Dr Guthrie, a member of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, was concerned that women could take the pill during these days and wrongly think they would avoid pregnancy.

She said: “There’s very clear evidence showing that it’s not effective in the couple of days running up to ovulation, and probably not very effective in the 36 hours afterwards.”

The aim of the bpas scheme is to cut the number of women seeking abortions over the festive season.

The idea is that women will be able to pop the pill on the morning after accidentally having unprotected sex, rather than having to get an appointment, which can be difficult over the Christmas break.

Part of the rationale is, as bpas puts it, “the sooner the morning after pill is taken after unprotected sex, the more effective it is.”

Dr Guthrie, who works in East Yorkshire, agreed with that, saying that Levonelle should always be taken within 72 hours of sex.

However, she was concerned that women would not be sufficiently informed of Levonelle’s limitations.

While she welcomed immediate access to emergency contraception, she said: “You have to know how effective or ineffective it is.”

Guidance from the faculty, published this August, states that Levonelle “has been shown to be no better than placebo at suppressing ovulation when given immediately prior to ovulation, and is not thought to be effective once the process of fertilisation has occurred”.

Dr Guthrie said that, if a woman has had unprotected sex at this time of the menstrual cycle, she should see a doctor about obtaining another form of emergency contraception.

Studies show that up to 10 per cent of women in Britain suffer from a serious fear of natural childbirth, called tokophobia.

Now the National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE) is recommending that women should always have the right to a caesarean, even if they have no physical or mental health need.

The guidelines, state: “For women requesting a CS [caesarean section], if after discussion and offer of support (including perinatal mental health support for women with anxiety about childbirth), a vaginal birth is still not an acceptable option, offer a planned CS.”

Malcolm Griffiths, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, who chaired the guidelines development group, said most women were not interested in having a caesarean.

“It is a major operation, about as major as a hysterectomy,” he said.

Nonetheless, 25 per cent of births in Britain are now by caesarean. Between a third and a half of them are pre-planned.

Figures show that rates in Nordic countries are much lower, at about 15 per cent.

Many obstetricians want the UK rate to come down, but believe that is impossible without better midwifery services.

Mr Griffiths said: “I think probably key to the difference is support during labour, with one-to-one midwifery care and support in Nordic countries.”

Better midwifery care was “key to reducing the caesarean rate”, he added.

Nina Khazaezadeh, a consultant midwife at St Thomas’ Hospital in London and a member of the guidelines panel, said some women opted for caesareans because they feared childbirth after a “traumatic” first experience in an understaffed ward – a condition known as “secondary tokophobia”.

She said: “We might see a rise in secondary tokophobia where women have already had a birth that they have found very traumatic, and the perceived lack of support will have had an impact on their decisions for the next pregnancy.”

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “There is very clear evidence that one-to-one support in labour reduces caesarean rates”.

However, she welcomed the new Nice guidelines, saying it was “absolutely acceptable” that a woman who feared childbirth should be offered a caesarean.

Coincidentally, the RCM publishes a new report today claiming that England faces “massive midwife shortages” and needs another 5,000 of them.

Even though numbers have increased since 2001, they have “failed to keep pace with the rocketing number and increasing complexity of births”, it warns.

The number of births has risen by 22 per cent in a decade, with midwives having to deal with 120,000 more in 2010 than in 2001.

Mothers also tend to be older and heavier than in the past, which both raise the chance of complications.

Belinda Phipps, chief executive of NCT, said: “Most women want a straightforward birth, some need a caesarean. When women are treated with respect, and are offered support and information tailored to their concerns, very few of them will choose a caesarean birth unless there are clear health reasons.

“However, our services fail women badly at the moment, with midwifery numbers well below the level required to guarantee safe and satisfying care.”

She went on: “If caesarean rates go up following the change to the guidelines, it will be evidence that women are not getting the quality of midwifery support they need.”

The guidelines do recommend that a woman requesting a caesarean should be made to talk about her fear of childbirth before an operation is granted.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Caesareans-to-be-offered-to-all-amid-fears-over-midwife-shortages

The study of babies at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, west London, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to investigate links between childhood obesity and their mothers.

It reportedly found evidence that being overweight or obese in pregnancy could result in potentially harmful changes to a baby’s fat levels while still in the womb.

The study, led by Prof Neena Modi, one of Britain’s best experts on high-risk health problems in newborns found nearly a third of children had more fat than expected.

Of the 105 babies – 54 boys and 51 girls – a total of 31 babies had more adpose, or fat, tissue around their abdomen than normal.

Experts said the study was the first direct link that proved the weight of a mother-to-be was passed on to her child and showed that overweight mothers gave birth to fat babies.

“I was very surprised to be able to detect such a clear continuum of effect of maternal BMI (body mass index) on the baby,” said Prof Modi, head of neonatal medicine at Imperial College London.

“This is a very important finding indeed, opening the door to a new understanding of how a mother’s metabolism affects her baby.”

Newborn babies usually have about 700g of adipose tissue, but for each unit increase in maternal BMI, this increased by approximately 7g with a huge build-up in fat in the babies’ livers.

Meanwhile in adults, adipose tissue is found mainly under the skin, but also in deposits between the muscles, around the intestines and around the heart.

Prof Modi, who is also a consultant neonatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, told the Daily Mail that all women should be aware of the effects of being obese and what this means for their child.

“This shows how sensitive the baby is to the environment experienced within the womb and how lifelong effects may be initiated before birth,” she said.

Body mass index is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres.

The World Health Organisation classes a BMI between 18.5 and 25 as normal weight, between 25 and 30 as overweight and over 30 as obese.

In adults, high amounts of fat around the stomach and in the liver impair their control of blood sugar, leading to diabetes. Problems associated with obesity are set to cost the NHS up to £6.3 billion a year by 2015.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Overweight-mothers-give-birth-to-fat-babies-study-finds

The trusts in jeopardy include Barts and the London, Oxford Radcliffe, North Bristol, St Helens and Knowsley, and Portsmouth.

Between them the trusts run more than 60 hospitals which care for 12 million patients.

There is already evidence that waiting lists for non–urgent operations have begun to rise as hospitals delay treatment to save money. Adding to this are growing fears over the impact of the financial crisis on care this winter.

Under the PFI deals, a private contractor builds a hospital or school. It owns the building for up to 35 years, and during this period the public sector must pay interest and repay the cost of construction, as well as paying the contractor to maintain the building.

However, the total cost of the deals is often far more than the value of the assets. As a result, Mr Lansley says, the 22 trusts “cannot afford” to pay for their schemes, which in total are worth more than £5.4billion, because the required payments have risen sharply in the wake of the recession.

Mr Lansley said: “Over the last year, we’ve been working to expose the mess Labour left us with, and the truth is that some hospitals have been landed with PFI deals they simply cannot afford.

“Like the economy, Labour has brought some parts of the NHS to the brink of financial collapse. Tough solutions may be needed for these problems, but we’ll help the NHS overcome them. We will not make the sick pay for Labour’s debt crisis.”

He said hospitals would not be allowed to collapse financially.

“There are many hospitals that are well run, do not have a legacy of debt and do have projects which are perfectly sustainable. My point is that we have looked since the election and are working together with individual trusts to arrive at a place where they are financially, and in terms of the quality of their services, sustainable for the future. We can only do that if we work closely with them,” he said.

“This is about making very clear that we are not only working on unsustainable PFIs, but also working with legacy debt that the NHS has been left with, working on the IT programmes which were on an unsustainable scale of contractual commitments that didn’t meet the need of the NHS’s customers.

“Across the board, we have to tackle Labour’s legacy of poor value formoney and debt.”

Over the next few weeks, Department of Health officials and executives at the 22 trusts will develop detailed plans for dealing with the crisis. Their proposals are expected to include significant cost–cutting and the renegotiation of PFI contracts.

Money will also be moved from NHS trusts that are in better financial shape to cover the debt costs at those that are struggling. However, officials are braced for the need to use Whitehall funds to bail out some hospitals.

Among the trusts which have contacted Mr Lansley to inform him of their severe financial problems are several London institutions, including South London Healthcare, Barking, Havering and Redbridge, and North Middlesex.

