Scrap 'outdated' charging for prescriptions in England, say family doctors

The ‘outdated and iniquitous’ NHS prescription charge should be scrapped, a GP has said.

England remains the only country in the UK still stumping up for the ‘tax’ on medicines.

The latest figures for 2012 show that 80 per cent of those aged 18 to 59 had to pay for their drugs.

The £8.05 charge compares starkly with the cost of many commonly prescribed drugs that are now off patent, according to Dr James Cave, editor of the journal Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.

There are a host of exemptions to the charge – including age and pregnancy – but these extend to unrelated conditions. In an editorial, Dr Cave said many exemptions appear ‘illogical’.

He added: ‘It is time that politicians showed their commitment to a patient-centred NHS and abolished prescription charges in England.’

The prescription charge has long been a contentious issue, says DTB, and even contributed to the resignation of Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS, in 1951.

[via - dailymail.co.uk]

End-of-life care 'deeply concerning'

The care given to people dying in hospital is "deeply concerning", according to doctors who have carried out a review of standards in England.

The audit found only a fifth of hospitals provided specialist end-of-life care seven days a week - 10 years after this was recommended.

Communication was also particularly poor, the joint Royal College of Physicians and Marie Curie review said.

More than 500,000 people die each year in England - half of them in hospital.

The review looked at the care given to more than 6,500 people who had died last year in 149 hospitals.

Some but not all of them had been on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway.

This covers care given during the final stages of life and can involve withdrawal of medication, food and fluids, but is being phased out following criticism about how it was being used.

More than 800 bereaved relatives were also asked for their views. Three-quarters said they felt supported during their loved-one's final two days of life.

[via - bbc.com]

Scientists find cocaine in UK's water

In a study assessing the dangers associated pharmaceutical contaminants in Britain's water, scientists found traces of the drug cocaine still present after the water had gone through an intensive purification process.

Experts from the Drinking Water Inspectorate found traces of the compound benzoylecgonine — the metabolised by product of cocaine and the same composite searched for in common urine-based drug tests.

Speaking with the UK's Sunday Times, Steve Rolls from the drug-policy thinktank Transform said the startling results were an indication of scale of the drug's use in the Britain.

"We have the near highest level of cocaine use in western Europe," Mr Rolls told the newspaper.

"It has also been getting cheaper and cheaper at the same time as its use has been going up."

The newspaper also quoted the charity DrugScope saying that nearly 700,000 UK residents aged between 16-59 use cocaine every year.......

[via - health.msn.co.nz]

Elderly face paying £140,000 bill before reaching social care cap

ELDERLY people face spending around £140,000 on residential care before they hit the cap on social care costs, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) warned in a report released today.

The sum is almost double the £72,000 figure the cap will be set at when it comes into force in 2016 and could increase to around £250,000 if an individual is in long-term care for 10 years.

This is because the cap only covers the cost of care set at local authority prices and does not include daily living costs such as food and accommodation.

A person entering a home in London aged 85 is expected to reach the cap in around four years and pay around £117,000 whereas a person in the Midlands would face costs of around £170,000 but take seven years to hit the cap. ......

[via - cityam.com]

'Horrors Of War Take Toll On UK Troops'

The number of Afghanistan veterans seeking mental health support has risen significantly, according to new figures.

Charity Combat Stress said 358 ex-military personnel sought help for mental illness last year, compared with 228 in 2012.

The majority of those veterans were treated for post traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety.

The charity's chief executive, Commodore Andrew Cameron, warned that the numbers are likely to increase over the coming years.

"With demand for our services already surging, Combat Stress faces a real challenge in continuing to provide our unique life changing clinical treatment and support services to those who need it," he said.

"We are planning for services at or above the current level for at least the next five years, and we do not expect to see demand for support tail-off in the near future."

Commodore Cameron said one fifth of all veterans are likely to suffer from mental illness......

[via - news.sky.com]

Taking aspirin just once a month 'can cut risk of cancer by a quarter'

Popping an aspirin just once a month could cut people's chances of developing cancer by almost a quarter, new research suggests.

