Health minister cites ‘risk of unintended consequences’ of law to allow doctors to use innovative treatments when other options are exhausted
The Liberal Democrats have vetoed a proposed law seeking to give doctors legal protection to use innovative treatments on patients when other options have been exhausted.
The Lib Dem health minister, Norman Lamb, said he wanted to avoid “the risk of unintended consequences” of Lord Saatchi’s medical innovation bill, which went unopposed in a third reading by the House of Lords and was set to go to the Commons.
Ainscough, who attracted thousands of followers on social media, shunned conventional medical treatment for her rare cancer and tried to cure it with Gerson therapy
The former online editor of the teen publication Dolly, who attracted thousands of followers on social media after she shunned conventional medical treatment for a rare cancer, has died aged 30.
Jessica Ainscough was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma seven years ago, a rare soft-tissue cancer which affects young adults and most often first develops in the hand or arm.
Call for those on career breaks to plug the gap as shortfall of 1,000 family doctors in England is revealed
A shortfall of 1,000 GPs in England is revealed in figures published on Sunday, with the NHS being forced to advertise in Australia for British doctors on career breaks to come home and plug the gaps.
Staffing levels have failed to keep pace with the increase in population, according to an analysis commissioned by the Labour party. If the number of people per GP had remained at the 2009 level, there would be an extra 1,063 GPs, which Ed Miliband’s party claims would bring huge relief to the system.
There are a huge number of reasons why people choose to self-harm – and the more we discuss them, and the reasons behind them, the better, say experts in the run-up to Self-Harm Awareness Day
Three years ago, with her parents and sisters out for dinner, then-13-year-old Lucy found herself alone in her family’s Lincolnshire home. Dressed in her pink Tinker Bell pyjamas, she began to make herself a cup of tea. Then she spotted an object on the kitchen counter that immediately diverted her attention. “Shall I do it?” Lucy asked herself. “Will it stop the pain?”
For Lucy, now 17, that evening marked the start of a two-and-a-half year struggle with self-harm. Two weeks before, she had been brutally attacked and raped (which she now describes as “the incident”). At the time, anxious they wouldn’t believe her, Lucy never fully revealed to anyone what had happened. In her mind, she tried to repress the rape. She began shutting herself in her bedroom. She told her parents she was feeling unwell. Physical pain, she decided, was the only way to purge her pent-up emotional pain.
My liberal, new-age parents decided not to vaccinate me when I was a child. I’ve been judged a public health risk all my life for a decision I didn’t make
For the past 23 years, I’ve closely guarded an embarrassing secret: I was not vaccinated.
In my younger years, the fact that I was unvaccinated never registered as an issue. I didn’t understand the public health implications of vaccines and, even more, I didn’t understand how unorthodox it was for my parents to have chosen not to vaccinate me. Like any kid, I just wanted to fit in; so when kids in my class talked about their yearly flu shots, I would simply nod along, pretending I understood their annual agony.
Three new cases of measles have been confirmed in Las Vegas, in people believed infected by a contagious worker at an upscale MGM Grand Hotel and Casino seafood restaurant, Nevada public health officials said on Friday.
Device called Liletta releases the hormone levonorgestrel to inhibit thickening of the womb lining, preventing pregnancy for up to three years
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a hormonal device on Friday that gives American women another reversible contraceptive choice as effective as sterilization.
The intrauterine device (IUD) device, Liletta, releases the hormone levonorgestrel to inhibit thickening of the womb lining, preventing pregnancy for up to three years.
There is no simple answer as understanding mental health can be a complex process — but an exploration of culture, history and how the brain works is a start
I have a tendency to assume the worst.
For instance, as I walked through Chicago recently, a small droplet of melted snow fell from the roof of the School of the Art Institute and, as though guided there by fate, landed directly in my mouth.
There are at least 10 drugs that are more deadly than marijuana, including some that are legal, such as alcohol and nicotine, a new study by researchers in Germany and Canada finds
A 4-year-old girl battling cancer in San Antonio, Tex., is checking off her bucket list with her mother, but she has just one wish left: to dance with Taylor Swift to her hit single “Shake It Off.”
