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Eagle how the pay settlement for health workers will be funded.
Hunt says, as with all pay settlements, departments fund them from the money they get in the spending review. But in exceptional circumstances they can speak to the Treasury about extra help.
But we make a commitment that there will not be a degredation of frontline services for the public.
Continue reading...Scheduling makes Wales hearing look like ‘poorer relative’, say unions, while NI families say at least six weeks is needed
Bereaved families have strongly criticised proposals by the UK Covid-19 inquiry to set aside only three weeks each for its public hearings on the responses to the pandemic in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru argued that the Labour-led Welsh government would escape proper scrutiny unless more time was allocated. Trade union leaders suggested there was a risk Wales could be seen as the “poorer relative” in the inquiry.
Continue reading...India’s patent office turns down bedaquiline extension to Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for generic versions
People with drug-resistant tuberculosis in India could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after the authorities rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a patent.
The firm wanted to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which expires in July, until 2027, which would have prevented cheaper generic versions reaching the market.
Continue reading...Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says people with condition struggle with ‘cost, wait time and stigma’
Assessment and support services for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will be the subject of parliamentary scrutiny after the Australian Senate backed a Greens proposal for an inquiry on the issue.
The Senate community affairs references committee will examine barriers to “consistent, timely and best practice assessment” of ADHD and related services, including the adequacy of access to diagnosis and support, biases inherent in ADHD assessment and research, and the cost of medication.
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Continue reading...Controversial neurosurgeon’s claim a patient’s husband was ‘hoodwinked’ into making a complaint against him showed ‘lack of empathy’, inquiry also told
The controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has been accused of giving “opportunistically untruthful” evidence to a medical disciplinary board as well as lacking empathy and insight.
Teo appeared before a Health Care Complaints Commission inquiry in Sydney on Tuesday to defend brain tumour surgeries he performed on two women, from which they never recovered and died soon after.
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Continue reading...Authors say supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy also cheaper than treatment NHS usually offers
Practising mindfulness is much better than taking part in talking therapies at helping people recover from depression, a British study has found.
People who used a mindfulness self-help book for eight weeks and had six sessions with a counsellor experienced a 17.5% greater improvement in recovery from depressive symptoms than those who underwent cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) while being supported by a mental health practitioner.
Continue reading...A third of people under 30 have used e-cigarettes while 14% say they currently vape, according to new research
National youth vaping rates are higher than previously thought and those with friends who vape are most susceptible, according to a study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
A national sample of 1,006 people aged 15–30 years were surveyed about their use of tobacco and vaping products, motivations, how they obtained e-cigarettes, exposure to others’ vaping, exposure to e-cigarette advertising and perceptions of harms associated with e-cigarettes.
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Continue reading...Unions, regulators and NHS England all say staff shortages are affecting health of medics and patients
“There’s a gap today that no locum filled, so I am carrying both bleeps and doing the work of two people.” That recent tweet, by a children’s doctor, is one of many examples posted on social media by medics illustrating how NHS staff shortages affect them, patients, the smooth running of important services – and, sometimes, the safety of those who are receiving care.
It is a concern shared by every organisation that represents frontline staff, by regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and by NHS England, the body that oversees the service. Just as one example, in January the CQC reported that an inspection it had undertaken of Colchester hospital in Essex found patients were missing out on meals because there were too few staff on duty to feed them. Some patients were wearing dirty dressings, and others did not have their call bells answered promptly, for the same reason.
Continue reading...Exclusive: workplace plan sent to ministers says deficit will rise rapidly from current 154,000 if current trends continue
The NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.
A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends.
Continue reading...Concerns raised about links between ads, increased betting and risky behaviour, as well as prevalence of chances to gamble
Australians predominantly support greater restrictions and bans on gambling advertising, which a new study has found to have influenced young and vulnerable people to start betting, place “impulse” wagers or escalate their gambling behaviour.
The research, by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that 38% of the adult population gambled at least weekly. Three in four Australians gambled at least once during the past 12 months and, of those, almost half (46%) were classified as being at some risk of harm from wagering.
