Category Archives: Health

‘Nobody speaks about this’: Diana Rigg made impassioned plea for assisted dying law before death

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In a recording in 2020, the actor made a case for giving ‘human beings true agency over their bodies at the end of life’

• Read more: ‘Push me over the edge’ – Diana Rigg’s daughter Rachael Stirling writes about her mother’s dying wishes

Diana Rigg made an impassioned case to legalise assisted dying in a message recorded shortly before her “truly awful” and “dehumanising” death from cancer three years ago.

The actor’s statement calling for a law that gives “human beings true agency over their own bodies at the end of life”, published today in the Observer, adds to the ongoing debate on assisted dying, with MPs expected to publish recommendations to the government within weeks.

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US regulators approve two gene therapies for sickle cell disease

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Blood disorder that can lead to premature death affects estimated 100,000 people in the United States, most of whom are Black

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a pair of gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first treatment based on the breakthrough Crispr gene-editing technology, opening up two “transformative therapy” avenues for some patients.

The FDA approved Lyfgenia from Bluebird Bio, and a separate treatment called Casgevy by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Crispr Therapeutics. Both therapies are made from the patients’ own blood stem cells and were approved for people aged 12 and older.

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Australia news live: Daniel Andrews fires up over ‘Dictator Dan’ moniker; festival-goers warned about heatwave conditions

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Former Victorian premier gives first interview after resignation, saying ‘the haters hate and the rest vote Labor’. Follow the day’s news live

James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat

James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.

The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.

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HIV vaccine trial in Africa halted after disappointing initial results

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African-led trial ended a year early as researchers conclude there is ‘little or no chance’ new combination vaccines cut HIV risk

The first trial in Africa of two combination vaccines to prevent HIV has been halted after researchers concluded it was not working.

The vaccines (part of the PrEPVacc study) were being tested on 1,500 people aged between 18 and 40 in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa.

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Final question time of the year – as it happened

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MPs don casual wear for late-night sitting

Given the late sitting (the house has been doing “family friendly” hours for most of the year, which has made sittings past 8pm or 8.30pm rare) there were a few more casual looks on the benches than we are used to.

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Boris Johnson: I wasn’t properly warned about seriousness of Covid

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Ex-PM tells inquiry abusive messages between staff were inevitable passion of people ‘doing their best’ under great stress

Boris Johnson has insisted he was not properly warned about the potential seriousness of Covid during early 2020, as he dismissed abusive messages sent between his staff as the inevitable passion of people who were “doing their best”.

In a sometimes combative start to his evidence before the Covid inquiry in London, which began with protesters being removed from the hearing room, Johnson apologised for mistakes made, but then argued that these were not necessarily errors that could have been avoided.

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Canada’s ‘haves-and-have-nots’ health system lags behind Europe, study finds

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Research says funding cuts and poor organisation stop Canadians from accessing healthcare – and 20% have no doctor at all

Funding cuts, fewer generalists and inefficient organisation are preventing more and more Canadians from accessing public primary healthcare, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) which compares Canadian healthcare unfavourably with public systems in nine Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

About 20% of Canadians have no family doctor at all, and many more have irregular access to clinicians – a reality likely to worsen if not properly addressed now, said Dr Tara Kiran, a family physician in Toronto and one of the authors of the study.

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Australia politics live: Albanese government strikes deals on NDIS, GST and health reform at national cabinet meeting

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Nature repair bill ‘proof’ good-faith negotiations can work, says Bandt

The interview moves to the nature repair bill, which Tanya Plibersek won support for, after making a deal with the Greens. Adam Bandt says it is further proof that good faith negotiations can work:

The Greens pressure has worked. And the Greens have secured some significant wins. There’s been a blow against new gas and oil projects. Previously you could frack areas, so drill down to extract gas, including in farmland, and the government didn’t even have to consider whether that was going to affect our precious water supplies.

We know in many places it would have, that’s why so many farmers have been against fracking.

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Elective surgery wait times balloon to record high across Australia, data shows

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Nearly one in 10 patients are waiting longer than a year to be admitted, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Elective surgery wait times are at their highest level on record, while nearly one in two patients are spending more than the recommended time in emergency departments, new data shows.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfareon Wednesday released figures on public hospital performance from July 2022 to June 2023 that the Australian Medical Association said “paints a grim picture” of hospitals struggling more than ever.

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Experts call for fewer antidepressants to be prescribed in UK

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Open letter to government from experts and politicians says rising usage ‘is a clear example of over-medicalisation’

Medical experts and politicians have called for the amount of antidepressants being prescribed to people across the UK to be reduced in an open letter to the government.

The letter coincides with the launch of the all-party parliamentary group Beyond Pills, which aims to reduce what it calls the UK healthcare system’s over-reliance on prescription medication.

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Sunak on ‘wrong side of history’ over infected blood scandal, says charity

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Chair of Haemophilia Society says government stance is ‘huge error’ and hails Commons defeat as ‘victory for democracy’

Rishi Sunak will be on the “wrong side of history” in his handling of the infected blood scandal, the head of a charity has warned, after his government suffered its first parliamentary defeat over when to compensate victims.

