Health news

• NHS accused of covering up huge data loss that put thousands at risk

  26-02-2017 23:00
  
  Exclusive: More than 500,000 pieces of patient data between GPs and hospitals went undelivered between 2011 and 2016
  Thousands of patients are feared to have been harmed after the NHS lost more than half a million pieces of confidential medical correspondence, including test results and treatment plans.In one of the biggest losses of sensitive clinical information in the NHS’s 69-year history, more than 500,000 pieces of patient data sent between GPs and hospitals went undelivered over the
  
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• Iris Murdoch’s philosopher was losing his words back in 1983 | Letters

  26-02-2017 20:56
  
  You report (21 February) on research suggesting that Iris Murdoch’s use of language in later works such as Jackson’s Dilemma (1995) might be an indication of the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But I wonder whether Murdoch suspected a problem far earlier than it could become manifest to readers of her books. In The Philosopher’s Pupil (1983), the ageing philosopher, John Robert Rozanov, deplores his own increasing loss of control over language, a problem that is not,
  
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• Girl, five, died of asthma attack after GP turned her away

  26-02-2017 18:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Five-year-old Ellie-May Clark, who was minutes late for an appointment, died of an asthma attack.
  
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• New mother nearly dies after developing blood poisoning

  26-02-2017 17:54 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Nadia Gorman, of Plymouth, suffered a 'stabbing type pain' across the left side of her body after giving birth to her son, Murphy, in October. She was then rushed to hospital.
  
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• MATT ROBERTS: Is your diet as good as you think it is?

  26-02-2017 17:25 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Personal trainer MATT ROBERTS reveals why you might not be able to shift those final few pounds even if your diet and exercise regime is good and how to get fitter when you're over 50.
  
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• ‘Human miracles’ whose bodies remain a mystery to doctors

  26-02-2017 16:50 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Wim Hof (pictured), from the Netherlands, claims his ability to withstand freezing conditions without developing so much as a sniffle is down to ‘meditation and breathing techniques’.
  
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• End UK tax incentives for diesel vehicles, ministers are urged

  26-02-2017 16:26
  
  Campaigners write to chancellor to urge him to end tax breaks and bring in scheme to encourage switch to greener carsMinisters are coming under growing pressure to remove tax incentives for diesel cars and offer compensation to motorists so they can swap to more environmentally friendly vehicles.A group of medical professionals, environmental campaigners and lawyers has written to the chancellor ahead of the budget to demand a change to the vehicle excise duty that they say subsidises diesel car
  
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• Children in UK mental health hospitals 'not improving', parents say

  26-02-2017 15:53
  
  Survey finds 54% of parents with children in mental health hospitals say they have not improved and 24% say they are worseMore than half of parents with children in mental health hospitals do not feel their condition has improved as a result of treatment, while nearly a quarter say it has actually deteriorated, according to a survey. The research was based on responses from 448 parents whose children have been in mental health hospitals in England over the last five years.Related: I came out of
  
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• NHS 'tobacco free' campaign launched by Public Health England

  26-02-2017 11:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A quarter of all patients smoke and Public Health England wants to help them quit their habit.
  
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• Parents of trans teenagers going private to beat waiting lists

  26-02-2017 09:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Delays in treatment are forcing transgender patients to get help from private doctors.
  
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• Heal thyself: meet the doctors living with the conditions they treat

  26-02-2017 08:05
  
  Would you be in safer hands if your doctor had the same illness as you? We hear from a dermatologist with a skin complaint, a psychiatrist with depression, an oncologist who survived cancer and a fertility expert who couldn’t conceiveBav Shergill: As a teenager I was terribly embarrassed about my skin – I had really bad acne from the age of 15. It took me until I went to medical school to find the courage and confidence to change my GP and get a hospital referral.Continue reading...
  
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• Why baby boomers are hitting the bottle like never before

  26-02-2017 08:00
  
  Disillusioned over-50s risk serious health problems because of alcoholAs an 18-year-old in 1966, I would go to the pub on a Saturday night with five girlfriends, before an alcohol-free dance at the local “palais”. We each drank a half of cider and one green chartreuse because, while it tasted like an antidote to dyspepsia, it was 55% proof. That was it; that was all we could afford. Even if we had the money, shame, social convention and a fear of what the neighbours might tell your m
  
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• Teaching morality to robots | Daniel Glaser

  26-02-2017 07:00
  
  As with children, ethical input with robots needs to come before, not after, developing other skills, says Daniel GlaserEvery week comes a new warning that robots are taking over our jobs. People have become troubled by the question of how robots will learn ethics, if they do take over our work and our planet.As early on as the 1960s Isaac Asimov came up with the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ outlining moral rules they should abide by. More recently there has been official guidance from t
  
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• The Steve Hewlett I knew: a tough journalist, a fearless chronicler of the illness that killed him

  26-02-2017 01:05
  
  Steve Hewlett, who died last week after a battle with cancer, is remembered by his producerSteve Hewlett became a household name over the past few months for talking about his cancer intimately and frankly to Eddie Mair on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme and for his diaries, which appeared in the Observer. At first I found it hard to reconcile how Steve was talking with the way he’d approached his life and work on Radio 4’s The Media Show, where I was his producer from 2009 to 2013.
  
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• Doctors don’t have to sugar the obesity pill | Barbara Ellen

  26-02-2017 01:05
  
  GPs have a duty to prevent unnecessary treatments for their patients, not to avoid giving offenceA lot gets said about how it feels to be overweight, but what is the psychology of having to tell someone that they’re fat if you’re a health professional? Does it feel rude, abrasive, maybe even counter-productive to do so? But perhaps neglectful and harmful not to? A survey of 1,141 GPs by Pulse magazine found that almost one third (32%) of them said that patients became offended and re
  
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• Test all pregnant women for smoking, say NHS chiefs

  26-02-2017 01:03
  
  The plan, which is supported by the Royal College of Midwives, is part of a wider drive to discourage cigarettes at hospitalsEngland’s public health chief is urging hospitals to give every pregnant woman a carbon monoxide test to see if they smoke, as part of an NHS-wide drive to persuade patients to kick the habit.Duncan Selbie wants midwives and nurses to routinely screen mothers-to-be when their pregnancy is first “booked”, monitor them at all their antenatal appointments an
  
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• Salmonella can permanently damage DNA

  26-02-2017 00:54 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Scientists at Cornell University, New York, found that some types of salmonella damaged human DNA, which could lead to long-term health consequences.
  
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