The introduction of a new computerised screening system for cervical cancer has been beset by problems, with doctors revealing that patient confidentiality has been compromised. GP leaders said the switch to a central electronic database for organising Scotland’s cervical cancer testing programme had been “a shambles”.
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A public consultation will be held into plans to exhume hundreds of bodies from a graveyard in Omagh in order to make way for a new hospital building. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said the Western Health and Social Care Trust was handling the issue as sensitively as possible.
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A centre which provides cheap food and shelter for homeless people in Edinburgh is to close its doors on Friday after more than 70 years. Funding for the Ark cafe and drop-in centre in the Old Town was axed earlier this year by the city council, leaving the trust which runs it with no choice but to close the service.
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Ulster sufferers of an eye disease are being left to go blind because of indecision among health chiefs on whether to fund new sight-saving drugs, two charities have warned. The grim warning was delivered ahead of a public meeting in Belfast to highlight concerns for those diagnosed from wet age-related macular degeneration.
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There have been demands for extra security measures at hospitals after it emerged more than 1,000 assaults were launched on hospital staff in Belfast last year.
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Health Minister Michael McGimpsey vowed today that carers will not be overlooked and their importance to society will be reflected in his priorities.
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Inspectors have raised concerns over the protection of vulnerable children by social services in Swansea.
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The Home Office has abandoned its threat to take into care the children of failed asylum seekers who refuse to leave the country. The climbdown follows a pilot scheme involving 116 families facing deportation, which showed that the policy of threatening to withdraw all welfare support had proved a flop.
“The evidence from the pilot … indicates that there was no significant increase in the number of voluntary returns or removals of unsuccessful asylum-seeking families,” says the Home Office study, published yesterday.
A Home Office review of family removals also recommends that very young children should not be separated from their mothers, and families with school-age children about to take exams should not be detained. It also suggests that immigration enforcement officers involved in family work should be issued with clothing in softer colours than their current navy so they are less intimidating to children.
The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said the policy of threatening to take children into care introduced in the 2004 asylum legislation was intended to encourage cooperation with removals:
“While we think it is important to retain a provision to withdraw support from families who will not cooperate with removal, we do not think it is appropriate for it to be used on a blanket basis.”
Mr Byrne also said he was making concessions over the much criticised section 4 support for failed asylum seekers who are unable to leave Britain because of circumstances beyond their control. He said that extra support would be given later this year to pregnant women and mothers with children in this category, including access to basic clothing and travel as well as food and toiletries with vouchers.
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Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are too scared to leave their homes for fear of falling on uneven pavements, according to a survey by Help the Aged.
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A fresh row over the government’s crime statistics broke out last night after two criminologists said the authoritative British Crime Survey excludes 3 million offences a year.
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