Outside the capital, other trusts to have approached the health department include Wye Valley, Worcester Acute Hospitals, Mid Yorkshire, and Walsall.

After the general election last year, Mr Lansley ordered officials to establish why some NHS hospitals were under–performing. The health department is assessing the financial position of every hospital. It is understood that the PFI costs have emerged as a leading factor in poor patient care in some areas.

The Health Secretary decided to disclose the list of hospitals in difficulty and is expected to announce the rescue plans for each trust next month.

Taxpayers are having to pay more than £200 billion for schools, hospitals and other projects whose capital value is little more than £50 billion.

In one example, a hospital in Bromley, south east London, will ultimately cost the NHS £1.2 billion, more than 10 times what it is worth. Another hospital was charged £52,000 for maintenance that cost £750. The annual cost of the schemes is almost £400 for each household.

The public payments for PFI deals are typically linked to inflation and therefore the cost to taxpayers has increased by up to a third since the beginning of the credit crisis, according to the National Audit Office. Last month, MPs on the Treasury select committee effectively called for a moratorium on new PFI projects, which it said were “like a drug” as the costs were not apparent at the outset.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, has tightened the rules on the deals.

Earlier this year, John Healey, the shadow health secretary, admitted in an interview that Labour ministers had failed when negotiating the multi–million pound schemes for hospitals.

“There is definitely a case for saying we were poor at PFI, poor at negotiating PFI contracts at the outset,” he said.

Companies who run PFI schemes boast profit margins of up to 71 per cent on the projects, but have come under growing pressure from MPs and ministers to return some of their “windfall profits”.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/NHS-hospitals-crippled-by-PFI-scheme

In a blow to the nanny state’s view of fatherdom, new research has found that there is a biological reason why so many men suddenly discover their caring side when they become fathers.

The more caring side of a man’s character emerged as levels of the hormones fell, said scientists, who believe that the process is nature’s way of trying to ensure that fathers stay for the long  haul of child–rearing.

They found that men with higher testosterone levels – associated with dominant and aggressive behaviour – were both more likely to secure a partner and father children.

But after the birth itself  testosterone levels in these men dropped.

“Humans are unusual among mammals in that our offspring are dependent upon older individuals for feeding and protection for more than a decade,” said Christopher Kuzawa, a faculty fellow at the  Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in Chicago, and a coauthor of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Raising human offspring  is such an effort that it is cooperative by necessity, and our study shows that human fathers are biologically wired to help with the job.”

Lee Gettler, an anthropology doctoral student who also worked on the study, added: “It’s not the case that men with lower testosterone are simply more likely to become fathers.  On the contrary, the men who started with high testosterone were more likely to become fathers, but once they did, their testosterone went down substantially.”

It was the act of child care that seemed to reduce testosterone, he explained.

“Our findings suggest that this is especially true for fathers who become the most involved with child care.”

The biggest effect appears to be temporary, in the period immediately after bringing home the baby, with levels rising slowly after that, although not returning to pre–fatherhood levels.

The team studied 624 men in their twenties in the Philippines and followed them for four–and–a–half years. Dr Allan Pacey, a male sexual health expert at Sheffield University, commented: “To see  dramatic changes in response to family life is intriguing. The observations could make some evolutionary sense if we accept the idea that men with lower testosterone levels are more likely to be monogamous with their partner and care for children.

“However, it would be important to check that link between testosterone levels and behaviour to be certain.”

The study found that testosterone levels fell on average by 34 per cent when men became fathers, with the biggest falls in those most involved in childcare.

Dr Pacey added that, as high levels of testosterone were also associated with a strong sex drive, lower levels could reduce the chances of a man ‘straying’. However, he cautioned that the paper did  not prove that.

He added: ‘Testosterone is the key hormone that defines male physiology. We know that levels correlate with a man’s sex drive, his risk–taking behaviour and social dominance. It has also been suggested that it may increase his attractiveness to women and help him find a mate.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Men-biologically-wired-to-care-for-children

This “peer effect”, as Bristol University researchers called it, raised the chances of becoming a teenage mother from about one in five to two in five.

The effect was stronger when sisters were closer together in age, while it was also stronger in poorer households.

Being educated to a higher level decreased its effect, but the research found that the sibling effect “dwarfs” that of more years in school.

Professor Carol Propper said: “Previous research has shown that family background and raising the education of girls decreases the chances of teenage pregnancy.

“However, these findings reveal the positive sibling effect still dwarfs the negative effect of education. These findings provide strong evidence that the contagious effect of teen motherhood in siblings is larger than the general effect of being better educated.

“This suggests that more policies aimed directly at decreasing teenage pregnancy may be needed in order to reduce teen births.”

The analysis was based on census data from 42,000 Norwegian women born after the Second World War. Most gave birth in the 1970s and 1980s.

The study, a collaboration with academics at Bergen University in Norway, the Norwegian School of Economics and Imperial College London, has been published as a working paper by Bristol University’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Teenage-pregnancies-contagious

It suggested areas like Manchester and the London borough of Tower Hamlets would lose out to parts of the wealthy south east, such as Surrey and Hampshire.

Labour based the claims on an assessment of funding reforms by public health bodies in Manchester.

But the government has disputed the allegations and claimed Labour’s figures were misleading.

Department of Health officials said primary care budgets in Surrey and Tower Hamlets would go up by a similar amount this year.

The Conservatives claimed every area would have suffered health funding cuts under Labour.

A Conservative party spokesman said: “This is yet another own goal from Labour. If they had won the last election, the NHS would now be being cut by £28 billion across the country. Every area would have seen spending on the NHS cut – as it is in Labour-run Wales.

“This Government is increasing spending on the NHS in real terms over this parliament, and every region of the country will receive more money as a result of this investment.”

Health Direct has repeatedly tracked Labour’s proud boast when it was in power of creating postcode lotteries based on it’s voting constituencies:

Friday, April 13, 2007 Labour voting areas get most PFI NHS cash
http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/04/labour-voting-areas-get-most-pfi-nhs.html

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Hewitt defends NHS cash for Labour voting areas
http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/11/hewitt-defends-nhs-cash-for-labour.html

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 NHS cuts twice as likely in Tory and Lib Dem areas
http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/10/nhs-cuts-twice-as-likely-in-tory-and.html

Monday, September 25, 2006 NHS closures rigged in Labour voting constituencies
http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/09/nhs-closures-rigged-in-labour-voting.html

Friday, September 15, 2006 Labour accused over hospital cuts in marginal constituencies
http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2006/09/labour-accused-over-hospital-cuts-in.html

The National Childbirth Trust welcomed the report but says the proposals do not go far enough.

NHS managers said maternity care desperately needed to be reorganised.

Too many babies are born in traditional hospital units, says the college, which also warns the current system is neither acceptable nor sustainable in its report on maternity care.

The college estimates there are about 1,000 too few consultants to provide adequate round-the-clock cover for hospital units.

Dr Falconer said: “There is no doubt if you look at the worst scenario of serious complications, you need the right person, a senior person, there immediately.”

Previous attempts to re-organise maternity care around a smaller number of hospital units have proved controversial, but Dr Falconer said if women could be convinced of the greater safety they would be prepared to travel to have their babies.

The need for change would be largely in cities or large towns, because in rural areas it might be more important to support smaller units.

The report estimates that across the UK there are 56 units with fewer than 2,500 deliveries of babies a year.

In order to take the pressure off busy hospitals, the college is also calling for an increase in the number of midwife-led units.

Midwives have welcomed the report, saying it could improve the experience for about a third of women who have straightforward deliveries.

The proposals for maternity are part of a wider vision of delivering all women’s gynaecology and obstetrics care in networks, similar to the model which has helped improve cancer treatments in England.

The National Childbirth Trust said the idea of having a network to provide joined-up care for women was one it could support but it would prefer care during pregnancy and maternity to be concentrated in one NHS organisation in each area.

The NHS confederation, which speaks for managers, described maternity care as a classic example of a service which desperately needed to be reorganised.

Chief executive Mike Farrar said politicians needed to be prepared to speak up for change.

“Where the case for change is clear, politicians should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with managers and clinicians to provide confidence to their constituents that quality and care will improve as a consequence of this change.”

