Category Archives: Health

Brexit has worsened shortage of NHS doctors, analysis shows

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Exclusive: More than 4,000 European medics have chosen not to work in NHS since Britain left EU, data reveals

Brexit has worsened the UK’s acute shortage of doctors in key areas of care and led to more than 4,000 European doctors choosing not to work in the NHS, research reveals.

The disclosure comes as growing numbers of medics quit in disillusionment at their relentlessly busy working lives in the increasingly overstretched health service. Official figures show the NHS in England alone has vacancies for 10,582 physicians.

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Child in mental health crisis lived at police station for two days, chief reveals

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Head of West Midlands police warns of rising crime in poorest areas as forces are stretched beyond capacity

A child experiencing a mental health crisis had to live in a police station for two days due to a lack of psychiatric places, a chief constable has revealed, as he condemned austerity for hitting the poorest areas hardest.

Sir David Thompson, who leads West Midlands police, said his force – which is still missing officers and funding after cuts – was being asked to do too much, and warned of rising crime as desperation increases in the poorest areas.

Dismissed attacks from government and rightwing media that claim the police are too woke.

Condemned those trying to drag policing into the “culture wars”.

Revealed fears that the poorest areas would be hit hardest again by the cost of living crisis, fuelling a “real risk” of rising crime.

Said that bias explained some of the reasons that black people experienced more use of force and coercive powers than other groups.

Called for a radical rethink on tackling the problems blighting society, as public services work in “silos”.

Warned that police were being expected to do too much, including in the field of mental health.

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Rotherham: inquiry after family says boy, 5, died after hospital turned him away

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Yusuf Ahmed died after a tonsil infection spread to his lungs and caused multiple organ failure

A hospital trust in South Yorkshire has opened an investigation after the family of a five-year-old said he died after being turned away by doctors because there were no available beds.

Yusuf Ahmed died on Monday after a tonsil infection had spread to his lungs and caused multiple organ failure. The boy had been taken to Rotherham general hospital by his uncle Zaheer Ahmed on 14 November with complaints of a sore throat. He had been prescribed antibiotics the previous day by his GP, but his condition had not improved.

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Minister becomes eighth Tory MP to announce they are stepping down at next election – UK politics live

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Dehenna Davison, seen as one of the rising stars of the Conservative party, has announced she is standing down at the next election

Downing Street has confirmed that the inquiry into bullying allegations about Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, is being expanded to cover claims relating to his period as Brexit secretary, my colleague Pippa Crerar reports.

The inquiry was originally set up to consider two complaints, relating to his time as justice secretary and foreign secretary. But at the Downing Street lobby briefing a No 10 spokesperson said:

I can confirm that the prime minister has now asked the investigator to add a further formal complaint relating to conduct at the Department for Exiting the European Union and to establish the facts in line with the existing terms of reference.

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Victoria’s major parties look to contingency funds as part of election commitment costings

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Both Labor and the Coalition claim they could achieve forecast surpluses after releasing their costings

Victoria’s major parties have released the costings of their promises – despite the Coalition initially being unable to quantify the total amount committed and Labor’s document not providing timelines to provide major health and transport projects.

Less than two days out from Saturday’s election, the parties have also revealed they intend to draw on contingency funds – which are usually set aside to cover unforeseen circumstances – in order to prop up the state’s finances and achieve budget surpluses.

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Gene therapy at $3.5m a dose approved for US adults with hemophilia B

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Hemgenix frees patients from repeated treatments but initial cost makes it most expensive medicine in the world

US drug regulators have approved a one-off gene-therapy treatment for adults with the genetic blood disorder hemophilia B that frees patients from repeated treatments but costs $3.5m a dose, making it the most expensive medicine in the world.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CSL Behring’s hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix on Tuesday. It cuts the number of bleeding events expected over the course of a year by over half, a study found, and reduces 94% of patients from the need for regular infusions to control the condition.

