Children are missing out on vital eye health care because parents believe they will get eye tests at school. A report released by the Association of Optometrists (AOP) shows that more than half (52%) of parents with school age children thought their child would have a full sight test at primary school. Yet, sight tests […]
A leading medical ethicist lists his top 5 ethical issues in medicine today and in the near future. 1. Medical errors No one knows exactly how many people are killed each year by medical errors, but it is in the hundreds of thousands in the United States and tens of thousands in the United Kingdom. […]
Dame Stephanie Shirley, CH, thinks the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) has been well worth joining. Some years ago, I was invited to dine at a London club and, liking its professional atmosphere and indeed its siting in Wimpole Street, asked about the conditions of membership. “Doctors, dentists and veterinary surgeons”, I was told by my […]
Read More… from Dame Stephanie Shirley: in praise of the RSM
It’s no secret that Brexit and the falling pound, making it less advantageous for EU citizens to work in the UK, are having a detrimental effect on staff recruitment within care homes. Recent data shows that currently seven per cent (95,000) of the social care workforce in the UK are from the EU. With care homes […]
Back in the 1970s breastfeeding rates were incredibly low. Only around 28% of women in the UK breastfed their babies and that figure included mothers who stopped after the first few feeds. At that time so many mothers formula fed that pregnant women might never have seen a breastfeeding baby, and they often had the […]
The current epidemic of knife crime in the UK raises a number of issues surrounding causation, prevention, and from a medical point of view, dealing with the casualties. Knife crime in the UK is becoming a big public issue. England and Wales have seen the largest recorded increase of 22% – this figure was revealed amid […]
“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance,” cried Jane Austen. Inelegance is the least of some people’s worries when it comes to the hot weather. For some health conditions, a heatwave can be distressing, and even dangerous. Seven health conditions that are harder to cope with in […]
Read More… from Dealing with illness in dreadful hot weather
Professor Paul Cosford, medical director of Public Health England, continues his occasional series on his experience as a patient with cancer and describes his first meeting with his palliative care team. It is almost a year since I was told I have incurable lung cancer. Bad news, as a non-smoking 55 year old, but in […]
Read More… from Paul Cosford: Meeting my palliative care team
Nicotine exposure during pregnancy, whether from smoking cigarettes, or nicotine patches and e-cigarettes, increases risk of sudden infant death syndrome – sometimes known as “cot death” – according to new research published in The Journal of Physiology. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and unexpected death of an infant under 12 months of […]
Read More… from Nicotine in pregnancy increases risk of cot death
‘IVF: 6 Million Babies Later’ is a major, new exhibition at London’s Science Museum exploring the remarkable story of the invention of in-vitro fertilization, (IVF), in the United Kingdom and the first “test-tube” baby, Louise Brown, born 40 years ago, on 25 July 1978. Since Louise’s ‘miraculous’ birth, more than eight million children have been born by […]