Although Scotland has reorganised some of its maternity services, there are likely to be pressures for change elsewhere in the UK.

In North Wales maternity care across three hospitals is expected to change after an initial review recently concluded improvement was needed.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14145862

The researchers said they were surprised to find the chromosome defects which appeared to have occurred during the second stage of the specialised process of cell division that leads to the creation of the human egg cell.

Chromosome defects in eggs were previously considered to have resulted in the first stage of cell division, which occurs when a woman was herself a foetus in the womb. Finding them during the second stage, which occurs at ovulation, therefore suggests they may have resulted from the hyperstimulation of the ovaries during IVF treatment.

The defects included abnormal variations from the usual number of 23 pairs of chromosomes. Three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the normal two, for instance, leads to babies with Down’s syndrome. As women get older it becomes increasingly difficult for them to produce enough viable eggs for IVF treatment. It is common practice for older women to have their ovaries stimulated with stronger doses of drugs than is the case for younger women.

The results of the study are to be presented at a fertility conference in Stockholm this week but the scientists behind the research said that they wanted to reassure older women considering IVF treatment. They said further work needs to be done fully to explain the findings and there is no evidence to suggest that IVF babies of older women are at any higher risk of birth defects than babies conceived naturally by women of the same age.

“We found that some IVF eggs have up to seven chromosome abnormalities. This suggests the possibility that ovarian stimulation during the treatment may have caused some of these defects,” said Professor Alan Handyside, director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, who led the study.

“These defects are unexpected and it may be that this is just an undiscovered aspect of biology. At the moment all we can say is that this is part of the natural process as women get older.”

The study, which will be presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, analysed more than 100 egg cells from 34 couples undergoing IVF treatment. The average maternal age was 40.

Scientists screened the chromosomes of the eggs and structures known as “polar bodies” that result from a type of cell division known as meiosis. Meiosis is a specialised form of division that results in eggs with half the normal complement of chromosomes – crucial to ensuring that the fertilised egg has the full complement of 46 chromosomes when it fuses with a sperm cell.

The first stage of meiosis occurs when the woman’s ovary is developing in the foetus before birth, when the dividing chromosomes are held together by a kind of cellular “glue” ready for the second stage of division at ovulation.

However, when the ovary of an older women is stimulated with synthetic hormones it is possible that this dislodges the glue prematurely. This might result in abnormal numbers of chromosomes to segregate into the resulting egg cell.

“Our evidence demonstrates that, following IVF, there are multiple chromosome errors in meiotic divisions, suggesting more premature separation of single chromosomes resulting in more random segregation,” Professor Hanyside said.

Stuart Lavery, a consultant gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said “This provides evidence that there is a problem, but it does not prove that it’s treatment related,” Mr Lavery said.

The most important conclusion to be reached from this research isn’t so much the “why” but that the screening process for eggs to be used in IVF must be improved.

It is possible to screen the chromosomes of so-called First Polar Body eggs, at least as part of research. This paper stresses the importance of also screening Second Polar Body eggs, those that have been fertilised.

Doing so will, we can now see, allow us to better identify eggs that have developed abnormalities that result in conditions like Down’s Syndrome.

The issue of whether drugs used to stimulate ovulation are having a role is two-fold. Are the drugs damaging the eggs or simply releasing those that would otherwise be discarded naturally because of abnormalities? Or it could be the drugs have no role at all? We don’t know.

One intriguing point is that if the drugs are a factor we would have anticipated having seen more cases of Down’s Syndrome among older mothers. They may be there but we haven’t detected any such increased risk yet – it means we need to research the possibility.

From:  http://www.independent.co.uk/ivf-drugs-may-be-linked-to-genetic-defects-discovered-in-embryos

Their breast cancer risk was greater as they produced the hormone oestrogen longer, the study of 90,000 women says.

It was published in the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.

The research data being gathered from this group of women over 40 years is also helping to find the causes and risk factors associated with breast cancer.

The study is a partnership between Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Institute of Cancer Research.

This research found that there was little change in the age of menarche (when a girl’s periods begin) for 40 years until the late 1980s.

Then the age dropped from 12.6 years to about 12.3 years, with the drop steepest in poorer areas.

Study author Danielle Morris, from The Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey, said the results suggested that girls, particularly from poorer backgrounds, are starting their periods younger.

“While we don’t know all the reasons behind this, changes in diet may have played a part.

“This decrease is important because the age at which a girl starts her periods can influence her chances of developing breast cancer later in life.”

Dr Tabitha Randall, consultant paediatrician at Nottingham Children’s Hospital, said this was due to exposure to the hormone oestrogen.

“Girls who start their periods earlier are producing oestrogen for longer periods of time, although those who start their periods early normally finish early, but then they may start taking hormone replacement therapy.”

Previous research has shown that the female hormone oestrogen is linked to the growth of breast tumours.

Levels of oestrogen in the body are also influenced by diet and, therefore, body weight.

“Diet is important because fatty tissue turns male hormones into oestrogen,” said Dr Randall.

Girls of lower socio-economic status are now starting their periods at a younger age (12.1 years) than girls from wealthier backgrounds (12.5 years) because they are the ones who tend to have poorer diets and are more likely to be overweight.

The age at which girls start their periods can be added to the list of risk factors for breast cancers, which are known to be a woman’s age, alcohol intake, weight and use of hormone replacement therapy and the contraceptive pill.

A family history of breast cancer may also increase the risk of developing the disease.

Professor Anthony Swerdlow, co-leader of the Breakthrough Generations Study, says that the incidence of breast cancer has risen progressively over a long time in the UK.

“We think these changes have come about through a combination of factors each of which individually makes a small difference.

“Understanding how these factors influence a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer should allow us to develop strategies for preventing the disease in the future.”

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13566411

Labour ministers only paid £5 billion of the £65 billion “spent” on building more than 100 hospitals between 1997 and 2010.

The rest of the money, some £60 billion, must still be repaid by the taxpayer – with some of the gigantic debt lasting for more than 30 years.

The highest profile case concerns Barts and the London NHS Trust project, signed by ministers 2006, which provided two new hospitals in the capital.

By the time the coalition took office four years later nothing at all had been repaid – leaving an outstanding bill of £5.3 billion.

Jesse Norman, the Conservative MP, accused Labour of “extraordinary hypocrisy”. Their PFI bill for hospitals will cost every working family in Britain £3,600, according to Mr Norman’s figures.

PFI schemes were started by the last Conservative government under John Major in the early 1990s. However, they mushroomed under Labour with Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, using them as a way of meeting his own public borrowing rules.

Under the schemes, instead of the government raising money upfront, a private company is given a lengthy contract to build a school or hospital and then provides related ‘services’ to the public sector.

The Government leases the building for the length of the contract before it goes back into public ownership.

Any change, however small, to the building or service provided can be charged at sky high rates, allowing the company to make a huge profit.

New analysis of official figures shows that Labour initiated PFI contracts to build 103 new hospitals between 1997 and 2010. The party proclaimed at the time of the last election it has been responsible for a “new generation” of hospitals in Britain.

The total “unitary charge” payments for these hospitals was £5.1 billion. However, many projects will not be fully paid off for more than two decades – with the last one not “completing” until 2048.

The total accumulated “unitary charge” payments for the hospitals will be £65.1 billion – meaning that only 7.8 of the total was actually paid for before Labour left office.

Costs have escalated because of rising fees and additional charges for maintenance, cleaning and catering.

According to official figures, the NHS currently pays back £1.25 billion each year – but this figure will increase until 2030 when it is expected to hit £2.3 billion.

The Barts and the London NHS Trust project, to develop Barts into a “centre of excellence” for cancer and cardiac treatment and to build a new hospital at The Royal London , was started in 2006 – but payments will not even commence until 2013-14 and will not be finished until 2048.

By that time, it will have cost £5.3 billion despite only having a “capital value” of £1 billion, according to the Treasury.

Poorly negotiated PFI contracts have already led to examples of waste including Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich having to have 64 visits a year from pest controllers even if there are no pests to control. When there are pests, the trust must pay for further visits.

