Public concern about NHS is worrying and frightening, says leading emergency doctor after poll revealed
Three in four people in the UK fear getting stuck on a trolley in a hospital corridor or an ambulance not arriving after dialling 999, prompting claims that the NHS is facing “a crisis of public trust”.
Huge numbers also worry about their local A&E not having enough beds (77%) and not being able to get care at their GP surgery (70%), research also found.
Continue reading...Surgeons who worked in Gaza fear disease, malnutrition and eradication of healthcare will reverberate for decades
British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civillians, warning that large numbers will continue to die.
The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.
Continue reading...Two-year-old waited in emergency department for three hours before suffering a cardiac arrest and dying. Follow today’s news headlines live
Victoria to offer contactless public transport tickets from next year
Victorians will be able to use their phones, bank cards or smartwatches to pay for public transport travel from “early next year in a staged approach”, according to reports.
Following a successful start of a ticketless bus trial in Wangaratta, the Allan Labor Government will begin switching on tap-and-go technology across Victoria’s public transport network from early next year in a staged approach – meaning some passengers will soon be able to use their bank cards, phones and smart watches to travel on full fare tickets.
The new ticketing system will continue to be underpinned by extensive technical testing and will be carefully rolled out starting with rail from the beginning early next year – allowing full fare passengers more ways to pay for their travel.
Continue reading...Analysis by Cancer Research UK says there are 28,400 extra cancer deaths across the UK every year due to deprivation
Cancer death rates are 60% higher for people living in the most deprived areas of the UK compared with those in more affluent areas, according to new analysis.
There are 28,400 extra cancer deaths across the UK each year due to deprivation, the equivalent of 78 additional deaths every day, Cancer Research UK found.
Continue reading...Executive orders’ impact on premier medical research agency has resulted in delayed projects and frozen funding
Academics and scientists who work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the Trump administration’s orders have severely disrupted work – delaying projects and casting the future of research funding and jobs into doubt as chaos in the agency reigns.
An array of orders seeks to fundamentally reshape the NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research, in the Trump administration’s image. The agency’s work is the wellspring of scientific advancement in the US, and helped make the country a dominant force in health and science.
Continue reading...Warning from the Royal College of Nursing is based on Nuffield Trust analysis of NHS England staff surveys
The NHS in England is facing a “ticking timebomb” when it comes to retaining young staff, nursing leaders have warned, after new analysis showed its generation Z workers are becoming more stressed and unhappy over time.
A new report by the Nuffield Trust shows soaring dissatisfaction rates among staff in the health service’s youngest cohort, aged 21 to 30 – based on analysis of NHS surveys.
Continue reading...Experts raise fears for England’s largest colony at Blakeney Point as they conduct tests to identify source of infection
Experts have raised fears for the seals at England’s largest colony after four were found to have died after having been infected with bird flu.
Government scientists are investigating to find out whether the seals died after scavenging from the corpses of infected birds.
Continue reading...Agency works to rehire employees shortly after touting plan to ‘optimize workforce’ by cutting staff with help of Musk
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it accidentally fired several employees working on the H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak and is now trying to rehire them.
The about-face came after the USDA touted its plans to “optimize its workforce” by firing workers and terminating contracts, actions aided by billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial agency, the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), NBC News reported on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Poor diet, obesity and inactivity blamed on decline with Norway the only country seeing a rise
Life expectancy improvement is stalling across Europe with England experiencing the biggest slowdown. Experts are blaming this on an alarming mix of poor diet, mass inactivity and soaring obesity.
The average annual growth in life expectancy across the continent fell from 0.23 years between 1990 and 2011 to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019, according to research published in the Lancet Public Health journal. Of the 20 countries studied, every one apart from Norway saw life expectancy growth fall.
Continue reading...Pontiff, 88, already in hospital when latest diagnosis made, as Vatican confirms medical situation is ‘complex’
Pope Francis has been diagnosed with double pneumonia after further tests showed a continuing “complex” medical situation, the Vatican said in a statement on Tuesday.
