Health Policy InsightHealthcare management online analysis and intelligence
Health Policy InsightDeprived and coastal areas to get extra cash this year for staff and resources in effort to improve health outcomes
England’s poorest areas will get billions in extra health funding under new government plans to tackle stark inequalities in access to care and health outcomes.
NHS services in deprived and coastal places will receive a £2.2bn boost this year to pay for more staff and equipment to help them close the wide gap in resources between them and well-off areas.
Continue reading...Marcus Skeet has dealt with a lot: diabetes, anxiety, depression, OCD and the pressures of being a young carer. A few years ago, he reached his lowest point. Then he began working towards an extraordinary goal
Day three of Marcus Skeet’s epic run from Land’s End to John o’Groats was a low point. It had been a sunny April morning when he set off. Marcus was in shorts and a T-shirt – bright yellow so he could be easily seen running beside the A30. But then, 18 miles (29km) in and just a few miles before the end of the day’s leg, it started to rain. “Absolutely bucketing down, then hailing really heavily, hailstones right into my face.”
Marcus, who had been sweating, got cold very quickly. He tried to call his friend Harry, who had gone ahead in the support car to check in to that night’s Airbnb, to get him to come back with a coat, but the phone had got wet and wasn’t working. He managed to reach a layby where there was a breakdown van. He asked the driver if he would make a call for him (Marcus didn’t know Harry’s number from memory, but he knew his mum’s, and she could ring Harry). “And he looks at me and goes: ‘Mate, I’m working, bore off.’”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Number of people receiving subsidised care has fallen far more quickly than the country’s disability rate, analysis finds
Nearly 100,000 adults have been denied government-funded social care because of a decade’s worth of spending cuts, a Guardian analysis has revealed, as ministers come under mounting pressure to increase funding for the sector.
The analysis, which is based on a study by the Institute for Government (IfG), shows the number of people in England receiving subsidised care has fallen far more quickly than the country’s disability rate.
Continue reading...Robert Berman, cited in report on preservative thimerosal, says he ‘doesn’t endorse this misrepresentation of research’
A review on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines slated to be presented on Thursday to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) outside vaccine committee cites a study that does not exist, the scientist listed as the study’s author said.
The report, called Thimerosal as a Vaccine Preservative published on the CDC website on Tuesday, is to be presented by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense.
Continue reading...Decline blamed on health inequalities, Covid disruption and soaring levels of misinformation and hesitancy
Millions of children worldwide are at risk of lethal diseases because vaccine coverage has stalled or reversed amid persistent health inequalities and soaring levels of misinformation and hesitancy, the largest study of its kind has found.
Major progress in rolling out jabs to billions of children in all corners of the globe over the last five decades has prevented the deaths of 154 million children, according to an analysis published in the Lancet.
Continue reading...Chronic exposure to inflammation may explain link to conditions including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, researchers say
Living with an autoimmune disease may almost double the risk of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, a study suggests.
The link may be explained by the chronic exposure to systemic inflammation that the autoimmune disease causes, researchers at the University of Edinburgh said.
Continue reading...Daniel Park, 32, was accused of supplying chemicals to the bomber, Guy Edward Barktus, who died in May explosion
A man charged with aiding the bomber of a fertility clinic in California has died in federal custody just weeks after his arrest, prison officials said on Tuesday.
Daniel Park, 32, was accused of supplying chemicals to the bomber, Guy Edward Bartkus of California, who died in the 17 May explosion.
Continue reading...US health secretary faced hours of questioning over budget cuts and accusations he lied to senators
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, faced a bruising day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, including being forced to retract accusations against a Democratic congressman after claiming the lawmaker’s vaccine stance was bought by $2m in pharmaceutical contributions.
In a hearing held by the House health subcommittee, Kennedy was met with hours of contentious questioning over budget cuts, massive healthcare fraud and accusations he lied to senators to secure his confirmation.
Continue reading...Jenny Bradley on the bureaucracy that is preventing dentists who have trained abroad from working in the NHS
Thank you, Denis Campbell, for highlighting the distressing plight of many overseas-trained dentists in this country (Overseas-trained dentists working in McDonald’s as millions lack NHS care, 18 June). Brilliant dental specialists are being treated appallingly, repeatedly rejected in their attempts to book the overseas registration exam, which they could pass with ease if they could only manage to sit it.
For dentists longing to work in the NHS but who are having to take up low-paid jobs, this is a form of mental torture. Meanwhile, people are unable to get dental care on the NHS. Where’s the sense in this?
Jenny Bradley
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Other Lives obituaries | Shame on the BBC | Pan frying | Air fried | Inquiring minds | Pre-existent state
Page after page of horrors in the Guardian these days, but for reading to lift one’s spirits, go to the Other Lives pages. These record the wonderful people who for decades have shown the other side of humanity – teachers, community activists, and voluntary workers at home and abroad.
Simon Barley
Stroud, Gloucestershire
• So the BBC believes in demonstrating impartiality between the perpetrators of genocide and their victims (BBC drops Gaza medics documentary over impartiality concerns, 20 June). In doing so, it despoils a fine reputation and should be deeply ashamed.
Bob Marshall-Andrews
Labour MP, 1997-2010
‘Fixing’ your posture won’t change how you sit, so while it’s low risk, there are probably better exercises to help maintain a range of movement
Among the overwhelming quantity of information new parents must digest is the instruction to ensure their child gets adequate “tummy time” each day.
As the name suggests, it refers to periods of lying on one’s belly, which in babies serves to improve neck strength and prevent them developing misshapen heads.
Continue reading...It seems a sensible move to use explicit warning labels on products. What I’m more sceptical about is the ‘No amount of alcohol is safe for you’ messaging ...
You’re going to want to sit down with a big glass of water for this one, because I’m afraid I have some bad news. Here we go: alcohol is not terribly good for you. Shocker, right? You’ve probably never heard anything like this before in your life. No doubt, you’ve been choking down a glass of pinot with dinner whenever you can stomach it because you thought it was good for your cholesterol. Instead, it is elevating your risk of cancer.
If public health experts have their way, the fact that alcohol is carcinogenic is going to be very hard for British drinkers to ignore. Dozens of medical and health organisations recently wrote to Keir Starmer urging the prime minister to force companies to include “bold and unambiguous” labels on booze bottles, warning that alcohol causes cancer.
Continue reading...