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Severely ill refusing sicknotes as they cannot afford time off, says GPs’ head

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Exclusive: Doctors suffering ‘moral distress’ at their powerlessness to help most vulnerable, says head of the Royal College of GPs

Ill patients are refusing sicknotes from their GP because they cannot afford time off work, while physicians suffer “moral distress” at their powerlessness to do more to help the most vulnerable, the new leader of Britain’s family doctors has revealed.

More patients are experiencing asthma attacks or other serious breathing problems because they cannot afford to heat their homes, said Dr Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, while many have reported deteriorating mental health due to financial stress.

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Fauci urges Americans to get Covid shot, as study finds new booster is best yet

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The latest booster shots provide better protection than original vaccines, CDC data shows ahead of health official’s retirement

In his last appearance at the White House podium, Anthony Fauci urged Americans to get the latest Covid shot as a new study showed that the latest boosters offer better protection against new variants than previous shots.

Fauci appeared ahead of his retirement next month as America’s top public health official. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, Fauci became a household name as the public face of the US government’s response to the pandemic.

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Malta drafts law allowing abortion if mother’s life or health at risk

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Proposal follows outrage after pregnant US tourist was denied abortion despite partial miscarriage and threat to her health

Malta’s government has published a draft law that would ease the country’s strict abortion laws by allowing the termination of pregnancies if the mother’s life or health are at serious risk.

The proposed change in the law follows an outcry over the treatment of a pregnant American tourist in June, a case that sparked headlines worldwide.

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Rishi Sunak is registered with private GP practice offering £250 consultations

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Campaigners say poorest people will suffer most as NHS is ‘neglected and private practice becomes the norm’

Rishi Sunak is registered with a private GP practice that guarantees that all patients with urgent concerns about their health will be seen “on the day”.

The west London clinic used by the prime minister charges £250 for a half-hour consultation and, unlike most NHS GPs across the country, offers appointments in the evenings and at weekends, as well as consultations by email or phone that cost up to £150.

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Budget for 40 new NHS hospitals faces real-terms cut of £700m, say Lib Dems

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Capital budget of £12bn a year to shrink to £11.7bn, putting Tories’ claim 40 hospitals in England will be built or renovated in doubt

Plans by the government to construct and renovate 40 hospitals in England could be delayed because of new analysis suggesting the health and social care department’s capital spending budget faces a real-terms cut of £700m next year, according to the Liberal Democrats.

With some hospitals said to be in dire need of repair, the health secretary twice refused to say on Sunday that the NHS was functioning properly and instead admitted it was under “severe pressure”.

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Flood warnings in Victoria and NSW – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Birmingham against a windfall tax for oil and gas companies

Birmingham says he is opposed to a windfall tax for oil and gas companies to help assist with rising energy prices.

We don’t think that simply slugging a tax in relation to companies is going to do anything for the energy prices of Australians. You’ve got to fix supply in the gas market to provide for genuine outcomes there, and those types of taxes will actually only hurt you in the longer term because they will act as an investment disincentive and you have less supply for the future.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously said limiting global heating to 1.5C as set out in the Paris agreement meant there can be no new oil, gas or coal investment beyond 2021.

A windfall tax is not about shoring up gas supplies, but generating revenue which can re-invested in new renewable energy projects and other decarbonisation projects.

I strongly support recognition and have done for many years and, of course, the debate around the voice has come along subsequent to early efforts to try to achieve Indigenous recognition. When it comes to the model for the Voice, I do think Australians deserve to see more detail and have more answers about how it will work, how it will be constituted and how it will make a difference. I understand the very passionate views by those who argue for the voice and I don’t wish to see them disrespected in any way, but I also acknowledge that there are strong Indigenous views of doubt and question about whether the voice will be actually effective in achieving any substantial change on the ground in relation to Indigenous disadvantage.

We are going to be asked to support a constitutional change for a model that is as undefined by the government in relation to that model. It is not unreasonable to want to see the detail of the model.

