Health
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London’s NHS at the crossroads By John Lister
A duty of candour for NHS managers and ending cash-driven closures – those are amongst the recommendations of the People’s Inquiry into London’s NHS which raises serious concerns of creaking services in the capital. Continue reading
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Welcome to Barbarous Britain: Treat your own dementia, Essex patients told By Shibley Rahman
As Essex council closes the only daycare centre for dementia patients in the South of the county, its councillors cause a storm by suggesting a one-day ‘dementia cube’ workshop is a suitable alternative. Continue reading
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South Africa’s ASA Stops Monsanto ‘Benefits of GM Crops’ Advert
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of South Africa has today ordered Monsanto to withdraw its advertisement on Radio 702 with immediate effect, wherein Monsanto claims the benefits of GM crops. According to ASA, Monsanto’s claims were found to be unsubstantiated and misleading. Continue reading
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The future of care.data hangs in the balance By Jane Fae
The future of care.data hangs in the balance. In the last week, rival proposals from government and by critics, have offered parliament radically different diagnoses – and cures – for the malaise now afflicting the scheme. In the end, though, the question remains: is this all too little, too late? Can care.data recover from here? Continue reading
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Key NHS recommendation to “put patients first” rejected by government advisors By Caroline Molloy
Government advisors today rejected the main recommendation of the QC who investigated failings of care at NHS hospitals – to re-write the NHS Constitution to make clear “patients come first”. The central recommendation of the Francis report was today rejected by a secretive panel of government advisors chaired by health minister Norman Lamb. Continue reading
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The third big NHS deception By Guy Collis
The public will not fall for the government’s deception over the hospital closure clause – even if MPs have. First, and most important, is 20 March 2012 when the Health and Social Care Act – which abolished the Secretary of State’s duty to secure a comprehensive health service – stumbled out of the House of… Continue reading
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UK GMO Science Update Slammed as ‘Unadulterated Propaganda’
At a “news briefing” yesterday, the authors of the Report presented their findings at the invitation of the Council for Science and Technology (CST) (1). According to the news briefing, the Council ”… last year… asked a group of independent scientists to look into the developments in the science of GM crops since the Royal… Continue reading
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Bad science, health risks, and the EU/US trade treaty By Molly Scott-Cato
Whether on GM foods, pesticides, or pharmaceuticals, the EU/US trade treaty aims to strip away higher European regulations that protect public health but hinder corporate profits. Continue reading
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Outsourcing cancer care – the biggest and most reckless NHS privatisation yet? By Clive Peedell
Outsourcing over a billion pounds of cancer and end-of-life services is reckless and shows just how threadbare government promises of ‘no NHS privatisation’ have become. Continue reading
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Privacy campaigners team up with leading public health professor to fix Hunt’s ‘complete nonsense’ on care.data By Caroline Molloy
Hunt’s fix for the troubled ‘care.data’ project – debated by MPs today – is “complete nonsense” according to medConfidential. They have teamed up with public health professor Allyson Pollock to propose an alternative fix to the troubled care.data project. Continue reading
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3 years on: Contaminated Fukushima water may be dumped as problems mount
Contaminated water at the battered Fukushima plant has taken precedence over everything else. As the larger cleanup effort continues and storage space for the water is rapidly running out, scientists suggest dumping it into the Pacific Ocean. Continue reading
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UK Government Pressed on Pro-GM Position
Food & Water Europe today asked the UK Government to change its vocal but ill-founded pro-GM position in light of the evidence that GM and non-GM farming are incompatible. Continue reading
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Nuclear regulators misled the media after Fukushima, emails show
On Monday this week — one day shy of the third anniversary of the Fukushima meltdown — NBC published emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act that for the first time exposes on a major scale the efforts that NRC officials undertook in order to diminish the severity of the event in the hours… Continue reading
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Britain: More health services face privatisation By Mark Blackwood and Paul Mitchell
Private-sector companies such as Alliance Boots and Bupa are eyeing the new contracts and have expert teams at hand, well versed at drawing up contracts. They are willing to submit loss-making bids in order to gain a foothold in the market. To meet this competition, existing providers, mainly GP surgeries and health centres, are being… Continue reading
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NHS: medConfidential Bulletin, 7th March 2014
Following a disastrous showing from NHS England and HSCIC officials [from time code 1:20:30] in front of the Health Select Committee a fortnight ago, the government has laid a number of last-minute amendments to a piece of legislation called the Care Bill, which is now in its final stages before becoming law. Continue reading
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Labour’s Andy Burnham moves to strike out “Hospital Closure Clause” By Benedict Cooper
Labour confirmed yesterday that it would be staging a last ditch attempt in parliament on Tuesday to strike out the deeply unpopular “Hospital Closure Clause”. Continue reading
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Triple-headed NHS privacy scare after hospital data reach marketers, Google By Simon Sharwood
On page eight, a section titled “The cloud can transform the way the NHS connects and uses data” the discussion turns to “an archive called Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)” that contains “a huge amount of detailed data” about the activity of “every Hospital in England.” A busy time, then, for HSCIC’s spin doctors and a… Continue reading
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Can anyone patch up care.data, or is it too late? By Jane Fae
Care.data has had a bad seven days. Last Tuesday it received a serious mauling by the Commons Health Committee. On Friday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt came sailing to the rescue with an announcement of new laws that will bar the NHS from selling personal medical records for insurance and commercial purposes – though care.data boss… Continue reading
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Contamination and Bio-Pollution: The Criminality of the GM Biotech Industry By Colin Todhunter
There is currently a battle waging across the planet over genetically modified (GM) crops. It seems like not a month goes by when a new report is released on the health, environmental or productivity aspects of GM organisms. The GM biotech industry tries to assure governments and the public about the safety and efficacy of… Continue reading
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Roundup In 75% of Air and Water Sampled … Causes Kidney Failure
A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey – soon to be published in the journal Enviromental Toxicology and Chemistry – finds that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (technically known as “glyphosate”) and its toxic degradation byproduct AMPA were found in over 75% of all air and rain samples in Mississippi in 2007. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 