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Health Policy InsightI spent far too many years lonely and angry, thanks to schoolmates who called me ‘weird’ and bosses who dismissed me as ‘hysterical’. But was it my sexuality that put their backs up – or the autism I am still coming to terms with?
My earliest memory is of feeling different. I’m gay, and grew up in the 1980s, in a tough, working-class town in the north of England at the height of the Aids crisis. My gayness was obvious in the way I walked and talked. I was bullied at school, called a “poof”, “pansy” and “fairy”; other children did impressions of me with their wrists limp. I experienced physical violence, too. I was shoved, kicked, my head was slammed against the wall. I was punched in the face more than once.
But it wasn’t just my sexuality that set me apart. I was “weird”. I had a rigid attachment to routine and was terribly shy, sometimes freezing in social situations. I needed to be on my own for long periods; not easy when you’re in a family of five and share a bedroom with your brother. I was obsessive, channelling this at first into the Star Wars films, then the Narnia novels and, as I got older, Madonna. Lots of kids have short-lived interests but mine were intense: I’d collect facts and statistics about Madonna, memorise the chart positions of her singles, then reel them off to anyone who would listen. If anyone criticised her, I took it as a personal attack and would be distraught.
Continue reading...UK watchdog has had 40 reports relating to pregnancies in people using drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro
Women using weight-loss drugs have been urged to use effective contraception after dozens have reported becoming pregnant while taking the medication.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued its first alert to the UK public regarding contraception and weight-loss medications after it received 40 reports relating to pregnancies while using drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.
Continue reading...Royal College of Radiologists warns of long delays to have surgery or treatment, raising chances of disease spreading
People with cancer face a “ticking timebomb” of delays in getting diagnosed and treated because the NHS is too short-staffed to provide prompt care, senior doctors have warned.
An NHS-wide shortage of radiologists and oncologists means patients are enduring long waits to have surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy and have a consultant review their care.
“Our waiting times for breast radiotherapy are now the worst I have ever known in 20 years.”
“Current wait for head and neck cancers [is] six weeks, meaning possible progression before radiotherapy.”
“A multiple week wait for palliative treatment has sometimes led to deterioration to the point is no longer possible.”
Continue reading...Research shows disparity in care after detection of aortic stenosis, also affecting those living in deprived areas
Women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and those living in the most deprived areas of England are less likely to receive treatment after a diagnosis of a deadly heart disease, according to one of the largest studies of its kind.
Researchers at the University of Leicester analysed data from almost 155,000 people diagnosed with aortic stenosis – a narrowing of the valve between the heart’s main pumping chamber and the main artery – between 2000 and 2022 across England, from a database of anonymised GP records.
Continue reading...Inquiry focuses on TAVI procedures carried out on elderly and frail people at Castle Hill hospital near Hull
Police have launched an investigation into the deaths of heart surgery patients at an East Yorkshire hospital.
The investigation is focusing on transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedures carried out on elderly and frail patients at Castle Hill hospital, near Hull.
Continue reading...Williams Farms Repack tomatoes recalled in Georgia and Carolinas, although no cases of illness have been reported
The Food and Drug Administration has upgraded a tomato recall in three states to its most severe warning due to a potential salmonella contamination.
Three weeks ago the agency announced a voluntary recall by Williams Farms Repack LLC of its tomatoes across Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Last week, the FDA upgraded the recall to Class 1, indicating a reasonable probability that the product could “cause serious adverse health consequences or death”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government-ordered review concludes term in NHS should be changed because of risks to patients’ safety
Physician associates in the NHS will be renamed to stop patients mistaking them for doctors after a review found that their title caused widespread confusion.
Thousands of physician associates who work in hospitals and GP surgeries across the UK take medical histories, examine patients and diagnose illnesses but are not doctors.
Continue reading...Abortion rights supporters say scaling back Biden officials’ Emtala guidance will endanger pregnant patients’ lives
The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded Biden-era guidance clarifying that hospitals in states with abortion bans cannot turn away pregnant patients who are in the midst of medical emergencies – a move that comes amid multiple red-state court battles over the guidance.
The guidance deals with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (Emtala), which requires hospitals to stabilize patients facing medical emergencies. States such as Idaho and Texas have argued that the Biden administration’s guidance, which it issued in the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, interpreted Emtala incorrectly.
Continue reading...Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more after advances in diagnosis and treatment
The proportion of people surviving cancer in the UK has doubled since the 1970s amid a “golden age” of progress in diagnosis and treatment, a report says.
Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more, up from 24%, according to the first study of 50 years of data on cancer mortality and cases. The rate of people dying from cancer has fallen by 23% since the 1970s, from 328 in every 100,000 people to 252.
Continue reading...Boiled eggs? Tofu? Avocado? Are these high-protein, low-sugar alternative mousse recipes the new way to make the chocolate dessert? TikTok certainly seems to think so. Guardian Australia staff put them through a taste test so you can decide if you should try making these at home – or give them a miss and keep scrolling instead
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Oncologists say patients rejecting proven treatments are dying needlessly because of increase in online ‘cures’
Cancer patients are snubbing proven treatments in favour of quackery such as coffee enemas and raw juice diets amid an “alarming” increase in misinformation on the web, doctors have said.
Some were dying needlessly or seeing tumours spread as a result, oncologists said. They raised their concerns at the world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco).
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