Asthma sufferers are to get free prescriptions in a move which has caused fresh concern about how costly new health proposals are to be funded.

Free medicine for asthma sparks funding row
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"It is understood that Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is drawing up plans to extend the prescription charge exemption recently awarded to cancer sufferers to other serious conditions.

But the proposal has caused anxiety at The Treasury where ministers are demanding that the plans be self-financing as the NHS faces unprecedented pressure on its budget.

It will be announced this week that compensation payouts for medical negligence have risen sharply and are set to double next year, putting further pressure on new spending projects.

The cost of extending free prescriptions to asthma sufferers, which is expected to be announced this Spring, could cost tens of millions of pounds a year.

It has been the subject of a long running row between Mr Johnson and The Treasury with the latter insisting that it is funded through money raised from other prescription charges, but this may be nowhere near enough.

There are also concerns that the move will prompt demands from sufferers of other debilitating conditions, such as Alzheimer's, to be made exempt from charges."

So medical negligence payouts are set to double next year? - Does anyone ever think to try to reduce the incidences of medical negligence? - What about including medical negligence in the topics dealt with in Medical Ethics courses? - To get medical students to think about the harm they may do and the suffering/difficulties/problems/expense they may cause by not familiarising themselves with the side-effects of drugs they will be prescribing, for instance, before they actually cause the harm and destroy the lives of their innocent victims/patients.

Labour has failed to stop mixed-sex NHS hospital wards despite promising to do so for 12 years, the Health Secretary Alan Johnson has admitted.

Labour has failed to stop mixed sex wards, admits Health Secretary Alan Johnson
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Mr Johnson told a meeting of senior NHS executives that ministers had "got it wrong" and "sane and rational arguments about why it can't be done no longer cut it", a regional health boss claims.

The Government promised before the 1997 and 2001 elections to end the practice of male and female patients being forced to share a ward.

Yet another fresh attempt to stop the practice is soon to be launched by ministers, according to the account of the meeting by Graham Eccles, the chief executive of the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority. Mr Johnson is expected to unveil a new initiative on the issue next week.

Last month data from the Conservatives disclosed that about one in seven of hospital trusts still used at least one open-plan mixed-sex ward. Curtains were still being to segregate patients in some areas, it was discovered."

Millions of pounds have been wasted on NHS schemes which have not treated any patients, the Govt's own figures reveal, the Sunday Telegraph reports

Millions wasted by NHS on clinics which never opened their doors
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract 1:

"Almost £20 million has been spent on contracts which were axed last year soon after a shift in policy following the appointment of Alan Johnson as health secretary.

Close to £7 million was spent by the Department of Health (DoH) on plans to build clinics to perform basic operations and tests which were later abandoned.

A further £12.5 million was paid to private firms, after negotiations for other clinics were halted, or centres closed just months after contracts begun.

Doctors and opposition politicians described the revelations, buried in the DoH's annual accounts, as a "scandalous" waste of taxpayers money which should have been spent treating patients."

Extract 2:

"Earlier investigations by Health Service Journal have revealed that close to £220 million may have been wasted among existing private centres who were paid "block" rates by the NHS, regardless of how many patients they treated.

The latest revelations about wastage among units which did not even open their doors shocked experts.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "This is yet another example of taxpayers being left with the bill for gross mismanagement in the NHS.""

The Department of Health is the pits in so many ways, but you've got to admit that it's absolutely ace at wasting money...)o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Patients should be able to refer themselves for treatment with physiotherapists, speech therapists and dieticians without seeing a doctor first.

Patients should bypass GPs and refer themselves to specialists, says Alan Johnson
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Alan Johnson will tell the Chief Health Professions Officers conference in London that self-referral means more flexibility for patients, quicker treatment and less time off work.

He will say: "I am giving the green light to physiotherapists, podiatrists and all Allied Health Professionals that they can accept patients who self-refer.

"Services provided by Allied Health Professionals play a vital part in building a society that's fair and inclusive.

"Podiatry, for example, is a vital service for older people as it improves their mobility ensuring that they are not unnecessarily confined to their homes.

"Self-referral will help both vulnerable members of society and those with busy lives by providing quicker access without the unnecessary hoop jumping of going to see a doctor first."

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) include physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dieticians and podiatrists, who treat problems with the feet and lower legs."

Top-up payments will be allowed for all NHS patients, the government is expected to announce, in a move critics described as a "u-turn".

Health secretary Alan Johnson 'to reverse' policy on top-up payments for NHS patients

from the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is ready to declare that patients may pay for private treatment while receiving some care from the NHS, it has emerged.

