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CCGs putting £700m cancer services out to tender, test predicts if teenagers will binge drink and swings to be installed at bus stops?

The Guardian’s front page today leads with the news that four Staffordshire CCGs are putting cancer services worth more almost £700m out to tender.

It said that a ‘host’ of private healthcare firms have already expressed interest in securing the ten-year contract.

The CCGs itself said it was not about ‘privatising’ services.

The BBC today carries a report that scientists have developed a way of predicting which teenagers are likely to binge-drink.

They found that the test – which combines 40 factors, including brain structure, personality and major life events – can predict, with 70% accuracy, which 14-year-olds are likely to binge-drink at 16.

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However, the test is currently prohibitively expensive.

Finally today, the Telegraph carries a report that suggests swings should be installed at bus stops to help keep elderly people young at heart.

In what would be a major change in direction for the Government’s attempts to improve the treatment of elderly patients, the report by the International Longevity Centre and Age UK, looked at how towns and cities should be redesigned to make them fit for an elderly population.

Based on responses from elderly people, the report also suggests outdoor gym equipment, ‘urban pods’ to transport people around and electric bicycles for hire.

There are also more mundane suggestions for road signs and marking should be redesigned to be clearer for older drivers and pedestrian crossings should be reset to give people longer to get across the road.


          

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