News

Live news stream

Coca-Cola and Cadbury 'not using' new food labels

All the major supermarkets - Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, the Co-operative, Waitrose and Tesco - have announced that they will use the label on their products, alongside Mars UK, Nestle UK, PepsiCo UK, Premier Foods and McCain Foods.

However, Coca-Cola and Cadbury have not signed up because they feel the use of guideline daily amounts is a better system, according to the BBC.

Urgent investigation into watchdog 'cover-up' ordered

Furness General Hospital in Cumbria.

Labour’s shadow health minister has called for an "urgent investigation" into allegations that health bosses covered up a failure to investigate a hospital where mothers and babies died.

Jamie Reed MP said: “It would be indefensible for the CQC, the regulator charged with keeping our hospitals safe, to attempt a cover-up designed to mask its own failings.

“My constituents who use this hospital deserve much better and the Government needs to provide answers on every aspect of this serious allegation.

“It is even more worrying that it comes after the events at Mid Staffs, when everyone in the NHS should have had openness and transparency at the front and centre of everything they were doing.

“Ministers must now order an urgent investigation into the questions raised by this report."

The review looked the Care Quality Commission's response to complaints about several deaths of newborn babies at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria.

Advertisement

Assange will not leave embassy if charges are dropped

Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino (right) meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy. Credit: PA Wire

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has revealed he will not leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London even if sex charges against him are dropped, because he fears moves are already under way to extradite him to the US.

The disclosure was made on the first anniversary of his arrival at the embassy in a bid to avoid being sent to the US to be quizzed about the leaking of sensitive information to his whistle-blowing website.

He said: "The strong view of my US lawyer is that there is already a sealed indictment which means I would be arrested, unless the British government gave information or guarantees that would grant me safe passage.

"We know there is an ongoing investigation in the US and we know I am a target of the Federal grand jury. There is a 99.97% chance that I will be indicted.

"So if the Swedish government drops their request (to go to Sweden) tomorrow, I still cannot leave the embassy.

"My lawyers have advised me I should not leave the embassy because of the risk of arrest and extradition to the US."

Charity calls for end to face-down restraint

Physical restraint can be humiliating, dangerous and even life-threatening and the huge variation in its use indicates that some trusts are using it too quickly.

Face-down restraint, when a person is pinned face-down on the floor, is particularly dangerous, as well as extremely frightening to the person being restrained. It has no place in modern healthcare and its use must be ended.

– Paul Farmer, Mind chief executive

Thousands of protesters march in Brazil

Demonstrators run past a blaze in Sao Paulo. Credit: Reuters

Thousands of demonstrators flooded into a square in Brazil's economic hub, Sao Paulo, for the latest in a historic wave of protests against the state of public transport, schools and other public services.

Around 50,000 protesters gathered outside Sao Paulo's City Hall building, where a small group fought police in an attempt to force their way in. Another protest sprang up in the working class Rio de Janeiro suburb of Sao Goncalo.

Mental health trust: 50 patients had high-risk behaviour

Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust have responded to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act that show the trust recorded 923 incidents of face-down restraint.

Reasons for restraint can include a patient being violent or aggressive to either themselves or others with a small percentage of patients requiring high levels of restraint due to the complex nature of their illness.

Analysis of our figures has shown that a small group of less than 50 patients, who demonstrate very complex and high-risk behaviours, account for over two thirds of the recorded incidents of restraint.

– A statement from Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust

Advertisement

Patient restraint data revealed

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed 39,883 recorded incidents of all kinds of physical restraint in mental health trusts during 2011/12:

  • Surrey and Borders NHS Foundation Trust reported just 38 incidents over the year while Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust reported 3,346.
  • Figures for overall physical restraint incidents, including face-down incidents, were compiled from answers provided by 51 mental trusts.
  • More than half of the responding trusts, or 27, said 3,439 of the incidents were of face-down restraint, a potentially life-threatening form of restraint.
  • Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust recorded 923 incidents of face-down restraint and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust 810,
  • A separate survey of 375 frontline healthcare staff involved, showed almost a quarter, 22%, had not had face-to-face training on physical restraint techniques.
  • More than four in ten, or 42% said that with hindsight, they felt that restraint.

Source: Mind

Young face 'decades of saving' to buy first home

Independent research commissioned by housing charity Shelter shows that people in their 20s have become locked out of home ownership. Credit: PA Wire

Young people trapped by high property prices face having to save for up to 30 years before they can afford a deposit on their first home, a charity warned.

Independent research commissioned by housing charity Shelter shows that people in their 20s have become locked out of home ownership, meaning a generation will be stuck renting for longer.

The study looked at earnings, house prices, rents and spending on essentials in local authorities across the country to show the extent of the challenge faced by households wanting to save a deposit to buy a home in their area.

Report: 40,000 mental health patients restrained

Nearly 40,000 incidents of physical restraint on mental health patients were recorded in one year - with more than 3,000 in the "dangerous" face-down position - according to figures.

There were nearly 40,000 recorded incidents of physical restraint, a charity has found. Credit: PA

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed 39,883 recorded incidents in England of all kinds of physical restraint in mental health trusts during 2011/12, resulting in at least 949 injuries to people with mental health problems.

Mental health charity Mind said there was "huge variation" between trusts in the use of all types of physical restraint.

Read more: Dealing with mental health problems and finding help

Load more updates