Category Archives: Society

Martin Lewis charity highlights mental toll of cost of living crisis

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Survey finds nearly a fifth of respondents have had suicidal ideation about financial problems

The shocking impact that soaring bills are having on mental health has been laid bare by a report that highlights how money worries are driving many people to thoughts of suicide.

The Money and Mental Health policy institute, a charity founded and chaired by the consumer champion Martin Lewis, reported that 17% of respondents to a survey said they had experienced suicidal ideation over the past nine months owing to the rising cost of living.

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Strep A: No 10 tells parents to look for signs of infection with reports of eighth death

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Warning comes as health official says earlier start to cases in UK could be knock-on effect of pandemic

Downing Street has told parents to be on the lookout for signs of strep A infection after reports a primary-school pupil has become the eighth child to die in a matter of weeks.

On Monday, Alison Syred-Paul, headteacher at Morelands primary in Waterlooville, Hampshire, said: “Very tragically, we have learned of the death in recent days of a child who attended our school, who was also diagnosed with an invasive Group A streptococcal (iGAS) infection.”

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Hip and knee ops fell by more in UK than in any EU nation in 2020

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Hip replacements fell 46% in UK as a result of Covid and knee operations by 68%, study finds

Britain may be the hobbling man of Europe, according to figures showing that the fall in the number of hip and knee surgeries as a result of the Covid pandemic was greater in the UK than in any EU country.

The number of hip replacement operations fell 46% in 2020 in the UK, compared with just 7% in Germany and 12% in France. Meanwhile, the number of knee operations slumped 68% in the UK, compared with just 3% in Finland and an average of 24% across the EU.

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Mone’s Covid lobbying ‘extraordinarily aggressive’, claims Hancock

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Ex-minister claims Tory peer intimated unnamed firm she was helping was being treated unfairly

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone made “extraordinarily aggressive” lobbying efforts on behalf of a company bidding to supply Covid tests during the pandemic, Matt Hancock has claimed in a serialisation of his diaries.

The former health secretary claimed that Lady Mone made “wild accusations” about the procurement process, intimating that the company she was helping, which is not named, was suffering unfairly.

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Man charged with threatening doctor for providing care to trans patients

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Matthew Jordan Lindner of Texas is alleged to have harassed and threatened to kill a doctor at Fenway Institute center in Boston

A Texas man has been charged with threatening a Boston doctor for providing medical care to transgender patients and gender-nonconforming children.

On Friday, the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts said Matthew Jordan Lindner, 38 and from Comfort, Texas, was arrested and charged with one count of transmitting interstate threats.

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‘A gift of life’: the NHS double lung transplant that saved Covid patient

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After months in intensive care, Cesar Franco became the first person in Britain to have the operation because of the virus

“When I woke up I was confused. I remembered the doctors in St George’s hospital deciding to intubate me. But when I woke up from the intubation, I’d been transferred to another hospital, St Thomas’, and was on a machine that was keeping me alive. I wondered how things had gotten so bad and how I’d gone from being just ill to being, you know, very close to dying.”

Cesar Franco is reliving how he fell gravely ill with Covid-19 late last year and ended up in the intensive care unit (ICU) of St Thomas’ hospital in central London, helpless, struggling to breathe and only still alive thanks to the quiet pumping of an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) machine. It was the start of what became five arduous, precarious months in ICU on Ecmo. That is an unusually long time, even for a Covid patient, to receive what, for some but not all, proves to be life-saving care.

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Strep A: parents told to be vigilant after seventh child in UK reported to have died

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Nadhim Zahawi says parents should look out for symptoms of infection, such as fever, headache or skin rash

The UK government has urged parents to be vigilant for signs of a rare invasive form of strep A infection, after it was reported that a 12-year-old schoolboy from London was the latest person to have died after contracting it.

Nadhim Zahawi, a cabinet minister, said that although most cases of strep A were mild, parents should be mindful of the symptoms.

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Michelle Mone accused of trying to ‘bully’ ministers over PPE contracts

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Whitehall sources reportedly say ‘rude’ peer lobbied Michael Gove and Lord Agnew to secure business for PPE Medpro

Michelle Mone has been accused of attempting to “bully and hector” ministers into awarding public PPE contracts worth more than £200m to a company that she appeared to profit from.

The Guardian revealed last month that the Conservative peer and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers.

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Care workers hit back at Matt Hancock’s claim staff brought Covid to care homes

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Most cases not caused by decision to discharge patients from hospital without testing, says former health secretary

Care workers have hit back at claims by the former health secretary Matt Hancock that the Covid virus was brought into homes by infected staff.

In his book, the Pandemic Diaries, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, Hancock said only a small proportion of cases were caused by his decision to discharge patients from hospital without testing.

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Ministers accused of spoiling for a fight with nurses over pay

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While health secretary Steve Barclay says he will not negotiate, unions suggest the compromise reached in Scotland could help avert strikes

Ministers were under intense pressure last night to open new pay talks that could avert a devastating series of NHS strikes as health unions suggested a deal could be struck if both sides were willing to negotiate and compromise.

