Around 300 people demonstrated outside the Dáil this afternoon, calling for a method of education for autistic children to be recognised and funded by the State. Last month, the family of a six-year-old autistic boy tried to compel the State to provide their son with 30 hours of Applied Behavioural Analysis a week.
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The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) welcomes the challenges outlined by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Care Services, Ivan Lewis, following publication of the Status of Social Care Services – A Review 2007.
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Labour has been forced to clarify its plans for the NHS when the Health Minister was accused by the opposition of casting doubt over the future of hospital trusts. Brian Gibbons told a hustings that trusts had reached the end of their lives, opposition parties said.
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Plans to build new mental health facilities at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth have been put on hold. The application by NHS Tayside to replace existing, outdated buildings had been recommended for approval.
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Hundreds of people are still waiting more than four hours to be dealt with at Gwent’s main accident and emergency departments, despite an improvement in performance during March.
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Labour’s efforts to win over health workers suffered an embarrassing setback last night after it was revealed that 67,000 nurses and midwives will not receive their promised full 2.5 per cent pay rise before polling day.
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The future of a popular Swansea hospital has now been pushed back until after next month’s Assembly elections, it has emerged.Swansea health chiefs will take part in the final round of key talks on Fairwood Hospital and ward one at Hill House Hospital after people go to the polls on May 3.
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Scientists have made a breakthrough in discovering the cause of a form of diabetes that afflicts an estimated 200 million people around the globe. Their research, based on data from patients in Tayside and Fife, has identified three genes that have been directly linked to the development of Type 2 diabetes, bringing scientists a step closer to understanding what causes the complex disease.
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Parents who give alcohol to children aged under 15 should be prosecuted, a charity has said. The call comes in an Alcohol Concern report on the government’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.
{mosimage}The study highlights figures that suggest a large increase in the amount of alcohol drunk by 11 to 13-year-olds. Alcohol Concern also wants a 16% rise in alcohol taxes, a ban on brewers selling to retailers at a loss, and a crackdown on under-age alcohol sales. The charity would include meal times at home in the ban on giving alcohol to young people. Frank Soodeen, a campaigns officer for Alcohol Concern, said: “We are facing a new social reality where children seem to be adopting older behaviour at a younger age.
“One of the things we need to do is get parents on board.” He also suggested there was a need to consider new legislation regarding the issue. The charity would like to see a ban on alcohol advertising before the 9pm television watershed and non-18 certificate films in cinemas.
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Patients are dying and there have been suicides among overstressed staff as a result of NHS rationalisation, a leading consultant in Lanarkshire claimed yesterday. Dr Martin Watt of Monklands Hospital, who was speaking at an event organised by Scottish Voice NHSFirst, said of the downgrading of the A&E:
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