Good news! - NHS Primary Care Trusts may be scrapped.

See http://www.glgroup.com/News/Health-service-commissioning-may-be-scrapped-in-UK-National-Health-Service-47485.html

The Health Committee of UK MPs have published a damning report on the quality of NHS commissioning of healthcare services, which concludes: "If reliable figures for the costs of commissioning prove that it is uneconomic and if it does not begin to improve soon, after 20 years of costly failure, the purchaser/provider split may need to be abolished."

Systematic manipulation and abuse of scholarly publishing by the pharmaceutical industry and its commercial partners to influence healthcare decisions

There is systematic manipulation and abuse of scholarly publishing by the pharmaceutical industry and its commercial partners in their attempt to influence the health care decisions of physicians and the general public.
Read article on the Public Library of Science (PLoS) website

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and high NNT drugs like statins

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and the high cost of medication like statins: the Wall Street Journal carries this thoughtful article.

See also www.slate.com article - It explains 'relative risk' and in particular considers whether the prescribing of statins as treatment for high cholesterol levels is justified. - A statistical tool you may never have heard of is NNT - the 'number needed to treat'.

True prevention of avoidable/chronic illness and avoidable disability entails good nutrition, along with drastic reduction of sodium intake, e.g. by cooking fresh food instead of microwaving convenience foods high in salt, and eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables. Above all, avoid dieting! - Dieting is unnecessary, ineffective, and, more often than not, harmful.

It's also a good idea to avoid prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary, because so often their side-effects include obesity/sodium retention/fluid retention/salt sensitivity and a host of attendant chronic illness.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Dirty ambulances help to spread superbugs, claims Unison union

Dirty ambulances help spread superbugs, claims union

Extract from The Guardian:

"NHS ambulances could be helping to spread potentially deadly infections such as MRSA, a union said today.

Poor cleaning arrangements and a lack of resources are exacerbating the problem, a nationwide Unison survey found.

Experts warned there had been little progress since the issue was raised two years ago.

Unison officials called for "urgent action" and the removal of dirty ambulances from service for cleaning.

"Ambulance cleanliness is a key factor in the battle against healthcare-related infections and the standards laid down should be strictly applied and monitored," said Sam Oestreicher, Unison's national officer for ambulance staff.

"The guidance on ambulance infection control is comprehensive, but in practice the essential resources necessary to keep vehicles clean and infection-free are not being provided.

"In many trusts, ambulance crews are responsible for cleaning their own vehicles and this is a waste of their time and training.

"They should be out there saving lives, not mopping out the back of a dirty ambulance.""

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

I've just been watching the first episode of "Cranford" on BBC1 and I envy the healthcare received by the carpenter who broke his arm in the 1840s...

The carpenter had his broken right arm dealt with as speedily as the young doctor could manage it, and in consequence he did not suffer radial nerve damage and so was able to use his hand again. Nearly two centuries later, having broken my right humerus at the end of August, I am still unable to use my right hand and lift my right wrist and am in very great pain with it. This is because I had to wait 12 and a half days before my arm was operated upon, and during that long, intensely painful time the hand and lower arm became extremely swollen because of the splint I had to wear, and the radial nerve was damaged. I now have to have carers come to help me get washed and dressed and undressed...)o:

There's been wonderful progress in healthcare since the 1840s? - Not in my opinion... - Not in the NHS, at any rate...)o:

Patient welfare has a low priority in the NHS...)o:

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Patients are losing faith in the NHS.

Patients losing faith in the NHS, claims survey

Extract from Sunday Telegraph article:

"Keith Pollard, of the information website Treatment Abroad, who carried out the study, said: "Despite huge investment in the NHS over the past 17 years, patients from the UK are voting with their feet and travelling abroad."

A fifth of those questioned by the Patients Association identified a reduction in waiting times as their main priority.

Fifteen per cent said cuts in hospital infections would make the greatest difference to them and 14 per cent wanted to see more staff on duty.

The findings follow the publication of official figures which show the Government is failing to meet its target for reducing the spread of hospital infections.

Cases of C. diff increased by seven per cent in hospital patients over the age of 65. Cases of MRSA fell by 10 per cent from a high of 7,096, but this was not enough to meet the Government's pledge to halve the rate by next year.

However, despite grave concerns over the NHS, the Patients Association survey found a clear majority rejects any move towards creating an insurance-based health care system on US or French lines.

More than 40 per cent support the current method of funding the NHS through national taxation. Twenty four per cent of those who took part, however, back a tax deductible insurance policy as a way of paying for treatment.

The survey, shows an overwhelming majority want an end to Britain's healthcare "postcode lottery" where availability of drugs and treatments depends on location.

Our findings on the growing number of health tourists provoked an angry response from the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson.

In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph he states: "Most of the treatment carried out overseas is either minor cosmetic surgery or dentistry. Little of the treatment is for general elective surgery, and where it is the majority of people accessing it would probably have gone private in the UK anyway."

The Patients Association is still collecting responses to its survey at www.patientsassociation.org.uk."

In my opinion, the hugely expensive and extremely flawed NHS should be scrapped.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Patients' lives could be being put at risk because one in 10 scan results are not reported to doctors.

Results of 1 in 10 scans not reported

Extract:

"Patients' lives could be being put at risk because one in 10 scan results are not reported to doctors, a report by the healthcare watchdog warns today.

The Healthcare Commission found that the results of almost 10% of diagnostic scans - including x-rays, ultrasounds and MRI or CT scans - are never formally reported to the clinicians who order them.

In some cases there will be an agreement that an x-ray is fine if no written result is offered; in others, doctors may have been told the results informally. Clinicians may also look at scans and reach their own conclusions. But such an approach risks leaving injuries or serious conditions undetected - particularly when scans have been ordered by GPs, who will not normally be able to view the images, or by relatively- inexperienced A&E doctors."

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)