In another example, officials at the Central Middlesex Hospital in north west London said that, on average, contractors charged it £210 to install an electric socket.

Senior Labour figures including Gordon Brown strongly defended using PFI schemes while in power but, more recently, leading shadow ministers have admitted errors.

John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said earlier this month: “There is definitely a case for saying we were poor at PFI, poor at negotiating PFI contracts from the outset.”

Andy Burnham, a former health secretary who is now shadow education secretary, said last year: “We made mistakes. I’m not defending every pen stroke of the PFI contracts we signed.”

Mr Norman, a member of the Treasury select committee, said: “This shows extraordinary hypocrisy. The last Government claimed to be investing in public services.”

“In fact their true investment was less than less than one tenth of what they claimed. Labour didn’t manage to pay for even one new PFI hospital on their watch.”

“Labour maxed out the nation’s credit card with a £60 billion bill for new hospitals, loading future generations with staggering debt repayments.”

“After bringing the country to the brink of bankruptcy, they now have no credible plan to clear up the mess they left us with.”

“Their approach – to spend less without making any reforms at all – would leave the NHS in crisis.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Labour-left-taxpayer-60billion-bill-for-new-hospitals

A misplaced “fever phobia” in society means parents too frequently use both medicines to bring down even quite slight temperatures, say the paediatricians, who warn that children often receive accidental overdoses as a result.

A high temperature is usually the body’s way of fighting an infection, according to advice issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics, so to bring it down could actually lengthen the time a child suffers.

Doctors too readily advise parents to give the medicines, known collectively as “antipyretics”, according to the Academy.

The advice comes after a study indicated that children given paracetemol before 15 months were more than twice as likely to develop asthma by the age of six as those not given it.

Writing in a clinical report on fever and the use of paracetamol and ibuprofen in children, the authors warn: “Combination therapy with acetaminophen [paracetamol] and ibuprofen may place infants and children at increased risk because of dosing errors and adverse outcomes, and these potential risks must be carefully considered.”

Doctors, they write, should begin “by helping parents understand that fever, in and of itself, is not known to endanger a generally healthy child”.

They explain: “It should be emphasized that fever is not an illness but is, in fact, a physiologic mechanism that has beneficial effects in fighting infection.”

It slows the spread of bacteria and viruses, enhances white blood cell production, and “actually helps the body recover more quickly from viral infections”.

Despite this, they say: “Many parents administer antipyretics even though there is either minimal or no fever.”

Half consider it to be a fever even if their child’s temperature is not higher than 38C (101.4F), they report.

Many doctors are happy to advise parents to give paracetamol and ibuprofen alternately – known as combination therapy – believing side effects are very rare and minimal.

But the Academy warns: “Unfortunately as many as one half of parents administer incorrect doses.”

A frequent error is giving children adult-sized doses, while children who are small for their age can also receive doses that are too high even if their parents follow box instructions based on age alone.

In Britain, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) advises that the use of anti-pyretics “should be considered in children with fever who appear distressed or unwell”.

However, they “should not routinely to used with the sole aim of reducing body temperature in children with fever who are otherwise well”.

Similarly, “paracetamol and ibuprofen should not routinely be given alternately to children with a fever”, although it states this approach “may be considered if the child does not repsond to the first agent.”

The guidance also states: “The views and wishes of parents and carers should be taken into consideration.”.

Children’s paracetamol solutions like Calpol and ibuprofen solutions like Nurofen for Chilren are sold over the counter in chemists. Recommended dosage quantities vary by age.

There are different strength solutions for different ages, meaning it is possible for parents with different aged children to mix up which they are giving.

Rather than focusing on temperature alone, doctors should advise parents to look out for signs of serious illness, make sure their child is drinking enough, and “advocate a limited number” of doses of medication.

Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said the two medications should be used “only to help a child be comfortable, and not to chase down a temperature.”

However, she said: “I don’t think we over-prescribe anti-pyretics and I don’t think parents give them too readily.”

She added: “I think they have their place. The younger the child the more cautious you have to be.”

She did not think that giving ibuprofen and paracetamol together was more likely to lead to increased dosing errors, saying: “In my experience of 20 years as a GP, parents are usually pretty careful.”

“I think the most important thing to be worried about is keeping medicines out of the reach of children, because some of them taste quite nice.”

They could also give “a false sense of security” in depressing a high temperature with a more serious underlying cause than a mild infection, she said.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Fever-medicines-given-to-children-too-readily

The research was conducted by a team at Liverpool University who examined the records of almost 30,000 women who gave birth over four years.

Three in ten obese women were overdue, defined as still pregnant ten days after their due date, compared with around two in ten of healthy weight women.

More than a third of obese women had their labour induced, compared with just over a quarter of normal weight women, the study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found.

In addition almost three in ten obese women had an induction of labour which later resulted in a caesarean delivery compared to less than two in ten normal weight women.

However, more than seven in ten obese women still gave birth naturally and the rates of complications in labour and for the baby were the same as in normal weight women.

Other studies have found that maternal obesity is now one of the biggest risks in childbirth. In 2007 it was found that half of all women who died during pregnancy or soon after giving birth were overweight.

Maternity units have had to order special operating tables, wheelchairs and other equipment to deal with the increasing number of obese mothers and doors have had to be widened to accommodate them.

Management of obese prolonged pregnancies is often difficult as induction of labour is associated with a high risk of caesarean section and the possible complications that follow including infection, bleeding and clots.

Dr Sarah Arrowsmith, from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Translational Medicine, and lead author on the paper said: “Maternal obesity has become one of the most commonly occurring risk factors in obstetric practice including greater risk of prolonged pregnancy.

“The importance of this research is that it investigates delivery outcomes for women who are obese with prolonged gestation and receiving labour induction. The fact that the majority of obese women did have a vaginal delivery, with labour complications being largely comparable to normal weight women, suggests that induction of labour in obese women with prolonged pregnancy is a safe method for managing these difficult pregnancies.

“Our findings were somewhat unexpected, given the well-reported complications surrounding obesity in pregnancy, but were clinically reassuring.

“Our current research is focused towards underlying causes of prolonged pregnancy, which can affect up to ten per cent of women, as currently we know little about it.”

Professor Philip Steer, BJOG editor-in-chief said: “Maternal obesity is on the rise and is associated with pregnancy complications. The risk of caesarean section is heightened when the woman is induced, however, it is promising to see that a large number of obese pregnant women delivered vaginally.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Obese-pregnant-women-have-more-complicated-births-research

“In October, when GPs started telling patients to come for immunisation, some pregnant women got it and some didn’t. GPs sent some of them away because they thought they didn’t need it, because no one had told them that pregnant women had been added to the list of groups of people considered ‘at risk’,” she said.

Research shows pregnant women are four times more likely to develop serious complications if they catch H1N1 swine flu, which is the main strain of seasonal flu circulating this winter. There has been concern that takeup of the jab protecting against all three strains of flu has been low among pregnant women.

Silverton also criticised the decision by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to cancel the usual advertising campaign intended to prompt the 16 million Britons classed as vulnerable to have the jab.

“It was short-sighted of the Department of Health not to have the usual campaign, she said. “It was done to save money. I agree with the government’s overall aim of reducing government advertising, but they should have been more selective and kept the campaign for all at-risk groups.

“Usually there are posters on buses and all sorts, but this year there was nothing. It was a wasted opportunity not to have the awareness campaign stressing the importance of people in at-risk groups being vaccinated.”

A majority of the 50 people to die from flu so far this winter had not had the three-in-one jab at least two weeks before falling ill, the Health Protection Agency said.

The outbreak has so far claimed 50 lives and left 783 people in intensive care, amid vaccine shortages and low takeup rates of the seasonal flu jab.

From:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/pregnant-women-flu-jabs-midwives

The NHS has received more than 1,000 complaints about Implanon, a device that had been hailed as the future of family planning.

The procedure involves injecting a plastic implant under a woman’s skin, which releases the “pill” hormone progesterone, guarding against pregnancy for up to three years.

The procedure is regularly given to under-16s who are not deemed responsible enough to remember to take oral contraceptives on a daily basis.

