100 posts
Central Europe Doctors Threaten to Emigrate in Search of Better Pay
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Medical doctors of four central European countries held peaceful demonstrations Tuesday in their countries demanding an increase of their low wages or else they'll emigrate.
Piratpartiet tar ställning för en rimligare narkotikapolitik
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Piratpartiets medlemsmöte, som just nu pågår på nätet, har antagit det här ställningstagandet: Användning och innehav av enstaka doser narkotika för eget bruk avkriminaliseras, utan att drogerna i sig för den skull legaliseras. Omyndiga per...
Wrongly excluded, rightly compensated: is "but for" the best solution?
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Professors can makeexcellent Kats ... The IPKat is always thrilled to hear from former members of his blogging team, so it was with great excitement that he opened today's unexpected and unsolicited email from Professor Norman V. Siebrasse, one of t...
Tory tells chemo patient: stop “scaremongering” on cancer cuts
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A senior Tory councillor has accused a colleague undergoing chemotherapy of “scaremongering” over a decision to cut treatment that has “helped her to keep her alive”. At a council meeting in Thurrock, Labour councillor Diana Hale was seeking...
The EU ready to fight back on ractopamine use in the aftermath of the Codex vote
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Following the vote at the Codex Alimentarius, the European Union reaffirms its position against the use of ractopamine, a controversial veterinary drug hat boasts growth and increasing leanness in pigs. It questions not only the legitimacy of a Codex...
Why Estonia's national health strike is such a big deal | Silja-Riin Voolma
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Estonia should prioritise its poorly paid health workers and meet strikers' demands rather than courting EU budgetary favourEstonians are not known for their political activism. We are a calm people with a deep mistrust in government, and usually bel...
Deputy Health Minister Marios Salmas threatens Pharmacists Union President
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According to a report , posted earlier today in iatronet.gr news portal, Athens Pharmacists Union President Mr. Konstantinos Lourantos sent ... Continue reading...
Life after the rehab
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The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has published last week a new 'insights' study on the social reintegration of drug users. Since the 90s the new, better policies that promote treatment increased the chances of over...
A healthy EU policy environment to feed us in 2013?
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Much to the chagrin of those who believe better regulation is less regulation, if there’s one thing that Brussels does well it’s churn out rules. The global economy may tank, the wheels may fall off the banking system but those who lunch on legis...
Eating Healthily on Holiday
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You have to pig out on junk food for two weeks just because you're on holiday. There are many ways to stay healthy no matter where you're going. It couldn't be easier to try tasty, yet healthy food on holiday, with various hotels available.
Australia Announces Review of Pharmaceutical Patents
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In the search for the cure for Tasmania, patents are often considered an important incentive for innovation. This makes IP Australia's announcement of a review of Pharmaceutical Patents an intriguing development. The review will focus on three...
Addressing mental health issues in the workplace
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Employers should take steps to look after their employees' wellbeing, not only to reduce the risk of legal claims but also to decrease sickness absences and improve morale and productivity, writes Richard Nicolle...
"When Policy ignores Evidence: Badgers and Austerity" by Simon Wren-Lewis
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In the wood next to our house live at least one fox and maybe some badgers. We have seen badgers around, but it was only this summer that we first saw a badger walking (or more accurately sniffing) its way through our garden. It caused great exciteme...
Russia Takes on Smoking
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In political economy theory, democracy is said to have the drawback of excessive consumption of public revenues at the expense of investment, such as in infrastructure relevant to foreign direct investment. Latin American countries were contrasted ne...
Eucomed: proposed overhaul of EU reg system mostly positive with one caveat
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With Eucomed’s annual MedTech Forum underway in Brussels this week, the European medtech trade association’s director of regulatory and technical affairs John Brennan gives the industry view on what is undoubtedly the hottest discussion t...
Access all ages?
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Last week the Secretary of State for Health made a commitment to make the NHS the “best in the world at looking after older people”. Today, the health and wellbeing of our ageing society occupies a space in the political and public imagination...
Labour must rebuild the NHS !
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By Pat Smith, delegate from Hull North CLP We have succeeded in forcing a debate on rebuilding the NHS onto the agenda of Labour Party conference. Despite the weather, up to 200 people took part in Sunday’s lobby of the conference, organised by the...
EU to help boost effectiveness of Botswana's fight against HIV
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The Head of Delegation of the EU Mission to Botswana and Southern African Development Committee, Gerard McGovern has said that some €11.6 million (over P100 million) will be provided to Botswana to fight HIV-linked infant and maternal mortality.