The pontiff, 88, underwent a chest X-ray, which “demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia that required further pharmacological therapy”.
Continue reading...About 64% of people had difficulties with health service last year relating to communication about care
Patients routinely have to chase up test results, receive appointment letters after their appointments and do not know when their treatment will occur because the NHS is so “dysfunctional”.
That is the conclusion of research by two major patients’ organisations and the King’s Fund, which lays bare a host of problems with the way the health service interacts with it users.
32% had to chase up the results of a test, scan or X-ray.
32% had not been told how long they would have to wait for their care or treatment.
23% were unaware of who to contact while they waited.
20% received an invitation to an appointment after the date had passed.
Continue reading...TV, radio and online adverts aimed at increasing uptake of routine mammograms for women aged 50 to 71
Women in England will be encouraged to attend potentially life-saving screenings for breast cancer in TV, radio and online adverts as part of the first NHS awareness campaign for the disease.
Women in the UK are invited for their first routine mammogram between the ages of 50 and 53, with further invitations arriving every three years until they reach 71, after which they can request screening.
Continue reading...Positions cut also appeared to focus on agency’s centers for tobacco products, including oversight of e-cigarettes
The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.
Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Continue reading...Republican Bill Cassidy calls state surgeon general’s halt to promotion of mass vaccination a disservice to parents
Bill Cassidy, the Republican US senator, has said his home state of Louisiana’s recent decision to cancel the promotion of mass vaccination against preventable diseases is a disservice to parents who want to keep their children healthy.
Nonetheless, before those remarks, the medical doctor-turned-politician who has clashed with Donald Trump joined 51 of his fellow Republicans in voting to confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the US’s health and human services department. Cassidy had also previously voted to advance Trump’s nomination of Kennedy as national health secretary from the committee level to the full Senate.
Continue reading...Chrissi Kelly, who says anosmia is a ‘like a bereavement’, is trialling a simple procedure that could help those who lost sense of smell during Covid or other viral infections
Smell loss was a defining symptom of Covid, and for some people, a curse. Most people regain their sense of smell as their infection fades, but some never recover. It means not being able to tell if milk is off, if there’s a gas leak or what your newborn baby smells like.
But for victims of anosmia and its crueller sibling, parosmia, where ordinary smells are transformed into the stench of rotting flesh or sewage, there is new hope. Researchers have discovered that a simple procedure can help people recover their sense of smell years after losing it to viral infections such as Covid, or even decades later.
Continue reading...US vice-president’s comments, part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe, called inaccurate and misogynistic
JD Vance has been labelled an “extremist” after he launched a broadside against the UK’s efforts to protect women seeking an abortion.
The US vice-president’s criticisms of UK and Scottish policies on safe access zones around abortion clinics – part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe on Friday – were derided as inaccurate and misogynistic by a number of groups, politicians and governments.
Continue reading...Israeli influencer Max Veifer posts video on Instagram stating: ‘The police are asking me for the unedited version. I have nothing to hide. Here it is’
A Sydney nurse at the centre of a video chat showing two hospital workers allegedly making anti-Israel threats to an Israeli influencer has had their home raided after being taken to hospital due to “welfare concerns”, police say.
New South Wales police confirmed officers from Strike Force Pearl executed a search warrant at a home on Friday night, as part of an ongoing investigation.
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Continue reading...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...Experts’ concern grows as communication breaks down among federal agencies responsible for tackling epidemic
The Trump administration has disrupted the US response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens, leading to confusion and concern among federal staff, state officials, veterinarians and health experts, 11 sources told Reuters.
Since Donald Trump took office on 20 January, two federal agencies responsible for monitoring and responding to the epidemic have withheld bird flu reports and canceled congressional briefings and meetings with state health officials, the sources said.
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