News

In brief

While demand for private health insurance is static or falling, new industry figures show that commerical medical companies are losing market share to the NHS. In 1996 the NHS accounted for one-sixth of total private acute medical provision. This may rise to one-fifth within the next three years.

Thirty-four NHS trusts and 15 health authorities have tens of thousands of pounds invested in the arms manufacturing industry,the Campaign Against the Arms Trade has discovered.

Details of investments are included in the Clean Investment Campaign Pack, available from CAAT on 0171 281 0297, fax 0171 281 4369.

A doctor who worked at a Dundee hospital has been charged with torturing people in Sudan in the first case of its kind to be brought in the UK.

Dr Mohammed Mahgoub, who worked as an honorary registrar at Ninewells hospital in Dundee until June, was briefly detained in September and charged with involvement in the torture of people in unofficial detention centres in Sudan. He has since been released on bail.

A new campaign to increase public awareness of air quality has been launched by the Association of London Government. The ALG is developing ways of providing information on air pollution in the capital to schools and hospitals, using the Internet.

In response to the government’s announcement of a new Food Standards Agency, the National Food Alliance has put 100 food policy proposals to the eight government departments which have a role in food policy

‘We aim to set the agenda for a systematic review of current food policies and highlight the difficulties when government departments work in isolation,’ said Peta Cottee, NFA’s deputy co-ordinator.

The government has announced plans to tighten up the system of payments to dentists, in the wake of a number of ‘alarming cases’ of dental fraud.

Health minister Alan Milburn said: ‘Some dentists have been caught claiming for work that is never carried out, inventing and claiming for imaginary patients or overcharging their real patients and pocketing the money.’

Companies guilty of unsafe employment practice in one country can relocate elsewhere without any investigation into their health and safety record, evidence collected by the International Worker’s Health Centre reveals.