Almost half of deaths occur in babies’ first month and most could be prevented with better healthcare according to campaigners
Five million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday in 2021, with almost half (47%) dying during their first month, according to new UN figures.
Most of the deaths could have been prevented with better healthcare, say campaigners, adding that deaths among newborn babies haven’t reduced significantly since 2017.
Continue reading...Business department says bill will enforce ‘basic’ level of service from different sectors during stoppages
Ministers are to unveil controversial new legislation designed to curb the effectiveness of strike action as industrial disputes continue to paralyse services across the UK.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has previously said the bill will enforce a “basic” level of service from different sectors if workers choose to strike.
Continue reading...Some suggest political naivety played a role as No 10 admits it is taking a ‘new approach’ by discussing pay
At the end of talks over next year’s pay deal for NHS workers, which broke up without resolution on Monday, union negotiators told Steve Barclay: “You know we’re going ahead with strikes?” One of those in the room said the health secretary shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “I accept that,” he told them.
But the fact ministers sat down with unions to discuss pay at all is, in itself, a breakthrough. For weeks the government has been indicating that, while it would meet unions to avert further strikes, reopening this year’s pay deal was not an option.
Continue reading...The development marks an important step in addressing the continent’s reliance on imported treatments and vaccines
The first Moroccan-produced tests to diagnose breast cancer and leukaemia will become commercially available within months, cutting costs and waiting times for patients in the country and across Africa.
Most of the diagnostic kits for cancer and other diseases in Africa are expensive imports from outside the continent, usually from Europe and the US.
Continue reading...Exclusive: 182 experts say only debt cancellation offers chance of recovery but private investors are playing hardball
Some of the world’s most powerful hedge funds and other investors are holding up vital help for crisis-hit Sri Lanka by their hardline stance in debt-relief negotiations after the Asian country’s $51bn (£42bn) default last year, according to 182 economists and development experts from around the world.
In a statement released to the Guardian on Sunday, the group said extensive debt cancellation was needed to give the economy a chance of recovery and that Sri Lanka would be a test case of the willingness of the international community to tackle a looming global debt crisis.
Continue reading...Political disagreement about the role of the state, the expense of reform and our unwillingness to confront ageing are at the root of the problem
A confidential No 10 memo on (not) reforming social care reads: “The prime minister agreed that this seemed the right course, but noted that careful thought needed to be given to the presentation in order to avoid charges that the government had pulled back from its original commitments on long-term care.”
That’s not a recent leak: it was from 1996, and shows how far back political failure on social care stretches. Politicians have not incurred any penalties for shirking this responsibility. In fact, the only leader who has really been burned by it is Theresa May – and that’s because she tried to do the right thing and be honest with the public about the cost in the 2017 election.
The past three decades have seen many attempts to reform social care. They all had different solutions and all collapsed in slightly different ways. But there are three things that the failures have had in common.
Research charity’s bid to raise money through a scheme that goes against its own principles sparks wrath of clean air campaigners
The British Heart Foundation (BHF), which has campaigned on the pollution risks of burning wood at home, is being urged to review a charity draw for a £3m London townhouse, with a fire pit on the garden terrace and open fires in the property.
A promotional video shows wood being burned in the metal fire pit at the property in north London and an open fire next to a bath. “Take a soak in your sumptuous stone tub and relax to the crackling sounds of the roaring fireplace,” says the promotion.
Continue reading...Observer investigation finds a ‘two-tier’ health system emerging in England, with rapid access available to those able to pay
NHS trusts with record waiting lists are promoting “quick and easy” private healthcare services at their own hospitals, offering patients the chance to jump year-long queues, the Observer can reveal.
Hospitals are offering hip replacements from £10,000, cataract surgery for £2,200 and hernia repairs for £2,500. MRI scans are offered for between £300 and £400.
East Sussex healthcare NHS trust has thousands of patients waiting for diagnostic tests but offers “fast access” to scans through its private division.
Great Western hospitals NHS trust in Wiltshire is warning patients that services are “extremely busy”, while its private division promotes self-pay treatment for those who “don’t want to wait for an NHS referral”.
James Paget university hospitals NHS trust in Norfolk is advertising private services on its NHS website, stating: “We provide highly experienced consultant-led services … without the waiting list.”
Continue reading...A man who was trapped in a lift during drone strikes is helping stock emergency boxes for people in the same situation
Markus Peuser was in the lift up to his 10th-floor apartment when one of Russia’s early drone barrages against Kyiv hit a power station, and the small metal box shuddered to a halt.
