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The privacy of millions of NHS patients will be critically undermined by a government plan to let medical researchers have access to personal files, the health information watchdog told the Guardian last night. The prime minister and Department of Health want to give Britain’s research institutes an advantage against overseas competitors by opening up more than 50m records, to identify patients who might be willing to take part in trials of new drugs and treatments.
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Cost of child protection case fees risks lives, say lawyers – The Guardian 17th November 2008
Members of the judiciary and family lawyers have warned that a government-imposed hike in the cost of taking children into care could increase the numbers in danger of suffering domestic abuse. In May, the Ministry of Justice increased the legal fees that local authorities have to pay to bring court proceedings associated with the procedure. The cost rose dramatically from around £100 to £2,225.
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Earlier this year, the Daily Mail ran a feature headed: “Social workers took our children away … because of an incorrect hospital diagnosis”. The story concerned a young professional couple from Stockport, near Manchester, who took their six-month-old son to hospital after a fall. A paediatrician found a skull fracture. Social services moved quickly, taking the boy and his sister into care. Only four months later did a court clear the parents of abuse.
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Why children are left to die beyond help’s reach – The Observer 16th Novemeber 2008
The horrific details of Baby P’s death have shocked the nation and provoked anguished debate about the way we protect vulnerable children. Here we investigate why, despite repeated promises of reform over the past 35 years, social workers and police still seem unable to intervene effectively in homes across the country where abuse wrecks young lives and sometimes causes death
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What I saw left me a victim of violence, unable to sleep at night – The Observer 16th Nvoember 2008
A senior paediatrician who has specialised in child protection for 30 years describes the difficulties faced by professionals
When I started working in child protection in the early Seventies, a seven-year-old girl called Maria Colwell was beaten to death by her stepfather, despite a series of warnings to social services. An inquiry found that there had been a breakdown of communication between the agencies involved and a lack of training for the social workers. Almost 30 years later, Victoria Climbié died under similar circumstances. Now we have seen it again.
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People swallow hogwash about evil cults but find it hard to accept the realities of child abuse in the family
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PM ordered probe at top child hospital – The Observer 16th Novemeber 2008
Gordon Brown personally demanded an inquiry into the children’s hospital where leading doctors have warned about lapses in safety, lack of qualified staff and major operations being performed needlessly.
The Prime Minister asked an NHS watchdog to examine the quality of care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) after The Observer last week revealed the findings of a report highlighting senior doctors’ concerns.
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Last week, The Observer starkly highlighted problems at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. This is indicative of a wider problem of how lack of long-term planning for children’s services in the NHS as a whole risks damaging the quality of surgical care. Children’s services in district hospitals have not been developed, and there is a risk of specialist hospitals being overwhelmed by referrals of simple cases.
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There has been pressure to change the rules on organ donation, but replacing the ‘opt-in’ scheme may not be the answer
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The Organ Donation Taskforce will tomorrow present the findings of its year-long review into the system that finds organs for would-be transplant patients. It will reject the most radical option – switching from the current system by which people ‘opt in’ to the register of willing donors, to one of ‘presumed consent’, where anyone unhappy with the idea of their organs being used can freely ‘opt out’ of the register.
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Is 41 too late to become a father? – The Observer 16th Novemebr 2008
The latest science claims older dads can cause autism, schizophrenia and Down’s Syndrome – and their fertility fades with age. Ian Tucker consults his biological clock
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Mira Katbamna on plans to bring Weight Watchers to work – The Guardian 14th November 2008
Mira Katbamna rounds up some of her favourite stories to emerge from the world of offices this week
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Politics: Tories attack civil service pay ‘hypocrisy’ – The Guardian 14th November 2008
The government will today be accused of double standards after new figures showed that senior civil servants are awarding themselves bumper pay rises while endorsing modest, below inflation, rises to staff on lower grades.
Alan Johnson, the health secretary, will be called on to explain the discrepancy, which has seen the most senior NHS civil servant receiving a pay award of up to 13%, while nurses are forced to accept a 1.9% increase.
