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A&E admissions up as senior doctors ‘refuse’ weekend work, Burnham’s warning on mental health and Prince Charles’ brief smoking career

The number of senior hospital doctors ‘refusing’ to work weekends is driving up emergency admissions because consultants aren’t on hand to review cases, the Telegraph reports this morning.

The National Audit Office’s report into emergency admissions also said the ‘variable’ quality of GP services is increasing admissions of the frail elderly, while the four-hour A&E waiting target is prompting nurses to admit patients to avoid missing the deadline.

Labour would include the right to counselling for mental health patients in the NHS constitution, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham will announce today.

In a speech at a mental health conference, Mr Burnham will attack the Government for long waits for talking therapies on the NHS and for the lack of existing data on spending on mental health in England, the Guardian writes.

Children born in Britain are more likely to have died before their fifth birthday than in any other country in Western Europe, writes the Metro.

British infant mortality rates have risen to 5.4 in 1,000 compared to 5.3 in 2010, the World Health Organization said. The report, which looked at health in relation to social inequalities, showed more than one in five British children now live in a poor household. Britons were also found to be the ‘fattest in Europe’, while British women also die younger.

And lastly, Prince Charles has admitted to a brief spell as a smoker - at 11 years old, when he had some cigarettes ‘behind a chicken coop’. The Telegraph reports that the prince reassured nurses attending an event to celebrate their work that it was the end of his smoking ‘career’.


          

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