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141 records found from year 2006

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Page 4 of 15
Monday, 12 June 2006 10:46
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
DOCTORS CALL FOR TAX ON SOFT DRINK SWEETENER
Doctors are set to call for taxes on the soft drinks industry in America to be increased in a bid to combat the country’s obesity epidemic.

Delegates at the American Medical Association’s annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.

They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved.

Sales of soft drinks in US schools have declined ahead of new rules allowing only healthier low-calorie drinks to be sold to students.

But delegates at the Chicago conference want the measures to go further by raising taxes on high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used in a range of foods from ketchup to cola.

Some U.S. cities and states already levy taxes on soft drinks or junk foods that raise £500million a year, said Michael Jacobsen, director of the Centre for Science and the Public Interest, an independent health watchdog. But earmarking tax revenue for programmes promoting better diet would be a first, he added.


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Monday, 12 June 2006 10:20
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
FISH OIL SUPPLEMENTS CONSIDERED FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN
Children may be given Omega 3 fish oil supplements at school to improve their behaviour and academic performance under proposals being considered by ministers.

Many parents already give the children a daily dose of the nutrient after studies showed it can significantly improve concentration, learning power and behaviour.

Some teachers recommend that parents give unruly children Omega 3 and the associated Omega 6, but the supplements are expensive and many families cannot afford them.

The government has now asked the Food Standards Agency to provide a definitive opinion on the benefits of taking Omega 3 supplements.

Education Secretary Alan Johnson said yesterday: “The Agency is conducting a systematic review of research looking at the effect of nutrition and diet on performance and behaviour of children in schools.

“This includes investigating studies that have used Omega 3 and 6 fish oil supplements in schools.

“The Government is committed to ensuring children are provided with the healthy food and nutrients they require, not just to aid their physical health but to ensure they can study hard and behave well.”

But scientists warned last night that supplements would not solve the wider problem.
Professor Michael Crawford, one the UK's leading experts, said: “It is a proven fact that Omega 3 improves brain development. It is one of the fundamental building blocks of human and animal life.

“I would support giving a supplement of something like cod liver oil. We did it during the last war, for goodness sake, and it did us the power of good.

“It is only a sticking plaster, however. The much better alternative is eating a good mix of foods, coupled with teaching children and the general population about nutrition and diet.”

Professor Crawford is director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University.

He said: “We are in danger of creating generations who rely on pharmaceutical companies to be fed pills when what people really need is good food.

“Far better than supplements is eating fish and seafood, because they not only contain Omega 3 but also a wealth of trace elements which are important for the brain and body. If you just have the fish oil, you are only doing half the job.”

Professor Crawford said it would be far more effective to ensure that pregnant women have the important fatty acids. He said: “Evidence from Norway, where women were given supplements during pregnancy, found the children were better off in terms of IQ at four years of age.”


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Saturday, 10 June 2006 11:19
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
NEW COMPUTER GAMES “BOOST BRAIN POWER”
A new generation of computer games that claim to boost brain cells is being launched in the UK.

The games, which use logic and memory exercises, have already sold 2.4 million copies in Japan since they launched in May 2005.

The first title in the series, Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, was developed for Nintendo by Dr Kawashima, a leading Japanese brain expert.

Activities include solving simple maths problems, drawing pictures and reading classic literature. Players are awarded a brain age based on their performance. As the player achieves better scores, his or her brain age decreases.

The games have proved most popular among the 35 and above age group in Japan and they could prove to be a big success in the UK where research has shown that 60 per cent of adults feel like their memory is getting worse, and 32 per cent regularly forget important dates such as anniversaries, birthdays or appointments.


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Wednesday, 07 June 2006 12:46
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
GLOBAL NURSE SHORTAGES TO BE ADDRESSED
The World Health Organisation is to tell a conference in Scotland that a shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives has created an impending global crisis in healthcare.

A WHO report estimates that there is currently a global shortage of some four million health workers.

Dr Maunel Dayrit, director of the department of human resources for health at the WHO, and Judith Oulton of the International Council of Nurses, will address the three-day conference in Glasgow.