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Continue reading...Submissions to the TGA include comments from 13-19-year-olds who want restrictions in place to help them with nicotine addiction
Teenagers have urged the Australian government to help them break their nicotine addiction, submissions to a major consultation on vaping reforms reveal.
A submission to drug regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration from South Australia’s commissioner for children and young people, Helen Connolly, included comments from some of the 950 teenagers aged 13-to-19 surveyed by her office about vaping.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Surgeons raise concerns that people using jabs are unaware of risks of redundant skin
From unbearable side-effects to cravings curbed: readers on weight-loss jabs
A surge in the number of people using slimming jabs to lose weight could lead to a rise in patients travelling abroad for tummy tucks or other surgery to remove excess skin, surgeons have said.
Drugs such as liraglutide and semaglutide, which could help people reduce their weight by more than 10%, have been approved for use on the NHS for certain groups of people with obesity, although supplies of the latter under the brand name Wegovy have yet to arrive in the UK.
Continue reading...Known links to tobacco multinationals and vaping lobby groups omitted in submissions to federal government consultation on reform
Organisations and executives with known links to big tobacco and vaping companies have failed to declare them in submissions to a major government consultation on vaping reforms aimed at protecting children from nicotine addiction.
The submission of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) chief executive, Theo Foukkare, to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s vaping reforms consultation on behalf of the AACS states “no” in response to the question: “Have you or your organisation ever received services, assistance or support (whether monetary or non-monetary in nature) from the tobacco industry and/or e-cigarette industry?”
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Medical experts also reiterate calls to raise age of criminal responsibility, saying detention facilities have ‘deeply adverse’ affects on children
The Australian Medical Association is calling on governments to divert people away from incarceration and implement the recommendations of the 1991 Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commission.
The AMA has also reiterated its call for states and territories to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, particularly due to the disproportionate impact on Indigenous people.
Continue reading...Findings reveal level of disruption over three days in July when temperatures reached as high as 40C
Almost a fifth of hospitals in the UK were forced to cancel operations during the three days in July last year when temperatures soared highest, research suggests.
The findings, published in a letter to the British Journal of Surgery, are based on surveys of surgeons, anaesthetists and critical care doctors who were working during the peak of last year’s heatwave, from 16-19 July, when temperatures reached as high as 40C in some parts of the country.
Continue reading...Swiss firm’s withdrawal from Leqvio trial with NHS dents government plans to attract post-Brexit research and investment
The Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis has ditched plans for a large clinical trial in the UK, in a further blow to the government’s efforts to make Britain an attractive place for research and investment after Brexit.
The company decided to scrap the Orion-17 trial of its cholesterol-lowering drug Leqvio, involving 40,000 patients in partnership with NHS England.
Continue reading...Burnout, poor work/life balance and ‘unsustainable’ pressures are causing many NHS family practitioners to consider retirement
GPs in the UK have some of the highest stress levels and lowest job satisfaction among family doctors, a 10-country survey has found.
British GPs suffer from high levels of burnout, have a worse work/life balance and spend less time with patients during appointments than their peers in many other places.
Continue reading...Directive sidesteps Republican-controlled state legislature, which wasn’t able to pass similar legislation before recess
Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Monday said he will limit access to gender-affirming care for minors, sidestepping the GOP-led state senate as it struggles to pass a law banning the practice for children completely.
As hundreds of activists rallied at the state capitol to pressure lawmakers to act on the bill, Andrew Bailey announced plans to file an emergency rule.
Continue reading...Pollster says it’s a crowded progressive micro-party market, but some high-profile donors are backing the party’s campaign
When Antony Zbik was handed a “life-changing” medical cannabis prescription almost six years ago, he did not realise it would also rob him of his freedom.
While the treatment helped the 38-year-old with crippling pain caused by fibromyalgia, it also forced him to move back home and become reliant on his parents to drive him around.
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Continue reading...TGA to deliver recommendations to the government on how to curtail rise in vaping rates, particularly among young people
Australia’s drug regulator is expected to recommend sweeping import bans on vaping products, as new research shows young people who use e-cigarettes are much more likely to go on to smoke regular cigarettes than those who don’t.
This week the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will deliver its recommendations to the government on how vaping laws should be changed to tackle rising vaping rates, particularly among young people.
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