Expert Witnesses To Be Overhauled
A new centralised system for providing expert medical witnesses to family courts is to be proposed by the chief medical Officer for England.
Read MoreA new centralised system for providing expert medical witnesses to family courts is to be proposed by the chief medical Officer for England.
Read MoreMore mothers will be encouraged to hand over their children to state-run nurseries and go out to work under Labour’s latest drive combat child poverty. Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton yesterday said that Labour’s plans to extend childcare places will provide women with a “world of employment opportunities”.
Read MoreCare for older people is ready for radical changes in Waltham Forest. As elderly residents are living longer, and are more healthy than ever before, the number of people wanting to move into residential care homes is dropping. Waltham Forest Council maintains the majority of elderly residents want to remain in their homes, with access to care from social services and the health service.
Read MoreCampaigners for smarter working have offered an immediate answer to some of the problems of the environmental impact of human activity on the globe: the world needs to reform the way it works. The advice comes in the wake of the Stern report which predicted environmental apocalypse if action is not taken now.
Read MoreMissing sections of a gene, which programmes the manufacture of a chemical to alert the body to DNA damage, almost doubles the risk of prostate cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the Journal of Medical Genetics. The researchers assessed almost 2,000 Polish men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1999 and 2005 to see if they carried the CHEK2 kinase gene, or CHEK2 for short.
Read MoreWomen testing negative for the two inherited breast cancer genes are still at increased risk of developing the disease, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Medical Genetics. They should be regularly screened from 35 or 40 onwards, say the authors. The research team assessed the families of 277 women in whom faults in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 had been identified.
Read MoreBabies can be exposed to methamphetamine or ‘crystal meth’ while in the womb, reveals an analysis of hair samples, published ahead of print in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. Unlike hair, the most commonly used detection methods (blood and urine), cannot register long term use, nor can they always distinguish among different drugs, say the authors. Bleaching or straightening the hair will not erase the chemical evidence it holds.
Read More{mosimage} Experts yesterday criticised a report that questions the use of methadone in drug abuse treatment and claims it helps fewer than 4% of heroin users kick their habit.
Professor Neil McKeganey, professor of drugs misuse research at Glasgow University, said that only 3.4% of drug users on methadone remained drug-free after three years. Residential rehabilitation has a higher success rate, he said.
He said: “If all you are doing is getting 3% of people off drugs after three years, you may say that it is a cheaper programme than residential rehabilitation, but is it justified when it gets so few people off?”
Read MoreDundee is beating national targets for reducing youth crime. A report to the city council’s social work committee on Monday highlights youth justice work for 2005-06 and the efforts that are being made to reduce youth crime in the city.
Read MoreSix offers have been tabled for an axed north-east care home. The for sale signs went up at the Rose Innes property in Aberchirder in the summer after it became the first casualty of an Aberdeenshire Council review of its residential services for the elderly.
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