Experts call major spike in deaths on 19 July and following day ‘extraordinary data’ and a wake-up call over dangers of extreme heat
The hottest day on record last summer resulted in 638 more deaths in England than normal, according to official figures, which experts said show the danger that extreme heat and climate change pose to human life.
The following day, when temperatures remained almost as high, 496 more people died than would usually be expected.
Continue reading...Prohibitionist approach risks fuelling the black market, worsening health outcomes and sending people to jail unnecessarily, experts say
The criminalisation of nicotine vaping risks “unintended consequences” including fuelling the black market, causing worse health outcomes and even potentially putting people in prison when we should be trying to keep them out, the Australian Alcohol and other Drugs Council (AADC) says.
It is an offence in all states and territories to supply a nicotine vape to someone without a prescription, and to either possess or use one without a prescription.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Study measured glyphosate in urine and found high levels associated with signs of oxidative stress
New research by top US government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weedkilling chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases.
The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA.
Continue reading...Expert says difference in nations’ advice reflects contrasting risk appetite rather than failure to keep up with evidence
Australian health authorities are unlikely to change current alcohol consumption guidelines from 10 standard drinks a week, despite Canadian officials now recommending just two tipples over the same period.
Canada released new guidelines this week recommending its citizens drink no more than two standard drinks a week to prevent the risk of illness and disease, such as cancer.
Continue reading...Corrections minister Enver Erdogan to confirm transition to public services, in move welcomed by Indigenous advocates
The Victorian government will take over health care across women’s prisons across the state, in a move described as “a prioritisation of people before profits” by a respected Aboriginal leader.
The state’s corrections minister, Enver Erdogan, will on Friday confirm the contract for providing primary health services at Tarrengower Prison and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre will transition from private firm Correct Care Australasia (CCA) to Dhelkaya (Castlemaine) Health and Western Health, respectively, on 1 July.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Peak medical body claims Australia could collect $814m annually through a sugar tax, which it says 85 other countries have already implemented
The federal government is at risk of being the “odd one out” internationally if it resists implementing a tax on sugary soft drinks, the Australian Medical Association says, reigniting its calls for a 16 cent levy for every can in an attempt to slash obesity cases and raise funds for public health campaigns.
The AMA said Australia could collect $814m annually by implementing a sugar tax on fizzy drinks, a move it says 85 jurisdictions around the world have already taken.
Continue reading...MPs and peers say draft mental health bill must go further to strengthen patients’ choices
Ministers must use legislation to address an “unacceptable and inexcusable” failure to address racial disparity in the use of the Mental Health Act, MPs and peers have said.
The joint committee on the draft mental health bill says the bill does not go far enough to tackle failures that were identified in a landmark independent review five years ago, but which still persist and may even be getting worse.
Continue reading...Group representing trusts in England warns of disruption to patient care as two days of stoppages begin
NHS bosses have implored ministers to “do all you can” to end the strikes that are disrupting care for patients and help rescue the service from its “vicious cycle” of overload and delays.
The NHS Confederation issued its plea on the day nurses in England went on strike for the third time as they seek a bigger pay rise for 2022/23 than the £1,400 on offer.
Continue reading...Wages, incarceration rates and unemployment benefits access worse when compared with states allowing the procedure
Wages, employment security, incarceration rates and access to unemployment benefits are all worse in US states where abortion is restricted or banned, compared with those where it is protected, a new report has found.
The report by the Economic Policy Institute also found that minimum wages are, on average, $3.75 an hour lower in abortion restrictive states compared with protective states ($8.17 compared with $11.92); and that restrictive states incarcerate people at 1.5 times the rate of protective states.
Continue reading...Rising flood waters have cut north Queensland’s main transport corridor, the Bruce Highway, with more rain on the way. Follow the day’s news live
Dreyfus opens discussion about judicial watchdog
Today the attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, will open consultation for the creation of a federal judicial commission, to police what he described as the “relatively rare” instances of “problematic conduct by judges”.
The three diseases that we’re focusing on on this trip – malaria, HIV and tuberculosis – three diseases that Australia has a good control over or good management over.
HIV cases are on the rise for a range of different reasons. Tuberculosis is just devastating and any young child with tuberculosis is an extremely confronting and devastating thing to see it’s a horrible disease. And malaria is an ongoing killer.
Continue reading...UK medicines watchdog advises GPs to ‘taper’ doses for patients who want to stop taking the drugs
GPs whose patients want to stop taking antidepressants should reduce the dose of their medication in stages to lower the risk and severity of withdrawal symptoms, the medicines watchdog has said.
