A devastating report on the state of Britain's maternity services has concluded that they put the lives of women and their babies at risk.
The first national inquiry into maternity care by the Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog, has revealed a critical shortage of midwives, obstetricians absent from wards, a lack of beds and poor continuity of care. These have contributed to high death rates in some units and threaten the long-term health of mothers and their babies in others.
Times Online:
The National Health Service is providing dying cancer patients with drugs that are five times less effective than those available privately and is refusing to treat them if they try to buy medicines themselves.
One drug for kidney cancer, routinely available through public health systems in most European countries but not to British patients, can reduce the size of tumours in 31% of patients, compared with just 6% of those prescribed the standard NHS drug.
The growing row over “co-payments” has prompted the government to reconsider the ban. Alan Johnson, the health secretary, has promised a “fundamental rethink” of the policy.
The shift comes as increasing numbers of cancer doctors defy the official Whitehall ban and allow patients to pay for drugs while still receiving NHS care.
The clincher from The Telegraph:
Overweight nurses are to get personal trainers and high street vouchers to encourage them to lose weight.
More than 200 NHS staff are being equipped with pedometers and offered motivational fitness coaches to help them slim down.
They have been promised £20 of high street store vouchers if they manage to keep the weight off during the year-long pilot.
The £250,000 scheme at Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust is being run by American healthcare company Humana, which wants to roll the programme out across Britain.
Fight against "Government run health care" at every turn.
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