An economy growing as strongly as possible, keeping unemployment as low as possible – those are the things that our government managed to achieve, with strong economic growth in our last year in office, with unemployment down to 50-year lows, creating the conditions for economic growth to help to drive productive wages growth.

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Medibank hackers release 1,500 more patient records on dark web, including mental health data

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Company says leak includes details on chronic conditions such as heart disease and people with cancer and dementia

Russian cybercriminals have released a fifth tranche of stolen data from the private health insurer Medibank, including the details of treatment for mental health.

The company’s chief executive, David Koczkar, on Sunday confirmed the hackers, who obtained the records of millions of current and former customers in a ransomware attack last month, had released the details on the dark web.

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Australians warned not to drink home-brewed poppy seed tea after spate of poisonings

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‘I would very definitely lay off the poppy seed tea for the moment,’ academic says

Australians are being warned not to drink poppy seed tea, promoted on popular social media platforms, after a spate of poisoning cases across Australia linked to the home-brewed sedative.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has issued a national recall of poppy seeds due to the potential presence of high levels of thebaine – an opioid alkaloid. The elevated levels of thebaine has been caused by non-food grade poppy seeds incorrectly entering the human food supply chain.

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Sportsbet calls for ban on using credit cards to gamble online as AMA warns of rising harms

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Top bookmaker says use of credit to fund wagering is ‘high risk’ ahead of government inquiry into industry

Online gambling companies could be barred from accepting credit card payments under a proposal backed by leading bookmaker Sportsbet and the nation’s peak banking lobby group, as the federal government probes further restrictions on betting.

The Australian Medical Association meanwhile warned there was “little evidence” current regulation was addressing problem gambling online, raising fears about its growth during the Covid pandemic.

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Plan to cut NHS England elective care backlog at serious risk, watchdog says

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National Audit Office says efforts to reduce record waiting lists under threat amid rising inflation and workforce shortages

Millions of patients could face years of long waits for treatment on the NHS, as a watchdog warned that the plan to reduce extensive waits for elective and cancer care services by 2025 is at serious risk.

NHS England published a three-year plan in February aimed at tackling the backlog in services, after the Covid-19 pandemic saw already long waiting lists grow to record levels. The Department of Health and Social Care is responsible for funding the recovery plan.

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UK has second highest maternal death rate in eight-country European study

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Women in UK three times more likely to die around the time of pregnancy than those in Norway

Mothers in the UK are three times more likely to die around the time of pregnancy compared with those in Norway, according to an international analysis of data.

Although maternal mortality is at historic lows in high-income countries, it remains an important indicator of quality of care, health system performance and, more specifically, maternal care. The comparison of maternal mortality rates in eight European countries was published in the BMJ.

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UK vulnerable to major animal disease outbreaks, report finds

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Inadequate management and underinvestment in main Animal and Plant Health Agency facility has left country at risk, MPs warn

The UK’s main animal disease facility has been left to deteriorate to an “alarming extent” leaving the country vulnerable to major outbreaks on the scale of the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, MPs have warned.

An inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge was “continually vulnerable to a major breakdown” because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had “comprehensively failed” in its management of the site.

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GPs in England to send suspected cancer patients directly for tests

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Scheme starting this month is aimed at improving Britain’s poor record on early diagnosis

All GPs in England will be able to refer suspected cancer patients for tests without them first having to see a specialist under an NHS initiative designed to speed up diagnosis.

The scheme, which starts this month, will let family doctors send patients with potential symptoms straight to have a scan, X-ray or other diagnostic test.

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‘We’ve come such a long way’: Labor’s Jacinta Allan on pushing gender equality forward in Victoria

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The likely successor to Daniel Andrews as party leader says it’s committed to overhauling women’s health statewide – but there’s always more to do

As the likely successor to Daniel Andrews, Jacinta Allan is prepared for a lot of things. But seeing a premier tweeting about tampons was something she could never have fathomed when she was first elected two decades ago.

“We’ve come such a long way in the time I’ve been in parliament,” she says.

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