About one in six (16%) adult Britons experience moderate to severe depression, according to the Office for National Statistics. In England alone, 21.4m antidepressant drugs were prescribed between July and September 2022, according to the NHS Business Services Authority.
Continue reading...Former Sex Pistol competing to represent Ireland with love letter to wife of 44 years who is living with the illness
John Lydon has said he is competing to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision song contest primarily in order to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. The former Sex Pistols frontman (once known as Johnny Rotten) will appear with his band, Public Image Ltd, on the Late Late Show on 3 February, performing Hawaii, a love letter to his wife of 44 years, Nora Forster, who is living with the illness.
“I’m doing it to highlight the sheer torture of what Alzheimer’s is,” said the singer, who holds an Irish passport as well as US citizenship. “It gets swept under the carpet, but in highlighting it, hopefully we get a stage nearer to a cure.” Lydon insisted that spreading this message was much more important than competing to win, so he isn’t listening to the five other entrants.
Continue reading...RCN says if progress not made on pay negotiations, action in February will include all eligible members in England
Double the number of nurses will be asked to strike in early February in a bid to increase pressure on the government, union leaders have warned.
The Royal College of Nursing has said that if progress is not made in negotiations by the end of January, the next set of strikes will include all eligible members in England for the first time.
Continue reading...Public support for industrial action by health workers remains strong in the face of government claims it is putting lives at risk
A majority of voters continue to support striking nurses and ambulance workers, despite government claims that they are putting the public at risk, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
Labour has also increased its lead over the Tories by 1 percentage point, to 16 points, after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and other cabinet ministers tried to make political capital by accusing Keir Starmer and his party of being in the pockets of the unions at a time of industrial unrest, the survey shows.
Continue reading...Health secretary Steve Barclay urges unions to lobby PM over improved pay offer for striking nurses and ambulance workers
The health and social care secretary Steve Barclay has privately urged trade unions to help him make the case to the Treasury and No 10 for extra money for nurses, ambulance workers and other NHS staff in an extraordinary twist to the escalating crisis over health service strikes, the Observer can reveal.
A serious cabinet split has opened up, with Barclay now wanting more money for all NHS staff except doctors – while Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, are refusing to budge from their insistence that no more can be offered.
Continue reading...In letter to Rishi Sunak, GMB union members say they feel ‘utterly betrayed’ by attempts to portray them as ‘uncaring about safety’
A group of ambulance workers has sent a furious letter to the prime minister saying they feel “utterly betrayed” by the government’s attempts to paint them as “uncaring about safety standards”.
Steve Rice, the head of the GMB union’s ambulance committee, sent Rishi Sunak a letter on behalf of ambulance workers protesting against the government’s plans to introduce anti-strikes legislation.
PA Media contributed to this report
Continue reading...Warnings of ‘great cost’ to individuals, workplaces and the economy as people struggle to access diagnosis and treatment
ADHD awareness hassoared among women in the UK in the past year, but waiting times and the dearth of clinical awareness are leaving people awaiting diagnosis in a perilous position, leading experts have warned.
Dr Max Davie, a consultant paediatrician and co-founder of ADHD UK, said that people talking openly about their diagnoses – such as the Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha – had led to more people seeking referrals for the condition.
Continue reading...Almost 2,000 patients of surgeon told by health authorities they may need to have procedures repeated to ensure they do not have cancer after an investigation by regulators
A surgeon who performed hundreds of potentially “incomplete” colonoscopies in the Albury-Wodonga region has been temporarily banned from practising medicine.
Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt will remain registered as a GP and specialist surgeon in Australia, but cannot perform any medical procedures or treat patients according to conditions imposed on Friday.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...The U-turn may help to end wave of strikes, though funding it could require cuts to key services
Steve Barclay has privately conceded he will have to increase his pay offer to NHS staff, in a U-turn that may help to end the growing wave of strikes.
However, the Treasury has made clear he will have to find any new cash from within the existing health budget, raising the prospect of cuts to key services.
Continue reading...Critics say warnings are a ‘direct attack’ against Italy as a key exporter of wine
A plan by Ireland to put stark health warnings on bottles of wine, beer and spirits has caused anger in Italy.
Ireland is free to go ahead with the measure, which would warn consumers about the risks of cancer and liver diseases linked to alcohol, after a deadline passed for the European Commission to oppose it.
Continue reading...