100 posts
Uniform Codeine Regulation Needed
As some of you may be aware I work for a pharmacy chain. As part of my job I cover the Pharmacy Counter. As of the 1st of August new regulations came in on the supply of products containing Codeine. This has created some confusion which is not helped...
Is nursing war by another means?
It has been reported by EUReferendum and by the Daily Express in the UK, that EU law is preventing safety checks (and in the caase of the Daily Express), language checks on nurses from other EU countries that want to be registered as nurses in the UK...
Whisper it: Our health service is actually quite good.
Noel Whelan makes a very good point about cancer services in this piece, and also a general observation about media attitudes towards health-care in this country. It’s almost impossible to read a positive story in the Irish media about healt...
New tools needed to relieve malaria burden in Africa, study finds
Researchers in the UK have demonstrated that the tools currently available for combating malaria could dramatically reduce the burden of malignant malaria on parts of Africa if a comprehensive, sustained intervention programme were in place.
EU Opens Access to Studies on Drug Side Effects
The European Medicines Agency agreed to make available reports on possible side effects of drugs it has on file, adding a significant weapon to the arsenal of citizens pursuing lawsuits against drug companies.
"scientifically proved to be effective and safe"
This will be fun.According to the Eurpopean Communities Health Care Scheme (JSIS). Money spent on homeopathic remedies will be reimbursed if it,"has been scientifically proved to be effective and safe."We have sent in a question asking how many homeo...
Public Health, Private choice.
You know when it a quite news period when Professor Steve Field's comments get front page staus in the Observer. There is so much wrong with his articlem, after a couple of basic platitudes that I leave it to the far more erudite Longrider to point y...
We are all Roma now
Recent events in France, Italy, Denmark and elsewhere have shown that discrimination against Roma is growing. But the Roma are a vanguard experiencing the prejudices any European citizen might come to face in another country - we must act to defend t...
Commissioner Piebalgs pushes for maternal and child health
From 24th to 26th July, European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will address the 15th African Union Summit in Kampala, Uganda. Maternal, infant and child health will be the core theme of the meeting gathering the 53 African Union Memb...
Seen this somewhere before?
Interesting to see that the Daily Mail yesterday ran a story that you read about on Ooh, Brussels! MORE THAN TWO WEEKS AGO. In its typical Europhobic tone, the Mail’s article talked about the £12m “squandered” on the study, as repo...
Science+Europe=accuracy fail
I went to a very interesting event about science journalism in the UK last year at the Royal Institution which I blogged about about the time. One of my conclusions was that many of the issues faced by science journalism reflect very closely issues f...
Elif: Turkey on the ‘fruit era’ (!)
The prime minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a shocking speech about drinking in the meeting of World Health Organization (WHO) at which he received a special award from the WHO for his championing of Turkey’s indoor smoking ban. Erdo...
Are potatoes the root of all evil?
The chiropracter sorting my RSI said to me that he wanted to test whether I was sugar sensitive, and that I can’t physically deal with all the stress I’m under at present. Tell me something I don’t know… I should explain, la...
EU: No more mad cows
It seems such a long time ago that Mad Cow Disease first hit the headlines and British beef was demonised across the world. Now, the EU is considering relaxing the rules it put in place to stop the spread of BSE all those years ago. In fact the Europ...
Dope update
As you may have seen, the European Court of Justice made its ruling on the case I mentioned on Tuesday regarding Dutch authorities closing down a coffeeshop which sold marijuana to foreigners. The ruling, from Advocate-General Yves Bot, caught some c...
Bird flu - mistakes made, and lessons to be learnt
Some interesting news from last week's meeting of Health ministers, where they discussed the reaction to the H1N1 (bird flu) pandemic and by all accounts concluded that by acting together the EU's Member States could have negotiated better terms with...
Feeling a little light headed?
The extent of the EU’s commitment to people’s freedom to buy and sell without barriers could even be extended to marijuana. The European Court of Justice is due to rule on Thursday on whether a Dutch law banning “coffee” shops...
More of our money spent on adverts
Still waiting for compensation Just as the British government slashes the amount it spends on information and advertising, the EU announces a two-year €1million (about £850,000) campaign putting up posters and handing out leaflets at railway stati...
Interview: Against medical tourism…
Towards equal medical treatment. French MEP Bernadette Vergnaud talks about harmonising medical treatments to stop citizens from hospital shopping in other EU countries. Here comes EuroparlTV reportage.