Population: the future is caring | Danny Dorling
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Don't panic. An ageing population is good news for the environment, for growth and for childcareA new report that came out on Monday from the UN focused, like most new reports, on something we already knew. The great news is that by 2050 there are ex...
Píldoras amargas de la mala ciencia farmacéutica
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Los medicamentos no son testados mediante ensayos experimentales por equipos científicos independientes que tienen una única vocación de hacer prevalecer los valores epistemológicos del conocimiento y la búsqueda de verdades sobre sus efectos en...
Still more deadly booze
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POLICE have busted two people suspected in bootleg booze deaths (at least 26 of them by now) that have shaken the Czech Republic. But officers also warn that as many as 15,000 liters of deadly liquor may still be on the market a...
France: Study Shows GM Corn Fed Rats Display Higher Tumors Levels
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Guillaume Malaurie reports that [fr] a team of French researchers led by Pr. Gilles-Eric Séralini found that laboratory rats fed with a steady diet of Monsanto genetically modified corn displayed higher levels of tumors and multiple organ damage tha...
All change in health and social care
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It is all change in the NHS. The Health and Social Care Act has fundamentally recasts the relationship between politicians and the NHS, reshaped the structures of the health service and irrevocably levelled the playing field for competing providers...
An unusually free speaking minister
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Headlining Anna Soubry’s constituency newsletter are two quotes about the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health: “She has a record of unusually free speech” (Simon Carr, The Independent) and “The beating heart of the parliamen...
Neoliberalism, Degrowth and the Fate of Health Systems
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See on Scoop.it – The Great Transition “Degrowth recognizes that humanity’s access to the earth’s resources and services of the biosphere are constraints upon socioeconomic activity. It also holds that politics and economics c...
Health minister Anna Soubry gets it wrong on Celebrity Squares
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Having finally admitted that the government “screwed up” its health reforms (despite supporting the bill) it appears that newly promoted health minister Anna Soubry has form for getting things wrong. In a clip apparently doing the rounds...
2nd HEC Paris Workshop on Regulation - Regulating Lifestyle Risks in Europe
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We are ready to welcome you to the 2nd HEC Paris Workshop on Regulation that will take place on September 20-21, 2012 at Le Château within HEC main campus. The final program is available and registration is closed.
New Tory health minister admits govt “screwed up” on NHS reforms
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A Tory MP who was promoted in the recent reshuffle to a junior role in the Department for Health has made an extraordinarily frank admission on the government’s controversial changes to the NHS. Speaking in a Q&A session on the reforms at a...
A doctor in the (Richmond) house
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In the past few days on this blog, colleagues have written about the new ministerial team at the Department of Health, looking at the challenges facing Jeremy Hunt and considering how Norman Lamb might approach his new role. Today, we want to look...
Relevant Goals As To Exactly Why Working Out Is Important
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While each of us is aware of the value of having a regular exercise when it comes to maintaining good health, it just cannot be denied that most people find exercise at home to be boring and annoying. These people cannot be blamed in thinking this wa...
Bart: A Belgian Lightweight
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A prominent Belgian politician spills the beans on how he lost 60 kilograms.
Healthy school meals? Gove slammed over donations from pizza tycoons
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Michael Gove has come under fire after accepting £55,000 in donations from fast food tycoons. The constituency party of the education secretary received the money from the largest single shareholder in Domino’s Pizza UK and an owner of 22 Dom...
Even Tory grassroots think Cameron was wrong to give Hunt health
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Jeremy Hunt’s sudden promotion to Health Secretary raised many eyebrows across Westminster — and it seems that Conservative members and supporters share that concern. In a poll by Tory grassroots website ConservativeHome, voters said by...
The politics of the health reshuffle
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Yesterday I looked at the major challenges facing Jeremy Hunt in his new role. These are, inevitably, policy challenges. But what of the politics underpinning the reshuffle and how will they affect the politics of health? A shock? The appointment...
Hunt believes in homeopathy, but not in the NHS
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Jeremy Hunt, the new health secretary allegedly objected (as culture secretary) to the scenes in Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening pageant that celebrated the NHS. The allegation has been made by Labour’s Andy Burnham and I have no way of ver...
In the Hunt: what are the big issues facing the new Health ministerial team?