She denies she has a problem, but she has lost a dramatic amount of weight and seems obsessed with food and cookery programmes. What can I do? Annalisa Barbieri gives her advice
Over the past year, my teenage daughter has lost a dramatic amount of weight. She smiles and says she doesn’t have any problems and dismisses any concern that I (or others) express over her weight loss. She has become obsessed by food and cookery programmes and gives us the impression of eating more than she obviously does.
I had postnatal depression after her birth, followed by miscarriages, so she did not get a good start. When she was younger, my husband and I realised she was (understandably) very insecure and focused a lot of attention on her over a couple of years, and she became more secure, despite difficult class groups in school (I don’t think she was bullied directly, but she certainly suffered indirectly). Things seemed better when she went to secondary school, since when she has always had a good group of friends around her. She is bright and artistic – from the outside everything is perfect, except she is becoming skin and bone.
Will local government have the courage to take difficult decisions the health service prefers to duck?
Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that the entire £6bn health and care budget for Greater Manchester is to be handed over to local control has repercussions for the whole NHS. It opens up a new front in national and local moves to overhaul the funding system, regulate systems instead of organisations, make services locally accountable and to breach the wall between social care and health.
While many people in the NHS dislike the idea of direct local government control, local politics has always been a powerful influence on reconfiguration debates. The NHS compares poorly with councils when it comes to making tough decisions about services, and many politicians and council managers are angered by the way NHS trusts run up uncontrolled deficits – something that is not tolerated in town halls. Perhaps local government will have the courage to take decisions that seem so difficult for the health service.
When Kelly Williams was a junior in college, a sudden, unexpected diagnosis of ovarian cancer changed her life. Now, 13 years later, she’s involved with a nationwide fundraiser— Ovarian Cycle— to bring awareness and much-needed research support for the devastating disease.
UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest health insurer in the United States, is placing tighter controls on its coverage of hysterectomies after a device called a morcellator was linked to the spread of undiagnosed cancer cells.
‘There’s more interaction with armadillos than you might think’
Health officials on the east coast of Florida have diagnosed three cases of leprosy in the last five months, linking two of the cases to contact with armadillos. The small armored mammals are known to harbor the disease in the southern US.
The cases were confirmed in Volusia County, Florida, which is home to about 500,000 people and tourist cities such as Daytona Beach. Health officials believe the three cases developed independently.
Japanese robot can lift patients from beds into wheelchairs or help them to stand up, promising ‘powerful yet gentle care’ for the elderly
A number of companies have explored the idea of humanoid robots as future home-helpers for elderly people. The latest experiment from Japan is distinctly more bear-shaped, though.
Meet Robear, an experimental nursing-care robot developed by the RIKEN-SRK Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research and Sumitomo Riko Company.
Coverage of the second day of the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit
Good morning and welcome to the live blog from the Guardian’s community for healthcare professionals. We’re reporting from the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit where the focus this morning is on the role of the patient and community. Coming up are talks from Sarah Riggare, a patient activist from Sweden, and Bobby Duffy, managing director, Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute.
Repeated Chinese attempts to tighten controls on drug described as ‘David and Goliath struggle’ between poor and rich countries
A proposal that is about to come before the UN to restrict global access to ketamine, a drug abused in rich countries, would deprive millions of women of lifesaving surgery in poor countries, according to medicines campaigners.
Ketamine, known to clubbers by a variety of names including ket, Vitamin K and Special K, is one of the most commonly used anaesthetics in the developing world. As it is injectable, it can be used in rural areas where anaesthetic gases are unavailable.
Researchers at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have developed a new technique that can predict which specific drug will be most effective in treating various types of cancer tumors.
Heart failure patients who struggle with daily tasks like bathing or dressing are more likely to be hospitalized and tend to die sooner than those who are more independent, according to a new study.