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Is dental cover the best option? – The Guardian 15th November 2008
Do you have troublesome teeth but can’t get treated by an NHS dentist? Jill Papworth bought an insurance policy for her family – and saved the best part of £1,000
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Dr Chris Baker: ‘When I see a young patient with a heart attack, one of the first things I think of is cocaine’
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Drugs uncovered: The Observer Drugs Poll 2008 – The Observer 16th November 2008
Nearly a quarter of us have taken marijuana. A third of us know someone with a drug problem. Seven out of ten of us support routine drugs tests for teachers. And more than a quarter of us think drugs should be legalised. This special Observer Drugs Poll 2008 reveals all…
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The impact of the economic downturn is felt not solely in legal markets – increasingly drug users are turning to cheaper options, especially in rural Britain where amphetamines such as uppers and base are on the rise. Havana Marking examines a growing concern
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Rachel Cooke talks to Jamie Oliver about his Ministry of Food – The Observer 16th November 2008
It’s barely five minutes since Jamie Oliver was the cheeky chappie of TV chefery. Since then he’s turned hoodies into kitchen gods, banished rubbish from the school menu and taught Rotherham how to cook. Is he hooked on sainthood or just an old-fashioned philanthropist?
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Vivienne Nathanson: We must extend this miracle of medicine – The Observer 16th Novemebr 2008
The taskforce on organ transplantation will report this week and it is all but accepted that it will advise against an immediate move to a system of ‘presumed consent’. For the more than 10,000 patients on the transplant waiting list in the UK this will be a further setback, dashing their hopes of life-saving treatment.
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Chief medical officer condemns organ donor decision – The Observer 16th November 2008
The government’s chief medical officer last night lashed out at the decision to ditch planned reforms for organ donations, warning that dying patients had been left on a ‘knife-edge of despair’.
A review commissioned by the government will tomorrow conclude the public is not ready for a change to the system of presumed consent where patients’ organs would be made available for transplant after death unless they had explicitly opted out or their families objected. Currently people have to sign up as donors, unlike the system in European countries such as Spain.
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The human cost of losing your job – The Observer 16th November 2008
With Britain officially in recession, the spectre of mass job cuts looms. But the rising figures don’t tell the story of the terrible psychological fallout from unemployment. Here, the Observer’s Business Editor writes movingly of how the loss of her father’s job during the Eighties recession ripped the heart out of her family
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‘People are dying. It’s human to help’ says health chief – The Observer 16th November 2008
The chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has attacked the decision not to introduce presumed consent for organ donation. And he warns that new medical techniques mean even more people will have to endure the uncertainty of waiting for a transplant. Gaby Hinsliff and Denis Campbell report
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Crimes ‘halved’ in UK when drugs addicts get treatment – The Guardian 17th November 2008
Research published today shows that heroin and crack cocaine addicts receiving drug treatment commit fewer crimes to feed their habit.
The Manchester University study, based on data from the police national computer, shows that the number of offences committed by addicts – such as theft – fell by almost half once they had entered drug treatment programmes.
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Afghanistan’s £2.5 billion opium industry provides
90 per cent of the world’s supply. As the country edges
closer to becoming a narco-state, the international
community is divided over a solution. -
Drugs uncovered: A brief history of drugs in literature – The Observer 16th November 2008
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, opium
The Romantic poet composed one of his most famous works after taking laudanum in 1797. After waking from a stupor in which he’d dreamed of the stately pleasure-domes of a Chinese emperor, he scribbled ‘Kubla Khan’. Coleridge’s addiction finally killed him in 1834.
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The legal landscape for drugs – The Observer 16th November 2008
I have a better idea of what would happen to me if I were caught with cocaine in Saudi Arabia than in a West End nightclub. The drugs laws in this country are not particularly clear, because they’re infrequently enforced. Every now and then someone – a Home Secretary or a police chief, most often – will stick his or her head up and say that one drug or another is to be added to the list of controlled substances, or that the penalties for using them should be stiffer. But what does it all mean?
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Drugs uncovered: The facts on cannabis – The Observer 16th November 2008
There are three sub-species of cannabis plant – Cannabis sativa, Cannabis sativa indica and Cannabis sativa ruderalis – but it is the indica sub-species that provides the majority of the world’s skunk, hash, kif or marijuana. The key components of the drug are THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol).