Figures obtained by Channel 4 News show that 584 women who had the hormone-filled tube inserted into their arms have reported unwanted pregnancies to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

There have been a total of 1,607 complaints about scarring and other problems associated with the device, the majority made by doctors and nurses who claimed it was difficult to insert properly and could not be checked afterwards. In the most serious cases, NHS Trusts have offered settlements to seven women totalling nearly £200,000.

Some women who took Implanon terminated pregnancies and suffered the breakdown of relationships.

One woman, named as Lara, said her marriage collapsed due to the stress. “I don’t want kids at this time. It really disturbed me,” she said.

MSD, which manufactured the implant, said it was replacing Implanon with a new contractive implant named Nexplanon.

In a statement, it added that the active ingredient would remain the same but, unlike Implanon, the new implant would show up on X-rays and CAT scans. The applicator has been modified, the company said.

It added that a training programme was available for health professionals involved in fitting the devices.

Family planning clinics in England have reported rapidly increased use of contraceptive implants, from 16,000 women in 2005 to nearly 82,000 in 2010. Implanon, which cost £90 per treatment, was more than 99 per cent effective.

A spokesman for the MHRA said: “The reports we received from health care professionals and consumers played a strong role in the update of the device.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Women-win-200000-payout-over-pill-implant-pregnancies

This may be due to women recognising that they are pregnant later but also reflects on how well organised services are.

The figures show that almost nine in ten women were seen in the first 12 weeks at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust compared with less than one in ten at Walshall Hospitals NHS Trust in 2009/10.

Similarly more than three in ten women had a caesarean birth at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, in London – twice as many as at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in Shropshire.

However the variations cannot be completely explained by deprivation as neighbouring hospitals will had large differences in rates.

At Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust 87.6 per cent were seen in the first 12 weeks, five times higher than in neighbouring Barnsley Hospital NHS Trust where 17.2 per cent were seen.

There were twice as many caesareans at Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust than at nearby Shrewsbury and Telford.

Nationally more women are being seen within the first 12 weeks in 2009/10 compared with the previous year and the caesaearan section rate has remained for the last year at around one in four of all births, the majority of which were conducted as emergencies.

The figures show that the proportion of births delivered by doctors instead of midwives has increased from less than one in four in 1989/90 to almost four in ten in 2009/10, as a result of more caesarean and instrument deliveries due to greater numbers of older and obese mothers giving birth.

Tim Straughan, Chief executive of The NHS Information Centre, said: “The figures show that the experience women have of NHS maternity care varies markedly across the country and even within regions.

“Rates of caesareans and access to antenatal assessment in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy vary according to which hospital they use.

“In some trusts, there may be specific demographic or clinical reasons that explain why they carry out, for example, more caesareans. But others will need to examine closely the full range of reasons why their rate is different from the national average of about one caesarean delivery for every four deliveries.”

Cathy Warwick, General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: “These results show that there is a postcode lottery when it comes to maternity services, and this is worrying when those services are part of a ‘national’ health service. Women should expect and receive high quality care wherever they live, not care that is based upon chance and plain old good luck.

“Superficially the huge variations revealed in this report are a concern and further analysis is needed to find out why they are occurring.

“The variation on the first antenatal booking is astonishing and those on caesarean section rates – already widely known – are worrying in their persistence at such a level.

“Midwives are the experts when it comes to normal births and will deliver the vast majority of women having their baby in this way. The fact that midwives’ involvement in birth has decreased will be reflected in the increase in caesarean rates and instrumental deliveries over the years.

“I think some of the large variations could be linked to staffing levels; as we know one-to-one care from a midwife increases the possibility of a normal delivery but I am sure this is not the whole story. It could also be related to how services are organised.

“In the statistics around intervention, maternity units need to be looking at each other’s practice to see where they can learn from each other, and make their services better for women and their babies.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Maternity-postcode-lottery-revealed-in-NHS-figures

It says mothers and babies will suffer unless the 3,000 extra midwives it says were promised are delivered by 2014.

RCM general secretary Cathy Warwick told its annual conference there are too few to cope with a rising birth rate and increasingly complex births.

The Tories said the rise was now not needed as the birth rate was stable.

She said: “Just before the election, both the prime minister and the deputy prime minister told us that they would commit to continuing the previous government’s promise to give us more midwives.

“We’ve just done a survey of all the heads of midwifery and they’ve got vacant posts but they’re having difficulty filling them.”

The RCM survey of 83 out of 194 heads of midwifery suggested maternity units were already seeing budget and staffing cuts.

Some 30% said their budgets had fallen over the past year, while a third had been asked to reduce staff.

And two-thirds surveyed said they did not have enough midwives to cope with demand.

Meanwhile, the number of live births in England has risen by 19% between 2001 and 2009, to 670,000 a year.

The RCM said births over the same period had become more complex, with obese pregnant women and older or teenage women needing extra support.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said maternity services were facing many challenges.

President, Dr Tony Falconer, said: “As well as need for more midwives, there is a need for more consultants to deal with the increase in the number of high-risk pregnancies.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The commitment to 3,000 midwives made in opposition was dependent on the birthrate increasing as it has done in the recent past. It was not in the coalition agreement because predictions now suggest the birthrate will be stable over the next few years.

“People can be absolutely clear that our commitment to meet the needs of expectant mothers remains, and we will continue to train new midwives to meet the demands arising from the births.”

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11772485

Emergency patients are being let down by the health service because managers are more concerned with meeting targets by treating those with appointments, the heads of Royal Colleges warn.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, some of the country’s most senior doctors say they are “deeply frustrated” at the low priority given to Accident and Emergency.

Targets concerning waiting times and cancelled operations, introduced under Labour, result in managers pushing doctors to operate on patients whose care has been pre-planned, in order to avoid financial penalties. But they can also mean that those who come in as emergency cases are stabilised and admitted but then left to wait for surgery.

Studies have shown that elderly people with fractured hips who do not undergo surgery within 48 hours are less likely to regain full mobility. Younger patients with shattered pelvises, from motorcycle or horse-riding accidents, are less likely to walk again if their operations are delayed.

A report published on Thursday criticised care for the elderly, finding that two thirds of those who died within a month of surgery had not received proper care and that they had often been left in pain.

Most of those patients were being treated for bowel conditions or broken hips, which are usually admitted as emergency cases.

John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the report echoed concerns that surgeons had been raising for some time.

In the letter, Mr Black said: “It is a source of deep frustration to our members that hospitals have become organised to deal quickly with elective operations at the cost of properly managing emergency care.”

The Coalition’s reforms of the NHS could help by making hospitals more accountable to GPs for the care they provide, he said.

The letter was signed by Peter Nightingale, president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists; Peter Kay, president of the British Orthopaedic Association; Finbarr Martin, president of the British Geriatric Society; Mike Horrocks, president of the Association of Surgeons; and Clare Marx, the Royal College of Surgeons’ lead representative in matters of patient safety.

Mr Horrocks said: “In recent years, the NHS has been set targets for elective operations to bring down waiting lists.

“This has been fantastic for patients with non-emergency conditions, but came at the detriment of those who require urgent treatment as hospitals focused on hitting those targets.

“The new government has committed to moving away from targets and towards measuring and rewarding hospitals who deliver good outcomes and this report should provide further evidence that this approach is correct.”

Under Labour, patients had to be treated within 18 weeks of a referral by their family doctor.

Surgeons have told the Telegraph that this resulted in extreme pressure to operate on any patients in danger of failing to meet that target, ahead of cases that came in as emergencies.

Any pre-planned operation that was cancelled was recorded and the data published. The patient then had to be rescheduled within 28 days, adding to the pressure to give elective operations priority, doctors have said.

Mr Black added: “Surgeons have been saying for some time that emergency surgery is a Cinderella service in the modern NHS.

“We will only solve these problems if focusing on emergency care becomes a priority in the boardroom as well as the ward.”

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, said: “It can be so debilitating for someone who has a fracture to be left for a couple of days or longer, waiting for an operation when the trust is focused yet again on meeting these pernicious targets. It is an appalling way to determine who gets care. An emergency should be an emergency.