Unidus, the country’s largest contraceptive manufacturer, saw a 15% spike in the value of its stock after law banning extramarital sex was repealed on Thursday
In South Korea, extramarital sex just got a whole lot safer.
On Thursday, the country’s highest court overturned a 62-year-old law banning adultery. Shortly afterwards, the share price of the country’s biggest condom maker, Unidus, surged 15%, the daily limit on the country’s Kosdaq market.
This is an impressive study – based on 47,000 Swedish people – but we need to be extremely cautious about how we interpret the results. The research shows that extremely few depressed people are actually convicted of violent crimes: 3.7% of men and 0.5% of women, compared with 1.2% of men and 0.2% of women in the general population. In fact, depressed people are more at risk of harming themselves than they are of harming anyone else – like Charlie Waller, a young man who killed himself aged 28 and whom the institute I work at is named after.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone reported 99 new confirmed Ebola cases in the week to Feb. 22, down from 128 the previous week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
Coverage of the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit, including Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens’s speeches
He continues by saying that the Oldham commission sets out what Labour wants to achieve on person centred care with one service dealing with all aspects of care. He says the path to integration will be a 10 year journey and will embrace existing bodies rather than re-organising NHS structures. He emphasises the importance of working out needs on a local level and not imposing one model on everyone.
He ends by saying that the Five Year Forward View stated that a tax funded NHS is sustainable long term. He says that Labour endorses this and that whole person care is the way to ensure it.
Lord Philip Hunt, shadow health minister and labour deputy leader in the House of Lords, takes the stage to talk about the Labour party’s vision for the NHS and social care. He says the current system does not encourage the integration of health and social care.
The NHS is very good at writing bids, it’s fantastic at it. But execution has always been a problem. It’s like eight-year-olds playing football: everyone chases the ball.”
Morris goes on to list the challenges surrounding big data:
Morris goes on to list the advantages of big data to healthcare. He says data can revolutionise the clinical trial business and has already done so over the last two years.
It can also inform policy. Regarding smoking legislation in Scotland, data has shown that before the ban, there was a 5.2% increase per annum of smokers whereas after the ban there was an 18.2% decrease per annum.
He continues:
Data allows us to defragment. The NHS is a silo health system that we can try to defragment using information.
He asks: “Why are health systems unsustainable?” and points out that in Scotland, more people have two or more chronic diseases than one and this presents a challenge. He adds that public finances are also a challenge. He says:
We need to embrace data.
Prof Andrew Morris, professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, starts his talk on the impact of big data on the future of healthcare by saying that “healthcare is the last major industry not to be transformed by the digital age.”
You can follow the summit on Twitter by following #ntsummit
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage from the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit.
Today sees Jeremy Hunt talking about the challenges facing the NHS and Simon Stevens addressing an audience of senior healthcare leaders.
What good is a chiseled physique if it's covered in blackheads and puss-spewing pimples? Oh, and don't forget those huge cysts that feel like face-eating tumors.
If the NHS and policymakers are bold, HIV in the UK could become a thing of the past
The widely reported Proud study shows just how effective pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can be at preventing HIV transmission. PrEP is, quite simply, a game-changer and represents a wake up call for the government, NHS England and local authorities to make PrEP a key component in our strategy to defeat HIV.
Over the past 30 years of the HIV epidemic in the UK, we have seen enormous change for the better; mostly driven by the increasing range of effective antiretroviral therapies. Their success means that HIV should no longer be a terminal illness but a manageable long-term condition; people on successful therapy with fully suppressed virus can expect a normal life expectancy, are not infectious to others, and we can reliably prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
'We would only need to treat 13 men for a year to prevent one HIV infection'
Late BBC DJ was subject of at least 10 formal and informal complaints by victims going back to 1992, but none were taken seriously, report says
Jimmy Savile was given free rein to sexually abuse 60 people, including seriously ill eight-year-olds, over two decades at Stoke Mandeville hospital due to his gold-plated status as a celebrity fundraiser, an inquiry has found.
The late BBC DJ was the subject of at least 10 complaints going back to 1992, but none were taken seriously or raised with senior managers, according to the NHS investigation.