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Twenty-two years have passed since the BBC’s Grange Hill depicted the descent of Zammo Maguire – played by Lee MacDonald – into drug-addled hell. Out of his mind on heroin, Zammo was plagued by zits and wore a stupefied expression. To millions, heroin just seemed a bit rubbish. Three years later I bumped into ‘Zammo’ in a nightclub in the Lake District. His spots had cleared up and he was surrounded by women. Sure, Zammo had fame, but in truth he was no looker. Instead, his appeal seemed incontrovertible proof that the drugs do work.
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Drugs uncovered: The confusing world of ‘legal highs’ – The Observer 16th November 2008
From herbal joints to pills for ex-ravers, ‘legal highs’ are big business. Classed as medicines, they are regulated in theory, but how law-abiding are they, asks Oliver Marre
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Drugs uncovered: The facts on heroin – The Observer 16th November 2008
Heroin is produced from morphine, derived from the sap of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum (or ‘the sleep-bringing poppy’). Ten per cent of the poppy latex (or sap) is composed of morphine, with codeine (thought to be the most popular medicinal drug in the world) making up another two per cent.
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Drugs uncovered: The link between drugs and music – The Observer 16th November 2008
Music and drugs have long been linked, with shifts in genres often running alongside trends in narcotic consumption. Kevin Sampson tracks the history, from Miles Davis to Happy Mondays, and wonders if the link is still strong
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Drugs uncovered: The facts on cocaine – The Observer 17th November 2008
There are more than 250 varieties of the coca plant, but only three are widely used in the illegal cocaine drug trade. They are Huanuco coca, which is grown in Bolivia and Peru, Amazonian coca, grown in the Amazon River basin, and Colombian coca, grown primarily in Colombia.
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Danny Kushlick: ‘We need to manage the people who use them and help the people who misuse them, not criminalise either of them’
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Simon Leigh is an addiction counsellor accredited by the Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals who also gives talks in schools on drugs (www.addictiontherapy.org.uk)
Sometimes it’s scary just how much children know at such a young age. I talk to them like adults. It’s one of the reasons schools invite me in. Unlike parents or teachers I don’t say: ‘You mustn’t do this’.
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Admission of past dabbling in drugs has rarely harmed a politician’s career, but why do so few admit to having enjoyed their youthful experiences, asks Rafael Behr
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Drugs uncovered: The facts on ecstacy – The Observer 17th November 2008
· MDMA stands for 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine. Its root is safrole, a liquid extracted from the root or fruits of the sassafras plant.
· Ecstasy is a synthetic, psychoactive drug, which floods serotonin into the brain inducing relaxed euphoria. Sounds and colours intensify, the pupils dilate and sometimes teeth grind involuntarily.
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Vicky Crawford is a customs officer at Gatwick airport and works alongside Jessie, a two-year-old labrador.
You get matched up. They try to pair your personality with the dog’s personality. It’s like with people. You don’t get on with everybody and you don’t work well with every dog.
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Or does methadone stop addicts from tackling the causes of dependency. Experts and users are divided about the merits of this ‘maintenance’ approach compared to the more robust alternative of rehab. Elizabeth Day listens to arguments from both sides
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The government plans to reclassify cannabis and to prosecute men who pay for sex. It should stand firm despite libertarian jeers
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Public favours harder line on drugs – The Observer 17th October 2008
Britons have become more hardline in their attitudes towards drugs and the people who use them, a major poll commissioned by The Observer has revealed.
The toughening in public opinion includes an overwhelming desire for key workers, such as police officers, teachers and doctors, to face regular testing.
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Scotland grieves for growing army of fallen in drug wars – The Observer 16th November 2008
Just days after the nation paid tribute to the dead of the First World War and other international conflicts, the families of Scotland’s forgotten victims from another and very different sort of battle held their own service of remembrance. For the grief-stricken few who attended the memorial service at Aberdeen’s Salvation Army Citadel on Friday evening there were, however, no parades or military salutes – just memories of those who had lost their lives in Scotland’s growing war on drugs. This week a similar service will be held in Glasgow for families of the increasing number of Scots killed by drug abuse – a figure which has more than doubled in the last 10 years to 455 in 2007.
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Race against time to save baby Ethan – The Observer 16th November 2008
Ethan Collins is one of the youngest of the 7,944 seriously ill people on the transplant waiting-list, writes Denis Campbell
He has spent all but one night of his 11-month life in hospital. ‘We have been told he only has weeks to live without a transplant,’ says his mother, Donna.
