News in brief

Health union Unison claims the government’s latest statistics showing an improvement in the standards of hospital food and cleanliness are good news for patients – but not all good news for staff. Unison head of health Karen Jennings said there was ‘no recognition by the government that these improvements are down to the efforts of our hard working, low paid members.’ Seventy eight per cent of the 687 hospitals assessed on cleanliness had been classed as ‘green’ – the best rating – this year, with no hospitals given a red (poor) rating.

www.cleanhospitals.com
www.betterhospitalfood.com

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With more than 30 million HIV positive people in Africa, HIV/Aids is a ‘catastrophe’ needing urgent action, the World Health Organisation’s new director-general Dr Lee Jong-wook has told health ministers from 46 countries in the WHO African region. At the region’s annual conference, Dr Lee Jong-wook said WHO aimed to provide three million people living with AIDS with antiretroviral medicines by the end of 2005. Local countries had to be major partners in the effort, he added. Treatment had to be part of a strategy including prevention and care.

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Unison has described the government’s Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) scheme for primary care trusts as having ‘all the disadvantages’ of the Private Finance Initiative ‘plus a few new ones thrown in for good measure’.

LIFT is available for primary care trusts wanting to invest in new premises such as GP surgeries. Dr Fiona Campbell, coordinator of the Democratic Health Network which produced Unison’s report on LIFT, said: ‘Primary care trusts and local authorities are being rushed into local LIFT schemes before the system has been tested.’