“The financial rewards for elective surgery are more lucrative for the trust than for emergencies and that is why trusts continue to focus on elective treatment. We cannot make savings by putting patients through unnecessary pain and suffering.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Emergency-patients-let-down-by-targets-say-surgeons

The charity’s poll of more than 1,200 first time mothers found 59 per cent did not get the “emotional support” they felt they needed after giving birth – compared with 51 per cent in a similar survey a decade ago.

Women who had undergone a caesarean section were the least happy about their experience.

Asked about the 24 hours following birth, 66 per cent said they had not received enough support, compared to 57 per cent of those who had a natural labour in hospital, and 24 per cent of those who gave birth at home.

Mothers who had gone through traumatic labours said they had been left to cry themselves to sleep, while others said overstretched midwives had no time to offer a kind word of reassurance.

In total, 42 per cent said there were not enough midwives to care for them, compared with 33 per cent, when the question was posed in 2000.

Those who gave birth at home, or in a midwife-led birth centre, were less likely to describe shortages of midwives.

The NCT findings show that despite a large investment in maternity services, and pledges from the last Government to make care “woman-centred” with a choice of where to give birth, many women are being denied even basic care.

Among the poll of 1260 first time mothers, 44 per cent said they did not even get the physical help they needed, while 55 per cent said they did not get enough information or advice in the weeks after having their first child.

Anne Fox, the head of campaigns and public policy for the NCT, said; “It’s clear postnatal care urgently needs improvement – our report paints a dreadful, shocking picture of care in the UK – we’re letting women and their babies down.

“Many of the problems these women highlight seem to be due to staff shortages or lack of visits once they had left hospital – and this issue needs to be addressed if the quality of postnatal care is to be improved, particularly for vulnerable women.

In the report, new mothers describe being “absolutely terrified” and alone during their first night in hospital, frightened to ask for help from staff who responded to them rudely.

One mother said: “As soon as the baby was born, I felt I was on my own. I spent the first night after the birth of my son in floods of tears and unable to sleep as every time I closed my eyes the nightmare of my birth experience came flooding back.

“Nobody came to check on me to see if I was OK, even though I know I was sobbing loudly and uncontrollably.”

Louise Silverton, Deputy General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, described the report’s findings as “disappointing,” but said the study sent a compelling message to those in charge of NHS budgets, about the need to keep investing in maternity services.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Midwives-have-no-time-to-care-for-new-mums-report-warns

Staff who are dyslexic, have taken a large number of sick days or who look after disabled and elderly relatives will also find it easier to win unfair dismissal cases under the new law.

Other provisions will allow bankers to compare salaries, and guarantee mothers the right to breastfeed their babies in public.

Experts fear the significant strengthening of anti-discrimination law will lead to a surge in employment tribunal claims as well as increasing the burden of red tape on businesses when they are struggling to recover from the recession.

However some of the most controversial elements of the single Equality Act – driven through by Hattie Harperson just weeks before the general election – have not yet been implemented by the Coalition. These include the requirement for large organisations to publish the gap in pay between male and female employees, and the right of employers to use “positive action” to recruit more female or ethnic minority staff.

The Act aims to make rights simpler by bringing together nine pieces of legislation, and creating a list of “protected characteristics” on which it is unlawful to discriminate: age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion, sexual orientation, marriage and maternity.

Business leaders, lawyers and personnel experts agreed that the most significant change is the new ban on questions about a prospective employee’s health at first interview.

Until now, employers have routinely asked about the medical background of job applicants but under the Equality Act they will be breaking the law unless they can prove their questions were designed to monitor diversity, or check whether the interviewee can carry out an essential task.

It will be illegal to ask how much time off work a prospective employee has taken, while one HR expert claimed managers will not even be allowed to ask: “How are you this morning?”

However bosses will be able to screen by health after making an offer or drawing up a short-list.

The British Chambers of Commerce estimates it will cost £189million for business to implement the Equality Act. David Frost, its director-general, said: “At a time when the Government is trying to create as many jobs as possible in the private sector this legislation will put people off for fear of getting it wrong. The Equality Act is a very complex bit of employment legislation. If small businesses get this wrong they end up in an employment tribunal.”

A spokesman for the Institute of Directors said: “The health provision is undoubtedly an extra burden on businesses. All business will need to be very clued up on the ramifications of what the new regulations are – if you have a whole HR team that’s fine, but a lot of our members are small businesses and they don’t have that.”

Deborah Casale at Gannons Solicitors said: “This will no doubt become a grey area in the law and may open the door to more disability discrimination claims.”

However supporters of the law believe it could help injured veterans who are seeking work after leaving the Armed Forces, as well as people who have a history of mental illness.

The Equality Act will make it easier for staff to claim they were discriminated against because of a disability. This is because they no longer have to prove they were treated less favourably than non-disabled colleagues.

It is expected to lead to discrimination claims from dyslexic workers who have been barred from carrying out certain tasks because of their tendency to make spelling mistakes.

An employee who had been disciplined for taking a lot of sickness leave could also claim they had been treated unfairly.

The law also introduces the category of “discrimination by association”, which allows carers of disabled children or elderly parents to claim they suffered in the office as a result of their responsibilities at home.

Edward Wanambwa, employment and discrimination specialist at Russell Cooke Solicitors, said: “The Equality Act 2010 is the most ambitious and overarching piece of discrimination legislation for decades. Its purpose is to harmonise and clarify existing law; the impact of which will perhaps most significantly be felt by the 6million carers across the UK who now have an unambiguous right to sue for discriminatory conduct experienced as a result of an association with a disabled person.”

Another category, combined discrimination, could see staff claim they were treated badly because of a combination of their age and their gender – where an allegation under a single area would have failed.

It also becomes illegal to discriminate against someone for the “perception” that they are homosexual, for instance, even if they are not. Transsexuals are protected from discrimination even if they are not undergoing “gender reassignment” treatment.

Employment tribunal judges will be able to recommend changes to the practices of a business rather than just concentrating on the experience of the individual who brings a claim.

Elsewhere, the Act specifically allows nursing mothers to breastfeed their baby in public places. Managers in shops or cafes will not be allowed to ask a mother to stop breastfeeding, move to somewhere more private or leave because they are breastfeeding.

The new law also stops colleges from preventing teenage girls at school who are pregnant or who have had a baby from taking their A-levels.

The legislation does not cover breast feeding at work, however a mother who is discriminated against for feeding would likely have a case for sex discrimination because of existing laws, experts say.

Under the new legislation, staff particularly in the financial sector will be free to discuss their pay, and can claim victimisation if they are disciplined for sharing information about wages or bonuses.

Rachel Dineley, employment partner at law firm Beachcroft, warned that small firms were likely to be caught out, and forecast a rise in cases brought in front of tribunals.

DLA Piper, the law firm that employs Nick Clegg’s wife, said detailed guidance on the new law had only been published in the past month.

Sandra Wallace, the firm’s head of equality and diversity, said: “Unfortunately, by issuing the implementing legislation so late in the day, and not incorporating all elements of the Act, businesses have been left with a halfway house that will potentially confuse them even more than they already were, and risk protracted legal wrangles in employment tribunals that are already overstretched with a general increase in claims.”

Some groups said the Government should have gone further and implemented all of the parts of the Act drawn up by Labour. It is estimated that 90 per cent of the law comes into force today.

Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “Rowing back on the requirement for big business to publish and take action on any differences in pay between men and women employees – so to conduct gender pay audits – is tantamount to endorsing the shocking gender pay gap.”

The Government likened the advance in employment rights guaranteed under the Equality Act to an equal pay campaign launched by female factory workers in 1968, commemorated in a film that opens in cinemas today.

Theresa May, the Equality Minister, said: “Thanks to pioneers like the women who feature in Made in Dagenham, the workplace is much fairer than it was in 1968, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“In these challenging economic times it’s more important than ever for employers to make the most of all the talent available. When a company reflects the society it serves, it’s better for the employer, the employees and the customers, so being a woman should never be a barrier to being treated fairly at work.

“From today the gagging clauses that stop people discussing their pay with their colleagues will be unenforceable, allowing women and men to find out if they’re being paid unfairly.