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Three told to expect ’significant’ jail time over Baby P’s death – The Guardian 15th November 2008
The mother of Baby P and the two men convicted with her of causing his death have been told by an Old Bailey judge to expect “significant terms of imprisonment” when they are sentenced next month.
The 27-year-old woman, her boyfriend, 32, and Jason Owen, 36, were convicted this week of causing or allowing the death of the 17-month-old boy, who suffered months of violent abuse including a broken spine.
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Doctor, doctor: Dr Tom Smith answers your medical questions – The Guardian 15th November 2008
In February I gave birth to my first baby. Since then my hair has become increasingly greasy and now won’t go more than two days without needing a wash. Why is this?
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Eight in 10 seriously harmed children ‘missed’ by agencies – The Guardian 15th November 2008
More than 80% of children who are killed or seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect are missed by the national child protection register, the Guardian can reveal.
In the week that social workers from Haringey in London were lambasted over the horrific killing of a 17-month-old known as Baby P, and Manchester social services staff faced questions over the deaths of three-month-old Delayno Mullings-Sewell and his two-year-old brother, Romario, the findings show that scores of children who die at the hands of relatives are not on the radar of social services departments, even though in some cases injured babies have had medical treatment.
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An environmental campaigner yesterday won a landmark victory against the government in a long-running legal battle over the use of pesticides. The high court ruled that Georgina Downs, who runs the UK Pesticides Campaign, had produced “solid evidence” that people exposed to chemicals used to spray crops had suffered harm.
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Tuesday was Remembrance Day but alongside the commemoration of fallen soldiers came another roll-call: Maria Colwell, Jasmine Beckford, Victoria Climbié – all children killed by a parent, step-parent or guardian – and the newest addition, Baby P, identified by a single, lonely consonant. On Thursday he was joined by two more – Delayno Mullings-Sewell, aged three months, and his older brother Romario, two; their 21-year-old mother has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
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Haringey was ordered to resolve issues months before Baby P death – The Guardian 14th November 2008
Inspectors’ concerns included Haringey council’s safeguarding procedures
Inspectors raised concerns with Haringey council’s social care services months before the death of Baby P, it was revealed today.
An area review by Ofsted and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) highlighted a series of “issues for improvement” at the north London authority.
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Haringey issues apology after ‘anguish’ of Baby P case – The Guardian 13th November 2008
The council of the London borough in which Baby P died, at the hands of his mother and two men, yesterday apologised and expressed “deep sadness” for the tragedy. The apology came as a fresh inquiry into the role of social workers in the case, the fourth review so far, was announced yesterday, as inspectors opened the investigation ordered by the children’s secretary, Ed Balls.
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The family of a baby and his two-year-old brother who were stabbed to death at home expressed their complete devastation yesterday at the loss of their “beautiful, innocent” children.
A senior police officer described the scene inside the home in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, as “something no human being should ever have to see in their life”. Police and ambulance crews who attended the house have been offered counselling.
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Social workers under the cosh of compliance culture have less time than ever to understand problem families
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Campaigner wins UK pesticides court battle – The Guardian 14th November 2008
High court rules that Georgina Downs has produced “solid evidence” that people exposed to chemicals used to spray crops have suffered harm
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Letters: Making every child matter after Baby P – The Guardian 14th November 2008
Doubtless the government review following the death of Baby P while on the Haringey child protection register (Urgent inquiry into childcare ordered, November 13) will produce another swath of guidance, regulations and accompanying documentation, such managerialist strategies being perhaps at the core of why such tragedies happen.
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Fury mounts over child’s death – The Independent 17th November 2008
Anger over the death of Baby P appeared to be reaching boiling point in Haringey as the majority Labour group on the council held an emergency meeting to discuss the tragedy.
As more details of the toddler’s short life emerged yesterday, members of the public directed their rage at politicians and council employees.
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Key women in the affair face praise and condemnation – The Independent 17th November 2008
At the heart of the ongoing controversy over Haringey’s failure to prevent the death of Baby P are two women: one, the whistleblower, is lauded, while the other is accused of repeated failure.
