Parents and NHS would be able to monitor vaccinations and checkups through digital version of ‘red book’
Labour plans to digitise the NHS “red book” that parents use for their children’s medical records as part of a series of changes to the NHS app.
Parents and the NHS would be able to see if children are behind on jabs or checkups through a new digital record, with automatic notifications to prompt them to book appointments under the party’s plans.
Continue reading...Act now on air quality in the Belgian capital, which is among the filthiest in Europe, say doctors and environmentalists
More than 100 doctors and environmentalists in Brussels have called on their politicians to follow London and Paris and take measures to improve the choking air pollution in the Belgian capital.
According to IS Global research, Brussels is ranked as the eighth worst of more than 800 European cities for nitrogen dioxide, which damages the lungs and is one of the main byproducts of internal combustion engines. The capital of the European Union is also ranked 308th out of 858 cities for PM2.5, or fine particulates, which can travel deep into the respiratory tract.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Treatments near approval but lack of diagnostic capacity means NHS unprepared for rollout, report says
Hundreds of thousands of dementia patients in England face being denied access to revolutionary new drugs because the diagnostic capacity of the NHS lags behind every other G7 country, according to a damning report.
After decades of research to find a cure for the condition projected to affect 153 million people worldwide by 2050, scientists have successfully developed the first treatments to tackle the underlying causes rather than only relieve the symptoms. Two new drugs could get the green light for use on the NHS within weeks.
Continue reading...Peak consumer body and financial services minister warn against private providers encouraging patients to tap into super to fund medical procedures
Advertisements offering patients “simple” access to their superannuation to pay for medical treatments have been described by the peak consumer health body as a “worrying trend” amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) approved 37,400 individuals to access their superannuation early on compassionate medical grounds in 2022-23, releasing a total of $730m.
Continue reading...Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 increase their income
Owning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.
The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.
Continue reading...Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival, near Warwick, held Australia’s first multi-day festival clinic last weekend
The organisers of Queensland’s first festival pill-testing service say many drugs sold as MDMA turned out to be other substances including one recently dubbed “Canberra ketamine”.
The Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival, near Warwick, held the first multi-day festival clinic in Australia on the weekend, after two patrons died at the same event in 2019.
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Anthony Albanese has called a snap press conference in Canberra at 8.30am. We’ll have coverage of this for you soon.
A man has died in Melbourne’s south after being struck by a truck on a major highway near Frankston.
Continue reading...Only private jabs are available to most, but annual shots could reduce healthcare costs and prevent deaths
Private Covid boosters are available for people who do not qualify to receive these vaccines on the NHS. But is it worth paying for a shot?
With most people now having been exposed to Sars-CoV-2 through previous vaccination and/or infection, our immune systems are generally well equipped to recognise and kill the virus if we become infected.
Continue reading...Worksafe also charged World Travel Expeditions after Lachlan Cook, 16, died in hospital following health complications
A travel company and a Melbourne private school have been charged over the death of a student who became unwell on a school trip.
The Kilvington grammar school student, Lachlan Cook, 16, suffered diabetes complications during a trip to Vietnam in September 2019 and later died in hospital in Melbourne.
Continue reading...IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive
Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.
“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.
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Aviation firefighters will walk off the job amid revelations many of the nation’s airports are ill-equipped to handle emergencies, AAP reports.
Leaked risk assessments carried out by Airservices Australia reveal travellers at 13 airports including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide airports, were found to be at extreme risk if there was a fire or aircraft incident because of a lack of firefighting resources.
These leaked documents confirm that Australia’s air travellers face a dire risk every time they set foot on an aircraft in Australia.
Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.
Continue reading...Company behind app says no personal information is collected but experts warn of ‘how easily’ data can be hacked
Yudara Kularathne came up with the idea for an AI-driven app when a friend was worried about a bump on their penis.
Kularathne was then a consultant physician in Singapore in 2019, but he saw the potential for an app that could instantly identify a suspected sexually transmitted infection from a photo of male genitalia.
Continue reading...Tests that can identify early changes in cells would give doctors more time to offer treatment, say Cambridge researchers
Scientists at a recently opened cancer institute at Cambridge University have begun work that is pinpointing changes in cells many years before they develop into tumours. The research should help design radically new ways to treat cancer, they say.
The Early Cancer Institute – which has just received £11m from an anonymous donor – is focused on finding ways to tackle tumours before they produce symptoms. The research will exploit recent discoveries which have shown that many people develop precancerous conditions that lie in abeyance for long periods.
Continue reading...Health authorities also warn RSV, flu and whooping cough cases on the rise around Australia
A measles alert was issued for Sydney on Sunday and other airborne illnesses are on the rise, while Australia’s Covid load is relatively low after the summer’s surge of the JN.1 variant.
New South Wales Health issued an alert on Sunday morning after a woman caught measles from a child who had been diagnosed days earlier.
Continue reading...David Crisafulli criticises pill testing trial in sign opposition may roll back harm minimisation polices if elected in October
The Queensland opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has criticised the state’s new pill testing regime, a potential sign his party would roll back Labor’s new drug policies if elected in October.
The sunshine state opened its first festival clinic on Thursday and will open the first fixed site clinic in Brisbane next month. The Labor government has committed to open a second once a site has been confirmed.
Continue reading...US public health agency alert warns of 422 cases reported in the country last year, the highest number since 2014
An invasive meningococcal disease – which can be deadly to infected people – is on the rise, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned.
In an alert issued on Thursday, the CDC warned that there were 422 cases of the disease reported in the US last year, the highest annual number of cases reported since 2014.
Continue reading...Moves to deport those receiving care in East Jerusalem have been called ‘a deliberate risk to innocent lives’
Cancer patients from Gaza, including children, are living in a state of limbo in a hospital in East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities threatened to send them back.
The Guardian was given access to the Augusta Victoria hospital, where at least 22 patients from Gaza in urgent need of advanced cancer treatment are living in fear of deportation. As with numerous others, they received authorisation prior to Hamas’s 7 October attack to receive medical care outside the strip, due to the inadequate facilities in Gaza.
Continue reading...Woman, 43, died after paramedics were called to a Surfers Paradise hotel on Friday night
A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.
Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Millions more GP appointments potentially created as a result of closures
Almost 1,000 pharmacies in England have closed since 2017, potentially leading to millions of extra GP appointments, the Guardian can exclusively reveal.
There are more than 11,000 pharmacies in England. Guardian analysis of the official register of these chemists has found that parts of the country have lost more than one in five pharmacies in the last six years, with poorer areas experiencing proportionally more closures.
Continue reading...Taskforce will aim to improve care for people living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
The NHS in England is to launch a major review of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services amid concerns about a rise in diagnoses.
ADHD is a condition that affects people’s behaviour. People with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and could act on impulse, according to the NHS.
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