliers-may-seek.html Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/software-suppliers-may-seek.html One in four NHS trusts is failing the latest labour government targets on cleanliness and tackling superbug infections. Figures released by the Healthcare Commission show that six out of ten trusts in England have reported failing one or more of the twenty four core standards on all aspects of care, on which they are assessed by the NHS watchdog. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/hospitals-losing-fight-to-defeat-mrsa-c.html Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/hospitals-losing-fight-to-defeat-mrsa-c.html Primary care trusts wanting to reconfigure services were given a stark message in an economic analysis prepared for the NHS in London- financially, it will make sense to cut beds and services at non private finance initiative (PFI) hospitals. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-service-cuts-urged-at-non-pfi.html Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-service-cuts-urged-at-non-pfi.html Family doctors delivered an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the labour Government's handling of the NHS yesterday. GPs accused ministers of "wasting a golden opportunity" to transform the health service by "squandering millions of pounds of taxpayers' money". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/gps-have-no-confidence-in-hewitt.html Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/gps-have-no-confidence-in-hewitt.html Twenty thousand people will be condemned to blindness each year following a cruel and appalling decision by the health watchdog NICE, campaigners said today. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (aka National Institute for Curbing Expenditure) has come under intense pressure to approve the drugs Lucentis (ranibizumab) and Macugen (pegaptanib) for use on the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/cruel-watchdog-nice-condems-20000-to.html Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:34:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/cruel-watchdog-nice-condems-20000-to.html Midwives are delivering almost 25 per cent more babies than experts believe is appropriate, figures released by the Conservative Party suggest. The Tories say the government's failure to anticipate a big rise in the birth rate in England has left midwives under intense pressure. They argue this could derail labour ministers' commitment to offering all women a choice of where to give birth by 2009. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/baby-boom-stretches-midwives-as-labour.html Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/baby-boom-stretches-midwives-as-labour.html Doubts have been raised over the accuracy of the latest quarterly hospital episode statistics following reports of problems with data collection. There are concerns that primary care trust benchmarking decisions and information on patient numbers, which informs payment by results, may be out of date as third quarter results (October-December 2006) were not published until mid May. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/concerns-raised-over-accuracy-of-pct.html Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/concerns-raised-over-accuracy-of-pct.html Many people with lung diseases believe there are not enough NHS lung specialists to help them cope with their condition, a survey suggests. The British Lung Foundation questioned 3,200 patients and found many are disillusioned with what they see as the low priority given to their care. Death rates from respiratory illness in the UK are almost double the European average, says the charity. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/lung-patients-let-down-by-nhs-blf-claim.html Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/lung-patients-let-down-by-nhs-blf-claim.html Less than half of NHS patients are receiving hospital treatment within the government's flagship waiting time target of 18 weeks, new figures revealed. Only 48 per cent of patients in England are treated within 18 weeks and 12.4 per cent have to wait more than a year for treatment, according to figures published by the Department of Health. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-trusts-fail-on-waiting-times-as.html Fri, 8 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-trusts-fail-on-waiting-times-as.html he NHS apparently made a small surplus in 2006/07, figures unveiled by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt showed. The NHS recorded a surplus of 510 million Pounds, the data showed. However, 22 per cent of NHS organisations are still in debt and unable to balance their books. The gross deficit of the NHS stood at 911 million Pounds, down from 1.3 billion Pounds in 2005/06 http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-figures-show-510m-pound-annual.html Thu, 7 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-figures-show-510m-pound-annual.html The NHS is on the brink of collapse and cannot be saved unless Gordon Stalin Brown intervenes when he becomes prime minister to give doctors the authority to organise a recovery, the leader of Britain's 33,000 hospital consultants claimed today. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-is-on-brink-of-collapse-say.html Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/nhs-is-on-brink-of-collapse-say.html The NHS in England is facing a blitz on MRSA and superbug hygiene standards as a watchdog uses new powers to crackdown on infections. The Healthcare Commission is to go into 120 NHS trusts unannounced in the next year to check cleanliness standards and infection control procedures. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/inspection-blitz-on-mrsa-hygiene.html Tue, 5 Jun 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/inspection-blitz-on-mrsa-hygiene.html A British based drugmaker has made a groundbreaking offer to the National Health Service to cover the cost of a 25,000 Pound cancer drug if a patient using it failed to show adequate progress. The NHS would only pay for the new drug, Velcade, when patients responded well to it, under a joint proposal from Janssen-Cilag the drugmak http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/drugmakers-proposal-to-nhss-nice-well.html Mon, 4 Jun 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/drugmakers-proposal-to-nhss-nice-well.html Britain's leading fertility expert condemned the IVF industry yesterday, saying that it had been corrupted by money and that doctors were exploiting women who were desperate to get pregnant who were failed by the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/ivf-clinics-corrupt-and-greedy-winston.html Fri, 1 Jun 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/ivf-clinics-corrupt-and-greedy-winston.html The National Audit Office has been asked to investigate whether a half billion pound underspend by the NHS in England was caused by political chicanery at the Department of Health. Norman Lamb, the Liberal democrat health spokesman , called in parliament's spending watchdog yesterday after the record surplus was disclosed by the Guardian in an analysis of strategic health authority board papers. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/audit-office-asked-to-investigate.html Thu, 31 May 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/audit-office-asked-to-investigate.html Extra workers drafted in to help hard pressed midwives could actually be putting mothers and babies at more risk, a report has claimed. Maternity support staff are supposed to free up midwives' time by helping with paperwork and non clinical duties. However, Kings College London found some trusts in England try to use them to care for pregnant women, even though they are not sufficiently trained. Experts stressed support staff should never replace midwives or doctors. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/support-staff-do-midwife-tasks-as.html Wed, 30 May 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/support-staff-do-midwife-tasks-as.html Less emphasis on the use of the private sector and a slow down in market based reforms could be the hallmark of Gordon "Stalin" Brown's premiership for the NHS, according to a review of health experts by Health Direct. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/private-slow-down-expected-as-nhs.html Tue, 29 May 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/private-slow-down-expected-as-nhs.html The partner of a woman who died from septicaemia following flaws in out-of-hours GP care has said he is convinced it could happen again. Penny Campbell, 41, from Islington, north London, died in 2005 after consulting eight doctors in four days. A report said a major system failure in the service was a direct factor leading to Miss Campbell's death. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/gps-out-of-hours-cover-death-row-shows.html Fri, 25 May 2007 14:54:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/gps-out-of-hours-cover-death-row-shows.html The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, battled for her political reputation, if not her survival, yesterday in a packed Commons debate on a Tory motion of no confidence. It came at the end of a day which featured severe criticism from a high court judge over the junior doctors debacle, and angry scenes at the annual conference of NHS midwives. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/hewitt-battles-for-survival-in-commons.html Thu, 24 May 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/hewitt-battles-for-survival-in-commons.html Tens of thousands of people working with children and vulnerable adults in the NHS are still not being put through criminal record checks promised by the government in the wake of the Soham murders, it has emerged. A survey found that 68 per cent of health trusts in the UK are failing to vet staff who began working before the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was set up in 2002. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/thousands-of-nhs-staff-avoid-crime.html Wed, 23 May 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/thousands-of-nhs-staff-avoid-crime.html The labour government's medicines advisory body will from this autumn open to public scrutiny the work of the committees that decide whether the health service should pay for new drugs. In a ground breaking move to boost transparency, Sir Michael Rawlins, the chairman of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), told MPs that the action marked the latest in its efforts to boost transparency and that it had been a matter of "regret" that its committees had previously met in private. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/move-to-boost-openness-on-nhs-drugs-by.html Tue, 22 May 2007 15:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/move-to-boost-openness-on-nhs-drugs-by.html The market for sales of equity in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deals should be closely watched by the Treasury, parliament's public spending watchdog said, as it raised fears that they might not be in the public interest. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/call-for-scrutiny-of-pfi-equity-sales.html Mon, 21 May 2007 15:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/call-for-scrutiny-of-pfi-equity-sales.html Up to half of all hospital accident and emergency (AandE) departments face cuts or closure under plans to improve patient care, presenting Gordon "Stalin" Brown with a massive dilemma as he takes over as Prime Minister. Ninety-two out of 204 A and E departments are under threat if guidance attributed to the Department of Health by NHS trusts is followed, the Conservatives claimed. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/half-of-all-units-marked-for-closure.html Fri, 18 May 2007 15:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/half-of-all-units-marked-for-closure.html Patients are being put at risk because of delays in implementing the new NHS computer system, according to a study of senior managers. Parts of the 12.4 billion Pound National Programme for IT (NPfIT) are years behind schedule. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-hospital-bought-computer-parts-off.html Thu, 17 May 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-hospital-bought-computer-parts-off.html Channel 4 interviewed the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt over the crisis surrounding the appointment of thousands of junior doctors. The new Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) was heralded by the government as an 'agent of change', designed to establish a fairer, more transparent system for recruiting the next generation of specialist medics. But for months now it's been ridiculed within medical circles for effectively deselecting some of the brightest junior doctors. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/doctors-mtas-online-system-may-be.html Wed, 16 May 2007 14:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/doctors-mtas-online-system-may-be.html Cancer doctors have told the BBC they fear the NHS will not be able to afford the new generation of cancer drugs. Specialists are already arguing that patients may have to pay for more drugs themselves, with the issue becoming pressing as new drugs are developed. But some patients offering to pay for a cancer drug are being told they would have to meet all their care costs. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/fears-over-nhs-cancer-drug-costs.html Tue, 15 May 2007 14:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/fears-over-nhs-cancer-drug-costs.html A former nurse who tackled Tony Blair over NHS failures in her daughter's treatment has lost her father to the MRSA superbug. During the 2001 election campaign Carol Maddocks confronted the Prime Minister during an appearance on the BBC's Question Time programme and told him that the health service was letting down her daughter Alice, who had a rare blood condition. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-critics-father-dies-from-mrsa-after.html Mon, 14 May 2007 14:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-critics-father-dies-from-mrsa-after.html With the long overdue announcement that tony bliar is finally to stand down as our Great Leader, Health Direct asks did he save the NHS in 24 hours? Our taxes went up to pay for extra funding for the NHS indeed total NHS spending went up 124 per cent. The questions is then- has the service doubled in value/ productivity or service availability and the answer is clearly no. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/health-direct-asks-did-tony-purer-than.html Fri, 11 May 2007 09:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/health-direct-asks-did-tony-purer-than.html Hospital patients are suffering the indignity and embarrassment of being cared for on mixed sex wards- a decade after the labour government pledged to abolish the practice. Almost one in five NHS trusts is continuing to treat patients admitted for routine treatment alongside members of the opposite sex in breach of government rules. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/thousands-of-nhs-patients-still-facing.html Thu, 10 May 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/thousands-of-nhs-patients-still-facing.html A software upgrade under the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has led to hundreds of incorrect duplicate patient records being created every day at NHS sites in Greater Manchester. A team has been formed to prevent patient data being lost. The emergency action raises questions about how well NPfIT systems are being tested before going live. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-it-upgrade-creates-false-patient.html Wed, 9 May 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-it-upgrade-creates-false-patient.html Private companies that fail to win hospital building contracts are set to pocket millions of pounds in "compensation" from the NHS. Hospitals negotiating private finance initiative (PFI) schemes could be forced to pay almost 2 per cent of the total contract costs to short-listed private companies which fail to secure deals, under proposals being discussed by the Department of Health (DoH). http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/labour-rewards-failure-as-nhs-pays.html Tue, 8 May 2007 10:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/labour-rewards-failure-as-nhs-pays.html British doctors will take the historic step of admitting for the first time that many health treatments will be rationed in the future because the NHS cannot cope with spiralling demand from patients. In a major report that will embarrass the government, the British Medical Association (MBA) will say fertility treatment, plastic surgery and operations for varicose veins and minor childhood ailments, such as glue ear, are among a long list of procedures in jeopardy. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/doctors-admit-nhs-treatments-must-be.html Mon, 7 May 2007 10:37:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/doctors-admit-nhs-treatments-must-be.html In the week that Tony Bliar celebrates his 10 years in charge of the NHS, Health Direct along with the political parties looks at what damage he has done to our national treasure. The three main political parties have come out fighting over what 10 years under a Labour government has meant for the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/tony-bliars-nhs-legacy-health-direct.html Fri, 4 May 2007 10:37:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/tony-bliars-nhs-legacy-health-direct.html The crisis at the heart of Britain's maternity services is revealed tonight in a BBC Panorama programme that shows a catalogue of shortages and cutbacks. When a reporter posing as a volunteer tells a midwife at Barnet Hospital, Herts, that a woman who has been left in a corridor is crying, she is told to "tell her to get a life". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-maternity-services-are-at-crisis.html Thu, 3 May 2007 14:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/nhs-maternity-services-are-at-crisis.html More hospital patients in England are getting the deadly Clostridium difficile bug, figures show. Health Protection Agency (HPA) data showed 55,681 cases were reported among over 65s in 2006 - up 8 per cent in a year. MRSA cases continued their downward trend, but they are not falling quickly enough to meet Labour's target next year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/deadly-nhs-superbugs-continue-rising.html Wed, 2 May 2007 14:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/05/deadly-nhs-superbugs-continue-rising.html The number of National Health Service workers fell last year for the first time since comparable records began in 1996 - a year before Labour came to power. Health unions and opposition politicians blamed the drop on government mishandling of NHS finances, but there was disagreement over the extent of the fall for front line services as labour's dodgy accounting was again called into question. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-hit-by-first-staffing-fall-in.html Tue, 1 May 2007 14:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-hit-by-first-staffing-fall-in.html The crisis that is leading highly qualified junior doctors to head abroad is the result of one of the National Health Service's all-time great administrative cock-ups. It is has left 30,000 junior doctors bitterly disillusioned and angry. But it also has big potential implications for patient care. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/contender-for-greatest-of-all-nhs.html Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/contender-for-greatest-of-all-nhs.html Adding insult to injury? The intimate details of thousands of junior doctors are left wide open on the internet. The Medical Training Application Service or MTAS is a computer system where student and junior doctors apply for jobs an IT system which they were repeatedly assured by Labour ministers was secure. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/junior-doctors-details-exposed-online.html Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/junior-doctors-details-exposed-online.html Nuffield Hospitals, the not-for-profit private hospital operator, has pulled out of negotiations to provide operations for NHS patients using mobile operating theatres in the West Midlands. The news comes at the same time that new research shows that almost one in five private finance initiative projects are still not making their owners money, a survey of almost 100 of them has shown. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/setback-for-nhs-on-treatment-centres-as.html Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/setback-for-nhs-on-treatment-centres-as.html The large disparity in mortality rates in NHS hospitals is exposed today in research carried out for The Daily Telegraph. Patients are twice as likely to die in hospitals with the highest mortality rates than in those with the lowest, according to a report from Dr Foster Research, the independent health information company. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/lottery-of-death-rates-in-nhs-hospitals.html Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/lottery-of-death-rates-in-nhs-hospitals.html A National Health Service largely free at the point of use is becoming a mirage, according to Doctors for Reform, a pressure group that would like the NHS to move from a tax-funded model to a system of social insurance with top up payments. The report shatters the NHS's founding principle that health care should be free for all at the point of delivery. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-free-at-point-of-use-is-political.html Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-free-at-point-of-use-is-political.html The NHS University (NHSU) the internal training and education body which cost 72m Pounds and was scrapped after less than two years, delivered too little too late, according to a scathing report that the labour government tried to suppress. A review carried out during the organisation's short existence warns that the Department of Health would suffer significant embarrassment if anyone probed the value for money provided by the NHSU. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-university-embarrassing-failure-to.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-university-embarrassing-failure-to.html Patients have not seen any improvement in the care they get under the new consultant contract, a watchdog says. The National Audit Office said despite pay rising by 27 per cent to 110,000 Pounds, doctors were not providing more flexible care or spending more time with patients. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-consultant-contract-attacked-by-nao.html Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/nhs-consultant-contract-attacked-by-nao.html A political row has broken out over the state of Britain's hospitals after a retired consultant complained that his wife received far better treatment in India. Opposition parties accused Labour of running down the NHS and failing to put patients first. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/indian-hospitals-are-better-than-nhs.html Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/indian-hospitals-are-better-than-nhs.html A survey of more than 1,400 doctors found that 69 per cent would not recommend a career in medicine. The same number said morale fell in the last year. The study for Hospital Doctor magazine found that many doctors blamed Labour government targets and reforms for their ill-feeling. Some 54 per cent of those surveyed by Hospital Doctor said morale was "poor" or "terrible" with only 2 per cent of doctors described their level of morale at work as "excellent". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/doctors-morale-record-low-new-poll.html Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/doctors-morale-record-low-new-poll.html Questions have been raised about hospital building projects as it emerged 85p out of every 1 Pound spent has been invested in Labour areas. Many hospital build projects have been funded through PFI. Official figures showed that of the 47 hospitals built since 1997, 33 served areas represented by a Labour MP. That compares to 10 in Tory and two in Liberal Democrat territories. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labour-cuts-are-squeezing-life-out-of.html Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labour-cuts-are-squeezing-life-out-of.html NHS Patients are dying directly because low skilled helpers are being sent out to handle life threatening 999 calls, ambulance whistleblowers have warned. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that in some areas of the country only 35 per cent of ambulance service staff are fully trained paramedics. Ambulance staff say pressure to meet the governments eight-minute target for responding to life-threatening calls has resulted in technicians being sent instead. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-die-in-ambulances-with-no.html Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-die-in-ambulances-with-no.html Questions have been raised about hospital building projects as it emerged 85p out of every 1 Pound spent has been invested in Labour areas. Many hospital build projects have been funded through PFI. Official figures showed that of the 47 hospitals built since 1997, 33 served areas represented by a Labour MP. That compares to 10 in Tory and two in Liberal Democrat territories. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labour-voting-areas-get-most-pfi-nhs.html Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labour-voting-areas-get-most-pfi-nhs.html An NHS foundation trust is planning to close an award-winning midwife-led maternity unit despite the government last week promising every woman the option of such a delivery. Heavily pregnant women in north Derbyshire will have to travel up to 21 miles on country roads because of plans to close the Darley Dale unit and cut community midwife numbers from 50 to 33 http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/trust-to-shut-award-winning-maternity.html Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/trust-to-shut-award-winning-maternity.html Fewer than half of NHS patients are being granted new rights to more choice over where they have operations, more than a year after the policy was introduced. A Government survey found that four out of 10 people referred to hospitals by GPs recalled being offered a choice of where to have their treatment. Since Jan 1 last year, all NHS patients referred for most non-emergency treatments should be offered a choice of at least four hospitals. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-not-getting-choice-of-hospital.html Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-not-getting-choice-of-hospital.html A spell in a hospital in England is likely to mean being placed on a ward with people of the opposite sex. But in Europe and the US this would be unthinkable. Joanna Lyall reports on a pledge the government has yet to keep http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/mixed-wards-another-broken-labour.html Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/mixed-wards-another-broken-labour.html Patientline, provider of hospital bedside telephone and television units, said it is to increase by 160 per cent charges to NHS patients for outgoing calls. The company was criticised by medical providers for the emergency measure, taken to compensate it for deepening losses incurred since it signed a 2002 private finance initiative deal with the Department of Health. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-feel-pain-as-pfi-patientline.html Mon, 9 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/patients-feel-pain-as-pfi-patientline.html Ambulance control room staff changed response time figures, improving the trust's performance against government targets, an Audit Commission investigation has revealed. Managers and the board at the former Wiltshire Ambulance Service trust, now part of Great Western Ambulance Service trust, put pressure on the control room to meet targets 'at all costs' but failed to manage staff effectively or properly follow up concerns about the number of figures being manually altered on the computerised control system, says the report, published last week. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/ambulance-staff-falsified-response.html Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/ambulance-staff-falsified-response.html Labour's promise that healthy women who choose to can have their babies at home was undermined yesterday by fears of a shortage of midwives and lack of funds. Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, announced that from 2009 all women would be able to choose where they had their baby - in hospital, in a midwife-led unit or at home. But the Conservatives said there was "no substance" behind the plans and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said that the plan would need an extra 3,000 midwives. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/hewitts-home-births-promise-is.html Thu, 5 Apr 2007 10:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/hewitts-home-births-promise-is.html The first takeover of an insolvent NHS hospital by one of Labour's flagship foundation trusts will formally take effect next Sunday, the health service announced at the weekend - paving the way for similar solutions for a number of other, effectively bankrupt, NHS institutions. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/takeover-of-first-nhs-hospital-good.html Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/takeover-of-first-nhs-hospital-good.html Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has apologised to junior doctors over the continuing recruitment crisis. A new online system for selecting doctors for training posts has been heavily criticised for failing to select the best candidates. Ms Hewitt said the scheme had caused "terrible anxiety" for junior doctors which shouldn't have happened. The government has now offered doctors one interview but the British Medical Association said it was "unacceptable". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/hewitt-u-turn-and-apology-for-doctors.html Tue, 3 Apr 2007 14:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/hewitt-u-turn-and-apology-for-doctors.html Radical Labour Government reforms to improve patient access to NHS dentists have failed, it was claimed today. The charity Citizens Advice said there is huge inequality in access to dentists in England and Wales, and urged action to deal with dentistry deserts in many areas including some parts of Hampshire and Lancashire. It claimed two million people are forced to put off treatment or go private because they can't find an NHS dentist. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labours-dentistry-health-reforms-have.html Mon, 2 Apr 2007 19:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labours-dentistry-health-reforms-have.html Fewer than half of NHS staff members would be happy to be a patient at their own hospital, according to an official survey by the health service regulator. More than a quarter, 27 per cent, said they disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: "I would be happy with the standards of care provided if I was a patient in my trust". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-staff-wouldnt-be-treated-at-their.html Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-staff-wouldnt-be-treated-at-their.html An accounting rule that has plunged more than two dozen hospital trusts into an irrecoverable financial position is to be ditched, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, announced yesterday. Now "absolutely confident" that the National Health Service would record a small surplus at the end of this financial year, Ms Hewitt said it could now use part of the 450m Pounds contingency reserve that strategic health authorities had built up to find the 179m Pounds needed to end a rule that the health department had long accepted was "unsustainable". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/hewitt-u-turn-as-hospital-trusts-to-be.html Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/hewitt-u-turn-as-hospital-trusts-to-be.html NHS planning has been a disastrous failure, leading to an uncontrolled boom in the workforce followed by a bust in budgets, a report by MPs says. The health service set out in 1999 to recruit 20,000 more nurses by 2004 but hired 67,878 up 340 per cent over target. It also recruited twice as many GPs as planned and 69 per cent more health professionals, such as physiotherapists. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/reckless-nhs-recruitment-blamed-for.html Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/reckless-nhs-recruitment-blamed-for.html Support for pregnant women is being cut because of the NHS's financial troubles, a healthcare charity has warned. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) says it is receiving "increasing reports" that NHS antenatal classes, breastfeeding services and postnatal visits are being cancelled. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-crisis-is-forcing-cuts-to-maternity.html Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-crisis-is-forcing-cuts-to-maternity.html Cancer patients who have had tumours removed are dying because they are waiting so long for for follow-up radiotherapy that their tumours return, a government report has found. After surgery, patients should receive radiotherapy within 28 days, according to the Royal College of Radiologists. However, in some areas, patients are waiting three times as long. In Kent, for example, the waiting time for breast cancer patients who have had tumours removed by surgery is three months. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/delays-give-patients-new-cancers.html Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/delays-give-patients-new-cancers.html Alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than many illegal drugs including the hallucinogen LSD and the dance drug ecstasy, according to a new scale for assessing the dangers posed by recreational substances. Drug specialists say the current system for ranking drugs - class A for the most dangerous to class C for the least dangerous, as set out in the Misuse of Drugs Act - is "not fit for purpose, irrational, arbitrary and lacking in transparency". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/risks-of-drugs-tobacco-and-alcohol-are.html Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/risks-of-drugs-tobacco-and-alcohol-are.html A devastating insight into financial mismanagement at all levels of the NHS- from Labour ministers down to hospital bureaucrats- is provided by a committee of MPs. The report by the all party Public Accounts Committee exposes how billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being poured into a health system with inadequate financial controls and low levels of accounting expertise. The MPs conclude that NHS structures are so inadequate that the Department of Health has no idea what the effect of last year's total deficit of 570 million Pounds is having on patient care. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/mps-expose-lack-of-control-over-nhs.html Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/mps-expose-lack-of-control-over-nhs.html Looming cuts to funding for independent prescription advice for doctors could undermine the best use of medicines in the UK, a senior medical figure warned yesterday. Sir Charles George, director of the British Medical Association's BMJ Group, which publishes a range of guides for doctors, said "We're worried that a number of sources of information about good prescribing have disappeared." http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/warning-over-cuts-to-subsidies-on-drugs.html Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/warning-over-cuts-to-subsidies-on-drugs.html NHS hospitals were yesterday accused of exploiting the most vulnerable after they were found to have made more than 95 million Pounds in parking charges last year. Patients attending for treatment and relatives or friends visiting people in hospital were charged up to 3.50 Pounds an hour despite paying to build car parks through their taxes. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/cost-of-hospital-parking-95m.html Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/cost-of-hospital-parking-95m.html Some 12,000 people took part in Saturday's march through central London. That represents more than one in three junior doctors in Britain. Consider that another one in three or four was working or asleep between nightshifts, and that most doctors have not been on a march before, and you will understand the scale of the anger. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/junior-doctors-recruitment-this-is.html Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/junior-doctors-recruitment-this-is.html The number of people working in the NHS fell by 11,000 in the last quarter of 2006, official figures reveal. Health unions said the loss across the UK, revealed in Office for National Statistics, would "inevitably have a negative impact on patient care". Total full and part time NHS staff numbers are estimated by the ONS as being 1,222,000. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-workforce-falls-by-11000.html Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:25:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/nhs-workforce-falls-by-11000.html The labour Government's handling of out-of-hours services for GP patients is condemned today as "shambolic" by an all party committee of MPs. The best interests of patients had not been served by the new system, the public purse had suffered and Saturday morning surgeries had been abandoned, the MPs said. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/gps-out-of-hours-service-shambolic.html Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/gps-out-of-hours-service-shambolic.html Lung cancer victims in England and Wales are to be denied a life-saving drug available on the National Health Service in Scotland at least the eighth such decision in the past two years. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) last week rejected Tarceva, which is used to treat lung cancer, on the grounds it is not an effective use of NHS resources. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/english-denied-cancer-drug-given-to.html Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:19:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/english-denied-cancer-drug-given-to.html The chancellor has been accused of spurning the National Health Service by paying hundreds of pounds for routine dental work to a private dentist known for his celebrity clients. Gordon "Brother" Brown had root canal work done by Mervyn Druian, who runs a surgery in north London. He charges up to 650 Pounds for the procedure, compared with a standard NHS cost of 42 Pounds. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/hypocrite-brown-bitten-over-private.html Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:19:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/hypocrite-brown-bitten-over-private.html A safety drive is to be launched by the government's health watchdog in the face of "alarming" figures on the harm patients suffer in hospital and elsewhere. Various studies, some using US data, estimate that there is a one in 300 chance of a hospital patient dying as a result of medical error. One in 10 is estimated to suffer harm, of whom a third suffer serious harm, while studies suggest that 600 errors are made a day in primary care with more than one in 10 prescriptions containing errors. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/medical-errors-new-campaign-aims-to.html Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:19:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/medical-errors-new-campaign-aims-to.html TA fresh drive to charge foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants, for National Health Service care has been announced by John Reid, the home secretary - but well ahead of the health department being able to say how that will work in practice. Mr Reid announced pilot schemes to be run in three unidentified trusts in which hospitals and GPs will be able to check patients' eligibility for free treatment against data held by the Border and Immigration Agency. Labour still claims that from 2008 all foreign nationals will have to have identity cards with records held on a national database. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/doubts-over-bid-to-charge-foreigners.html Fri, 9 Mar 2007 10:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/doubts-over-bid-to-charge-foreigners.html The Labour govt backed down yesterday and agreed to an immediate review of a flawed selection system that has left thousands of able young doctors without the prospect of a job and many threatening to leave the NHS. The independent review will start today and may recommend changes to the system before the current interview round has been completed. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/climb-down-over-junior-doctor-fiasco.html Thu, 8 Mar 2007 10:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/climb-down-over-junior-doctor-fiasco.html Given all the emphasis on investing in and improving the NHS, the idea of a wave of doctor unemployment seems a nonsense. Alarmingly, however, it is very much a reality. Last week, the fears of thousands of junior doctors were realised when they failed to secure interviews for trainee consultant posts under a new fast-track system called Modernising Medical Careers. The doctors who missed out are left wondering whether to try to retrain in another speciality, emigrate, or leave medicine altogether. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/doctors-who-face-dole-as-mmcs.html Wed, 7 Mar 2007 09:09:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/doctors-who-face-dole-as-mmcs.html Health trusts are being told by the government to make sure people with routine hearing problems are assessed for a hearing aid within six weeks. Thousands of people in the North West of England are being forced to wait up to 70 weeks for tests to see if they need a hearing aid. Stockport has been found to be the worst area for waiting times. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/new-hearing-aid-target-set-as-patients.html Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:39:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/new-hearing-aid-target-set-as-patients.html In respect to the national day of action on Saturday that was called in support of the NHS and to protest against cuts in both patient care and staff jobs, Health Direct praises four blogs written by NHS staff. Random Acts Of Reality by Tom Reynolds an E.M.T working for the London Ambulance Service; NHS Blog Doctor by Dr John Crippen, Life in the NHS by Julie and Nee Naw by Mark Myers. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/health-direct-praises-nhs-workers-blogs.html Mon, 5 Mar 2007 16:39:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/health-direct-praises-nhs-workers-blogs.html The full scale of impending hospital closures was laid bare last night as it emerged that three out of four trusts are already restricting patients' access to treatment as they battle soaring deficits. Fears about the number of closures intensified as Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, sent NHS managers a guide on how best to handle decisions to shut down hospitals and units - a document that opposition politicians immediately branded a spin blueprint. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/full-scale-of-labours-nhs-cutbacks.html Fri, 2 Mar 2007 16:39:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/full-scale-of-labours-nhs-cutbacks.html A short letter published in the Telegraph this week highlighted the contradiction inherent in the Government's attempts to improve the cost-effectiveness of the NHS. NHS hospital surgery is paid for on an ill thought out tariff basis that could cripple the health service. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/why-nhs-finances-will-never-add-up.html Thu, 1 Mar 2007 08:39:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/03/why-nhs-finances-will-never-add-up.html More than 1.7 million people in the UK will have dementia by 2051, costing billions of pounds each year, experts have forecast. The grim projections are based on the most up to date evaluation of dementia. Currently 700,000 or one person in every 88 in the UK - has dementia, incurring a yearly cost of 17bn Pounds. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/17m-will-have-dementia-by-2051.html Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/17m-will-have-dementia-by-2051.html Seven more private finance initiative (PFI) hospitals, with a capital value of almost 1.5bn Pounds, were finally given the go-ahead yesterday but amid growing frustration among PFI providers at the time it is taking for the Department of Health to adjust hospital building plans to the new, more competitive, NHS market. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/seven-more-pfi-hospitals-to-go-ahead.html Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/seven-more-pfi-hospitals-to-go-ahead.html A NHS surgeon today exposed how cash-strapped hospitals were being barred from operating on cancer patients who had not waited long enough. Wayne Jaffe laid the blame for the appalling state of affairs at the feet of Tony Bliar, with his vision of reduced waiting times and 24-hour surgery. In a withering assessment of the financial management of the health service, Mr Jaffe said that doctors were being restricted in getting waiting lists down by financial limitations and ever-changing targets. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/hospitals-told-not-to-operate-until.html Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:13:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/hospitals-told-not-to-operate-until.html The Health Direct blog was partly set up in response to the preventable crisis that is killing thousands of patients in the UK. We calculated back in 2004 that fewer people being killed on UK roads than by superbugs. Since then Health Direct calculates that in 2005, there were nearly 70 per cent more deaths linked to MRSA and Clostridium difficile than were people killed in traffic accidents on all of the UKs roads. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/mrsa-and-clostridium-difficile-deaths.html Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/mrsa-and-clostridium-difficile-deaths.html Patricia Hewitt's job as secretary of state for health looked safer yesterday as the National Health Service forecast a tiny overall surplus for the current financial year despite more trusts projecting a bigger gross deficit than last year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/more-trusts-expect-deficits-as-nhs.html Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/more-trusts-expect-deficits-as-nhs.html Thousands of council officers will be on the streets this summer, patrolling bars, restaurants and shops to police the smoking ban. Smokers' campaigning groups said the scheme would be a "complete waste of public money". The British Beer and Pub Association said the plan was "heavy handed". Local authorities have been granted 29.5 million Pounds to raise awareness about the rules. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/smoke-detectives-are-taking-over-bliars.html Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/smoke-detectives-are-taking-over-bliars.html Most doctors believe that Labour has failed to reform the NHS and that funding by taxation alone will not improve the quality of care. An online poll of more than 3,000 doctors carried out for The Times offers the most striking picture yet of the level of disillusionment within the profession. Most say that the billions of pounds injected into the service since 2002 have not been well spent and that services have not improved. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/disillusioned-doctors-say-labour-decade.html Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/disillusioned-doctors-say-labour-decade.html Sexual health clinics are struggling to hit labour government targets due to a lack of funding. Despite sexual health being one of the Government's top NHS priorities, plans are not always implemented on the ground, a new report claims. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/cash-crisis-hits-sexual-health-std.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/cash-crisis-hits-sexual-health-std.html The government's NHS waiting targets and wish to tackle the spread of hospital acquired infections like MRSA are in direct conflict, according to a leading expert. Professor Hajo Grundmann, currently based at Groningham University Medical Centre in Holland, maps the incidence of MRSA across the European Union. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/clash-of-nhs-targets-mrsa-and-cash.html Thu, 15 Feb 2007 08:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/clash-of-nhs-targets-mrsa-and-cash.html The National Health Service is delaying paying bills and cutting orders for supplies as it tries to balance its books, according to the trade associations whose members supply the service with everything from scanners to diagnostic tests. Ray Hodgkinson, director-general of the British Healthcare Trades Association, said that while the picture was highly variable "some of our members are having real trouble getting money out of NHS trusts". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-paying-bills-late-in-struggle-to.html Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-paying-bills-late-in-struggle-to.html Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has given her blessing to the policy of denying operations to smokers until they kick the habit. Endorsing a position adopted by some health trusts, the minister also voiced support for doctors who order patients to lose weight before treatment. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/doctors-who-ban-surgery-for-smokers-are.html Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/doctors-who-ban-surgery-for-smokers-are.html A dire shortage of midwives is forcing maternity units to turn away expectant mothers, a survey has found. Figures show that centres across England closed temporarily for a total of 170 days last year, during which time women would have had to go elsewhere for help.The survey, collated by the controversial research organisation Dr Foster, found that 24 of the 39 maternity units forced to close had to do so for periods of 24 hours or more. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/mothers-are-turned-away-due-to-midwife.html Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:55:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/mothers-are-turned-away-due-to-midwife.html Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, was criticised yesterday for claiming bed closures were a sign of "success" as new figures showed NHS trusts will end the year more than 1 billion Pounds in the red. The scale of the health service's financial crisis emerged as Miss Hewitt delivered a presentation to the Cabinet on NHS "reconfiguration" plans which will lead to the closure of dozens of maternity units, casualty departments and community hospitals. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/bed-closures-healthy-sign-for-nhs-says.html Fri, 9 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/bed-closures-healthy-sign-for-nhs-says.html Patients may have to resort to emergency care, or find an alternative practice, because their dentists have fulfilled their annual contracts too soon. The Department of Health has warned primary care trusts to have 'clear lines ready in case of media interest' if patients are left without a dentist in the closing weeks of the financial year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/labour-govt-warns-pcts-over-dentistry.html Thu, 8 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/labour-govt-warns-pcts-over-dentistry.html The Commons health committee has announced terms of reference for a broad inquiry into the work of NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The committee said it wanted to examine "why Nice's decisions are increasingly being challenged" after recent controversial recommendations that the NHS should not use certain costly cancer drugs and should restrict the use of drugs to treat Alzheimer's to those with moderate forms of the disease. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nice-faces-inquiry-by-commons-group.html Wed, 7 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nice-faces-inquiry-by-commons-group.html Health officials are proposing up to a sixfold increase in the UK's stockpile of antiviral drugs as they reinforce preparations against a possible flu pandemic in the coming months. Based on computer simulations of the likely spread of the virus, experts believe it may be worth increasing stocks of the drug Tamiflu, made by Roche, the Swiss based pharmaceutical group, from the current 14.5m courses to 60m 90m, or up to one and a half packets for every UK resident. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/bird-flu-health-officials-finally.html Tue, 6 Feb 2007 09:15:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/bird-flu-health-officials-finally.html There is to be no independent review of the National Health Service's controversial 12bn Pound information technology programme according to the head of the NHS, although significant changes in the way it is implemented appear to be on the way. David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said nothing "has led me to believe that we are wildly off course" or that "a major review of the programme is required at this particular stage" http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-chief-rules-out-review-of-12bn-it.html Mon, 5 Feb 2007 10:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-chief-rules-out-review-of-12bn-it.html Hillingdon primary care trust in London may become the first to hand over almost all its core functions to the private sector, including the commissioning of millions of pounds of care for National Health Service patients. The move, which is likely to provoke bitter opposition from the health service unions, would see the private sector taking over not just the provision of community services but the assessment, planning, contracting, procurement and performance management of 258m Pounds a year's worth of health care for its local population. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-disintegration-continues-as-health.html Fri, 2 Feb 2007 10:35:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/nhs-disintegration-continues-as-health.html Dentists are turning away patients because miscalculations by the Department of Health have resulted in local health authorities running out of money in the dental budget. The problem has arisen because dentists have been treating more patients who are exempt from dental charges than had been anticipated under the new dental contract which came into force last April. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/dental-patients-hit-as-dentists.html Thu, 1 Feb 2007 12:05:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/02/dental-patients-hit-as-dentists.html GPs were so stunned by the terms offered to them when negotiating their new contract in 2004 that they thought it was a "bit of a laugh", a doctor has said. Dr Simon Fradd, who was one of British Medical Association's GP negotiators, said they were shocked by the approach taken by the labour government. They could not believe it when GPs were given the chance not to do evening and weekend work for only a 6 per cent pay cut, he said. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/bma-team-stunned-by-gp-contract-as-bit.html Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:59:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/bma-team-stunned-by-gp-contract-as-bit.html Hospitals built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) must be subject to much "closer and sustained scrutiny" if millions more pounds are not to be wasted, the Public Accounts Committee said. Estimated capital costs for 17 PFI schemes approved by the end of 2005 have more than doubled - up by some 4bn to 13bn Pounds. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/mps-want-greater-scrutiny-of-pfi.html Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:09:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/mps-want-greater-scrutiny-of-pfi.html Public wants politics left out of treatment decision, says survey. Decisions on NHS treatments should be made by clinicians, public representatives and managers - and not politicians, according to a MORI poll for the NHS Confederation. Asked which groups people felt should decide on the availability of NHS medicines 70 per cent said clinicians. Just 9 per cent thought MPs should make judgements, while 6 per cent thought councillors should be involved. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/warning-of-obesity-risks-to-entire.html Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:19:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/warning-of-obesity-risks-to-entire.html An entire generation of children now at primary school is heading towards increased rates of serious health problems, an influential committee of MPs says. It criticises the departments of Health and Education and Skills for doing too little to stem the "alarming" obesity epidemic. At least one primary school child in seven is now classed as obese. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/warning-of-obesity-risks-to-entire.html Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:56:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/warning-of-obesity-risks-entire.html Declining public trust in Tony Bliar is dragging down wider public support for Labour, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published this week. It shows that the Conservatives have secured a lead in policy areas that once helped Mr Blair win three commanding general election victories. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/conservatives-cameron-would-hand-power.html Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:56:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/conservatives-cameron-would-hand-power.html Many centralist targets for the National Health Service would be scrapped under a Conservative government as more purchasing power was handed to family doctors, David Cameron, the Tory leader, said yesterday. The policy would encompass a full-blooded return to GP fundholding - the practice of giving family doctors budgets to buy care on behalf of their patients, which Labour abolished but is now partially reinstating through practice based commissioning. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/conservatives-cameron-would-hand-power.html Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/conservatives-cameron-hand-power.html The NHS stands at a crossroads. For nearly 60 years Britain has enjoyed a National Health Service that strives to be comprehensive, accessible and high value for money. Now the labour government reforms threaten both the ethos of the NHS, and the planned and equitable way in which it delivers care to patients. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/health-direct-backs-keep-our-nhs.html Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/health-direct-backs-keep-our-nhs.html The private sector will make 23bn Pounds in profits and interest over the next 30 years by building NHS hospitals, campaigners have calculated. Under the private finance initiative, a company builds a hospital and then gets "rent" from the NHS for a set term. A report by the Keep Our NHS Public claims the Labour government is carrying out "patchwork privatisation" of the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/pfi-firms-make-23bn-profits-from-nhs.html Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:26:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/pfi-firms-make-23bn-profits-from-nhs.html Labour was accused yesterday of glossing over criticisms about its performance made in a public opinion poll. A 21-page document on the poll's findings, published on the Cabinet Office website as part of Tony Blair's policy review, revealed concerns over state interference in people's lives. But the Conservatives claimed that almost 90 pages of the more critical findings by Ipsos MORI had been "deleted" from the text. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-accused-of-omitting-research_19.html Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-accused-of-omitting-research_19.html A senior doctor claims that patients are at risk on hospital wards after watching elderly relatives develop "needless" and "distressing" complications. Dr Katherine Teale, a consultant anaesthetist at Hope Hospital, Salford, spoke out after two family members developed bed sores and a third lost six per cent of body weight following prolonged nausea. In an article in the British Medical Journal, she described the "invisible barrier between the nursing station and the patient areas" while visiting relatives and friends in hospitals across the country. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/consultant-attacks-neglect-on-wards.html Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:37:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/consultant-attacks-neglect-on-wards.html The NHS faces being stripped of its responsibility for learning disability services after inspectors today issue the second damning report in six months into the care of some of the most vulnerable members of society. People with learning disabilities had been subjected to physical and sexual abuse at a hospital in London, according to an investigation by the Healthcare Commission. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/catalogue-of-abuse-in-nhs-care-homes.html Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:27:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/catalogue-of-abuse-in-nhs-care-homes.html The former Granada boss Sir Gerry Robinson recently spent six months trying to reform Rotherham general hospital. The result was shown in three hours of fly on the wall television on BBC2 last week. It was rightly put after the watershed: as politics it was certificate 18. At the end of each day Robinson could be seen slumped in the back of his car, his face buried in his hands. A tycoon sobbing in a limousine is the perfect icon of Labour's health service. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/brown-cant-cure-this-paralysed-nhs-so.html Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/brown-cant-cure-this-paralysed-nhs-so.html The shadow health secretary has accused the government of losing confidence in the ability of strategic health authorities to manage workforce planning. Andrew Lansley has written to health secretary Patricia Hewitt in response to the leaked Department of Health pay and workforce strategy for 2008-11. The document, revealed in Health Direct last week, forecast a shortage of 14,000 nurses and a glut of 3,200 consultants by 2011.. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/tories-claim-government-has-lost-faith.html Mon, 15 Jan 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/tories-claim-government-has-lost-faith.html A flood of MRSA compensation claims could finally be realised as lawyers turn to workplace safety legislation to pursue hospitals. To date it has been hard to pin the blame on the NHS, as it is never known exactly when a person becomes infected. But recent successes have prompted a rethink in how lawyers tackle cases, with many making use of laws governing the control of hazardous substances. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/mrsa-superbug-claims-may-surge-against.html Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/mrsa-superbug-claims-may-surge-against.html The NHS is not on track to meet its MRSA target and perhaps never will, a leaked government memo says. In November 2004, then health secretary John Reid pledged MRSA rates would be halved by April 2008. But the memo, sent to ministers by a Department of Health official, said it would only be cut by a third by then. It also reportedly recommended ways to handle the news in the media. Dr Mark Enright, from Imperial College, said the target was "unrealistic". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-hospitals-may-never-achieve-mrsa.html Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-hospitals-may-never-achieve-mrsa.html The NHS is responding to a boom in the birthrate by cutting spending on maternity services, the Royal College of Midwives said after a survey of more than 100 heads of midwifery in hospital trusts across Britain. It found that two thirds of maternity units were understaffed and most were trying to save money by employing fewer qualified midwives and taking on maternity support workers instead. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/maternity-cash-cut-amid-boom-in.html Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/maternity-cash-cut-amid-boom-in.html Andy Burnham, the health minister responsible for delivery and quality, was pitched into the heart of the battle over the labour government's health service changes last week as he took over responsibility for system reform, following the departure of Lord Warner. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-rising-star-to-tackle-nhs.html Tue, 9 Jan 2007 09:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-rising-star-to-tackle-nhs.html NHS staff claims for back pay under the Agenda for Change (AfC) contract are the 'biggest risk' to the Department of Health's pay and workforce strategy. The draft strategy, seen by HSJ, claims that there are currently nearly 11,000 back pay claims outstanding from lawyers acting on a no-win, no-fee basis, as well as trade unions representing NHS staff members, with the number rising by about 200 claims a month. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-faces-big-risk-from-back-pay.html Mon, 8 Jan 2007 09:07:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-faces-big-risk-from-back-pay.html The National Health Service is set to shed more than 36,000 jobs this year before facing "very volatile" changes in its workforce that could leave it with thousands more hospital consultants than it can afford to employ, according to a leaked document from the Department of Health. At the same time, however, big cuts in nurse and medical training budgets last year and this year could mean the service will be short of 14,000 nurses, 1,200 family doctors and 1,100 junior hospital staff by 2011. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/report-on-nhs-staffing-angers-unions.html Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:57:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/report-on-nhs-staffing-angers-unions.html Seen as curmudgeonly bearers of bad tidings, statisticians are rarely top of anyone's Christmas card list. As the joke goes, a statistician loves to work with numbers but lacks the personality to be an accountant. Yet those who can bring themselves to cast aside their trademark gloom can identify positive trends in 2006: the economy is growing, alcopop consumption is declining, we are recycling more, and we are giving more to charity http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/public-mistrust-of-labours-statistics.html Thu, 4 Jan 2007 10:17:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/public-mistrust-of-labours-statistics.html The New Year has only just begun but it is clear that the next three months are not a good time to become ill as the NHS can not cope with Labour's underfunding of the health services as patients in some parts of the National Health Service are for the first time facing minimum waits to be seen and treated as managers attempt to balance their books. Suffolk, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire and Kingston are all imposing various forms of minimum wait, with some primary care trust chiefs saying their organisations may follow suit as the NHS battles to recover from last year's 536m Pound plus overspend. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-hospitals-told-to-delay-operations.html Wed, 3 Jan 2007 14:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/nhs-hospitals-told-to-delay-operations.html Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has defended her decision to take part in a protest over plans to close part of a hospital in her constituency. The proposals for Hope Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, are part of the controversial NHS shake up throughout the country. Ms Blears, Labour chairwoman, said: "My first and foremost job is to represent Salford and the people of the area." It is very rare for a minister to directly oppose labour government policy. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-leader-defends-hypocritical.html Tue, 2 Jan 2007 14:47:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/01/labour-leader-defends-hypocritical.html NHS Confidentaility aka the Big Opt Out- Protect your privacy and campaign to preserve your medical confidentiality. Do you want ministers, the police and over 250,000 others to be able to access your complete medical history? If not please sign up NOW http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/nhs-confidentaility-at-big-opt-out.html Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:56:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/nhs-confidentaility-at-big-opt-out.html Our beloved deputy leader must have been a bad boy this year as John Prescott was taken to hospital on Christmas Day after falling ill with a kidney stone. Prezza took an unexpected tour of front line NHS Accident and Emergency staff on Christmas day at his local hospital in Hull- Castle Hill Hospital. Officials said that Prescott still intended to deputise for Tony Bliar, who has swanned off to Miami for a post Christmas break. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/santas-present-for-john-prescott.html Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:16:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/santas-present-for-john-prescott.html The first NHS hospital to be put under the total control of a private company was announced last week by the Department of Health. In a final erosion of the health service's role as sole provider of healthcare for NHS patients, ministers have awarded a five year contract to manage the new Lymington New Forest Hospital in Hampshire to the Partnership Health Group, a partly owned subsidiary of Care UK. Doctors and nurses will be seconded from the NHS to work alongside staff employed directly by PHG. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-firm-is-awarded-total-control.html Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-firm-is-awarded-total-control.html An outbreak of a PVL superbug struck the maternity unit of a hospital in Plymouth leaving 10 mothers and their babies with severe infections. Emma Lynch, one of the mothers, developed an abscess almost eight inches long, which required emergency surgery, and her daughter, Daisy, had a boil on her breast which required lancing when she was two weeks old. Daisy has since had 14 courses of antibiotics in an attempt to clear her of the bug, which is resistant to treatment. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/pvl-new-mothers-and-babies-infected-in.html Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/pvl-new-mothers-and-babies-infected-in.html Labour Ministers have bowed to the complete distrust some patients have of the planned National Health Service electronic patient record by agreeing they will be able to place a total block on their records being uploaded to the system - rather than just a bar on them being shared. Precisely how they will be able to do that, however, has yet to be established ahead of pilot projects planned for the spring. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/patients-win-partial-right-to-block.html Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/patients-win-partial-right-to-block.html Nearly one private hospital in 20 failed to meet the basic standards laid down by the health service regulator. Only a third met most of them. Figures released for the first time today by the Healthcare Commission reveal mixed standards in some hospitals and clinics run by the largest private health care providers. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-hospitals-produce-patchy.html Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-hospitals-produce-patchy.html Two people have died after catching an MRSA superbug strain that has never caused deaths in UK hospitals before. A healthcare worker at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire died in September after catching the infection called Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, (PVL) the Health Protection Agency said. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/pvl-new-strain-of-mrsa-superbug.html Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/pvl-new-strain-of-mrsa-superbug.html Mismanagement at all levels of the NHS in England has led to the current multimillion pound deficit, a committee of MPs has found. The Commons health select committee said existing deficits were made worse by the cost of new staff pay deals and the expense of meeting NHS targets. Last year's NHS deficit was 547m Pounds. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/labours-mismanagement-has-led-to-nhs.html Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/labours-mismanagement-has-led-to-nhs.html On the day that Tony 'purer than pure' Bliar suffered the humiliation of becoming the first serving British prime minister to be interviewed by police conducting a criminal investigation and also his attorney general (possibly illegally) halted a separate criminal enquiry into bribes to Saudi Arabian citizens, the bad news that was cynically 'buried' was the news that Labour's 'external consultancy gravy train' was attacked by a spending watchdog as a report showed a 33 per cent rise in expenditure in the past year. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/consultancy-gravy-train-costs-under.html Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/consultancy-gravy-train-costs-under.html The health department has postponed a decision to scrap a set of accounting rules- that have plunged some NHS trusts into potentially irrecoverable financial deficit. The NHS Confederation, which represents health authorities and trusts, said yesterday that it was disappointed at the decision which came despite the health department accepting that the application of the rules to individual NHS trusts "will become increasingly unsustainable". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/unsustainable-nhs-resource-account-and.html Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/unsustainable-nhs-resource-account-and.html The NHS in England has been told it must achieve a 250m Pound surplus next year. The service ended the last financial year 512m Pounds in deficit, but Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt had pledged to balance the books this year. However, the latest predictions are that the NHS will have a 94m Pound shortfall this year. In January and again in November, Ms Hewitt told the Health Select Committee she would take "personal responsibility" for bringing the NHS out of deficit. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/hewitt-u-turn-as-she-breaks-her-nhs.html Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/hewitt-u-turn-as-she-breaks-her-nhs.html NHS bosses are forcing doctors to refer patients to private centres for fast-track treatment while imposing longer waiting times on local hospitals, it has emerged. The move has been condemned by the British Medical Association, GPs and surgeons, who say that a "two-tier" health service is being established to prop up privately-run centres, which were introduced by the Government with the aim of helping the NHS. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-contracts-destabilise-nhs.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/private-contracts-destabilise-nhs.html A child's need for a father will no longer be a consideration when a woman seeks fertility treatment, ministers will say this week. The move which comes despite widespread public opposition and which will give single women and lesbians the right to treatment forms part of a shake-up of Britain's embryology laws. One of the key proposals would allow research on test-tube embryos that were part-human, part-animal referred to as "chimeras". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/labour-to-extend-nanny-state-with.html Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:46:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/labour-to-extend-nanny-state-with.html The Labour government has launched a charm offensive to convince critics that hospital reconfigurations are not just about cutting costs. But many remain unconvinced. Protesters believe changes are being motivated by cash shortages- Huntingdon, Worthing, Epsom, Cheltenham and Redditch are hardly known for their militancy. But like many other towns across the country, they have seen demonstrations on a previously unheralded scale. The protesters, who include residents, NHS staff and MPs, are united in their concerns about cuts in their local health services. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/nhs-changes-are-all-about-saving-money.html Fri, 8 Dec 2006 09:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/nhs-changes-are-all-about-saving-money.html Tony Bliar has defended his "changes" in the NHS, and predicted that they will lead to better patient care. In a speech to the NHS Confederation, he called on managers and doctors to sell reforms to the public in England. "The best is yet to come with more lives saved, stopping more pain and distress". http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/bliar-still-thinks-that-his-reforms.htm Thu, 7 Dec 2006 09:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/bliar-still-thinks-that-his-reforms.html Patricia Hewitt and other ministers have privately conceded that the government is in real difficulty over its efforts to sell controversial health reforms, a minute of a private briefing reveals. At a brainstorming on the future of the NHS between the health secretary and ministers last Thursday, some raised anxieties about the way the reforms were being presented to the public. "Too often the debate on public service reforms seemed to pitch the government against frontline staff," said the minute, which was marked restricted. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/leaked-paper-reveals-labour-fears-on.html Wed, 6 Dec 2006 09:06:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/leaked-paper-reveals-labour-fears-on.html More than 400 people have been killed by mentally ill patients released into the community in the past eight years, a government inquiry will reveal this week. The Department of Health study, concludes that on average 52 people a year, one a week, are killed by mentally ill patients. It will say that a significant proportion of these deaths could have been avoided, had it not been for health service failures or legal loopholes. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/mentally-ill-murder-400-rate-of-1.html Tue, 5 Dec 2006 18:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/mentally-ill-murder-400-rate-of-1.html An ambulance crew who relied on a satellite navigation device while transferring a patient 12 miles across Essex realised something was wrong only when they reached Manchester four hours later. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/sat-nav-ambulance-goes-on-400-mile.html Mon, 4 Dec 2006 09:36:00 GMT http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/12/sat-nav-ambulance-goes-on-400-mile.html