Nevres Kemal, a former social worker who revealed to The Independent last week that her pleas for an investigation into Haringey’s failing social services department were ignored, has been praised for her actions.
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The only people in the country who can still be lawfully hit are children
Startling and telling was Gordon Brown’s response to the tragic death of the blue-eyed, beautiful Baby P: “I’m determined to do everything in my power to make sure that this does not happen again … Every family needs to know their children are safe at night.”
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‘Disfigured’ women plan to sue over skin fillers – The Independent on Sunday 16th November 2008
As surgeons caution against treatments designed for cancer patients being used for cosmetic purposes, the consumer group Which? is calling for tighter regulation of clinics, and one patient left permanently scarred tells of the devastating psychological impact
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Alternative medicine professions ‘need statutory regulation’ – The Independent 13th November 2008
Acupuncturists, Chinese medicine practitioners and medical herbalists should be formally regulated to ensure they are “fit to practise”, the Health Professions Council (HPC) told the Government today.
The professions are not currently subject to statutory regulation but the HPC formally recommended a system was introduced to make it easier to ensure people were “meeting standards”.
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Haringey ‘overruled’ attempt to put Baby P into care – The Times 17th Novmeber 2008
A senior manager at the social services department in Haringey, North London, overruled the concerns of colleagues and senior police officers to return Baby P to his mother and his eventual death, it has been claimed.
Panorama will state tonight that Sylvia Henry, a social worker, had decided in December 2006, after Baby P was taken to hospital with non-accidental injuries, that he should be taken into foster care. She was overruled. Ms Henry had arranged a placement, but it was decided after discussions with senior managers that the toddler should be looked after by a family friend instead, according to the BBC programme.
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Cost cutting put children at risk, Baby P whistleblower claims – The Times 17th November 2008
Vulnerable teenagers were often abandoned by Haringey Social Services because of cost-cutting during the period in which Baby P was being abused, a former social worker has claimed.
The man, who does not want to be named, left his job at the council to set up a social care company providing support
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Errors that caused serious harm to mothers and babies have accounted for nearly half of the £2.1 billion paid out as a result of medical negligence since 1995, The Times has learnt.
A total of £947 million has been spent on compensation relating directly to obstetrics, reflecting the increasing cost of lifetime care for children who have suffered brain damage, cerebral palsy or developmental delay.
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‘If families received better help, fewer would sue’ – The Times 16th November 2008
Sarah Collier had worked as a midwife at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead for three years before she was admitted to give birth to her son Joel, now 6. During the labour there were long periods when the baby was in distress, and Joel’s parents believe that their son’s cerebral palsy is a result of a lack of oxygen he received.
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Life expectancy gap still widening – The Times 17th November 2008
The Government is failing to close the gap in life expectancy between people who live in the most deprived parts of England and the rest of the country.
Ministers set a target in 2004 to address geographical inequalities in life expectancy, cancer, heart disease, stroke and related diseases. Success is monitored by comparing the progress of England as a whole with equivalent progress of the Spearhead Group of 70 local authority areas in the bottom fifth for factors including life expectancy at birth and cancer mortality rates.
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As men sober up, women drink more – The Sunday Times 16th November 2008
Women in their thirties and forties are becoming the most irresponsible drinkers, a report has revealed.
At an age when men are sobering up after enjoying a decade of youthful excess, women are drinking ever-larger glasses of wine, miscalculating their units of alcohol and ignoring health warnings.
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Doctors forced to use organs of cancer victims – The Sunday Times 16th November 2008
Surgeons are taking lungs, kidneys and livers from cancer victims because of the acute shortage of organ donors.
Official guidelines state that organs should not normally be taken from donors with a history of cancer, because there is a small risk of a tumour.
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Stem cell ‘living bandage’ heals knee injuries – The Sunday Times 16th November 2008
Scientists have grown a “living bandage” from a patient’s own stem cells to heal a common sporting knee injury.
Every year about 80,000 men and women in Britain suffer tears to the meniscal cartilage, which acts as a shock absorbing cushion between the bones of the upper and lower leg.
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Teenagers to receive jabs to cut abortions – The Sunday Times 16th November 2008
Ministers want to double the number of girls using contraceptive jabs and implants to cut down on teenage abortions.