Amid claims from Labour and from NHS sources that ministers appeared to be playing politics and deliberately “spoiling for a fight”, union leaders strongly suggested that an improved, but still sub-inflation, offer similar to that made to Scottish health unions at the end of last month by the Holyrood government – which has led to strike threats being lifted north of the border – could help break the deadlock elsewhere in the UK.

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Prince Harry dresses as Spider-Man for Christmas message to bereaved children

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Duke of Sussex records video to comfort youngsters at Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity for military children

The Duke of Sussex dressed up as Spider-Man in a surprise video message to try to comfort bereaved military children.

He donned the superhero outfit and only lifted his mask to reveal his true identity at the end of a specially recorded message for youngsters at Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity for bereaved British forces children and young people.

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Seven in 10 nurseries in England warn fees will rise amid energy crisis

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Over 10% of early years providers say they will close if energy bill relief scheme not extended, survey reveals

Seven in 10 nurseries and preschools in England will have no option but to increase their fees without additional financial support from the government towards rising energy costs, according to a survey.

The sector is warning the energy crisis could be “a nail in the coffin” for many settings, with more than one in 10 saying they will be forced to close permanently without an extension to the government’s energy bill relief scheme.

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Families sue Indonesian government after 199 deaths from syrup medicines

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Since August, 199 people have died of acute kidney injury, prompting an inquiry and ban on some medicines

A dozen families, whose relatives died or fell ill after consuming cough syrup medicines, have sued the Indonesian government and companies accused of supplying the products.

At least 199 people, many of them young children, have died as a result of acute kidney injury since August, prompting the government to ban some syrup medicines and launch an investigation.

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School leaders report rise in pupils not on free meals going hungry

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Increasing numbers of children cannot afford lunch and are coming to school without adequate clothes

More than half of school leaders in England are seeing more pupils who cannot afford a meal at lunchtime yet are not eligible for free school meals, according to a survey.

Research by the Sutton Trust, an educational charity, found clear signs that the cost of living crisis was increasingly affecting young people’s education, with a growing number of pupils arriving at school tired, cold and hungry.

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Charity urges Matt Hancock to do more to raise dyslexia awareness

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Ex-minister claimed I’m a Celebrity appearance would raise profile of his dyslexia campaign but he only fleetingly mentioned it

A charity has called on Matt Hancock to renew his efforts to raise awareness about dyslexia after apparently only fleetingly addressing the issue on I’m a Celebrity.

The former health secretary defended his decision to take a break from Westminster and sign up for the ITV reality show in the Australian jungle by claiming he wanted to use it as a platform to raise the profile of his dyslexia campaign.

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US sees surge in children under five hospitalized for respiratory viruses

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Wave of illness caused by RSV, influenza and other infections has seen more than three-quarters of pediatric hospital beds full

When his son was born seven weeks early, weighing only 2.5lbs, RH watched as the little boy stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit for 37 days.

When they finally left the hospital, RH, who asked to use his initials for health privacy, breathed a sigh of relief. The baby, despite his difficult start, was perfectly healthy. But only a few months later, the child landed back in the hospital with a dangerous virus, RSV.

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Florida doctor found dead days after arrest on suspicion of raping sedated patients

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Eric Salata faced investigation over claims he assaulted two women at his clinic after incapacitating them

A doctor in Florida who was accused of drugging and raping his patients has been found dead, according to local authorities.

Investigators could not immediately determine how Eric Salata, 54, died when his body was discovered in woodland on Monday. But they said he had a gunshot wound to the head, was lying next to a pistol, and that they did not suspect he had been the victim of a crime.

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Emergency care issues in England contributed to 200 deaths last week, says medical chief

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Head of Royal College of Emergency Medicine says lengthy waits forcing ambulances to be ‘wards on wheels’

More than 200 people who died last week in England are estimated to have been affected by problems with urgent and emergency care, according to the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

Dr Adrian Boyle, who is also a consultant in emergency medicine, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a failure to address problems discharging patients to social care was a “massive own goal”.

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Ambulance waiting times in England three times longer in some rural areas

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Disparity between rural and urban areas uncovered by Lib Dem FoI requests to 10 ambulance trusts

Patients in some rural areas wait almost three times longer for emergency ambulances than those in towns and cities, while people with potential heart attacks or strokes now face a one hour 40-minute average wait in one area, statistics have shown.

The disparities were uncovered by freedom of information requests by the Liberal Democrats to England’s 10 ambulance trusts, which in turn covered waiting times for 227 areas across the country.

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MoJ requests urgent use of 400 police cells for male prisoners

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Prisons minister writes to police chiefs to establish Operation Safeguard due to lack of space in men’s prisons

Dominic Raab has been accused of presiding over a “foolish and unrealistic” prisons policy after his department was forced to request the emergency use of 400 police cells for inmates for the first time in 14 years.

Ministers blamed the recent barristers’ strike for an “acute and sudden increase in the prison population” of 800 in the last two months – a claim that was challenged by charities, MPs and unions.

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