Our roundup of the health news headlines on Tuesday 8 November.
Chicken pox infected lollipops anyone? Tennessee prosecutors have issued a reminder that anyone posting viruses of diseases across state lines could face prosecution. This is after a woman in Nahsville was found advertising chicken pox infected lollipop or cotton buds (fresh batch for £31!) on a Facebook page aimed at those parents who were looking for a local ‘pox party'. The woman behind this, Mrs Werkit, apparently told a local television station that she had been inspired to sell the products because parents were frustrated that ‘they can't get it the normal way any more'.
Some mildly embarrassing figures next, according to an analysis by Data for England, Health trusts spent an average of £8.80 per head of population on painkillers, with more than £440m a year is spent on painkillers with more being spent in the north of England.
A court has ruled that a paediatric cardiac surgery unit at Brompton Hospital will stay open after the closure was deemed ‘an act of bureaucratic vandalism'. The closure has cast doubt on the NHS plan to concentrate heart surgery to fewer specialist units to drive up safety standards; however, NHS officials said the plan would still go ahead.
Now this is the Daily Digest's idea of fun, the Mail has published a list of hospitals and total number of complaints, which means you can answer the question ‘Is your local hospital the rudest in the UK?' I can't find mine on there, but I visited it at the weekend and can report the A&E has downgraded to an ‘urgent care centre' (?) and the main wing has all its windows boarded up.... But for the rest of you, see where you hospital sits, I noticed many Welsh sounding names at the bottom.
