All News articles – Page 1360
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News
Plans for consultants 'absurd', says BMA
British Medical Association consultants committee chair Dr Jonathan Fielden has criticised the Department of Health’s draft pay and workforce documents, revealed in HSJtoday. He said: ‘It is absurd to suggest that the NHS in England needs fewer hospital consultants. ‘To suggest that there should be fewer consultants, and of a ...
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High take-up for optician training
More than 90 per cent of opticians met the requirement for continuing education and training (CET) by the 31 December 2006 deadline.Final figures for the first cycle released by the General Optical Council show that 95 per cent of optometrists, 89 per cent of dispensing opticians and 86 per cent ...
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Sir Liam demands faster progress on safety
Chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson has called for more speed in improving patient safety in his newsletter published today.Although Sir Liam praised a 'greater awareness among clinicians, managers and policymakers that patients are not as safe as they should be', he said that the pace of change had ...
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Stomach pain tops Christmas complaints
Stomach and jaw pain dominated calls to telephone helpline NHS Direct over Christmas, statistics show.Vomiting, toothache and diarrhoea were also among the top 10 reasons for calling the helpline in England.Over the whole of 2006 the service received around 7 million calls, while during the Christmas period there were a ...
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BMA hits back at training 'cuts'
The British Medical Association has raised concerns about the current situation in medical education and voiced opposition to the cap on student fees being lifted in its response to the Commons education and skills committee inquiry, published today The doctors' union is concerned that medical ...
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Smarter prescribing could save millions
More efficient prescribing of generic statins rather than branded versions could save the NHS £85m a year, according to the Department of Health. Latest 'better care, better value' indicators found that the savings could be made if every primary care trust prescribed such drugs to the level achieved by the ...
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Health figures honoured
Christie Hospital trust chair Joan Higgins has been made a DBE in the New Year Honours list. NHS Confederation chair Peter Mount, former Greater Manchester strategic health authority chief executive Neil Goodwin, Royal College of Nursing president Roswyn Hakesley-Brown and health economist Anne Mills have been made CBEs.To see the ...
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'Hooked' stop smoking campaign launched
A campaign that shows people being seized by fish hooks and dragged to their smoking spots has been launched. The campaign, which includes TV adverts, outdoor advertising, direct mail and a dedicated website, reveals that the average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year.www.gosmokefree.co.uk/getunhooked
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David Peat on lost baggage and fielding complaints
'I always try to acknowledge a complaint myself when it arrives on our doorstep, and I always sign off our response. It helps me keep in touch with patients' perceptions - their sense of grievance, injustice or perplexity.'
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Legal age to buy tobacco to rise
The legal minimum age to buy tobacco is to rise from 16 to 18 on 1 July. The move is intended to make it easier for retailers to spot under-age smokers and reduce the numbers of teenagers who smoke. A campaign to raise awareness of the change will be launched ...
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2007 a make or break year for NHS, says think tank
A failure to tackle rising costs and to invest in modern services means that 2007 is a make or break year for the NHS, according to a report by think tank Reform. The report says the service's long-term strength has been sapped by the lack of an underpinning costed reform ...
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Superbug surge
Mentions of Clostridium difficile on death certificates in England and Wales rose by 69 per cent to 3,807 from 2004-05, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rate for deaths involving C difficile in males increased from 23 to 38 per million population in 2005. In females the rate ...
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Scottish surplus
The NHS in Scotland ended the last financial year in surplus, according to figures published today. At the end of 2005-06, the health service had underspent its £9bn budget by £70.6m, Audit Scotland has reported. The previous year resulted in a deficit of £32m.
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'I say what I think - it can be uncomfortable'
Emergency access czar Professor Sir George Alberti has spent his career as an outspoken agent of change. Here he reveals how he prefers to eschew politeness and tackle controversy
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More power to scrutiny
Stuart Shepherd looks at how scrutiny committees are tackling the growing problem of obesity in Britain
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UK tops state spend poll
More healthcare is funded by the state in the UK than in many other Western countries, a study claims. An analysis of 12 comparable nations found that the NHS's share of UK spending increased from 80 per cent in 1998 to 86 per cent in 2005, due to extra government ...
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Radiation overdose triggers probe
Immediate inspections of Scotland's five cancer radiotherapy centres will be held after a report into a radiation overdose found a catalogue of failings.
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PCT triage plans spark opposition
A debt-ridden primary care trust has met fierce opposition from its local hospital over proposals to have accident and emergency arrivals triaged by primary care staff.
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Non-executive was unlawfully sacked
The Appointments Commission has admitted unlawfully sacking a non-executive director of a primary care trust who opposed an ill-fated independent treatment centre contract.