Dr Dayrit is expected to highlight 57 nations across the globe where a serious shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives is impairing the provision of lifesaving interventions such as child immunisation and safe pregnancy.

All countries need a well-developed plan to train the health workforce of the future and need more investment in the training and development of health workers now, he will say.

Prof Barbara Parfitt, dean of the university's school of nursing, midwifery and community health, said: "When people tend to think of healthcare overseas in developing nations it is equipment, drugs and doctors that are usually identified as the need.

"However, it is impossible to sustain any level of healthcare without support on the ground from nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals."

Dame Karlene Davis, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "Professional bodies can use their influence with governments in rich and poorer countries to ensure that every woman has access to a skilled health professional during pregnancy and childbirth."

Sylvia Denton, president of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "In today's global labour market, the way we deal with our health services at home has an impact on healthcare systems across the world."

Around half the nurses registered in the UK since 1997 have come from countries such as the Philippines, Australia, India, South Africa and other sub-Saharan African countries. Ghana has lost more than 1,000 nurses to the UK over the past eight years.

"That's a huge skills drain that the country can ill afford," Ms Denton said.

"At a time when there is a worldwide shortage of nurses, we need to become more self-sufficient and train our own nurses rather than recruiting from elsewhere," she added.


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Wednesday, 07 June 2006 12:28
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
NAMIBIA SUFFERS POLIO OUTBREAK
Namibia is suffering from its first polio outbreak in ten years, it has emerged.

"It is quite a setback for us. We were moving closer to achieving the status of polio eradication," health ministry official Dr Kalumbi Shangula said.

Seven people have died and 27 have been paralysed since mid-May. Most victims were aged over 20 and had missed out on under-five vaccination campaigns carried out since 1990.

Investigations have not been able to conclude whether the outbreak was due to faeces infested water or foodstuffs, or whether it had been brought in from outside the country.

"Preliminary results indicate a polio virus 1 Wild Type," Permanent Health Secretary Dr Shangula said

A mass public education and vaccination campaign targeting every citizen will be launched as soon as vaccines, logistics and financing have been arranged, he added.


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Tuesday, 06 June 2006 10:45
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
HEALTH FEARS OVER GIRLS' DIET
A survey has revealed that girls are living increasingly unhealthy lifestyles in a bid to lose weight.

The poll suggested that girls are skipping breakfast in order to slim down, while more and more are drinking spirits and experimenting with drugs such as cannabis.

The Schools Health Education Unit, an independent research group, has surveyed more than 700,000 pupil son health issues since 1977. In the last year, researchers questioned 17,743 pupils aged 10 – 15.

Almost 60 per cent of 14 and 15 year olds said they wanted to lose weight, despite the fact that the majority did not need to and some were even underweight.

Thirty per cent admitted they had skipped breakfast and 36 per cent of that group said they had missed lunch the previous day.

Nineteen per cent of the 14 – 15-year-old girls admitted to drinking one or more measures of spirits in the previous week. This compared to 13 per cent in 1991. For boys, 15 per cent had drunk spirits in the previous week compared to 13 per cent in 1991.

Five per cent of teenage girls knocked back five or more spirits in a week, 24 per cent drank at least one alcopop and 19 per cent had had at least one glass of wine. Four per cent had five or more glasses of wine in a week.

Slightly more teenage girls had consumed some alcohol in a week - 42 per cent compared to 40 per cent of boys of a similar age. And eight per cent drunk more than recommended levels.

Among younger age groups, eight per cent of 10 to 11-year-old boys had had an alcoholic drink in the last week compared to six per cent of their female counterparts.

Ten per cent of 12-13-year-old girls had smoked in the last week along with 24 per cent of the older girls. The figures for boys were six per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

Some 13 per cent of the older girls smoked up to 25 cigarettes a week and four per cent had 66 or more.

About one in five of boys and girls aged 14-15 had tried at least one drug.

Cannabis was the most popular among both sexes, with 24 per cent of girls aged 14-15 admitting to having tried it compared to 21 per cent of boys.

