Health news 17th February 2012

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Northerner

Northerner

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Type 1
Disabled people face unlimited unpaid work or cuts in benefit
Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/16/disabled-unpaid-work-benefit-cuts?newsfeed=true

More patients forced to wait longer than 18 weeks for NHS treatment
The number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment has continued to increase year-on-year, with more than 22,600 patients facing long waits in December 2011.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/16/nhs-patients-wait-treatment

Delay NHS 111 phoneline rollout, doctors urge
Doctors' leaders say they have "serious concerns" about the rollout of the NHS 111 phoneline in England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17060392

Concern over rural medical cover in Scotland
Rural communities say they are facing a crisis because many medical staff no longer have to work out of hours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17063800

Dawn of the age of wireless medicine
Medical treatment is about to go wireless. New advances in microelectronics have enabled doctors to contemplate the day when they will be able to monitor and treat their patients with medical implants that use wi-fi, Bluetooth and other kinds of wireless technology.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-of-the-age-of-wireless-medicine-6989042.html

Jeremy Laurance: 'Wireless medicine' helps solve one of doctors' biggest problems - getting patients to take drugs
One of medicine's great challenges is how to persuade patients to take the drugs they are prescribed. More than 900 million prescriptions for drugs are written in the UK each year but around 30 per cent are never taken ? either because the prescription is not dispensed or because patients don't take the medicines when they get them home.

..... Diabetics could benefit from a sensor being developed to monitor blood glucose levels that could one day be combined with the microchip to deliver insulin.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...--getting-patients-to-take-drugs-6989041.html

Consumer group urges clarity on 'five a day' labels
Which?, the consumer group, has called for the logo to be banned on products with high levels of unhealthy nutrients, even if they also contain one of the recommended portions of fruit or vegetables. The consumer group said that ?five a day? claims on such products could ?give the impression that they are healthier than they are?. Which??s move follows increasing use of the ?five a day? logo on kitchen cupboard staples such as Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup and Spaghetti Hoops.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...group-urges-clarity-on-five-a-day-labels.html

Rushed NHS helpline roll-out 'risks endangering patients' warns BMA
A rushed roll-out of the new 111 number to replace NHS Direct could put patients at risk, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned in letter to the Government. The organisation has "serious misgivings" about the timeline for expanding use of the number, which is meant to be operational across all of England from April 2013.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...out-risks-endangering-patients-warns-BMA.html

Grief is not an illness, warns The Lancet
"Grief is not an illness", say the journal's editors in an impassioned editorial, which argues that "medicalising" such a normal human emotion is "not only dangerously simplistic, but also flawed". Doctors tempted to prescribe pills "would do better to offer time, compassion, remembrance and empathy", they write. The editors are worried by moves which appear to categorise extreme emotions as problems that need fixing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9086532/Grief-is-not-an-illness-warns-The-Lancet.html

Not sleeping enough CAN damage your immune system and make you ill, says study
A disturbed sleeping pattern can lead to illness, scientists say. Researchers have found that the circadian clock ? the genetic mechanism which regulates our sleep ? controls the level of a gene vital to our immune system. Scientists from Yale University linked the gene TLR-9 to the cycle in mice. When the gene was at its most active, it was able to respond best to bacteria and viruses and the mice responded better to infection and vaccinations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-alters-immune-Not-sleeping-CAN-make-ill.html

Eat, drink, man, woman: Is there such a thing as a gastronomic gender divide?
A dainty piece of sushi for the lady? And perhaps a rare steak for the gentleman? No thank you, gar?on, says John Walsh.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...g-as-a-gastronomic-gender-divide-6988887.html

Girl's agony as chemist mixes up her ear and eye drops
A girl of six was left in agony when her face swelled up after she was given ear drops for an eye infection.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/girls-agony-as-chemist-mixes-up-688855

British midwife saving lives in the Congo with 1950s equipment seen on Call The Midwife
For many modern midwives, the BBC?s runaway hit series Call the Midwife is a world away from childbirth today.

Set in London?s East End in the 50s, before life-saving technology became a crucial part of the job, this is birth at its most raw.

