16:25 In a time of bad news, fake news, and more bad news, here is a heartwarming tale from social media.
Apparently, Tesco has sent fruit and magazines to a GP practice in Devon after they ‘recognised GP surgeries are having a tough time’.
Hey @Tesco a big thank you from GP practices at Newton Abbot in Devon for this warm gesture. Staff has felt really appreciated pic.twitter.com/fSaYd1C5hl
— GP Survival (@cgps_gp) January 17, 2017
Wonderful (if true).
13:35 Prime Minister Theresa May was pushed about the crisis in NHS funding in Prime Minister’s Questions today for the second week running.
Following No 10’s implication that GPs were to blame for patients going to A&E, Ms May told MPs today: ‘GPs are part of the solution in terms of the NHS for the future.
‘That’s why we’ve seen more GPs coming into the NHS, and there is 5,000 more GPs being trained and will be in place by 2020.
‘But what we do want to ensure is that GPs surgeries are open and providing services at times when the patients want to access them.’
11:30 NHS professionals and patients have been urged by the Labour Party to log incidents of unacceptable NHS pressures on a new website launched in response to the Government’s denial of a crisis.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: ’Theresa May is in denial about the scale of the NHS crisis, telling the House of Commons [at last week’s PMQs] that there are just a “small number of incidents in which unacceptable practise have taken place”.
’So Labour has launched SmallNumberOfIncidents.com where the public can submit their stories about how the underfunding of our NHS is stretching our most treasured national institution to breaking point.’
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, said: ‘Labour wants to hear from health professionals and patients about their experiences, which is why we have launched SmallNumberOfIncidents.com. Together, Labour, patients and health workers can make Theresa May face up to the extent of the damage she is doing to our NHS.’
09:15 A study on 700 randomly selected adults diagnosed with asthma in the last five years has found that 33% did not have the condition.
Some suffered with minor conditions like allergies or heartburn and nine out of ten participants in the Canadian research project were able to stop their medication completely, reports the Telegraph.
Lead author Professor Shawn Aaron, senior scientist and respirologist at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, said: ’It’s impossible to say how many of these patients were originally misdiagnosed with asthma, and how many have asthma that is no longer active.
’What we do know is that they were all able to stop taking medication that they didn’t need – medication that is expensive and can have side effects.’
