Health Policy InsightHealthcare management online analysis and intelligence
Health Policy InsightExperts are alarmed as department says it will alter vaccine testing methods and build new ‘surveillance systems’
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his department have made a series of misleading statements that alarmed vaccine experts and advocates in recent days – including that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine includes “aborted fetus debris”.
Health department officials released statements saying they could alter vaccine testing and build new “surveillance systems” on Wednesday, both of which have unnerved experts who view new placebo testing as potentially unethical.
Continue reading...TV, tablets and smartphones ‘hinder and alter brain development’, open letter says
Children under the age of six should not be exposed to screens, including television, to avoid permanent damage to their brain development, French medical experts have said.
TV, tablets, computers, video games and smartphones have “already had a heavy impact on a young generation sacrificed on the altar of ignorance”, according to an open letter to the government from five leading health bodies – the societies of paediatrics, public health, ophthalmology, child and adolescent psychiatry, and health and environment.
Continue reading...Labour backbenchers put forward amendment to legislation that would reform ‘archaic abortion law’
MPs are expected to vote on whether to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales this summer, with two Labour backbenchers to put forward amendments to government legislation to change the law.
The Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy are believed to be putting forward separate amendments.
Continue reading...Linzagolix hailed as a possible ‘gamechanger’ in tackling the painful condition for some patients in England
More than 1,000 women a year in England could benefit from a new pill for endometriosis.
The condition occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body, such as the pelvis, bladder and bowel. It can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, extreme tiredness and fertility problems.
Continue reading...A restoration project at Sharpham near Totnes aims to tackle the loss of the natural world while helping people build mental resilience
Two landscapes separated by a wide sweep of river tell a story of change. On one side is traditional farmland, close-cropped grazing, uniform grasses, neatly tended hedges and a sparsity of trees, a farmscape ubiquitous across England. On the riverbank opposite, rougher, less uniform grasses grow unevenly between trees, thistle and brambles, in a chaos of natural disorder swaying in the breeze towards the reedbeds below.
The land on the Sharpham estate side of the River Dart used to be a mirror of the traditional farmscape on the opposite bank. It hosted a non-organic dairy farm and a vineyard, within a tightly controlled 18th-century heritage landscape of deforested parkland.
Continue reading...Healthwatch England says mistakes mean some patients are refused care or given drugs they do not need
Almost one in four patients in England have found mistakes in their medical records such as errors over their illness, drugs they have taken or treatment they have received.
The blunders have led to patients missing out on diagnostic tests or treatment, being refused care or being given medication they did not need, research by an NHS watchdog has found.
26% related to personal details such as name or date of birth.
16% involved medication a patient had taken.
9% of errors incorrectly listed a patient as having had a particular illness
9% said a patient had taken specific drugs to treat an ailment.
Continue reading...Focus on overuse contributes to antibiotics reaching less than 7% of people with drug-resistant infections in poorer countries, say researchers
Less than 7% of people with severe drug-resistant infections in poorer countries get the antibiotics they need, a new study suggests, with researchers warning that not only is this causing suffering and deaths, but is also likely to be driving antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
With AMR forecast to cause 1.9m deaths a year by 2050, they are calling for urgent action, akin to the fight earlier this century to get HIV drugs to Africa’s virus hotspots.
Continue reading...Surgical menopause occurs on average 19 months earlier, while natural menopause happens five months earlier, new global research shows
Women with endometriosis face a higher risk of premature and early menopause and are seven times more likely to experience surgical menopause, a study has found.
Surgical menopause occurs when a woman has both ovaries removed before reaching natural menopause, and may be done to treat endometriosis if other treatments fail.
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