Admissions for vitamin or iron deficiencies up by more than 10% year on year and as much as tenfold on 1998-99
The number of people admitted to hospital in England because of a lack of vitamins or minerals is soaring, according to analysis of NHS figures.
In 2023-24 there were 191,927 admissions where the main reason was a lack of iron, up 11% on 2022-23. The figure is almost 10 times the 20,396 hospital admissions for lack of iron in 1998-99.
Continue reading...PM says in his new year message that 2025 will be a year of rebuilding, comparing the task to that Attlee faced in 1945
Keir Starmer has promised to rebuild Britain as Labour did after the second world war as he enters a pivotal year for his premiership.
The prime minister said in his prerecorded new year message that 2025 would be a year of rebuilding, with his government looking to turn the corner after a turbulent first six months in power.
Continue reading...Ever growing numbers of people find themselves unable to get NHS treatment or pay for the alternative
Exclusive: patients unable to get dental care after ‘eye-watering’ rise in private fees
The inability of millions of patients to access an NHS dentist is one of the longest-running injustices in the history of the health service. The misery and the harm it causes is profound and well documented. The scandal is not new.
Going private is often the only alternative. If it means getting a checkup, a scale and polish, a filling, an extraction or if necessary a root canal, many will pay. Anything to keep your teeth in good nick.
Continue reading...Exclusive: warning that lack of NHS dentists and soaring cost of private work puts essential care out of reach for many
How soaring fees for private care are deepening England’s dentistry crisis
Private dentists are cashing in on the scarcity of NHS treatment by hiking their charges for fillings, checkups and extractions to “eye-watering” levels, research has found.
Patients are paying as much as £775 for root canal work, £435 to have a tooth out and £325 for a white filling due to fees for common dental procedures soaring since 2022.
A white filling has gone from £105 to £129 – up 23%.
An extraction has risen from £105 to £139 – 32% more.
A half-hour scale and polish is now £75, up from £65 – a 15% jump.
An initial consultation for a new patient is up 23% from £65 to £80.
Continue reading...Manager of Lough Neagh Partnership praises actions so far on lake’s algae crisis but warns of wider problems
The introduction of water rates in Northern Ireland could address crumbling wastewater infrastructure and the impact on waterways, it has been suggested.
It comes as the Stormont executive works to halt an environmental crisis at Lough Neagh, where noxious blooms of blue-green algae have covered the surface of the water across the past two summers.
Continue reading...Pioneering presenter was best known for hosting Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show
The veteran BBC DJ Johnnie Walker has died at the age of 79, it has been announced.
Walker, who hosted Radio 2’s Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show, began his career as a pirate DJ in the 60s on the offshore station Swinging Radio England, then Radio Caroline, before joining Radio 1 in 1969. He left the station after causing controversy by describing the Bay City Rollers as “musical garbage” and clashing with his bosses over an insistence on playing album tracks.
Continue reading...Cabinet was split over east European countries joining in 2004, with some ‘extremely concerned’ by its implications
Senior figures in Tony Blair’s government, including John Prescott and Jack Straw, urged the then prime minister to delay opening the UK labour market to eastern European nationals shortly before they became EU citizens, newly released documents reveal.
Papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, showed Prescott and Straw warned of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place.
Continue reading...A senior US official said the president needed a ‘dose of reality’ to deal with Iraqi insurgents, documents reveal
Tony Blair’s advisers privately questioned if the US had “proper political control” of military operations in Iraq after a senior US official confided that George W Bush believed he was on a “mission from God” against Iraqi insurgents, newly released documents reveal.
Blair needed to “deliver some difficult messages” to the then US president for a “more measured approach” in April 2004, following a US military operation to suppress a major uprising in the city of Falluja, according to papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London.
Continue reading...Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show
The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.
The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.
Continue reading...Government accuses Tories and rightwing media of being ‘out of touch’, as VAT policy due to come into force
The government has accused critics of its plan to put VAT on private school fees of being detached from the real world after polling showed the policy, which will come into force on 1 January, is strongly backed by the public.
The poll, commissioned by the Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) thinktank, found that 54% of people backed the idea, with 22% opposing it. This is an even greater margin of support than seen in similar polls carried out before the election.
Continue reading...Stretched primary services causing increase in emergency visits for issues from coughs to hiccups, health leaders say
The number of people turning to A&E departments in England for minor ailments including hiccups, sore throats and coughs is soaring, as senior health leaders warn that NHS primary and community services are “massively overstretched”.
