News

In brief

The new parliament must ‘take HIV seriously’, says the George House Trust. It is calling on the government to implement a national HIV strategy, repeal Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act and secure the rights of people with HIV through legislation.

Access to emergency contraception through pharmacists is under threat following the decision to allow an anti-abortion group to proceed with a high court action against the service. Since January Levonelle-2, the ‘morning after pill’, has been available from pharmacists without a prescription.

The number of people with private medical insurance grew by over 5 per cent last year to almost 6.9 million, the biggest increase for a decade.

Taken together with people covered by employment schemes, analysts Laing and Buisson estimate that 12.6 per cent of the population is covered by private insurance.

Over one in five babies in England were delivered by Caesarian section in 1999-2000, according to provisional figures released by the Department of Health. Ten years ago, the corresponding figure was 11.3 per cent.

But despite the increasing rate of intervention, the proportion of women staying in hospital four or more days after delivery fell from 38 per cent to 21 per cent.

Nearly one in three men and over one in six women often do not wash their hands after using the toilet, according to a recent survey undertaken by a group including the Food Standards Agency. The agency wants to reduce the 6 million food poisoning cases each year by 20 per cent over the next five years.

All cigarette packets sold after September 2002 will have to carry large health warnings – covering at least 30 per cent of the front and 40 per cent of the back – following new legislation approved by the European parliament. By 2007, the same will apply to cigarettes exported from the EU to other parts of the world.

Things did not get better for Labour voters during its first term of office, according to an analysis of mortality published in the British Medical Journal. While death rates improved in most areas, the improvement was least in areas with the greatest Labour vote.