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After a tumultuous and often bloody couple of years, the Department of Health has a new ministerial team. Jeremy Hunt, Norman Lamb, Anna Soubry and Dan Poulter are the new faces, with the widely respected Freddie Howe the only returner. From encycl...
US health care - can it get any worse?
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The US health care system ranks worst on all possible dimensions...Source: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, 2010 Update June 23, 2010Authors: Karen Davis, Ph.D., Cathy Schoen, M...
The Future of Fat Taxes after Denmark's withdrawal of its fiscal scheme
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Less than one year after introducing its ‘fat tax’ scheme, Denmark is widely expected to scrap the tax. Unfortunately, politics rather than an evidence-based policy assessment loom behind such an outcome.
Thalidomide: insult added to injury
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“How do you wrestle with your conscience when the injustice you have perpetuated has destroyed the lives of children and left thousands of thalidomide victims still enduring pain and suffering, without adequate compensation?” – Sir...
The Future of Fat Taxes after Denmark's withdrawal of its fiscal scheme
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Less than one year after introducing its ‘fat tax’ scheme, Denmark is widely expected to scrap the tax. Unfortunately, politics rather than an evidence-based policy assessment loom behind such an outcome.
Health insurance would be a lot less expensive if it covered only the kinds of risks that can involve heavy costs
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Insurance is all about risk writes Thomas Sowell. Yet neither insurance companies nor their policy-holders can do anything about one of the biggest risks -- namely, interference by politicians, to turn insurance into something other than a device t...
But Apart From That Pesky Little Detail, Europe's Health Care System Is Unquestionably a Model for America to Follow
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Run-of-the-mill complaints about inadequate health services only add to the prevailing disenchantment in Norway, reports The Economist.
Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework Domain 4: Never again - preventing another Winterbourne View
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The recent conviction of 11 people accused of maltreating patients at Winterbourne View has brought into sharp focus the importance of effective safeguarding measures in social care settings. The Government has already published its i read more...
No miracle cure
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IN JULY I went to my local hospital in Warsaw for a scheduled operation to remove a metal support pin from my once-broken leg. I checked in on a Tuesday. On the Wednesday morning, the doctor told me they had a glut of more urgent procedures to get th...
AIDs in Europe
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AIDs is a very serious condition and one that can potentially ruin a person’s life. Fortunately awareness of the problem and publicity regarding the importance of using protection and generally being cautious, has helped to reduce the preval...
Is living longer still worth it?
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European consumers shop not only for various goods, but also for services and soon an increase of interest in purchasing new insurance policies among European women is to be expected. Why? As of 21 December 2012, on the basis of the CJEU's judgement...
Has NHS ‘liberation’ created a communications vacuum?
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For politicians, the concept of setting the NHS free from political control was superficially very attractive. NHS professionals and managers have long disliked political interference and the public – always confused by NHS structures and...
Improving health through online services
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Summer holiday of the EU allows me to catch up with certain EU consumer policies that I have missed previously this year. I thought I would share with my readers, the results of the Citizen Panel Survey that assess the patients' needs and expectation...
Spain: “Health Disobedience” in the Face of Massive Cuts
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Independent groups of public health workers and participants have created a digital platform to protest against the recent health reform. The movement is named "I say yes to universal health" and its main proposal is civil disobedience and to object...
Parents can't end Britain's child obesity epidemic alone | Karen Le Billon
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Healthy eating starts at home, as children in France learn, but the state has a role in creating a positive food culture for kids"To what degree are parents responsible for rapidly rising rates of child overweight and obesity? Are parents of severely...
Anti-smoking campaigners 'hooked on legislation'
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As a UK government consultation on plain packaging for cigarettes ends, Christopher Snowdon wonders why anti-smoking campaigners are addicted to new legislation even when bereft of empirical evidence to support their claims...
Policy-makers ignoring dental health in Europe
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Oral health is an integral part of general health and the two cannot be tackled seperately by politicians and the EU - warns Dr Wolfgang Doneus...
The scar across the Atlantic.
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A bloke with a beard writes on Marketwatch.com about differences between US and European attitudes to healthcare here.
Tackling the rise of counterfeit medicines
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A recent report published by the European Commission showed the growing threat of counterfeit medicines ordered over the internet – and industry bodies must work together to tackle the problem, writes Camilla Kent Hansen...
Implementing better mental health – meeting the local challenge
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Last month on this blog I wrote that addressing the challenge of mental ill health over the coming years would require different systems and organisations to work together in a more cohesive way. In practice, this needs to include linked perform...