The government has been under pressure to clarify its rules after it some NHS trusts told cancer patients they could not buy private drugs while simultaneously receiving free public care while others said the opposite.

In an announcement widely viewed to be made to parliament by the middle of November, Mr Johnson is expected to blame the problem on misinterpretation by some hospitals.

Although the move will be welcomed by campaigners, it will be heartbreaking for the families of cancer patients who died after their NHS care was withdrawn because they topped up their treatment.

The Health Secretary signalled his intention to change the rules earlier this year when he asked Professor Mike Richards, the Government's cancer czar, to produce a report on the issue.

Experts believe he will open the door to more top-up payments because an increasing number of drugs being licensed are beyond the budget of the NHS."

Fluoride could be added to almost half of all tap water under Government plans.

Fluoride could be added to 40pc of water
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Officials want 40 per cent of England's water supply to be fluoridated to reduce high levels of tooth decay.

Dentists leaders believe that adding the chemical to the water supply could radically improve the condition of people's teeth, particularly in deprived areas.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, also backed the introduction of more fluoride into the water supply earlier this year.

Currently only around 10 per cent of all tap water has fluoride added, mainly in parts of the West Midlands and the North East."

I am very much against the addition of fluoride to tap water. Most toothpastes contain fluoride and using a fluoride toothpaste is a better way to get fluoride onto people's teeth than adding fluoride to the water supply.

Controversial polyclinics will be forced upon towns and villages across the country, The Sunday Telegraph discloses

Polyclinics will be imposed despite ministers’ promises
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Ministers have repeatedly insisted that government plans for 300 super-surgeries, housing up to 25 GPs, will not be imposed, but agreed through consultations with local communities.

However, information gathered from primary care trusts (PCTs) leaves those pledges in tatters.

Half of the PCTs that responded said they would not consult on plans to build centres and some cited advice from the Department of Health as the reason for their decision.

The disclosures, from 100 of England’s 152 PCTs, appear to render meaningless recent promises by Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, who said last month he would “insist” that all decisions on the centres be “taken in consultation with local people”, later adding that there was “no argument for imposing” the plans.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the new information, gathered by the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act, demonstrated the Health Secretary’s pledges to be “no more than spin”.

Mr Lansley said: “Labour has claimed that they are not imposing polyclinics on local people, but these figures expose that lie for what it is.”"

More than 800,000 people are admitted to hospital each year with alcohol-related illnesses and injuries — four times the official figure

Alcohol hospital admissions four times higher than official figure
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Figures will show that six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way caused by drink, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. And the rate of visits to hospital over alcohol-related problems is rising by 10 per cent every year.

The figures indicate the true impact alcohol has on the NHS from accidents, violence and disease. They include for the first time estimates of the number of cancers caused by alcohol consumption as well as heart disease and strokes.

Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, believes “lifestyle” illnesses will put an increasing strain on the NHS unless people behave more responsibly.

Ministers fear that resources needed to tackle other diseases will have to be diverted if there is no change in behaviour.

A Department of Health source said: “It is important that we get the real figures so no one is in doubt about how widespread and potentially damaging alcohol-related illnesses are. The action can only be taken when the full scale of the problem is known.”

Labour has faced intense criticism over the introduction of 24-hour drinking in 2005.

Amid growing concerns about the level of alcohol-fuelled violence, pubs and nightclubs have been accused of flouting the laws on underage drinking. Last week figures showed that more than 600,000 children admit to drinking on a regular basis.

Supermarkets have faced repeated calls to ban discount alcohol, in particular deals in in which beer is cheaper than bottled water. And ministers are considering plans to tackle the problem, including cigarette-style health warnings on bottles and cans, a ban on “happy hours” where bars sell cut-price drinks and rules outlawing supermarket discounts.

Today’s announcement will strengthen calls for action."

The government has abandoned plans to impose a pre-9pm ban on junk food TV advertising

Plans for junk food ad ban dropped

Extract from the Guardian:

"In a major victory for the advertising industry and commercial broadcasters, it is thought that the Department of Health has lost the battle to introduce a pre-watershed ban following a series of discussions with other government departments, notably the culture minister, James Purnell, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

Many industry observers had expected that the new obesity strategy, to be launched tomorrow by the health secretary, Alan Johnson, and the public health minister, Dawn Primarolo, would drastically extend the TV restrictions Ofcom brought in last year.

Ofcom has stated that such a ban would have a "disproportionate" effect on the industry, costing as much as £211m in TV ad revenue.

But campaign groups are now convinced that they have lost the battle on the pre-watershed ban.