Under reforms, youngsters considered at risk of unplanned pregnancies will be advised by their GPs to use these methods of contraception, which could render them infertile for three years.
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Ovary transplant woman gives birth – The Times 15th November 2008
THE FIRST ever baby born after a full ovary transplant has given hope to more than 100,000 infertile UK women.
Susanne Butscher, 39, has been sterile since suffering an early menopause when she was 15, however this week she gave birth to a baby girl after receiving an ovary from her twin sister in a pioneering transplant.
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Judge finds rural dwellers are harmed by crop sprays – The Times 15th November 2008
A woman who has fought for seven years to control use of pesticides on farmland near private houses is celebrating a landmark legal victory.
A High Court judge ruled yesterday that Georgina Downs, who lives in the countryside outside Chichester, West Sussex, had produced “solid evidence” that residents had suffered harm from the chemicals.
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Deprived borough where Baby P met his death – The Times 15th November 2008
It doesn’t look like hell, but for one 17-month-old toddler the scruffy streets of Haringey in North London — where he suffered torture and abuse beyond most people’s imagination — were exactly that.
It was here in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, just streets away from where eight-year-old Victoria Climbié met her death at the hands of her brutally abusive guardians eight years ago, that the boy known as Baby P died in August last year after enduring months of abuse and neglect.
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Council was cleared just before Baby P died – The Times 15th November 2008
Social care inspectors investigated a whistleblower’s warning that children were at risk in Haringey and cleared the council of any wrongdoing five months before the death of Baby P.
The Commission of Social Care Inspection said yesterday that inspectors had visited the department on March 12, 2007, to study complaints by Nevres Kemal, a former social worker in Haringey, that statutory procedures were not being followed and children were at risk.
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ECGs no better at protecting heart than chat with a doctor – The Times 14th November 2008
Patients who suffer chest pains may be dying unnecessarily because a commonly used test is not good enough to pick up the warning signs of heart disease, according to researchers.
Doctors at the London Chest Hospital found that, of 4,873 patients given an electrocardiogram (ECG) scan when reporting chest pains, almost half (47 per cent) went on to suffer a “coronary event” – such as a heart attack – despite a “negative” result that did not pick up any abnormalities.
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Health spending to be restricted after bank bailout – The Times 14th November 2008
The NHS will be told to rein in its spending next year, potentially forcing cuts in services, managers say.
In 2009-10 trusts will be permitted to use only £400 million of the £1.7 billion surplus that they are expected to generate this year, and will not get the full increase in resources pledged to them by the Treasury, the Health Service Journal reports.
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Life-or-death waiting game – The Times 14th November 2008
Claire Towner has been waiting for a kidney transplant for almost two years. Doctors have told her that her chances of finding a suitable kidney are remote, and her condition is slowly deteriorating as she waits for news of a donor.
Mrs Towner, 44, is a mother of three from Brightlingsea in Essex, where she used to work part-time in a school – a job that she has now had to give up because of her condition.
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Hundreds of Britons die on waiting list every year despite 16m donors – The Times 14th November 2008
Shortages of intensive-care staff, transplant co-ordinators and a lack of funds remain the biggest hurdle to improving organ donation rates, even in the event of the introduction of “presumed consent”, campaigners say.
In January the Prime Minister called for a national debate on changing the system, suggesting that thousands of lives would be saved if everyone was put on the donor register automatically if they did not opt out.
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Charities for our times – The Telegraph 27th November 2008
The Christmas season finds many of us straitened and struggling. Savings are losing their value, taxes rising, jobs disappearing. The coping classes are finding it harder to cope than ever. It is something of a cliché to say that Christmas is a time when we think of those less fortunate than ourselves; yet it is precisely when our personal circumstances deteriorate that our thoughts often turn to those who are worse off.
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Lawyer promoted after Baby P questions – The Telegraph 15th November 2008
The top lawyer at Haringey council is facing questions over his role in the Baby P tragedy after it emerged that just nine days before the toddler’s death, his department advised that the child should not be taken into care.
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Don’t demonise the council? Why not? – The Sunday Telegraph 16th Novmeber 2008
There was one thing that disturbed almost everyone who witnessed it last week, shortly after they had absorbed – in nauseous shock – as many details of the “Baby P” case as they could stand. It was the cool, defiant stance of Sharon Shoesmith, the chairwoman of Haringey’s Safeguarding Children Board, as she insisted that her department had nothing to apologise for.
