Cancer charities back call for prominent warning labels while industry body says move ‘not proportionate’
Cans and bottles of alcohol should carry cigarette-style labels warning that drinking increases the risk of cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It has said governments should insist that “prominent” warning labels become standard in order to alert consumers to the link between alcohol and cancer and tackle the harm caused by heavy drinking.
Continue reading...Deborah Burns says she witnessed a series of medical blunders by colleagues at William Hewes’s bedside
A consultant paediatrician has been unable to work at the hospital that failed to save her son from a sepsis infection, after “feelings of betrayal” towards her medical colleagues who ignored her warnings about errors in his treatment.
William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at Homerton hospital in east London, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, had worked for more than 20 years.
Continue reading...Potentially life-saving drug was prescribed for William Hewes but not given quickly enough due to communication mix-up
A consultant paediatrician warned medical colleagues treating her son that they had failed to give him life-saving antibiotics hours before he died from sepsis, an inquest has heard.
William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at east London’s Homerton hospital, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, worked.
Continue reading...Call for means-tested grants or loans to cover upfront costs that prevent poorer households from benefiting
Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found.
However, the upfront costs mean that those who stand to benefit most from decreased energy bills are prevented from getting panels installed, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
Continue reading...Semaglutide, active ingredient of Wegovy and Ozempic, found to reduce cravings and cut drinking by 40%
Weight-loss drugs could be used to help people reduce their intake of alcohol, researchers have said, after a study found they can cut cravings and curb heavy drinking.
The medicines, originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes, have revolutionised the treatment of obesity, and evidence suggests they could have benefits in other areas of health, such as reducing risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Continue reading...Deputy PM Angela Rayner announces plans as she presents £350m funding increase for affordable housing
Rogue landlords in England will face curbs on how much housing benefit they can receive if their properties are substandard, Angela Rayner has said as she announced an extra £350m for affordable housing.
The deputy prime minister presented the funding increase, adding to £500m already announced at the budget, as part of the government’s drive to build 1.5m homes.
Continue reading...Research shows happiness levels have bounced back post-Covid, although depression also remains more common
People 50 and over in England have greater life satisfaction and sense life is more worthwhile than before the Covid pandemic, although depression is more common, researchers have found.
Prof Paola Zaninotto, first author of the research from University College London, said the study showed wellbeing and mental health worsened between the early stages of the pandemic and later in 2020, contrary to some reports. However, this situation subsequently improved.
Continue reading...Third-largest healthcare insurer will be first to give 20% off treatments such as Wegovy and Mounjaro through health cover
Vitality has become the first health insurer in the UK to offer customers discounted weight loss treatments for up to a year through its health cover.
The UK’s third-largest health insurer behind Bupa and Axa, with 1.9 million members, said it would offer discounts of up to 20% for medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – which are popular but pricey – to members, based on their body mass index (BMI) and weight-related health conditions.
Continue reading...Danny Kruger says those who backed the bill did so under false premise after change to safeguards announced
There will be two urgent questions after 12.30pm: on the Clonoe inquest, which found that the SAS acted unlawfully when they killed four IRA terrorists in an ambush in 1992; and then another on the US steel tariffs.
A Northern Ireland Office minister will respond to the first, and a business minister will respond to the second.
Continue reading...Ministers mothball promised reforms to simplify the process amid fears over rise of Reform UK
Labour has quietly shelved plans to make it easier for people to legally change their gender amid concerns about the rising popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Ministers have mothballed their promised reforms to simplify the process whereby anyone seeking to change gender in the UK must get approval from a panel of doctors and lawyers.
Continue reading...Prime minister takes home test at No 10 with soul singer Beverley Knight to promote HIV Testing Week
Keir Starmer has taken a public HIV test in an effort to destigmatise testing for the virus and to highlight HIV Testing Week.
The prime minister took a home test at 10 Downing Street alongside the soul singer Beverley Knight. “It’s really important to do it and I’m really pleased to be able to do it. It’s very easy, very quick,” he said.
Continue reading...Legalise Loos initiative intended to halt slump in number of conveniences in town centres, parks and other locations
It will involve spending more than a penny, but it’s a call that is likely to be viewed sympathetically by anyone who has ever been caught short while out and about.
A campaign has been launched to make the provision of public toilets a legal requirement for central government and local authorities after a slump in the number of loos in town centres, parks and other locations.
Continue reading...An investigation found the pair had no case to answer and that the trust had breached its own disciplinary policy
Two NHS professionals were investigated and barred from their workplace for expressing interest in organising a peaceful protest in support of Palestine during their lunch break.
The therapist and nurse were accused of posing a threat to the “personal safety” of the staff at Kensington and Chelsea child and adolescent mental health service, and of “bringing the trust into disrepute” for considering the demonstration.
Continue reading...Industry insiders say it will be ‘tricky’ to find suitable candidate who would agree to location and civil service pay
Britain’s state-owned energy company faces a “challenging” task to find a chief executive for its Aberdeen HQ when it begins recruiting this month, senior industry sources have said.
Great British Energy is poised to begin the hunt, but sources claim there are still no obvious frontrunners for the top job almost six months after the £8.3bn publicly owned clean energy company was formed.
Continue reading...Campaigners demand government issue formal apology to women forced to give up their babies in 1950s-70s
Time is running out for the UK government to issue a formal apology to women who were forced to give up their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, campaigners have warned.
Most of the estimated 185,000 women involved in forced adoptions are now in their 70s and 80s, and some have died without an apology on behalf of the state being issued.
Continue reading...Local authorities urged to intervene earlier and charity preparing to launch dedicated support group
“I don’t remember ever having had a home-cooked meal,” says Richard, crunching over the food wrappers and crushed cardboard boxes that cover his mother’s kitchen floor.
He glances at the broken cooker, cracked microwave and windows blocked by piles of unwashed mugs, some inexplicably tightly wrapped in cellophane. There are no clear surfaces. Blackened, disintegrating cabinets sag under yet more wreckage. Not an inch of floor can be seen.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Health experts and cancer charities say findings should serve as wake-up call to ministers
More than 1,100 people a year in the UK are developing the most prevalent form of lung cancer as a result of air pollution, the Guardian can reveal.
Exposure to toxic air was attributed to 515 men and 590 women in the UK in 2022 getting adenocarcinoma – now the most dominant of the four main subtypes of lung cancer – an analysis by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency found.
Continue reading...Parents of Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe also criticise televising of Axel Rudakubana’s sentencing
The parents of two of the girls murdered in Southport have spoken of the moment they were told “something awful has happened” to their children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
The families of Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe also called for more protection for children from the internet and criticised the decision to televise the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana, who was jailed last month for a minimum term of 52 years.
Continue reading...MP also suspended from Labour party after exposure of messages in which he said he hoped for pensioner’s death
A Labour minister has been sacked and suspended from the party after messages were exposed in which he said he hoped a pensioner who did not support him would die before the next set of elections.
Andrew Gwynne, who was a health minister, was also accused of writing a series of other messages containing racist and sexist comments. They included apparent antisemitic remarks and demeaning comments about Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister.
Continue reading...Pledge to fix broken welfare system follows new evidence that people are worried about returning to work for fear that benefits will be withdrawn
Britain’s broken welfare system is fuelling the “greatest unemployment challenge of a generation”, ministers have concluded as they draw up a root-and-branch overhaul designed to counter the spiralling numbers deemed too unwell to work.
Rules that force benefit claimants into an “all or nothing” choice between working and being deemed too sick to work are set to be redrawn, the Observer understands. It follows new evidence that thousands of people who want to work are worried about taking steps to return to the workplace out of fear that their benefits will be withdrawn.
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