Latest news – Page 2534

  • News

    £1.3bn in free nursing may resolve cares aga

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The government looks set to make its long-awaited response to the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care by replacing means testing with a £1.3bn package for free nursing in care homes for elderly people.

  • News

    Brown promises 'major' cash boost for elderly people in national plan

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Chancellor Gordon Brown has promised a 'major package of investment in services for elderly people' in next week's NHS national plan.

  • News

    In brief: Volatile substance abuse

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The annual number of deaths from volatile substance abuse has continued to fall, with a decrease from 74 to 70 deaths in 1998, according to a report from St George's Hospital medical school. The peak of 152 deaths associated with young people sniffing aerosols and glue was in 1990.

  • News

    In brief: Staff turnover

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Staff turnover rates have risen beyond 50 per cent in the social services departments of London boroughs, according to a survey by the Association of London Government. A vacancy rate of 52 per cent was reported by one borough, while another said its ability to provide a service at all ...

  • News

    In brief: Healthcare of refugees

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The healthcare of refugees is being marginalised by discrimination and xenophobia, according to the principal family therapist at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, Jeremy Woodcock. He said clinical experience suggested that discrimination contributed to inferior healthcare.

  • News

    In brief: Intensive care patients

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Intensive care patients are twice as likely to die at times of understaffing or overwork, according to a report in last week's Lancet. A study in an adult intensive care unit at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, also found that understaffing was linked to excessive rates of complications , errors and hospital-acquired ...

  • News

    In brief: UK Transplant Support Service Authority

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The 1999 report from the UK Transplant Support Service Authority shows a continuing drop in cadaveric organ donation and a continuing rise in the number of patients awaiting organ transplants. The number of donors, 815, was the lowest since 1985, while the number of transplants fell by 1 per cent.

  • News

    Ex-trust head to make strategy-upon-Avon

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    A trust chief executive, forced to resign following an investigation into the trust's management of waiting-list figures, has been appointed to a strategic role at Avon health authority.

  • News

    'Crude' league tables 'fail to provide answers' say critics

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    A revised set of NHS 'league tables' was published this week amid warnings that they beg more questions than they answer.

  • News

    Welsh taskforce will have 'extended role'

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Welsh health and social services secretary Jane Hutt has announced an 'extended role' for its winter 'emergency pressures taskforce'.

  • News

    Manager numbers increase despite 'red tape' pledge

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The government's NHS reforms have brought a substantial increase in the number of health service managers, despite pledges to cut 'red tape'.

  • News

    NHS Direct 'has no impact on emergency services'

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    NHS Direct has failed to stem growing demand for emergency medical services, according to a report from Sheffield University's medical care research unit. It found no difference in the use of accident and emergency departments and emergency ambulances, since the helpline was introduced. But NHS Direct 'may have restrained the ...

  • News

    Denham refers new round of cancer drugs to NICE

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is to rule on whether a range of anti-cancer drugs should be available on the NHS. Health minister John Denham has referred a series of treatments to NICE, in a two-year programme. The list covers therapies for lung, colorectal, blood, breast, ovarian, brain and ...

  • News

    Employers urged to help people with mental illness

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Health minister John Hutton has backed an employment check list to help people with mental health problems into work .

  • News

    Health 'ambassadors' to provide 'key messages'

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The first 'health ambassadors' in the UK have been appointed by North Cumbria health authority in a drive to improve communications between doctors, nurses and the public. The HA and North Cumbria health action zone have approved 14 'ambassadors' from across the district. HA chair Barbara Cannon said the people ...

  • News

    Tribunal told of alleged abuse at care home for elderly

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Vulnerable elderly residents died after abuse at a care home run by independent provider BUPA, an industrial tribunal has been told. In a case brought under the new Public Interest Disclosure Act, former care worker Eileen Chubb claimed she was hounded out of her job after complaining about neglect and ...

  • News

    HAs invite comments on primary care restructure

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    Two health authorities have launched a major consultation exercise to help staff and patients shape future services in Hertfordshire. The proposals include merging East & North Hertfordshire HA and West Hertfordshire HA, setting up seven primary care trusts across the county and creating a single mental health trust to cover ...

  • News

    Beds guarantee ends decades of wrangling over flagship PFI site

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    The long-awaited redevelopment of University College London Hospitals trust has at last been given the go ahead, following years of political wrangling and industrial action.

  • News

    Troubleshooters sent in to sort 'red-hot' pressure trust

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    London regional office has sent a troubleshooting team into Barts and the London trust to tackle performance in a month in which the trust has lost its chair and admitted 'red-hot pressures' in intensive care.

  • News

    Ambulance chief delay 'mystery' shrugged off

    2000-07-20T00:00:00Z

    London Ambulance Service has shrugged off accusations that there is anything 'mysterious' about its failure to replace former chief executive Michael Honey, who left in February.