British midwife Samantha Perkins, however, is used to helping women give birth without epidurals, modern scanning methods and monitoring devices.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/british-midwife-saving-lives-in-the-congo-688555
 
The policy could mean that those on employment and support allowance who have been placed in the work-related activity group (Wrag) could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers. The Wrag group includes those who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and some of those with mental health issues


You wouldn't believe how mad that makes me😡


With nearly 3 million unemployed this is crazy making the sick work, will we now see high street retailers taking on the sick at no cost to their own business at the expense of those fit & able to work and looking for paid employment?
 
You echo my thoughts exactly Toby. About 20 years ago I worked for a small software house that took on a young lad as a 'YTS' (Youth Training Scheme). He got slightly more than unemployment benefit for working full time and doing a similar job to hose on proper salaries. The YTS scheme paid the employer for two years to employ such a person, and sure enough, after two years they 'let him go' - no job, they had simply exploited him.

To go one step further and start exploiting people deemed fit to work, but who may be far from it, at the expense of those more able, but more expensive to employ, is just plain stupid. :(
 
As you are a poet Alan, perhaps you could add something to this about politicians and their crazy ideas?🙂http://www.rense.com/general92/deathof.htm (I posted it in another thread yesterday).
These people do not live in the real world, have no idea of how the average working class live, ignore the despair that this rubbish is creating and give each other a pat on the back for coming up with these hair-brained schemes.
 
Northerner said:
You echo my thoughts exactly Toby. About 20 years ago I worked for a small software house that took on a young lad as a 'YTS' (Youth Training Scheme). He got slightly more than unemployment benefit for working full time and doing a similar job to hose on proper salaries. The YTS scheme paid the employer for two years to employ such a person, and sure enough, after two years they 'let him go' - no job, they had simply exploited him...(
Click to expand...
I was on a YTS 19 years ago ? fortunately the company in question paid us a little bit more then the mandatory (?60 a week I recall) and then went on to sponsor me through University. Most of the people I started on the YTS with where still there when I left after me degree (the company was in a downturn and had no space for its graduates).

One of my school friends was also on a YTS, but his company were pretty much at the mandatory rate. After the two years they offered to take him on ? but at the same rate had had been getting! Pretty awful in my view point but there wasn?t much else he could find?
 
Who of our age doesn't remembers YOPS - the Youth Opportunities Scheme? and the kids who worked within it were known as Yops.

The tales about eg "Nightmare today - went in XYZ to ask about buying a widget for a wowser, couldn't get hold of anyone who even knew what a wowser was in the first place - they were all Yops!' - because so many firms treated em as slave labour.

However; if I could have got 30hrs a week for my Unemployment Benefit when I first went on it, I'd have loved that for the simple reason I only know how to do one thing. A very technical thing that there aren't very many vacancies for - there never were so there certainly aren't now. If I could have gone to eg Poundland and learned how to operate EPOS etc proficiently - I could have applied to eg M&S - OK maybe an Xmas job to start with, but if you do OK that stands you in good stead for a permanent position, there or elsewhere.

Whereas no-one is going to spend that much time, effort or money to train an older woman who has never worked in retail from scratch, when they know she's going to want to retire in 2.5/3 years anyway .... and I desperately needed the extra NI contributions as there was no other way of topping them up and even so, I don't get a full state pension.

But it's the medical assessments for the disabled that are not fit for purpose anyway. I know you answer the questions on the form 'as if it were your worst day' but with so many conditions, the chances are you would have a whole lot more 'worst days' if you were working ..... and you probably go for the ruddy assessment on a 'good' day ...
 
toby said:
The policy could mean that those on employment and support allowance who have been placed in the work-related activity group (Wrag) could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers. The Wrag group includes those who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and some of those with mental health issues


You wouldn't believe how mad that makes me😡


With nearly 3 million unemployed this is crazy making the sick work, will we now see high street retailers taking on the sick at no cost to their own business at the expense of those fit & able to work and looking for paid employment?
Click to expand...

Did you see the story about the guy who Atos Healthcare declared fit for work - died of a heart attack a month after ...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/grandad-declared-capable-of-work-by-testing-688378
 
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