NHS data shows a large increase in people arriving at emergency departments for non-emergency ailments including backache, insomnia and earache.
Continue reading...Newly released files show proposals to divert £2m – earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa – to fund scheme
Tony Blair’s government discussed diverting £2m earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa in order to fund a controversial pilot scheme to process and house asylum-seekers in Tanzania, newly released government files show.
Under the scheme, Britain would have offered Tanzania an extra £4m in aid if it opened an asylum camp to house people claiming to be Somalian refugees while their applications to live in Britain were assessed.
Continue reading...Patients waiting many hours for ambulances to arrive, while those phoning 999 struggle to get through
A “critical incident” was declared by the Welsh ambulance service on Monday evening due to significantly increased demand and extensive handover delays.
The ambulance service, which covers 3 million-plus people across Wales, said more than 340 calls were waiting to be answered at the time the critical incident was declared.
Continue reading...Former post office operators recognised in new year honours list for services to justice
Campaigners for justice in the Post Office scandal have said they will “never give in” after receiving OBEs in the new year honours list.
Lee Castleton, Seema Misra, Chris Head and Jo Hamilton were all honoured for services to justice. The lead campaigner, Sir Alan Bates, was knighted earlier this year.
Continue reading...Mayor of London ‘truly humbled’ to be made a knight as authors, actors and sporting stars receive honours
Sadiq Khan and Stephen Fry received knighthoods along with the former England manager Gareth Southgate while Emily Thornberry became a dame in the first new year honours list since Labour’s general election win.
The mayor of London, who secured a record third term in City Hall this May, said he was “truly humbled” by the honour. Fry, who first made his name as one half of a double act with Hugh Laurie in the late 1980s, said he had felt “startled and enchanted” on receiving the news.
Continue reading...Survey by Chartered Management Institute finds only 19% of companies have a policy in place
Employers should have formal policies in place to help workers who are undergoing fertility treatment, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has said, warning that businesses are increasingly losing talented people by failing to support them.
With NHS data showing that one in every seven couples have difficulty conceiving, the professional body urged companies to be understanding and supportive, and offer flexible work hours and paid time off to accommodate medical appointments, as well as paid compassionate leave when necessary.
Continue reading...Damning report reveals millions in England are living in poor-quality housing that threatens their health
Ministers have been warned that efforts to save the NHS and grow the economy will fail unless they tackle the housing crisis, as a damning report reveals millions of people are living in substandard homes that risk worsening their health.
In total, 4.5 million people aged 50 or above with an existing health condition in England are living in poor-quality housing with one or more problems such as rising damp, rot or decay that may be making them even sicker, the Centre for Ageing Better analysis found. Of those, 1.7 million are aged 70 or over.
Continue reading...Part of an international initiative to combat organised wildlife crime, similar seizures in Australia and Norway have recovered more than 50,000 eggs
More than 6,000 eggs have been seized in the biggest haul of its kind in UK history, after police carried out raids in Scotland, South Yorkshire, Essex, Wales and Gloucester. Thousands of eggs were found secreted in attics, offices and drawers.
The UK raids took place in November as part of Operation Pulka, an international effort to tackle organised wildlife crime – specifically the taking, possessing and trading of wild birds’ eggs. The raids began in June 2023 in Norway, and resulted in 16 arrests and the seizure of 50,000 eggs. In Australia, an estimated 3,500 eggs have been seized, worth up to A$500,000 (£250,000).
Continue reading...People warned against buying illegal weight-loss medicines through beauty salons or fake pharmacy websites
Long waits for NHS services could lead people to take matters into their own hands by buying potentially unsafe weight-loss jabs online, Britain’s top GP has said.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, warned that buying drugs online from unregulated retailers could put people at risk and they may also miss out on wraparound support offered alongside the medication.
Continue reading...Data shows spikes in antisemitic and Islamophobic offences after outbreak of Middle East conflict and Southport attack
Some of the UK’s largest police forces have reported increases in religious hate crimes in the past 18 months, figures reveal, with the number of incidents rising after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in autumn 2023 and again after the Southport attacks in England this summer.
Forces including Greater Manchester, West Midlands and the Metropolitan police recorded sharp increases in antisemitic offences in the weeks after the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East in October last year.
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