“This move towards transparency is just one part of the Equality Act, which also makes it easier for businesses to comply with discrimination law by streamlining the equality laws, and provides more protection to disabled people.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Equality-Act-firms-must-not-ask-job-applicants-about-health

The statistics are part of wider research on the experiences of 18-year-olds in England, published by the Department for Education.

The responses of thousands of 18-year-olds questioned for the Youth Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England were analysed.

The findings show that of the 18-year-old girls questioned about pregnancy, 18 per cent had been pregnant at least once.

Of these, almost eight in 10 (79 per cent) had been expecting a baby on just one occasion, nearly one in five (18 per cent) had been pregnant twice, and 3 per cent had been pregnant at least three times.

The survey concluded there was a “noticeable trend” between the young women who fell pregnant by 18, and their GCSE results.

A third (33 per cent) of those who gained between one and four GCSEs at grades D-G had been pregnant at least once by the time they were 18, compared to just 6 per cent of those who scored eight or more GCSEs at Grades A*-C.

Teenage girls who were eligible for Free School Meals – a measure of poverty – at age 16, or who had parents who left school at 16, were also more likely to get pregnant by the age of 18, the figures showed.

According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, there were 25.3 births for every 1,000 women under 20, in 2009.

Girls aged 15 to 19 accounted for 39,020 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2009.

The figures show that 18 per cent of girls who said they were sexually active had been pregnant by the age of 18.

More than eight in ten (83 per cent) of the boys and girls questioned said they were sexually active by the time they turned 18.

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/a-fifth-of-girls-pregnant-by-18-survey-reveals-2032952

In one sense it aims to complete the work of the last Conservative government – and much that the Blairites also wanted for the health service. The last Tory government tried to free NHS hospitals from direct management by health authorities.

It aimed to get GPs to buy patient care. And it briefly attempted to absolve ministers from responsibility for the day-to-day management of the NHS by creating a short-lived ministerial supervisory board with an NHS executive beneath it.

But it rapidly got cold feet over the likely impact of the quasi-market it had created, fearing the destruction it would cause would be anything but creative.

Labour, having first ditched much of this, recreated it earlier in the decade in a far more sophisticated form – with independent regulation and inspection and a tariff for NHS care that, in theory at least, encouraged purchasers to put quality above price.

It never quite sorted out who should do the purchasing – primary care trusts or GPs, who have been running a form of practice-based commissioning that, in most places, has been severely constrained.

But had the Blairite plans come to fruition, the purchasing of care would by now have been separated from its provision. All hospitals by 2008 would have been self-governing institutions, positioned part way between the public and private sectors.

Primary care trusts would have been solely commissioners, while their district nursing teams and therapists and community hospitals would now be independently run, either on a foundation trust model, or as social enterprises, or contracted out to the private and voluntary sectors.

There would also have been a more vibrant public/private/voluntary market from which purchasers could buy all sorts of care, with patients being able to choose between them.

What Labour – or more accurately Tony Blair and Alan Milburn, then health secretary – wanted is what Mr Lansley now aspires to create: a self-improving system run as a regulated market of competing providers driven by patient choice and commissioning in a way that no longer needs direct management from politicians and the health department.

From there, the step to an independent commissioning board, with ministers doing little other than continuing to raise the money for the NHS, setting its broad priorities, and then holding the board to account, would have been seen as an interesting evolution, not a revolution.

But the NHS is a long way from that. The Blairite reforms first slowed, then under Gordon Brown, pretty much stalled.

Half of hospitals are still directly managed and a chunk will never pass the financial viability test to become foundation trusts. PCT provider arms have still to be sorted out. Social enterprise in the NHS barely exists. Private suppliers have yet to demonstrate convincingly that they can consistently do things better and more cheaply than the NHS. And the best GP commissioners are still relative beginners.

Yet in a dirigiste decision that smacks more of old Labour central direction than anything else, the Conservative health secretary has decided not to allow GP commissioning to evolve into something demonstrably strong and effective but to require that all GPs – whether willing or not – do the job or acquiesce in their colleagues doing it for them. All in one big bang.

Mr Lansley’s plans amount to an NHS revolution. Virtually no part of the service will be untouched by his announcements on Monday, which aim, in barely three years, not just to complete Labour’s unfinished business but to go much further.

Issues Labour grappled with unsuccessfully, however, remain unanswered.

What, for instance, are the failure regimes for the new arrangements? And thousands of managers whose jobs are to go are expected to retain financial control throughout the upheaval while helping GPs take on their new role. The odds are many will bail out while they have the chance.

As Sir David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said on Monday: “The clarity of the vision is all very well. The big issue is how do we manage the transition.” With immense difficulty, is the answer. Mr Lansley, a man with a plan in a hurry, risks losing both financial control and performance.

From: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f3bc0e4-8def-11df-9153-00144feab49a.html

The trend was clearest if the fasting was done early in the women’s pregnancy, and during the summer months, when long hours of daylight called for them to go longer without food.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a time when Muslims across the world fast from dawn until sunset. Three in four Muslim pregnancies overlap with Ramadan and surveys indicate that the majority of pregnant Muslims observe the fast. This year, it falls between 11 August and 9 September.

Although pregnant women may request an exemption from fasting, they are expected to “make up” the fasting days missed during pregnancy after their baby is born.

Previous research has suggested that this requirement may discourage pregnant women from seeking the exemption, since they do not want to be the only member of their household fasting. Some Muslims also interpret Islamic law as requiring pregnant women in good health to fast.

Since fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam and is a central part of Muslim culture, many women may fear a loss of connection with their communities or would feel guilty if they did not observe Ramadan.

The study, which used census data from the US, Iraq and Uganda, also discovered long-term effects on the adult’s health and his or her future economic success.

Douglas Almond, of Columbia University, and Bhashkar Mazumder, of the Federal Research Bank of Chicago, the authors of the research, concluded: “We generally find the largest effects on adults when Ramadan falls early in pregnancy.

“Rates of adult disability are roughly 20 per cent higher, with specific mental disabilities showing substantially larger effects. Importantly, we detect no corresponding outcome differences when the same design is applied to non-Muslims.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam from Leicester, said sharia (Islamic law) would never expect a woman to fast if it had an adverse effect on either the mother or child.

“Sharia would not want the mother to unnecessarily burden herself,” he said. “There’s no point being needlessly brave. When Ramadan falls during the winter months, more women will fast. But when it falls during the summer, when you might have to fast for 16 or 17 hours, it is understandable that fewer mothers will be fasting.”

From:
http://www.independent.co.uk/pregnant-women-who-fast-for-ramadan-risk-damage-to-their-babies-study-finds

One in four people drink at levels that could be putting their physical and mental health at risk, according to official figures.

The move will reignite debate about how best to deal with the problem.

Deaths from alcohol abuse have more than doubled in the last 16 years, with almost 9,000 a year now succumbing to conditions such as alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis

More than 860,000 people a year are also admitted to hospital because of alcohol and the cost to the nation of excessive drinking is put at an estimated £27 billion a year.

Health experts and charities have all backed calls for a minimum price per unit to curb Britain’s binge drinking culture.

But many in the drinks and retail industries are strongly opposed to such a move and believe a minimum price would disproportionately hit responsible drinkers.

The move has already been backed by the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of Physicians.

Analysis by Sheffield University found that setting a minimum price of 50p a unit would save up to 3,400 lives a year without hitting moderate drinkers.

A draft of the Nice guidance, published in October last year, recommended the introduction of a minimum price per unit and said there was “sufficient evidence … to justify the introduction of a minimum price per unit.”

As well as overall consumption levels, a minimum price would also help to reduce binge and underage drinking, advocates believe.

Minimum pricing is expected to have a much harder impact on supermarkets and off licenses than pubs and restaurants, which sell alcohol at higher prices.

Supermarkets in particular have been criticised for selling alcohol at very low prices, including cans of beer for as little as 22p each.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association said that minimum pricing “would punish millions of innocent consumers” without solving the problem of alcohol misuse.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Minimum-price-for-alcohol-to-be-backed-by-Nice

Despite pledges from Labour and the Conservatives to protect front line services, there is evidence that their promises may have come too late.