Six per cent of 12 to 13-year-old boys and girls have taken Cannabis and up to 17 per cent of 14 to 15-year-olds have mixed alcohol and drugs on the same evening.

Dr David Regis, research manager of the Schools Health Education Unit, said that some girls could be getting into difficulty due to their lifestyles.

He said: "Crash dieting and excess alcohol - if that's where they're going, then they will be storing up problems.

"If they're going to adopt this binge drinking culture of the current 18 to 24-year-olds, they're going to get into health problems later on."

He added: "To a certain extent, the girls are being precocious.

"They're probably mixing with older boys, they're looking at the behaviour of 18 to 24-year-olds and they're getting on with becoming like the generation above them."


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Tuesday, 06 June 2006 10:07
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
DOCTORS RENEW CALL FOR ‘ZERO TOLERANCE' ON VIOLENCE, BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
Doctors’ leaders in Wales will today renew their call for a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ on violence, bullying and harassment in the workplace. BMA Cymru Wales’ call comes on the day that the Assembly is set to debate the safety of public sector staff.

A recent study by the British Medical Association revealed that 1 in 4 NHS staff have been bullied and harassed by patients and their relatives and nearly 1 in 7 report similar experiences from other members of staff.

Previous research into violence against doctors found that more than a third of respondents had experienced some form of violence in the workplace with almost all being the victim of some form of verbal abuse, threats and physical assaults.

Welsh Secretary of the BMA, Dr Richard Lewis said: “No-one working in a hospital or GP practice should have to put up with the threat of physical or verbal abuse. We’re talking about people who go to work in order to try to alleviate pain and treat ill-health – the fact that they may expect to be punched, kicked or shouted at cannot be tolerated. Doctors and other healthcare workers must be able to work in a safe environment. Attacks on, threats to, and verbal abuse of, doctors cannot be tolerated. We must not allow this situation to drift; it must not come to the point where violence against doctors is accepted as part of the job.

“This is why a policy of 'zero tolerance' is desperately needed.”

Chairman of the BMA's Welsh Council added: "Bullying can take many forms and does not always present as physical or verbal abuse. Mental bullying can be just as devastating to the victim and can lead to serious mental difficulty if it is not addressed.

"There has to be a zero tolerance to such behaviour with a clearly defined and confidential process available for victims to report instances when they occur."

The BMA report has described several ways forward, these include:

· Every NHS organisation, including all deaneries and those involved in training, should have a policy for dealing with bullying and harassment at work. This should also include the provision of support and relevant contacts who can be approached to deal with the situation appropriately;

· Guidance aimed at the specific issues facing students may prevent bullying and harassment at medical school;

· Training for staff must be specific and appropriate and updated regularly;

· Appropriate personal development and training must be invested in senior medical staff to enable them to take on managerial roles and express their authority tactfully;

· If the problem of bullying and harassment in the workplace is to be successfully tackled, support must be provided for all involved parties. This includes confidential, non-judgemental support for the victim and also remedial support for those who are responsible for the bullying. Furthermore, third parties who are aware of the bullying and harassment should feel empowered to challenge the situation or report it to an appropriate manager or colleague.


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Monday, 05 June 2006 10:48
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
NHS CASH CRISIS MEANS NO JOBS FOR CONSULTANTS
The NHS’s financial crisis has left dozens of trainee consultants without a job, Britain’s most senior surgeon has warned.

Bernard Ribeiro, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said hospitals cannot afford to employ surgeons who have passed their consultant exams, leaving 37 cardiothoracic surgeons, 12 neurosurgeons and 35 ear, nose and throat specialists facing unemployment.

"Trusts are not employing new surgeons because simply the money is not there. The net result is that there are 37 cardiac surgeons who are qualified to be consultants who have not got a job; 12 neurosurgeons; and in ENT, 35 specialists who have no jobs in the UK. All have their certificate, all are available for a job - and there are no jobs for them" he said.

Mr Ribeiro told the Guardian that the vacancy freeze was having a knock on effect on junior doctors’ training, with two thousand junior surgeons unable to move into higher surgical training because the registrars above them are unable to become consultants.