‘Hard-core’ lobbying: “voting recommendations” sent to MEPs on food labelling regulation
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has collected more than twenty e-mails from industry lobbyists with “voting recommendations” for MEPs ahead of the ENVI committee vote, in March 2010, on the ‘Sommer report’ about the new EU regulation on fo...
Well-being Directive Proposal expected with great concern
In these times of crisis and general concern for the future, the European Commission has decided to take a positive approach by working on a new Directive aimed at promoting the mental and physical state of Europeans. At the moment the draft proposal...
Tobacco on Trial
EUobserver has reported that a Belgian Court has referred questions to the European Court concerning a case taken there by anti-smoking campaigners fighting to get a judicial ban on the sale of cigarettes and the collection of tax on their sale. The...
Students, Free Movement, Discrimination and Restrictions: Case C-73/08
The Court of Justice has handed down an important and interesting judgment on the right of a member State to restrict the number of students coming from other member States. In its judgment in Case C-73/08 Nicolas Bressol and others...
The Sad Story of Women Who Abort IVF Babies
This piece “Scandal of aborted IVF babies” appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times today. It is, in my view, a rather tragic story about women who had undergone IVF treatment, both privately and on the NHS, and subsequently decided not t...
The Law and Science of Plain Tobacco Packaging
In a bid to reduce smoking rates, Australia is set to become the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.
Can I have one please
A "vibro-acoustic body pillow". Sounds fun don't you think?But I am a little concerned with the editorial policy in Oxfordshire,CHILDREN with impairments can now chill out in a therapeutic room designed specially to stimulate them. What does that mea...
Dreadful populism
The Maltese EU| Commissioner John Dalli is all hot and bothered at the intrangisant attitude of the Bulgarians,“It is a pity that the Bulgarian cabinet has taken such a decision, being apparently driven by populist reasons. I personally would have...
Latest EU passive smoking stuff
I will admit to being a little confyused over claims by the EU today about passive smoking,this is what they say,Smoking affects non-smokers too. According to conservative estimates, 79,000 adults, including 19 000 non-smokers, died in the EU-25 in 2...
The regulatory challenge of BPA
The use of Bisphenol A (or BPA) in certain packaging materials such as polycarbonate baby bottles and cans is becoming one of the most controversial issues in food (packaging) safety around the globe. BPA is a chemical building block that is used pri...
Council conclusions: The role of the EU in global health
As part of its preparation for the UN summit to review MDGs in September 2010, the 3011th Council meeting on Foreign Affairs held in Brussels on 10 May 2010 adopted conclusions on the EU's role in global health, set out in document 9505/10. The Counc...
Improved health services for sub-Saharan Africa
People living in sub-Saharan Africa continue to feel the pressure of increasing poverty and morbidity (incidence of specific diseases). Adolescents in particular are at risk of reproductive health problems, and now a new EU-funded project is set to a...
MEPs vote on Organ Donation to save Lives
The 56,000 European people in the EU, over 10,000 of whom are in Britain, waiting for organ transplants deserve as good a chance as the rest of us to live a reasonable quality life. It is nothing short of shocking that in Europe around three people...
The Dark Side of Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day fell this year in Belgium on 9th May. Dutch MEP Sophia in ‘t Veld, who is the President of the European Parliament working group on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and development (EPWG), used Mother’s Day as a way of
EU under fire over 'broken promises' on health aid
European governments must devote 0.1% of their income to providing universal healthcare in the developing world, according to campaigners who accuse EU leaders of failing to prioritise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the 2015 deadline f...
The Times They Are a-Changin’
On 1 April, after more than a year of rumours hinting at Robert Madelin leaving the helm of the European Commission’s Health and Consumers DG (DG SANCO) (he held the position for six years despite the fact that Director-Generals are expected to mov...
Is this why the Government is moving on drink driving limits?
One tried and tested method by which the EU moves, and by which that movement is kept stealthy is that the Government announces an action, without mentioning that that action has either been demanded, requested or otherwise pre-ordained by the EU.The...
Osteoporosis – the silent disease
Together with Anja Weisgerber MEP, Co-Chair with me of the Osteoporosis Interest Group in the European Parliament, I was very pleased yesterday to host a special osteoporosis event in the European Parliament. Organised by the International Oste...
Angles, Saxons, Inequality, and Educational Mobility in England and Germany
Good politics has always seen well-funded, public provision of education as a vital pathway to delivering the Good Society. This article draws on recent evidence from Germany and the UK to show that even in more equal societies, such as Germany, atte...