Report to reveal the extent of the entertainer’s abuse of patients at the Buckinghamshire hospital over four decades
A key report into the sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile of patients at Stoke Mandeville hospital is to be published on Thursday.
The investigation into the scale and details of the sexual assaults on patients at the Buckinghamshire hospital was delayed after new information came to light. The report, overseen by former barrister Kate Lampard, is likely to highlight how Savile, who died in October 2011, abused his position within the hospital and in his role as a charity fundraiser to abuse and attack vulnerable patients. Savile, a volunteer porter at the hospital, was said to have committed 22 offences.
While the sporting industry continues to cash in on equipment that promises to reduce the risk of player injury, a new study on helmet add-ons suggests that the buyer should beware.
Clinics in UK will be able to apply for licenses from this autumn after MPs approved new rules earlier this month
Britain has become the first country in the world to permit the use of “three-person IVF” to prevent incurable genetic diseases.
The House of Lords voted by 280 votes to 48 on Tuesday evening to approve changes to the law allowing fertility clinics to carry out mitochondrial donation. Babies conceived through this IVF technique would have biological material from three different people – a mother, father and a female donor.
For people taking drugs to prevent blood clots after a heart attack, adding pain relievers like ibuprofen may lead to bleeding, stroke or another heart attack, according to a new study.
A German gynaecologist believes blind people are better at breast examinations because their sense of touch is superior. I’m not convinced
There are two jokes among the sighted members of my immediate family. One usually takes place on holiday when they will comment on how loudly the crickets are chirping and then look to me for confirmation. This is always met with my customary blank look; I can’t hear a thing. The other is when, at home, they’ve spent ages trying to find something, only for me to go and put my hand straight on it. At which point the cry goes up, “If you want to find something, ask the blind man.”
There’s long been a notion that if you lose one sense, your others will sharpen to compensate. So if, like me, you’re blind, the idea is that you might find you have exceptional hearing, or extraordinary tastebuds. This notion was in the news again today, when the Times reported that a group of blind women in Germany, under a gynaecologist called Frank Hoffmann, have been trained to give breast examinations. Apparently, while the average woman can feel a tumour of between one and two centimetres, a trained blind person is able to detect a tumour much smaller – just 6mm to 8mm.
New research from UCL brings us closer to finding out what’s behind one of our biggest killers
Christopher Devas has Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. For his wife, Veronica, this not only means watching Alzheimer’s rob Christopher of his memory and identity, it also means watching their shared memories slip away.
“Close couples are joint custodians of each other’s experiences,” says Grayson Perry, the artist who has helped raise awareness of Alzheimer’s in his Who are You? exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and in a Channel 4 series on British identity. “I have portrayed it as a demonic figure snipping up all their family snaps.”
“What today’s announcement is about is a very simple but bold ambition, and that is to make the United Kingdom the best place on the planet in terms of researching into dementia, in terms of diagnosing people with dementia and then in terms of treating, helping and caring for them.”
Shadow health secretary says rules forcing NHS contracts worth over £625,000 to be put out to tender were tabled on last day before parliamentary recess
Labour has accused the government of trying to sneak out legislation to accelerate the privatisation of NHS services.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said new regulations tabled in parliament on 6 February without any government announcement would force all contracts worth more than £625,000 to be put out to tender.
A Minnesota man saw his wife for the first time in 10 years— and most of his grandchildren for the first time ever— after receiving a bionic eye at the Mayo Clinic earlier this month, ValleyNewsLive.com reported.
Doctors call on health ministers and NHS England to intervene to make a drug called Avastin routinely available to patients with a debilitating eye condition known as wet AMD.
Marie Stopes clinic relies on volunteers to escort women through gauntlet of protesters, with reports of foetus dolls, graphic posters and recording of baby crying
Armed with walkie-talkies and body cameras, they guide women through a gauntlet of demonstrators who are hurling abuse and waving plastic foetuses outside the only clinic in the UK under permanent siege from anti-abortionists.