Under reforms to doctors’ training to be introduced in August 2007, the old system of a six-year training scheme will be replaced by a five-year specialist training programme which will allow junior doctors to become consultants in just seven years.

Doctors trained under the old system who have not gained an old-style training post by the time the scheme runs out have been told they will be able to enter the new scheme - perhaps at a higher point - but they face fierce competition.

Mr Ribeiro said: “Theoretically what's going to happen to them is they're going to be asked to review their career prospects: are you sure you want to be a surgeon? Then they're going to be told: there are no opportunities for you in training. Have you considered ... progressing your career through the service grades, where there may be opportunities for you later on to transfer over to training?

"I think we were sold a bit of a lie that there would be free transgression of trainees moving across from one side to another. In reality, once you get into training, you're not going to opt out and allow somebody else to take your place for a while. I mean, let's be realistic.

“There will be opportunities for trainees in the training ladder perhaps to take a year overseas to enhance their training ... but to sort of imply that that would allow somebody to come in and do the whole of their training and then move on is I think a bit disingenuous." The RCS president warned of a "brain drain" of surgeons unable to find employment fleeing to Australia, Canada or the US, as they did in the 1960s.

He added that the new training, called Modernising Medical Careers, and the European working time directive, will lead to far more specialised training coupled with far fewer hours’ experience.


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Wednesday, 31 May 2006 10:38
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
HOSPITALS ‘UNPREPARED FOR TERRORIST ATTACK’
Emergency measures for dealing with a terrorist attack on a British hospital are “vastly inadequate”, experts have claimed.

NHS emergency plans contain little planning to manage the risk of a direct hit by terrorists, according to a report, Thinking the Unthinkable: The NHS and Terrorist Action, by Glasgow University Professor Chris Johnson and Charles Hancock, from Loughborough University.

The authors used potential scenarios and computer simulations of evacuation procedures to assess how long it would take to evacuate patients from the hospital building.

They found that it would take nearly six times longer to evacuate a ward with immobile patients than one treating people who could walk.

Current NHS emergency procedures needed to be reviewed urgently to address the "very real risk" of terrorist attack, said Mr Hancock.

"Most of the NHS's risk management work focuses on the role of healthcare workers in the response to a major terrorist incident, but planning and training scenarios rarely consider what might happen if an NHS facility were itself the target of an attack," he said.

"Its emergency plans concentrate on low-intensity, isolated incidents which are caused accidentally."

"Only key individuals, those who it is assumed will play critical roles in any evacuation, undergo training" he said.


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Sunday, 28 May 2006 08:41
BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
GERMAN GPS DRAFTED IN
Due to a shortage of local GPs in Scotland many of the health boards have employed doctors from Germany to cover out-of-hours services.

An investigation by the newspaper the Sunday Herald revealed that in the past year six health boards have had to draft in doctors from Europe to cover emergency GP services, mostly for unpopular working times such as bank holidays and weekends.

Politicians yesterday called for more to be done to tackle the shortage of doctors in Scotland. The Conservatives’ health spokeswoman, Nanette Milne, said: “There was inevitably going to be some problems, particularly in the more remote and rural areas, in getting people. It is concerning that we have to rely on what seems to be a fairly significant number of people from abroad.

“The Executive has to review the whole situation and try and find an appropriate solution.”

SNP health spokeswoman Shona Robison said: “These figures come at a time when the Home Office has introduced a requirement of work permits for training posts in the UK for doctors who do not have UK residency or do not come from the EEA [European Economic Area].

“This may reduce the number of medical graduates working in the NHS in Scotland. When the Scottish health service is crying out for more doctors we should not be putting barriers in their way.”

NHS Grampian yesterday refused to reveal how much it spent on hiring locums from abroad, but admitted it relied on agency doctors to keep its out-of-hours service running.

A spokeswoman said: “We have 17 salaried GPs to undertake various shifts for our out-of-hours service.

“The remainders of these shifts are offered to our local GPs, who numbers about 600 people, but only 10% of them ever regularly commit to doing that. So you wouldn’t be able to run the service without the use of agency doctors”.
   


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