Category Archives: Health

Chuck Schumer’s call for new Israeli elections condemned as ‘grotesque’ and ‘inappropriate’ by Republican leaders – live

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Senate majority leader’s scathing speech draws criticism from Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson as well as Israel’s ambassador to the US

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has called for Israel to hold new elections, arguing that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “no longer fits the needs of Israel”.

Schumer, long a strong supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, strongly criticized the Israeli leader in a 40-minute speech on the Senate floor.

If prime minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down, and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.

As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may. But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice.

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Air pollution levels have improved in Europe over 20 years, say researchers

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But 98% of Europeans live in areas WHO says have unhealthy levels of PM2.5

Air pollution levels have improved in Europe over the past 20 years, research has found.

However, despite these improvements, most of the European population lives in areas exceeding the World Health Organization’s recommended levels. About 98% of Europeans live in areas the WHO says have unhealthy levels of small particles known as PM2.5, 80% for larger ones known as PM10, and 86% for nitrogen dioxide.

See how polluted your part of Europe is

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Overweight girls ‘more likely to see GP about musculoskeletal problems’

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Study finds reception-age girls with obesity 67% more likely to see doctor about musculoskeletal issues than those at healthy weight

Girls aged between four and 11 who are overweight or obese are more likely to see a GP at least once about musculoskeletal problems than their healthy weight peers, research suggests.

Pupils in reception year who had a body mass index considered overweight were 24% more likely to see a doctor at least once for a musculoskeletal issue while their peers who were living with obesity were 67% more likely to do so than girls with a healthy weight, the study found.

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Pet perils: injuries from animals are on the rise after Australia’s surge in dog and cat ownership

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Animal-related hospitalisations have been increasing for years but have surged since the start of the pandemic, AIHW study finds

In the north-west New South Wales town of Gunnedah, there are much deadlier things than a puppy. They are used to deadly brown and red-bellied snakes.

So Sarah Carter was surprised when her corgi Maxi landed her in hospital.

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South Korea doctors’ strike: government moves to suspend thousands of medical licences

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Almost 12,000 doctors have walked out over planned changes, as the country’s health ministry denies services have descended into chaos

South Korea’s government has started taking steps to suspend the medical licences of thousands of striking doctors, as concern grows that the month-long dispute is affecting frontline health care services.

The walkout by almost 12,000 doctors from 100 teaching hospitals has led to surgery cancellations, longer waiting times and delays in treatment, including for patients seeking emergency care, according to media reports.

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TGA investigating telehealth websites prescribing nicotine vaping products for exclusive pharmacies

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GPs say patients should be able to fill scripts at any pharmacy and that a health professional should be consulted first

Australia’s drugs regulator is investigating several telehealth platforms that offer prescriptions only for nicotine vaping products, which experts warn could compromise patient care.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) confirmed it was assessing the vaping prescription telehealth sites medicalnicotine.com.au, myduke.com.au, quitmate.com.au and a site related to quitmate, medmate.com.au.

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Coroner criticises benefits rules after vulnerable claimant’s death

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DWP missed many chances to act as woman’s mental health declined while under overpayment investigation

A coroner has criticised the Depart­ment for Work and Pensions (DWP) after a woman died from an overdose in the wake of a six-month official investigation that left her with soaring universal credit debts.

Fiona Butler, the assistant coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire, wrote a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to the DWP highlighting its failures to respond to the victim’s mental health issues.

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Blind people in England at risk from ‘shocking’ social care delays, finds report

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At least a quarter of councils are taking more than a year to provide vital support to people with a new visual impairment diagnosis

The lives of thousands of blind and partially sighted people are being put at risk by delays in vital care that they have a legal right to after being assessed as visually impaired, according to a report.

More than a quarter of English councils are leaving people who have just been diagnosed as blind waiting more than a year for vision rehabilitation assessments and potentially life-saving support, the report by the RNIB revealed.

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: ministers doing ‘next to nothing’ to tackle obesity

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Celebrity chef clashes with health secretary over what he calls government’s lack of obesity strategy

The celebrity chef and Green party supporter Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has clashed with the UK health secretary, Victoria Atkins, over what he says is the government’s failure to tackle the obesity crisis.

Fearnley-Whittingstall challenged Atkins during a live discussion on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, accusing ministers of doing “next to nothing” to tackle obesity in England.

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East London fertility clinic has licence suspended after losing embryos

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Investigation begins into Homerton Fertility Centre after errors discovered in freezing processes

A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said.

The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue.

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Sussex man doing well a year and a half after new brain cancer treatment

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Ben Trotman had an invasive growth of cells called a glioblastoma, which leaves patients with an average nine-month life expectancy

The only person in the world to receive a groundbreaking treatment for brain cancer is doing well almost a year and a half later, a charity has said.

Ben Trotman, 41, took part in a clinical trial that used immunotherapy to target his glioblastoma, an invasive growth of cells in the brain that gives an average life expectancy of nine months.