The female volunteer escorts record every comment and insult hurled at the Belfast clinic’s clients. Women are told they have just killed their child, foetus dolls are thrust in their faces and their aborted embryos are “christened” with names on the street.
Just before Christmas there they brought a manger, but without the baby Jesus
In a new policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics says school nutrition has made incredible strides over the last two decades, but high-calorie, low quality foods are still available from informal sources like bake sales, birthday parties, and other events for which students, parents and staff bring treats from home.
UK health service may be one of the world’s biggest employers, but it must adapt to keep pace with the future patient demographic
The NHS employs about 1.6 million people, which puts it on to the list of the world’s top five biggest employers, rubbing shoulders with the US Department of Defence and China’s People’s Liberation Army. In England alone the NHS has 1.3 million staff working in 300 different roles on the payroll of 1,000 different employers. That 1.3 million includes 111,000 hospital doctors, 356,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors, 37,000 managers, 40,000 GPs and a clinical support workforce of 359,000, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
The figures illustrate the challenges the NHS faces in keeping the right number of people with the right skills in the right place to deliver today’s services. But they also highlight the scale of those challenges to ensure that the workforce keeps pace with the future patient demographic, such as an increasing older population, and developments in clinical practice and science, like genomics, which have the potential to revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered.
UK health service may be one of the world’s biggest employers, but it must adapt to keep pace with the future patient demographic
The NHS employs about 1.6 million people, which puts it on to the list of the world’s top five biggest employers, rubbing shoulders with the US Department of Defence and China’s People’s Liberation Army. In England alone the NHS has 1.3 million staff working in 300 different roles on the payroll of 1,000 different employers. That 1.3 million includes 111,000 hospital doctors, 356,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors, 37,000 managers, 40,000 GPs and a clinical support workforce of 359,000, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
The figures illustrate the challenges the NHS faces in keeping the right number of people with the right skills in the right place to deliver today’s services. But they also highlight the scale of those challenges to ensure that the workforce keeps pace with the future patient demographic, such as an increasing older population, and developments in clinical practice and science, like genomics, which have the potential to revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered.
A California university student has been diagnosed with a bacterial infection related to meningitis, authorities said, days after a student in Oregon succumbed to the sometimes deadly disease that can be prevalent on college campuses.
Researchers say children should be introduced to peanuts as soon as they begin eating solid foods, contradicting previous advice
Babies as young as four months old should be given peanut butter or peanut snacks, scientists have said after a study predicted that the growing tide of peanut allergies can be reversed.
About one in 50 schoolchildren in the UK have a peanut allergy. The number of those allergic in the UK and North America has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and cases have emerged in Africa and Asia. In severe cases the allergy can lead to anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.
In a new study, researchers have shown that an innovative technique— the use of DNA microcircles— has the potential to detect a broad range of cancers in the earliest stages by forcing tumors to create a unique protein.
Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata were born conjoined on April 11 and spent 10 months connected at the chest and abdomen—but on Tuesday at Texas Children's Hospital, the girls were successfully separated.
Your article on the planned same-sex marriage in Full Sutton prison (21 February) quotes a source as saying that providing condoms to prisoners who need them “is not official policy”. Providing condoms to prisoners who need them is prison policy in England (the Health and Justice Indicators of Performance Guidance 2014 states that prisoners should be able to access condoms).
It is a fact that sex takes place in prison, and preventing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections is considered an obligation and a health priority. Supporting prisoners to look after their own health, and the health of others, is an important part of rehabilitation and an opportunity to protect wider public health. Eleanor Briggs National Aids Trust
Nigel Farage says ‘genuine refugees’ without medical cover would not be included in plan as he unveils party’s health policy
Ukip’s plans to make immigrants have health insurance for their first five years in Britain would not lead to ill people being denied treatment, Nigel Farage has said.
Unveiling his party’s health policy on Monday, the Ukip leader confirmed tourists, students and all those moving permanently except refugees would need medical cover before entering the country.