A list of cuts has already been identified – including job losses, banning certain operations, closing casualty departments, downgrading maternity services and reducing the number of junior doctors. But these have been mostly quietly ignored by the three main parties.

The Conservatives pledged to stop all closures until they could be reviewed but, with billions of pounds of savings needed to cope with growing demand, cuts and closures are almost inevitable.

David Cameron emphasised that he was personally in favour of the NHS, after his experiences with his disabled son Ivan, who died last year, to combat arguments that the health service was not safe in Tory hands. The party manifesto contained promises about dentistry and round-the-clock GP services which appear too expensive in the current climate.

Both the major parties were accused of chasing the “fear of cancer” vote. The Tories said they would fund cancer drugs turned down by Nice, the health rationing watchdog, but did not mention drugs for other illnesses such as arthritis or dementia.

Labour said cancer patients would see a specialist and have test results back within a week. The party was criticised for unveiling its manifesto at a new hospital in Birmingham. It is against the rules to use NHS premises for election events.

But Labour pointed out that the hospital was still in the hands of the private finance initiative organisation – a policy which means the NHS will be repaying billions of pounds for new hospitals for decades.

Nick Clegg refused to ring-fence NHS spending given the size of the national debt.

The Liberal Democrat campaign focused on cutting waste on managers, scrapping regional strategic health authorities and pledging more power to communities to direct the health service locally.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/General-Election-2010-cuts-inevitable-as-NHS-must-make-savings

NHS managers, under pressure to cut costs, are implementing the changes despite warnings about poor security in some offshore centres.

The Sunday Times has identified seven primary care trusts in northeast London, serving more than 1.5m people, that have begun to send patient details overseas. The databases are administered by about 200 workers in Pune, western India.

Although companies handling the records in India said security was “paramount”, there is a risk of patients being identified if the NHS numbers are matched with anonymised clinical notes carrying NHS numbers, already being sent to India by more than 30 trusts.

Typically, a set of clinical notes will be based on a consultant’s findings during a session with a patient, which he will read into a voice recorder during or after the appointment.

The recording is then transferred to a computer and sent to India, where it is transcribed. One source involved in processing the information said patient names can crop up during the appointment and may then inadvertently be included with the clinical data.

Workers in India are also producing letters for patients with appointments for cervical smear tests and breast screenings.

Pilot schemes for NHS offshore transcription services began more than four years ago and have rapidly expanded. The Royal Free hospital in London, the Derby hospitals trust and the Newham University hospital trust are among those sending clinical notes overseas.

Labour ministers have been anxious to allay concerns about the confidentiality of patient information since the launch of a £12 billion scheme to computerise health records.

In January 2007 Caroline Flint, then health minister, told parliament the project would “expressly preclude the transfer of patient information outside the United Kingdom”.

Trusts, however, believe they may send patient information outside the UK if it does not come under the electronic records project.

John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley and an expert on IT projects, said: “Given the government’s track record of losing data in this country, it is worrying that data are being sent overseas. Every transfer of information adds to the risk of it being lost.”

The possible risks of transferring patient data overseas were exposed last year when undercover reporters from ITV1’s Tonight programme were able to buy health records from a private hospital in London, processed in India. The sellers claimed to have access to thousands of UK medical records.

The transfer of primary care trust records is being handled by NHS Shared Business Services, a joint venture between the Department of Health and the IT company Steria.

From: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7086816.ece

Health Direct urges you to opt out of labour’s snoopers charter- whilst you still can!

Politicians clamour to praise its world-class status and laud the dedication of nurses and the skill of its doctors. And all parties are united in the view that, despite the need for austerity measures, frontline staff and services will not be cut. So where are the savings planned? Watch the hand and not the mouth.

When I started in medicine, the hospital was run by about three people. Things were so much more simple when doctors and nurses treated patients, doing their best without the guidance of guidelines and targets, doing their best … yes … to make the patients better.

How did we manage without forms to fill and waiting times compliance? Quite well actually. The medical director ran the medical side of things while matron and the accountant handled the rest. It wasn’t much of a business then: it didn’t have to be, because there was no internal market to manage.

The internal market — Mrs Thatcher’s plan to introduce efficiency by having hospital compete against hospital to provide patient treatment — has wreaked havoc. It has spawned a nation of administrators, here today and gone to another post tomorrow — while doing nothing to bring costs under control.

The internal market’s billing system is not only costly and bureaucratic, the theory that underpins it is absurd. Why should a bill for the treatment of a patient go out to Oldham or Oxford, when it is not Oldham or Oxford that pays the bill — there is only one person that picks up the tab: the taxpayer, you and me.

And there are big problems with the billing process. For example, if a patient is seen in an outpatient clinic then there is a charge made by the hospital for his or her first attendance — but follow-up appointments are not charged. And if many treatments are given in a hospital to a patient, only the most expensive of the treatment episodes is charged.

There are savings to be made. It is alleged that there are just 75,000 administrators at work in the NHS but this figure is laughably mythological. Doctors and nurses know that there are many more than this. They look around and see the numbers increasing.

One report by the Centre for Policy Studies published in 2003 indicated that there were 250,000 administrative staff employed in the NHS: at least one administrator for every nurse. In recent times the rate of increase of admin staff within the NHS has exceeded that of nursing staff.

There is a general feeling in the NHS of disempowerment of the professionals. People can’t face up to the incredible struggle, the disapproval that faces any of them if they have the temerity to suggest that things should be run differently.

The principle of care for all from cradle to grave is worthy and wonderful. But the current reality is a cradle rocked by accountants who are incapable of even counting the number of times that they have rocked it. The reality is gravediggers working with a cost improvement shovel made of rust.

Over the years politicians have made dramatic changes to the way that the NHS has been run. Recent changes have caused fragmentation and not led to any cost saving. Moving patients from one place to another does not save the nation’s money, though it might save a local hospital some dosh. So the internal market has failed because it does not consider the health of the nation as a whole, merely the finances of a single hospital department, a local hospital or GP practice.

So what should we do? Let us go back to the old discipline of the NHS. Let the professionals manage medicine, empower the professionals, the doctors and nurses and shove the internal market in the bin and screw down the lid.

At this election time please let us hear from all political parties that they will ditch this absurd love-affair with the internal market. Instead let them help the NHS do what it does best — treat patients, and do so efficiently and economically without the crucifying expense and ridiculous parody of competition.

Professor Jonathan Waxman is a consultant oncologist

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7112167.ece

Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), also said he was in favour of “drug consumption rooms” to enable addicts to take drugs safely under medical supervision, and to cut rates of drug-related crime.Nurses gathering at the RCN’s annual congress in Bournemouth had earlier discussed providing heroin to addicts where other attempts at treatment have failed.

Results of pilot studies in London, Brighton and Darlington suggest that allowing users to inject themselves with the Class A drug under medical supervision can cut local crime rates by two thirds over six months.

Aberdeen has been considered as a potential future pilot location in Scotland.

But some experts are concerned at the prospect of providing legitimate “shooting galleries” in publically-funded clinics, despite the increasing use of methadone, the heroin-subsitute, and a lack of abstinence-based programmes.

Amid controversy over how to treat chronic drug users, members of the RCN, the country’s largest nursing union, discussed the possibility of providing heroin on the NHS today but did not hold a vote for or against the move.

Speaking in a personal capacity after the debate, Dr Carter, the former head of Central and North West London Mental Health NHS Trust, said that he believed in providing drugs, needle exchanges and locations for users to inject substances safely.

“The fact is heroin is very addictive,” he said. “People who are addicted so often resort to crime, to steal to buy the heroin. It obviates the need for them to steal.

“It might take a few years but I think people will understand that if you are going to get people off heroin then in the initial stages we have to have proper heroin prescribing services.” Dr Carter added that more research was needed into consumption rooms, which have been tested in Sydney and Amsterdam.

Experts found the programme stopped users injecting in school playgrounds and stairwells.

“Critics say you are encouraging drug addiction but the reality is that these people are addicts and they are going to do it anyway,” he added.

Radical proposals for the most chronic drug users were first advocated in 2002 by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett. The gave rise to pilot programmes in England in which users inject themselves with pharmaceutical diamorphine imported from Switzerland, under medical supervision.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article7108342.ece