According to scientists at Queen's University in Belfast, a weekly or even monthly dose of the over-the-counter painkiller could help people avoid developing tumours.

Their investigation indicated that a regular dose of aspirin could reduce people's risk of getting head and neck cancer by 22 per cent.

Read More....

[via - Dailymail.co.uk]

Researchers Recognized Blood Orange Gene

British experts are seeing red and this could cause to better red orange juice.

This can be done by changing the genes of the fruit and by doing this, experts want to convert conventional fruit into blood oranges.

Heart diseases and being obese can be dealt with the exclusive red shade and it is considered to have various relevant health and fitness benefits. The bad consequences of the fat-laden fry-up can be decreased with red fruit juice, according to one latest analysis.

The genes make oranges red, according to professionals and they have also determined out how can this gene be activated and by doing this even the conventional orange varieties can get assisted.

It is in the foothills of Set up Etna in Sicily in the Med and beyond sea where blood orange can be produced over the reverse as they need a time period of cold temperature to get prepared and there is also a price change in the fruit juice of blood orange as a carton can cost about £1 more than conventional orange juice.

Professor Cathie Martin, who led the analysis group from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, said, "Blood oranges contain natural colors associated with enhanced cardio health, handling diabetic issues and decreasing chances of being obese."

Kids End Up with Being Obese from Parents

Making an extremely significant finding, a lately performed 20-year long research, which was carried out by scientists from the Glasgow University, has unveiled that more than of 9% of kids having mother and father who fall under normal-weight classification were usually obese, when analyzed against 24% of kids having mother and father who were relatively obese or just obese.

During the prolonged research, the scientists examined in 1,500 family members all over the western side of Scotland and discovered that around 17% of females were obese, though that data increased to 20% among their kids, which is clearly far higher as opposed to results of obesity cases among moms and sons, or among men and youngsters, for that subject. The scientists believed that though inherited factors also tend to play an important role in interpreting and impacting obesity, the girl or boy factor are required more often than not, mainly due to the truth that youngsters are fed by various methods.

Women were more predicted to charm a similar bodyweight to that of their mother, and the majority of scientists presented the viewpoint that it could perhaps be because of the truth that moms almost always pass on their cooking methods as well as food choices to their girl child and usually not to their boys.

While revealing her viewpoint in this reverence, Dr. Jennifer Logue, Glasgow University's scientific lecturer in chemistry and metabolic remedies, believed that, "It's not the entire inhabitants that have got larger over the last 20 years, but those who were obese seem to have got even larger. Within these family members, of the people whose mother and father were big, the youngsters are now even bigger".

However, a more powerful connection was found between moms and their daughters' bodyweight as when in comparison to various other groups of family members.

Increased Coffee Consumption Not Good For Expectant Mums, Study Says

A latest Scottish analysis has showed that consuming coffee could be damaging for expectant mothers. Many individuals are not conscious that the levels of coffee differ from one manufacturer to other.

Women unacquainted with the fact and consume coffee in large amount and put the life of the child at risk. For the analysis, the experts of Glasgow University obtained 20 single-shot espressos samples from different take-away coffee sites in the metropolis.

It was discovered that the quantity of caffeine was 200mg in every fifth sample of coffee. The Food Standards Agency advises a highest possible quantity of 200mg of coffee per day. Greater consumption of coffee can cause distress in expectant mothers. Chest pain, panic and stress and headache are some of the common issues experienced by the pregnant women after taking high quantity of coffee.

Many are not conscious that large quantity of coffee can lead to lower weight of baby. Further, health issues like high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease can also take place in the later on in life of the baby.

It has been advised that during the analysis, most of the espressos contain 51mg of caffeine but four such cases were found where caffeine level is than 200mg, in one specimen the caffeine level was found to be 322mg.

Higher quantity of caffeine can also be damaging for women taking oral contraceptives, kids and for liver patients. The experts have recommended that in-depth analysis should be carried out so that the quantity of caffeine in all the coffee shops should be checked. While determining the analysis, the experts stated, "It looks that there is a lot of difference in the coffee offered to individuals and there at present no method for them to check that how much caffeine is involved in their drinks".