"It sounds as if the advertising and food industries owe the Department for Culture, Media and Sport a large pat on the back," said Richard Watts, the coordinator of the Children's Food Campaign.

"Our understanding is that the Department of Health supported some very tough restrictions on junk food advertising and marketing, but lost the Whitehall battle to keep them in the obesity strategy.""

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Single rooms with ensuite bathrooms are planned for 512-bed hospital that will replace 1 of the 3 hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS Trust.

All rooms to be singles at new £228m hospital

Extract from Guardian article:

"The NHS trust at the centre of a Clostridium difficile infection scandal is to build a £228m hospital where every patient will have a separate room with an ensuite bathroom.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, said yesterday that work would begin early next year on a 512-bed hospital in Pembury, Kent. It will replace one of the three hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust, where 90 patients were killed by C difficile bacteria during two outbreaks in 2005 and 2006. In a report last month, the Healthcare Commission blamed poor management for failing to instil better hygiene on the wards.

Mr Johnson said the new hospital, built by a consortium led by John Laing, would be the first in England to provide every patient with a single room, offering better isolation of people with infections. He allocated £350,000 for deep-cleaning the trust's hospitals on top of the £720,000 budget it had already received this year for eliminating infection in particular wards."

A good move surely.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Patients are losing faith in the NHS.

Patients losing faith in the NHS, claims survey

Extract from Sunday Telegraph article:

"Keith Pollard, of the information website Treatment Abroad, who carried out the study, said: "Despite huge investment in the NHS over the past 17 years, patients from the UK are voting with their feet and travelling abroad."

A fifth of those questioned by the Patients Association identified a reduction in waiting times as their main priority.

Fifteen per cent said cuts in hospital infections would make the greatest difference to them and 14 per cent wanted to see more staff on duty.

The findings follow the publication of official figures which show the Government is failing to meet its target for reducing the spread of hospital infections.

Cases of C. diff increased by seven per cent in hospital patients over the age of 65. Cases of MRSA fell by 10 per cent from a high of 7,096, but this was not enough to meet the Government's pledge to halve the rate by next year.

However, despite grave concerns over the NHS, the Patients Association survey found a clear majority rejects any move towards creating an insurance-based health care system on US or French lines.

More than 40 per cent support the current method of funding the NHS through national taxation. Twenty four per cent of those who took part, however, back a tax deductible insurance policy as a way of paying for treatment.

The survey, shows an overwhelming majority want an end to Britain's healthcare "postcode lottery" where availability of drugs and treatments depends on location.

Our findings on the growing number of health tourists provoked an angry response from the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson.

In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph he states: "Most of the treatment carried out overseas is either minor cosmetic surgery or dentistry. Little of the treatment is for general elective surgery, and where it is the majority of people accessing it would probably have gone private in the UK anyway."

The Patients Association is still collecting responses to its survey at www.patientsassociation.org.uk."

In my opinion, the hugely expensive and extremely flawed NHS should be scrapped.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

The Department of Health ignored damning report into an outbreak of Clostridium difficile at a hospital trust in Kent more than five months ago...

Government ignored deadly hospital bug report

Extract from Telegraph account:

"The Department of Health knew of a damning report into an outbreak of Clostridium difficile at a hospital trust in Kent more than five months ago and failed to act, it was claimed last night.

A draft copy of the Healthcare Commission report was first received by the health department on May 3, yet ministers only intervened when the document became public in October, the Tories said.

They are now demanding to know why the Government failed to act immediately on the report, which found that the outbreak had "probably or definitely" killed at least 90 people at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust hospitals.

Drafts, requiring factual accuracy checks on figures, were sent to health officials in May and September. But Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, told Parliament that he only received the report on Oct 9."

Continuing to give the wrong advice will further increase child obesity and wreak havoc with children's health and happiness

Parents of obese children to get warning letters

Extract from the Telegraph report:

"The weighing programme was not well received during its first year and as many schools did not take part, the statistics were deemed to be useless.

Last year the participation levels were much improved, however, with the weights of almost a million children being collected as a result of every primary care trust in England and Wales taking part.

Ministers believe they can now introduce the controversial letters and all parents will be sent the obesity warnings as a matter of course.

The growing scale of the crisis was revealed in a Government report last week which predicted up to half of adults and 26 per cent of children would be obese by 2050.

The Foresight report also warned of the life-threatening problems of childhood obesity and suggested that there would be a 70 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes, 30 per cent increase in strokes and 20 per cent increase in heart disease.

As a result overall life-expectancy could decrease by as much as 13 years.

