This site is intended for health professionals only


The DH’s new anti-smoking campaign and the Englishman who woke up fluent in Welsh

Most of the papers covered the DH’s gruesome new anti-smoking campaign, which shows a graphic image of a cancerous tumour growing out of a cigarette.

The DH said they launched the campaign- which will cost £2.7 million, in response to statistics which suggest that more than a third of smokers still think the health risks are greatly exaggerated, despite the fact that smoking is still the biggest cause of premature death.

Over at the Guardian, Dr Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, has warned that the public need to accept the closure of hospital units and live more healthily if they want the NHS to survive.

Patients taking active steps to be healthier – relieving workload and prescribing costs in the NHS- could save £300 million, he said.

He warned MPs tempted to join local campaigns against the closure or merging of A&E, maternity and other specialist hospital units that they cannot vote to limit NHS resources with one hand while simultaneously campaigning to keep open the services that rely on those resources.

The strangest story of the day comes over at the Telegraph , who have reported on the curious tale of an Englishman who woke up from a stroke speaking fluent Welsh and is currently regaining fluency in English.

Alun Morgan, who is 81 and lives in Somerset with his wife, was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War. He was surrounded by Welsh speakers there but never learned the language himself. It is thought that they Welsh he heard had sunk in without him realizing and was unlocked after the stroke.

Nearly a thousand doctors have criminal records and patients are being kept in the dark, the Daily Mirror revealed today. The GMC confirmed that doctors convicted of possession of child pornography, violence or drug trafficking are still practising as doctors, amid calls from campaign groups for patients to be made aware if their doctor is a convicted criminal.

Roger Goss of Patient Concern said: ‘Patients should be made aware if their doctor is found guilty of serious criminal offences that could affect their care and be allowed to make up their own minds if they want to risk being treated by them.’