By Nigel Praities
Our roundup of the health news headlines on Friday 18 March.
To make a change we will begin with some good health news this morning. They may have bigger cars, larger incomes and an economy pulling out of recession, but at least Britons are living longer than Americans.
Baby boys born in Britain can expect to live an additional two years, and women an additional one year, compared to those born in the USA, according to a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. According to my personal analysis those additional years are likely to be spent waiting in supermarket queues or trying to find a parking space, but hell, at least we have something over our American cousins (apart from a better football team).
The Government's health reforms are coming under sustained attack from the left-leaning press today, with the Mirror newspaper claiming NHS ‘red tape costs' will soar by 600%.
The claim comes from new figures that show the regulator Monitor's budget will jump from £20million a year to £130million to cope with the changes. The newspaper claims it ‘makes a mockery' of Department of Health claims they are cutting bureaucracy.
The Guardian, in the latest in a series of articles this week criticising the reforms, say there will be a loss of expertise in hospitals due to the ‘creeping privatisation' of the health service.
Lastly, in the Daily Mail we the shocking story of a mother who due to a rare heart condition fell into a coma and after waking up, ‘forgot' she had a boyfriend and a baby daughter. Thankfully she remembered after a couple of days and was able to begin to bond with her child again.
Spotted a story we've missed? Let us know in the comments and we'll update the digest throughout the day...
Daily Digest