The scandal, now the subject of an inquiry, unfolded in the late 1970s and early 80s, after about 4,800 people with the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia were given blood donated – or sold – by people infected with HIV and hepatitis C.

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Five-point plan to cut UK immigration raises fears of more NHS staff shortages

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Care workers banned from bringing over relatives, and minimum salary threshold increased in other sectors

The home secretary, James Cleverly, has announced a five-point plan aimed at delivering the biggest ever cut in net migration to the UK, prompting fears of heightened staff shortages in the NHS and social care.

Cleverly announced that the minimum salary requirement for a skilled worker visa would rise to £38,700, while a rule that allows for people in professions with the greatest need to be hired at 20% below the going rate will be scrapped.

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NHS trust under investigation accused of hypocritical email to staff

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CEO of University Hospitals Sussex urges staff to have courage to raise concerns, despite whistleblowers previously being sacked

The boss of a hospital trust being investigated by police for alleged negligence over 40 patient deaths has been accused of sending a hypocritical email urging staff to have the courage to raise concerns despite the dismissal of whistleblowing doctors.

Last week the Guardian revealed that the University Hospitals Sussex trust is under pressure to suspend surgeons whose cases are being reviewed by Sussex police in an investigation that involves more than 100 patients who either died or were seriously harmed between 2015 and 2021.

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Norfolk care home accused of waking residents with loud music to save money

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Staff at Iceni Care Home say vulnerable residents were treated as if they were ‘on a farm’ to reduce workload

Care workers at a private care home forced dementia sufferers out of bed as early as 5am and woke them by blasting loud radio music to save money, whistleblowers have alleged.

The management of Iceni Care Home in Swaffham, Norfolk, received repeated complaints about the practice this summer, as concerned staff said vulnerable residents were being treated as if they were “on a farm” in order to reduce the workload on daycare staff.

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NDIS funding showdown looms as Shorten seeks new deal with states

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Bill Shorten is due to release a review of the NDIS but says things won’t ‘change overnight’ amid resistance against moving some disability support services responsibilities to states

Bill Shorten is seeking to defuse a growing row with state and territory governments over funding for the NDIS, insisting the federal government does not want to “change things overnight”.

But with a showdown looming at national cabinet this week, disability advocates have urged leaders not to treat the community as “political footballs”.

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Thérèse Coffey says she ‘came close to dying’ from brain abscess

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Conservative MP blames stress of job as under-secretary of state in Department for Environment for 2018 illness

The Conservative MP Thérèse Coffey has claimed she “came close to dying” from a brain abscess and blamed it on the stress of being a government minister.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Coffey revealed she was diagnosed with the rare brain abscess in May 2018, after she had pain in her head for several days.

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Boris Johnson’s legacy will be shaped by Covid inquiry appearance

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Discredited ex-PM faces a demolition job in one of the few policy areas to which he and his allies still cling

Even at the height of his popularity, Boris Johnson routinely avoided close questioning – to the extent of once hiding in a fridge to dodge a TV inquisitor. The former UK prime minister is likely to be dreading next week’s appearance at the Covid inquiry. And he probably should.

It is no exaggeration to say that events on Wednesday and Thursday at the inquiry’s repurposed office building in Paddington, west London, could help define the post-power image and legacy of Johnson, and very possibly not for the good.

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Stage set for national cabinet clash over GST – as it happened

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The NSW Australian Paramedics Association will take part in a 12-hour strike today, from 7am to 7pm, despite the threat of legal action.

Members will still attend emergency “lights and sirens” jobs as part of an ongoing pay dispute.

We want to assure the public that emergencies will still be attended to, with our focus intensifying on life-threatening cases.

Our decision to limit responses to non-emergency jobs enhances our capacity to manage critical cases.

Facing potential legal repercussions and a substantial fine of up to $20,000 per day, our commitment remains firm.

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Earlier lockdown could have saved lives of 30,000, Hancock tells Covid inquiry

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Ex-health secretary has described Boris Johnson’s Downing Street as undermined by ‘culture of fear’

Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if the UK had locked down three weeks earlier, Matt Hancock has told the Covid inquiry, as he described the operation of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street as undermined by a “culture of fear”.

The former health secretary said his staff were abused by Dominic Cummings and that Johnson’s then chief adviser attempted to exclude ministers and even Johnson himself from key decisions at the start of the pandemic, hampering the government’s response.

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Matt Hancock ‘was not told about eat out to help out scheme until day it was announced’ – as it happened

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Hancock is now deploying the defence previewed in the Observer on Sunday. (See 9.58am.)

He says from the middle of January the DHSC was “trying to effectively raise the alarm”. He says:

We were trying to wake up Whitehall to the scale of the problem and this wasn’t a problem that couldn’t be addressed only from the health department. Non-pharmaceutical interventions cannot be put in place by a health department. A health department can’t shut schools. It should have been grasped and led from the centre of government earlier. And you’ve seen evidence that repeatedly the department and I tried to make this happen.

And we were on occasions blocked, and at other times our concerns were not taken as seriously as they should have been until the very end of February.

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