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Children at risk as Australia lags behind other countries on car seat safety, experts say

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Road crash deaths are the leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 13 in Australia and experts say many could be prevented with better restraints

Leading child safety experts are calling for regulations around child car restraints to be brought into line with the medical evidence and similar countries worldwide, saying that “a large proportion” of Australian children are being put in danger of life-altering traumatic injuries or death every day due to inappropriate use of car and booster seats.

The calls come as the state and federal ministers for transport undertake a review of Australia’s child restraint rules, which have been condemned as out of step with safe practice guidelines.

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‘My GP suggested it’: Britons explain why they went private for surgery

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As it emerges that one in 10 planned NHS operations in England are done in private hospitals, patients tell their stories

One in 10 planned NHS operations in England are now done by private hospitals, according to figures from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, the trade body that represents private health providers. Here, three patients explain why they recently had to turn to the private sector for an operation.

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Private hospitals ‘cannibalising’ NHS in England by doing 10% of elective operations

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Campaigners say health service cannot provide care quickly because of underinvestment, which is allowing firms to ‘make a killing’

Private hospitals are doing one in 10 of all planned NHS operations amid patients’ frustration at long delays in NHS care and political pressure to cut waiting times.

New figures seen by the Guardian prompted campaigners to warn that the NHS is “allowing the private sector to make a killing” and is seeing more and more of its services “cannibalised” because years of underinvestment mean it can no longer provide care quickly.

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Private healthcare could become ‘a new normal’ as NHS grows weaker

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Sector’s boom times look here to stay as desperate patients seek care and more people take medical insurance

It is boom time in private healthcare. It has never been, or needed to be, a big provider of diagnostics and treatment in the UK before. The NHS’s provision of care to everyone, free at the point of delivery, has seen to that. That also explains why take-up of private medical insurance has remained stuck at about 10% of the population. The health service’s mere existence left little room for the private sector to expand.

However, the NHS’s fragile state – it still gives people mostly high-quality care, it just cannot do that quickly any more – is a historic opportunity for the private sector to go from small to significant. It could become what one expert calls “a new normal” – a not unusual place where people get treated.

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Health gains of low-traffic schemes up to 100 times greater than costs, study finds

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Research looked at three London boroughs to value overall health benefits of active travel over 20 years at up to £4,800 per head

Policies to help people walk and cycle such as low-traffic neighbourhoods can create public health benefits as much as 100 times greater than the cost of the schemes, a long-term study of active travel measures has concluded.

The research, based on six years of surveys among thousands of people living in three outer London boroughs that introduced LTNs or similar schemes, found they tended to prompt people to switch some trips from cars to active travel, although the effects were varied.

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Dramatic rise in women and girls being cut, new FGM data reveals

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Progress to prevent female genital mutilation needs to be ‘27 times faster’, says UN

The number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) has increased by 15% in the past eight years according to new data.

Figures released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, show that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, compared with 200 million in 2016. The trend is towards girls being cut at a younger age, said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

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UK politics: Sunak refuses to say how abolition of national insurance would be funded – as it happened

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PM says ‘people trust me on these things’ and refuses to be drawn on whether government would forgo entire £46bn raised from measure

Keir Starmer has accused Jeremy Hunt of repeating the budget mistakes made by Liz Truss during her disastrous premiership.

In comments on the budget during a visit to a building site this morning, Starmer focused on Hunt’s proposal to abolish employees’ national insurance over time, saying that this was a bigger unfunded tax promise than those in Truss’s mini-budget. (See 9.28am.)

How humiliating was that for the government yesterday?

We’ve argued for years that they should get rid of the non-dom tax status, they’ve resisted that. And now, completely out of ideas, the only decent policy they’ve got is the one that they’ve lifted from us.

Nothing that Jeremy Hunt did yesterday, nor anything the OBR said, changes anything very significantly. Which is a shame. Because that means we are still:

-heading for a parliament in which people will on average be worse off at the end than at the start,

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US health secretary on Alabama’s IVF ruling: ‘Pandora’s box was opened’ after fall of Roe

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Xavier Becerra says US must provide federal protections for reproductive rights if it hopes to avoid further restrictions

The health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, said the US must provide federal protections for reproductive rights if Americans hope to avoid further restrictions on in vitro fertilization, contraception and abortion in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

Becerra’s comments come in the wake of an Alabama supreme court decision that gave embryos the rights of “extrauterine children” and forced three of the state’s largest fertility clinics to stop services for fear of litigation and prosecution. The fallout from the decision prompted the Alabama legislature to hastily sign new legislation that will give IVF providers with immunity from civil and criminal suits, which the governor signed into law on Wednesday night.

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MPs and campaigners accuse Polish government of betrayal over abortion laws

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Speaker says parliament will not consider updating country’s draconian abortion policies until mid-April

Women’s groups and opposition politicians have taken aim at Poland’s parliamentary speaker, accusing him of betrayal and seeking to “freeze” the issue of abortion, after he said parliament would not consider legislation to tackle the country’s near-total ban on abortion until mid-April.

“We feel disappointed and betrayed,” said Dominika Ćwiek from Legal Abortion, one of the groups that has been at the forefront of the battle against the country’s draconian abortion policies. “The rights of Polish women are being treated as a side issue.”

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