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Letters to the Telegraph – The Telegraph 14th November 2008
The latest monumental dereliction of duty of a so-called child protection agency is no surprise to me.
I have found almost all the social workers I dealt with to be woefully inept and inadequately selected and trained for their demanding, highly skilled and potentially dangerous work.
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Social workers had a foster family ready for Baby P seven months before he died.
But their plans were overruled after an angry showdown at Haringey Council.
He was placed with a family friend for five weeks, against police advice, and then returned to his mother.
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A social worker at the centre of the Baby P abuse scandal was overloaded with child protection cases, it is claimed today.
Maria Ward was the allocated social worker for 18 different cases at the time of Baby P’s death, flouting Haringey Council’s own recommendations that its social workers should only be responsible for a maximum of 12.
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Girls as young as 13 will be urged to have contraceptive jabs as part of Government plans to curb teenage pregnancy rates.
Officials claim using long-lasting injections and implants rather than daily pills will make it easier for teenagers to control their fertility.
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A mother was plunged into a six-week coma to save her from a rare disease.
Juliet Baron, from Alvechurch, Worcestershire, was left temporarily paralysed after her treatment for the potentially fatal Guillain Barr syndrome.
The 34-year-old BBC production controller had to undergo four months of gruelling physiotherapy before she was strong enough to return home to her husband Mark and children Yasmin, five, and Madison, three.
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If you are prepared to spend money to improve the way you look – whether to make your hands look less scrawny or your cleavage less wrinkly – there are plenty of cosmetic treatments available.
From fillers for tear troughs to hand-plumping, BONNIE ESTRIDGE takes a look at the latest on offer.
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The Food Doctor: How to beat the bloat – Daily Mail 15th November 2008
One of the most common problems that I see at my nutrition clinic causes daily discomfort and misery to millions of people in the UK. It is bloating – defined as a general swelling or feeling of tightness in the abdominal area and often described by clients as feeling ‘very full’ after eating, even after only small amounts.
It is usually accompanied by abdominal distension and, embarrassingly, an over-production of gas, which is naturally produced in the body and not normally a problem.
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As obesity soars, is it ever OK for your child to be fat? – Daily Mail 15th November 2008
Britain is in the grip of a childhood obesity epidemic affecting a quarter of four- to five-year-olds and almost a third of ten-year-olds.
Many experts believe this problem relates to lazy children being fed junk food and watching hours of television but more and more parents are becoming concerned if their youngsters gain a few pounds.
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Empty out your bathroom cabinet… this £3.99 cream does EVERYTHING – Daily Mail 15th November 2008
They say that for the credit crunch, it’s the cream of the crop.
The packaging isn’t swish – but neither is the price tag. And for £3.99, it’ll do almost everything you need.
Boots’s Aqueous Cream has become a top seller as shoppers tighten the purse strings during the economic downturn, according to the store.
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Perhaps it’s the orangey bit in the middle which fools them.
For although most of us wouldn’t consider a Jaffa Cake a particularly healthy snack, one in ten parents apparently thinks they pass as fruit.
And according to a survey into family eating habits, Jaffa Cakes aren’t the only food to cause confusion.
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ECG test for angina patients is found to be ‘worthless’ – Daily Mail 14th November 2008
An NHS test to assess a patient’s risk of heart attack is worthless, a study has found.
The electrocardiogram, which records the electrical impulses produced by a heart’s rhythm, is not accurate enough to pick up those at risk of developing heart disease.
The researchers said the NHS must find a better way of predicting risk to stop people dying unnecessarily. Simply talking to patients about their symptoms would be more effective.
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Ancient English apple could boost heart health of millions – Daily Mail 14th November 2008
A rare ancient breed of English apple is the source of a ’secret’ food ingredient that could boost the heart health of millions.
It has been extracted from Evesse apples because they are a rich source of polyphenols that help increase blood flow and relax the arteries.
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Middle-class families are the most likely to have obese children, according to Whitehall officials.
Affluent families tend to know all about healthy eating and the importance of exercise – but are in ‘denial’ about changes they need to make themselves, a Government-commissioned study has found.