When the report came out, Mr Johnson insisted that children would be the focus of efforts to curb the trend.

He said: "More than 80 per cent of obese 10 to 14-year-olds remain obese into adulthood."

He added that more would need to be done in schools to in terms of the nutrition of the meals and participation in physical education.

Ministers are now bracing themselves for criticism that the warning letters could stigmatise fat children."

All that is needed to reduce obesity in children is for them to eat meals low in salt/sodium. Dieting is harmful and ineffective; exercise is hazardous and humiliating for obese children and adults.

Overweight and obesity are not caused by overeating; they are caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt/sodium. - You can read on my website about the vulnerable groups of people:

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Superbug hospital chairman, James Lee, has resigned.

Superbug hospital chairman steps down - Telegraph

Extract:

"The chairman of the NHS trust at the centre of Britain's biggest superbug outbreak has resigned following pressure over the decision to award the trust's chief executive a £250,000 pay-off.

James Lee resigned from the board of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospitals NHS Trust in Kent following an outbreak of Clostridium difficile which claimed up to 90 lives.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, announced the resignation to the House of Commons, apologising for the "truly scandalous" outbreak.

Mr Lee was last week ordered to attend a meeting with local MPs to explain why Rose Gibb was given the severance deal just days before the extent of the trust's failures to prevent the spread of clostridium difficile was revealed in a damning report.

Mr Johnson stepped in to block the payment to Miss Gibb, who left her post as head of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust by "mutual agreement" at the end of last week.

It unclear whether Mr Johnson has the legal power to prevent Miss Gibb being paid the money, and the matter now seems likely to end up in court.

MPs and health campaigners have expressed their disgust over the trust board's decision to award Miss Gibb the money in the first place."

NHS superbug board should have been sacked, say Tories - Guardian reports today

NHS superbug board should have been sacked, say Tories - Guardian

Extract:

"Government ministers were last night accused of aggravating the NHS superbug scandal by failing to take charge of the hospitals where 90 people died as soon as the scale of mismanagement became clear.

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative shadow health secretary, last night said the three hospitals of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust should have been brought under direct departmental control.

In a report on Thursday, the Healthcare Commission said scores of patients died from infection by Clostridium difficile bacteria in Britain's worst outbreak of a hospital superbug. It blamed the trust board for a catalogue of safety lapses that caused the death toll between April 2004 and September 2006.

Mr Lansley said the government should have acted to suspend or sack the trust's board as soon as it received an advance copy of the commission's findings in the middle of last week.

Instead, it allowed directors to agree a package worth more than £250,000 for Rose Gibb, the chief executive, who quit her job on Friday last week without any announcement or public explanation.

Mr Lansley said: "This devastating report should have precipitated the immediate removal of those responsible on grounds of gross negligence. Normally employees are entitled to written warnings, but in circumstances of gross misconduct most contracts allow for summary dismissal. I do not know why that did not happen in this case."

The commission accused the trust of "significant failings in infection control". When inspectors went into its hospitals after the C difficile outbreaks were contained, they found patients being provided with bedpans that were visibly dirty with faeces. Bedding and equipment was left on the floor, fire doors were blocked and needle and sharp instrument disposal bins were overflowing on four wards. Staff washed cups in treatment room sinks and stored food in the clinical refrigerators.

Mr Lansley said: "The Department of Health could and should have removed the entire board and any directors with a contribution to make could have been appointed to a new one. The power exists when ministers have no confidence in a board. It is difficult to imagine what might be a graver offence than the one they perpetrated." Sacking the board would have forestalled any payoffs, he added.

After media criticism of the payoff on Thursday, the health secretary, Alan Johnson, instructed the trust to withhold the severance payment, pending legal advice. The department said yesterday its lawyers were still considering the matter."

Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, will today pledge to defend teachers from bullying by pupils both in the classroom and on the internet.

Clampdown on web bullying of teachers - Telegraph

Extract:

"Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, will today pledge to defend teachers from bullying by pupils both in the classroom and on the internet.

Dealing with pupils who post rude remarks and inappropriate pictures of their teachers on websites like RateMyTeachers will be a priority, he will tell the second biggest classroom union.

Teachers are also being undermined by sites which invite pupils to rate them for professional and personal qualities according to the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers at their annual conference which began in Belfast yesterday.

But bullying is not confined to the classroom, according to some delegates who say it has become part of the staffroom culture in some schools.

Teachers are being bullied by their colleagues because of their weight, sexuality or religious beliefs, say delegates who have organized a fringe meeting to discuss it."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)