By Gareth Iacobucci
Our roundup of news headlines on Thursday 4 February 2010
The Government's damning report into GP out-of-hours - set to be unveiled later today - dominates the papers this morning.
The Daily Mail plays to the gallery with its coverage, leading on the line that foreign doctors should take English tests before becoming out-of-hours GPs, and, in a separate comment piece, calling on GPs to ‘honour their responsibility' for treating their own patients.
The Mirror, meanwhile, says the report is expected to reveal ‘unacceptable variations ' that exist between GP out-of-hours services.
The Telegraph documents the case of a patient who died after an out-of-hours doctor allegedly missed the warning signs of a heart attack.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 News has uncovered evidence that investment in the NHS is set to be cut despite Alistair Darling's promise to increase hospital spending. They claim this is partly down to the fact that the contribution from private finance is expected to almost halve from slightly more than £1 billion to just £580m.
A new report into the NHS treatment of trauma patients is expected to find it has not improved in two decades, reports The Telegraph. Experts warn that thousands of patients are dying needlessly each year due to the wide variation in treatment around the country for those who suffer falls, have been shot or stabbed or have been in accidents.
And finally, some positive news, as it appears that swine flu is over. Well, not quite, but the Telegraph reports that the swine flu phone line and website are to be turned off next week – indicating that the outbreak in Britain is largely over.
Daily Digest
