In the headlines this weekend, Jeremy Hunt has announced new plans for collaborative working between GPs and cancer charities to boost speedy diagnoses, as well as a financial boost for cancer treatments.
The Guardian reports that Mr Hunt said: ‘Aspiring simply to keep up with the European average isn’t good enough. We must aim to be the best country in Europe for cancer diagnosis and treatment.’
The NHS will also get a £6m investment to fund clinical trials for specialist radiotherapy over the next five years.
Venereal disease regulations prevented clinics from sharing patient information with the wider NHS without the patient’s explicit consent, and patient advocacy groups warn this could lead patients to delay check-ups.
Yusef Azad, director of policy and campaigns at the National Aids Trust, told the paper: ‘People don’t want their local hospital A&E to know they got gonorrhoea on holiday last year, or their family doctor to know about their recent fling.’
And finally the Telegraph reports that a heart-busting ‘fry-up pie’, on sale in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, is facing calls for a ban.
Former Government advisor and chair of human nutrition at Glasgow University, Professor Mike Lean said the pie – which sells for a princely £1.50 and contains bacon, sausage, black pudding and beans, with an egg on top – ‘should never be anywhere near a hospital.’
