Analysis of the Labour Party’s health pledges in the manifesto

Analysis of the Labour Party’s health pledges in the manifesto Emma Spencelayh, Senior Policy Advisor at the Health Foundation, examines the health pledges in the Labour Party manifesto ahead of the 2015 general election. The Health Foundation

See also:

• Our response to the Labour Party’s election manifesto The King's Fund

The red, the blue, the NHS and you

The red, the blue, the NHS and you NLGN hosted two roundtable discussions in December 2014 and January 2015 centred on the Conservative and Labour parties’ approaches to health and social care in the run-up to the General Election in May 2015. This paper details the outcomes of the discussions as well as a section highlighting the key differences between the two approaches. New Local Government Network

How dogs could sniff out prostate cancer

How dogs could sniff out prostate cancer "Dogs trained to detect prostate cancer with more than 90% accuracy," The Guardian reports. Two trained bomb-sniffing dogs also proved remarkably successful in detecting compounds associated with prostate cancer in urine samples.

This headline is based on research that trained two explosive-detection sniffer dogs to identify the urine samples of men with prostate cancer. They then tested the dogs on urine samples from 332 men with the condition and 540 controls without the condition, most of whom were men.

One dog correctly identified all the samples from men with prostate cancer, and the other dog identified 98.6% of them. The dogs incorrectly identified between one and four percent of the control samples as being from men with prostate cancer ("false positives").

Some of the samples in the study were used for training the dogs and assessing their performance, and ideally the study would be repeated with entirely new samples to confirm the results.

This study suggests dogs can be trained to differentiate between urine samples from men known to have prostate cancer and people without the condition. But further testing should be carried out to test whether the dogs can accurately detect men with prostate cancer who are not yet known to have the disease.

Exclusive: Lib Dems plan integration of GP services with mental health

Exclusive: Lib Dems plan integration of GP services with mental health Additional NHS funding could be used to better integrate mental health services with general practice under the Liberal Democrats, health minister Norman Lamb has said. GP Online

The new criminal sanctions of wilful neglect or ill-treatment

The new criminal sanctions of wilful neglect or ill-treatment Guidance and a case study on the new legislation that came in to force this week. Medical Defence Union

See also:

• Take care over new wilful neglect offence, doctors warned OnMedica

Liverpool CCG set to rethink homeopathy funding

Liverpool CCG set to rethink homeopathy funding Liverpool CCG has decided to review its funding of homeopathic medicine treatments on the NHS following the threat of a judicial review, brought by charity The Good Thinking Society. OnMedica

Training future doctors: how does medical education need to adapt?

Training future doctors: how does medical education need to adapt? From teaching compassion to raising the standards of postgrad courses, experts from across the sector discuss how universities can improve training. Continue reading... The Guardian

Humanity lies at the heart of an NHS worth keeping

Humanity lies at the heart of an NHS worth keeping The system is not perfect but the kindness and hope I’ve seen during my training make me excited for a career in medicine.

In less than four months’ time, I will walk on to the wards of a hospital as a doctor for the first time. Fired up and ready to deploy my five years’ worth of learning, experience and acquired wisdom from medical school, I, along with thousands of other colleagues in the same role, will assume my place on the NHS frontline.

When I started university, I was brimming over with enthusiasm about the lifelong career I was embarking on. I was ready to soak up the vast volume of knowledge which would be thrown at me. I had worked through a difficult selection process, I had made it to the beginning and I had no real idea what lay ahead. Continue reading... The Guardian

Dementia research gets 13 times less funding than cancer, figures show

Dementia research gets 13 times less funding than cancer, figures show Despite the huge burden of dementia far less money is spent research a cure for the devastating condition than researching cancer treatments. The Daily Telegraph