News

In brief

The Department of Health expects to spend £535,000 promoting the new version of the Patient’s Charter. Over 3 million copies of the charter have been printed.

The new charter sets standards for the first time for waiting times for outpatient appointments. 90 per cent of patients should be seen within 13 weeks of referral, and all within 26 weeks.

Legal aid has been granted to lawyers acting for 200 people with smoking-related illnesses. The group hopes to bring a test case alleging that tobacco companies failed to minimise the risks of smoking by reducing tar and nicotine levels.

Amanda Sandford of ASH said: ‘Leaked papers prove tobacco companies knew at least 30 years ago that tobacco smoke caused cancer and that nicotine was addictive.’

Official figures show that the cost of setting up trusts as self-governing units has exceeded £120m. Alan Milburn, Labour MP for Darlington, who obtained the figure through parliamentary questions, said the money could have paid for 6,000 extra nurses or 3,000 extra hospital consultants.

A survey of junior doctors has found that 76 per cent of the women and 58 per cent of the men surveyed “regretted” going into medicine. A similar survey in 1988 found figures of 49 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.

The report, by Isobel Allen of the Policy Studies Institute, says that ‘some of the interviews can only be described as heart-breaking in their descriptions of fatigue, stress and depression’.

The discovery of a gene which increases susceptibility to breast cancer has been followed by the announcement by US researchers that they have applied to patent the gene, according to Genethics News.

Patenting part of the human genome appears to be legal, but the application has caused a furious row in the scientific community, being widely regarded as a further step in the commercialisation of scientific research.

Dental patients in some areas of Wales are having to travel 100 miles for dental treatment on the NHS. Delays in deciding national policy on NHS dentistry, together with changes in the way dentists are paid, have led to critical shortages of NHS dentists, particularly in rural parts of the UK.