It was at least a good time to get trapped, he said wryly. “I was coming from the supermarket, so I had enough food with me and a bottle of wine,” he said. By the time someone came to rescue him, two hours later, he’d got through “a lot of chocolates”.
Continue reading...DHSC accused PPE Medpro of presenting false document when tendering for PPE contracts
A company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone was referred to the UK’s health products watchdog for an investigation after it allegedly presented a false document to the government when tendering for PPE contracts.
The referral of the company, PPE Medpro, was described in a high court document made public this week, setting out the legal claim against the company by the Department of Health and Social Care. The DHSC is seeking the return of £122m in public money it paid for the supply of sterile surgical gowns, plus £11.6m for storing and disposing of them.
Continue reading...Waiting times for admission to A&E in last week of year likely to be highest recorded by the service
More than a quarter of ambulance patients in England waited more than an hour to be admitted to A&E in the last week of 2022, amid “one of the most difficult” winters in NHS history.
Of all those arriving by ambulance in the week to 1 January, 26.3% waited with crews for more than 60 minutes.
Continue reading...Angela Crawley’s private member’s bill aims to grant three days of statutory paid leave to grieving parents
Ministers have been urged to back proposals that would grant paid leave to parents who have experienced miscarriage.
Under current UK law, people are not granted maternity leave or pay if they have had a miscarriage.
Continue reading...Specialisms such as dentistry have shortages and EU exit still causes issues with medicines in Northern Ireland, thinktank finds
NHS trusts in England have increased recruitment from low-income “red list” countries to make up for the post-Brexit loss of EU staff, despite a code of practice to safeguard health services in those developing countries.
A report by the Nuffield Trust thinktank also identified shortages in vital specialist areas since Brexit, including dentistry, cardiothoracic surgery and anaesthesiology.
Continue reading...Standoff between UN and Taliban may lead loss of billions in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan
The UN’s lead humanitarian coordinator has said UN-supplied aid cannot continue if the Taliban do not lift their ban on women working for humanitarian aid agencies in Afghanistan.
Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is due to visit Kabul shortly to discuss the impasse.
Continue reading...Offences committed in England and Wales have included murder, kidnap, and child rape, study of data shows
Nearly 900,000 offences including murder, kidnap, and child rape, have been committed by people on bail in England and Wales since the Conservatives came to power, a new analysis has found.
The latest government figures show more than 20,000 offences were committed by those released from custody as they awaited a hearing, equating to 55 offences a day.
Continue reading...Trump-appointed judge rules that children must have parental consent for contraception, in state where most abortion is banned
Texans under the age of 18 are now legally required to seek approval from their parent or guardian in order to obtain birth control from federally funded clinics, a federal judge in the state has ruled.
Title X, the federal grant program which was created in 1970 in order to provide family planning and preventive health services, was ruled a violation of state law and parental rights by federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in December 2022.
Continue reading...Overworked staff allocated extremely short care calls by local authority struggling to meet users’ needs
Care workers are taking as little as three minutes to help vulnerable people in their own homes, the social care ombudsman has found, after discovering a council was allocating extremely short visits to hundreds of people.
Amid chronic staff shortages and rising unmet care needs nationwide, a homecare worker commissioned by Warrington borough council sometimes stayed for just three minutes, despite the family paying for the full visit. The council was found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing these were “not usually appropriate”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: DHSC alleges gowns were not sterile, could not be used within NHS ‘for any purpose’, and technical labelling was ‘invalid’
The UK government has accused a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone of supplying defective gowns that could have compromised the safety of patients had it been used in the NHS.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) paid the company, PPE Medpro, £122m for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020 after Mone first approached ministers offering to supply PPE. However, the DHSC has alleged the gowns were rejected because they were not sterile, their technical labelling was “invalid” and “improper”, and they “cannot be used within the NHS for any purpose”.
Continue reading...In what NHS calls ‘never events’, items including swabs, blades and drill bits left in patients 291 times in England in 2021-22
A rising number of medical foreign objects, including wire cutters, scalpel blades and drill bits, have been left inside hospital patients after surgery in England, new figures reveal.
Blunders involving a “foreign object accidentally left in body during surgical and medical care” led to 291 “finished consultant episodes” in 2021-2022, official data shows.
Continue reading...People with disabilities more likely to cut back on energy use and food, Resolution Foundation says
Disabled people in the UK are much more likely to struggle to heat their homes and cut back on food this winter, according to a report highlighting “massive” income gaps amid the cost of living squeeze.
Research from the Resolution Foundation found people with disabilities had an available amount to spend that was about 44% lower than that of other working-age adults, exposing them hugely to the rising cost of essentials.
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