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The daily allowance for a person's sugar intake should be halved to six teaspoons, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. Draft guidance published by the international body advises a dramatic reduction in sugar consumption to help avoid mounting health problems including obesity and tooth decay. The WHO is proposing to retain its current formal recommendation that no more than 10 per cent of an individual's calories should come from sugar – the equivalent of 12 "level" teaspoons a day for the average adult. However, its draft guidelines state that a further reduction to 5 per cent "would have additional...

A third of intensive care beds at weekends are taken up by patients critically ill from alcohol, according to the NHS’s head of critical care. Dr. Bob Winter said it had become socially acceptable for people to drink themselves into an “anesthetized state” on Friday and Saturday nights, and he also warned of the trend of “front-loading”—becoming intoxicated before going out. The prices at supermarkets and off-licenses were so cheap it was possible to buy enough alcohol to “die from” with a £10 note, he added. Dr. Winter called for an urgent change in the culture of drinking and said...

More than 34 million patients will fail to get an appointment with their GP this year, according to figures seen by Sky News. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) used official NHS statistics to estimate the number of patients who will be unable to see a GP or practice nurse because surgeries are too busy.

Health bosses have been accused of trying to cover up high death rates and alarming waiting times in the NHS in Wales. The medical director in England, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, urged officials three months ago to launch a series of investigations into six hospitals after being alerted to the figures by a Welsh Labour MP. He also pointed out that waiting times in Wales were “persistently higher” than in England, with up to 80 percent of patients waiting more than six weeks for key diagnostic tests for diseases such as cancer. However, bosses didn’t reply to his email—nor did...

Wait times for cataract surgery in London jumped 50% last year, a disturbing trend officials expect will worsen unless Ontario’s health ministry restores funding. At the start of 2013, 90% of patients had surgery within 153 days. By November, that wait grew to 230 days. “It’s hurting patients,” said ophthalmologist Tim Hillson, chairperson of the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Patients forced to wait are at greater risk for falls, car crashes and depression, preventable calamities that cost our health-care system more in the long run, Hillson said, so making them wait longer is short-sighted.

This is what is going on right now in Great Britain. It is only a matter of time until Obamacare goes the same way. Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday. They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are...

Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday. They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are among the worst in Europe. Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts. But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival. The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse.

Reforms to the formula used to ration expensive medicines will make it harder for NHS patients to get new life-saving drugs, warn campaigners. The rationing body, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), plans to lower the cost threshold for new treatments and end the priority given to patients who are dying. The reforms are a shift to a system which the Government pledged would allow patients to ‘access the drugs and treatments their doctors think they need’. It involves changes to a complex formula, known as quality adjusted life years (QALY). And some drugs approved under ‘end...

British patients should adopt more 'pushy' American attitudes with their doctors to get drugs they are entitled to, the head of the NHS rationing body has said. Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice), said that patients need to see themselves as 'equal partners' with doctors to get the treatment they need. And he explained that after working as a doctor near an American air force base in Cambridgeshire, he noticed that U.S. patients had a less deferential approach than local residents. Earlier this week a Government report found that a third of...

I have spent much of my career as a doctor working with disadvantaged patient groups — the mentally ill, in paediatric palliative care, geriatrics, in outreach programs, in drug clinics and with the homeless. Many of these people are desperately in need. Only a few weeks ago, a patient spat and then threw a chair at me because I had the audacity to suggest that if he continued to inject himself with heroin every day, despite being in treatment for more than two years, he should be discharged from my care and that this might affect his benefits. ‘They can’t...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- While the Obama administration offers life support to its Affordable Care Act, in the UK a growing number of people are asking whether it's time to pull the plug on the National Health Service (NHS), which is in critical condition. For many years the UK media have carried stories that not only bode ill for the future of government-run health care, but also continue to serve as a "code blue" warning to the U.S. as to what might be in our future if we decide to go down that road. Writing in The Daily Telegraph under...

New drugs would only be licensed for the NHS if they help those judged to be a benefit to wider society under proposals from the health watchdog. Pharmaceutical firms on Thursday night warned that the move could lead to new medicines being denied to the elderly. A senior professor also said that the plans could threaten the well-being of older people and were “deeply suspect”, while charities questioned the ethics of the policy.

A third of GPs say patients should be charged for going to A&E, according to a poll. They want to impose a basic fee of up to £10 a time to deter the public from turning up with “trivial” complaints. A survey of 800 family doctors found that many believe patients are going to A&E at the “drop of the hat” because they can’t be bothered to wait for an appointment. But the findings will prompt anger among members of the public who feel they have no choice but to go to casualty because they can’t see their GP—especially at...

One child had a BMI measurement of 35, which for a six-foot man would mean weighing 19st. Britain's obesity epidemic, which sees NHS hospitals dealing with 1,000 cases every day, is a reversal of the traditional problem when children were undernourished. Increasingly social workers find youngsters being fed a high-fat, sugary diet, which can be just as bad for their health. The phenomenon is known as "killing with kindness" because the child craves the unhealthy food and a loving parent feels unable to say no. Professionals say they have to make complex decisions in care proceedings and a family's gross...

THE NHS should not be treated as a “national religion” while millions of patients receive a “wholly unsatisfactory” service from GPs and hospitals, the official regulator has warned. David Prior, the chairman of the Care Quality Commission, said the health service had been allowed to reach the brink of crisis because it was “too powerful” to be criticised. He said parts of the NHS were “out of control” because honest debate about the weaknesses of the health service was not tolerated. Mr Prior said priority must be given to reform of an “out of control” system of emergency care, overloaded...

First published on FrontPage Magazine. By Enza Ferreri In light of the ongoing ObamaCare debacle, it can be interesting to see how a state-run national health system free for all, like Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) – Obama’s favourite model -, has failed to deliver. The UK is one of the few countries in the world – mostly concentrated in Europe - to have completely free universal health provision. It sounds cuddly and comfy, but, like in all utopias and fairy tales, reality is a different matter. The NHS is Britain's sacred cow. No party, if it wants to be...

A quarter of new mothers said they were abandoned by their NHS midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors Three damning reports last night laid bare the crisis in NHS hospitals, maternity units and GP surgeries. One investigation revealed that a quarter of new mothers were abandoned by their midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors. The second found that mistakes deemed so serious they should never happen are being made in hospitals five times a week. And the third survey said thousands of...

Thousands of people who go on to be diagnosed with cancer are not being referred to specialists quickly enough by GPs, NHS England figures suggest. Under NHS targets, 95% of people with suspected cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks. But the data indicates that this target was missed in more than half of the 4,000 GP surgeries sampled. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government was tackling the "unacceptable variation". NHS England said the figures were not a clear measure of performance, as some patients did not have obvious symptoms. National performance data allows patients to...

Have you seen Question Time on BBC1 tonight? Among the panelists was Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. They talked about the NHS (National Health Service), welfare, pensions, youth unemployment, housing crisis. If you haven’t seen it you can watch it on BBC iPlayer online. Interesting points have been: the idea of forcing owners to sell or develop property on unused land seems popular (although some people would probably forcibly impose developing, which seems to me communist-style; the idea of a tax on unused land or brownfield sites to make owners sell or develop is better). the average age of people...

Paramedics will be told to take fewer patients to hospital as part of radical reforms of the NHS to be unveiled this week. A review led by the NHS medical director will call for sweeping changes to ease pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units, and is expected to conclude that up to half of 999 calls should result in patients receiving care at home. Amid a growing NHS crisis, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will say that the total number of A&E departments should not be reduced — and may need to be expanded. However, his report is understood to...