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Officials were split over Baby P – BBC Health News 17th November 2008
Social services in Haringey, north London, were split over how to protect Baby P who was killed after months of abuse, the BBC has learned.
A Panorama investigation reveals that a social worker and police did not want Baby P to go back to his mother.
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What happened to Baby P? – BBC Health News 17th November 2008
Last Tuesday (November 11 2008) two men were found guilty of causing the death of a 17-month-old boy known only as Baby P.
He suffered horrific abuse, but Haringey Council in North London, which was criticised in the Victoria Climbie case, never took him into care.
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Decision on donor ‘opt-out’ due – BBC Health News 17th November 2008
A decision on whether everyone should be on the organ donation register unless they opt out is due later.
The UK Organ Donation Taskforce – a government advisory committee – is expected to reject plans to introduce a system of “presumed consent”.
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‘We have our much longed for baby’ – BBC Health News 16th November 2008
Bridget and Joe Barrett are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl – the baby they had almost given up hope of ever having.
She was born in September at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, after 14 years of infertility and miscarriage for the Devon parents.
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Cancer drug success ‘on the rise’ – BBC Health News 16th November 2008
Cancer drug research is entering a new era which will mean more successful drugs for patients, says a charity.
However, Cancer Research UK called for pharmaceutical firms and academics to be more open about those which do not make the grade.
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‘My stroke inspired a menu change’ – BBC Health News 15th November 2008
Chef Dean Tarleton prides himself on cooking the freshest food for his customers.
Where possible his fish is poached, grilled and steamed and his vegetables are seasonal.
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Ovary transplant baby ‘a miracle’ – BBC Health News 15th November 2008
The first woman in the world to have a whole ovary transplant has spoken of her delight at giving birth to a healthy baby girl.
Susanne Butscher was given the ovary by her twin sister Dorothee a year ago, after developing an early menopause.
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Warning over whiplash ‘epidemic’ – BBC Health News 15th November 2008
The number of claims for whiplash injuries following road accidents is soaring, say British insurance firms.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that its members receive almost 1,200 claims of this type every day, worth £2bn a year.
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Teachers backing Baby P director – BBC Health News 15th November 2008
More than 60 Haringey head teachers have joined forces to write a letter in support of the director of Haringey’s Children and Young People’s Service.
Sharon Shoesmith has come under increasing pressure to resign this week from her position after the tragic death of 17-month-old Baby P.
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Father of Baby P speaks of loss – BBC Health News 14th November 2008
Baby P’s natural father has called him a “bouncing” and affectionate boy, while describing his devastation at losing a son he loved deeply.
Baby P died in August 2007 after having suffered sustained abuse.
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Heart test ‘cannot predict risk’ – BBC Health News 14th November 2008
Heart tests offered to many patients with chest pain are of little value in predicting future heart disease, say researchers.
Instead of electrocardiagram (ECG) tests, doctors should spend more time quizzing patients about their symptoms and examining them, they said.
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Campaigner wins pesticide victory – BBC Health News 14th November 2008
A campaigner has won a legal victory in a long-running battle with the government over the use of pesticides.
A High Court judge ruled Georgina Downs, who lives near Chichester, West Sussex, had produced “solid evidence” that residents had suffered harm.
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Hair colour loss ‘reversal hope’ – BBC Health News 14th November 2008
People whose hair has turned white because of illness or extreme stress are being offered hope that scientists may be able to reverse the process.
Researchers from Manchester University and Lubeck University, in Germany, used a molecule to stimulate the pigment responsible for hair colour.
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‘Old treatments’ better for IBS – BBC Health News 14th November 2008
Older “overlooked” treatments for irritable bowel syndrome may end up being the best option for patients, research suggests.
Fibre, anti-spasmodic drugs and peppermint oil were all found to be effective in a review of the evidence.
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Young mothers’ depression risk – BBC Health News 13th November 2008
Women who become mothers as teenagers or in their early 20s are more likely to suffer depression during pregnancy than older mothers, UK researchers say.
An 11-year study of 176 families found children born to women aged 16 to 22 are also more likely to have emotional problems and a lower than average IQ.
Posted by: western4uk | November 17, 2008
UK Health News 11/17/2008
Posted in Mass Media
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