Latest news – Page 2629

  • News

    In Brief: Food Standards Agency

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The Food Standards Agency will be formally established on 1 April. Regulations to complete the handover of food safety and standards responsibilities to the new agency were signed by junior health minister Gisela Stuart last week.

  • News

    In Brief: UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting says it is 'extremely concerned' that the government's plans to reform the Mental Health Act make no provision for the prosecution of staff who sexually or physically abuse patients, or steal from them. It also rejected a green paper proposal ...

  • News

    In Brief: Straw poll of visitors to HSJ 's website

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Health service managers do not believe that elected mayors should run the health service, according to a straw poll of visitors to HSJ 's website. Voting started last Thursday, and by Tuesday morning the figures were 211 against and 21 in favour.

  • News

    Back to square one

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Children from Our Lady 's School in Camden, north London, learn how to avoid food poisoning with a giant board game called 'Bubbles and Slime'.

  • News

    Lay members of PCGs in key community role

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Lay members of primary care group boards play a crucial role in ensuring that the views of local communities are taken into account, even though they are not community representatives, a Doctor Patient Partnership conference heard last week.

  • News

    Doctors' groups slam go-ahead for PCT in face of GPs' opposition ad

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    GP leaders from four national bodies have issued a joint attack on Southend primary care group's application to become a primary care trust next month despite a ballot in which local GPs opposed the move.

  • News

    Public health experts fear hidden R&D cuts

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Experts in public health have expressed fears that the health secretary's vow to 'take public health out of the ghetto' is a 'cover' for short-term cuts in research and education.

  • News

    Pathology staffing problems worsen

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The recruitment crisis in NHS pathology laboratories is getting worse, according to a union survey which found a 20 per cent shortfall in lab staff nationally.

  • News

    Short Cuts: Charity calls for government mental health 'czar'

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Mental health charity MACA has called for the Department of Health to consider appointing a mental health czar in the wake of the appointment of a national heart director last week. Chief executive Gil Hitchon said: 'Cancer, heart disease and mental health are the government's top health priorities. We now ...

  • News

    Short Cuts: Lib Dems blast delay in releasing DoH target check

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The Liberal Democrats have criticised the government's delays in releasing an assessment of all the targets set for the Department of Health.They claim that the 1998 white paper The New NHS has generated over 2,000 measures to be monitored - with more at lower levels. Liberal Democrat health spokesman Nick ...

  • News

    Short Cuts: Patient self-management investigation demanded

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The Mental Health Foundation has produced a report calling for a three-year investigation of how people with mental health problems manage their own health.Strategies for Living calls on the government to set up an expert patients taskforce to establish a nation-wide programme of self-management. Director Ruth Leserge said the report ...

  • News

    Short Cuts: UKCC welcomes DoH poor performance proposals

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting has welcomed the Department of Health's proposals on poor clinical performance. But the response to Supporting Doctors, Protecting Patients questions how proposed assessment and support centres would work in practice, and particularly how they would link with current regulatory processes. ...

  • News

    Short Cuts: Welsh Assembly issues social exclusion indicators

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The Welsh Assembly has published 50 indicators mapping social exclusion. The report illustrates that many factors are concentrated in the Valleys, but also shows social exclusion in other parts of the country in pockets of urban deprivation. The figures show that 10 per cent of adults in Wales reported being ...

  • News

    Short Cuts: Pensions Agency to contract out support services

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The NHS Pensions Agency has announced plans to contract out support services in an effort to reduce administration costs. The agency says the proposals could ultimately generate savings of some £3m a year and 'make better use of new computer technology and the Internet'. The contract is likely to include ...

  • News

    £10m renal cash follows expose

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    London regional director Nigel Crisp is to enter emergency talks with the capital's top renal specialists, following a public exposure of the 'worsening crisis' facing their units by senior clinicians.

  • News

    Lighting up

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Al Pacino stars as investigative reporter Lowell Bergman in the Oscar-nominated film The Insider, the true story of a US tobacco industry whistleblower. It had a special screening in Birmingham last Friday attended by more than 250 doctors, nurses and other health staff.

  • News

    Clinicians seek 'radical overhaul' of Scots NHS

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The 'crisis' in the NHS in Scotland is worsening and will not be stopped without a 'radical overhaul' of healthcare delivery, senior clinicians warned this week.

  • News

    Deacon orders rethink of Arbuthnott funding plans

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Scottish health minister Susan Deacon has ordered the Arbuthnott steering group to produce new proposals after rejecting its original plans to change the way NHS funding is shared out.

  • News

    BMA hits out at 'frail' data in league tables

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    'The frail quality' of information in hospital league tables makes them of little use to patients, doctors or managers, the British Medical Association this week warned.

  • News

    Huge variation in availability of HA-funded abortions

    2000-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Guidelines published this week on the use of abortions have flagged up variations in availability which mean that 90 per cent of procedures are funded by just 19 health authorities in England and Wales.