Would Ryanair healthcare really be that bad?
During the Lisbon referendum, one of the posters put up by those mysterious foriegn backed No campaigns was “No to Ryanair healthcare”. The phrase stuck in my head. Would Ryanair healthcare be that bad? I don’t like Ryanair. I like...
A new era in eHealth
This afternoon in a speech in Barcelona marking eHealth Week, I called on the eHealth industry, health professionals and national health Ministers to “move up a gear” in order to deliver eHealth for all. Improving eHealth systems is one o...
No Cancer Drugs for Bulgarian Kids
I became recently aware of a really worrying problem: it appears that the Bulgarian National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has stopped the delivery of some drugs against cancer for children under 18 years. Let me repeat: we don’t deliver some drugs...
Moving to Brussels, Part 2
Well it’s official – I signed the lease for a studio apartment in the St. Catherine area of Brussels yesterday. Flat-hunting turned out to be relatively painless. I looked at some really nice places. It’s insane how cheap rent is in Brussels, i...
Council waters down conclusions on researchers mobility
I have already commented on the first draft of the "Council conclusions on mobility and career of European researchers" in January and my verdict was very negative. But now the Council plans to water down the issue I thought was one of the most impo...
REACH list of dangerous chemicals doubled
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has added 14 substances to the list of "very high concern" chemicals to undergo special health and safety scrutiny under the bloc's chemical regulation REACH. The identification of a substance of very high c...
Right wing methods to deliver left wing aims.
The National Treatment Purchase Fund is one of Mary Harney’s successes as minister for health, and yet here is an example of a hospital refusing to work with it to reduce the suffering of patients. Why? Many opponents of the NTPF are opposed...
“Civil contingencies 2010″: the experts and suppliers tackling tomorrows threats
The Civil Contingencies 2010 conference was held in London earlier this week. It featured “20 expert speakers” and “numerous carefully selected suppliers” in the business of preparing for “major disruptions”. The d...
Discrimination frustrates free movement in the EU
The free movement of people has been an aim since the 1957 EEC Treaty. Discrimination on grounds of nationality has been prohibited for as long. Directive 2004/38 on the right of the citizens of the (European) Union and their family members to move a...
Freedom of Movement – Yes, but…
I had a very interesting discussion on twitter with @npanayotopoulos, @EULondonRep and @MiaLeenaSofia about EU mobility and practical obstacles when moving around Europe. If you are a regular reader of this blog you are probably aware of the fact th...
Moving on up
Just had a discussion on Twitter with @npanayotopoulos and @kosmopolit about the problems faced when someone moved from one European country to another. Moving to the UK, you are often required to provide referees to rent – how do you get those...
Cameron: My butler is committed to using the NHS.
Conservative Party leader David Cameron MP has stressed the Tory party committment to the NHS by stressing that his butler would use nothing else. ” Whether Jennings has his hand severed operating a spinning jenny, or loses a eye reloading a bl...
Was swine flu a hoax?
European health ministers are set to hold an emergency inquiry into whether pharmaceutical companies influenced government decisions to purchase vast stockpiles of unnecessary swine flu vaccines. The inquiry comes as European governments have announc...
Advice from the Red Cross and others
Image via Wikipedia The Red Cross have issued some First Aid and Safety Advice for the weather conditions that are affected most of the country. Cork City saw snow last night for the first time and the weather is not set to get better. In fact it...
Securitising disease: swine flu panic and emergency preparedness
Despite a waning of the initial hysteria and expert studies suggesting that the H1N1 pandemic may not be as bad as feared, security consultants like SRA continue to argue that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Here’s...
Europe view no 165
Europe.view Steamy scenesDec 30th 2009 From Economist.comBracing northern habits reach south-west LondonYOUR columnist has recently moved house. Although his new garden is small, it does have enough room for a small hut, painted black and concealed b...
European Union: Occupational safety and health
It is very well to rave about the cost of EU regulation for the business sector of country X, but one may ask forgiveness for wishing for more nuanced views at times. First of all, if all enterprises in the European Union and the rest of the European...
Living in the EU: Maintenance obligations
Basically the nation states have made laws for domestic situations, but people are more versatile than that. They conduct business and live their lives across borders. For instance, about eight million EU citizens live in another member state than th...
Campaign against EU ban on herbal medicine
Today, a campaign to 'save herbal medicine' was launched. Campaigners are calling on the Government to prevent herbal medicines disappearing from the high street when an EU ban comes into place in April 2011.Save Herbal Medicine fears that much of t...
