News

In brief

• The system of extra-contractual referrals (ECRS), which provides increased choice for patients and GPs within the NHS internal market, causes confusion among doctors and patients alike, according to research by the Greater London Association of Community Health Councils.

The association has found that criteria for allowing ECRs vary widely and most authorities in London have no formal ECR appeals procedure. ‘The present situation is unacceptable’, said Sue Towns, director of GLACHC.

• There has been a sharp rise in the number of young people taking alcohol and drugs since 1989, according to the results of a national survey published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers, from Edinburgh University’s alcohol and health research group, found that 42 per cent of 15 and 16-years olds had used drugs — mainly cannabis — at some time. In the month before the survey, 94 per cent had drunk alcohol and 36 per cent had smoked cigarettes

• Every day almost 500 children will die from tuberculosis, says a new report from the Appropriate Health Resources and Technologies Action Group — yet TB is preventable, and there is effective antibiotic treatment. The report says that TB is increasing because of growing poverty, neglect of preventive programmes and the spread of HIV.

• City dwellers need to be encouraged and supported to grow their own food and reap benefits in terms of health, environmental improvement, education and leisure, say the National Food Alliance and the SAFE Alliance. ‘Growing food in cities is the obvious answer to many social, environmental and other problems in our cities’, said Vicki Hurd, SAFE co-ordinator.

• Health secretary Stephen Dorrell has announced that his target to reduce NHS management costs by 5 per cent has been achieved. But the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts said that the cut has prevented the introduction of new services, and Bob Abberley, of health union Unison, said that the saving had been at the expense of patient care.

• Following intensive lobbying by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe has backed the idea of a European nuclear weapon free zone.