NHS 111 staff may get access to patients’ personal health information, the Daily Mail warns this morning. The news, unveiled as part of health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s announcement of measures to improve the care of elderly and reduce pressures on A&E departments yesterday, has incensed campaigners who said the sharing of electronic records with call handlers who are not medically trained would pose a ‘massive risk’ to patient privacy.
The Independent has focused on the part of the announcement which said toddlers aged two and three are to be given flu vaccine as part of the plans to keep the most vulnerable out of A&E next winter. NHS Trusts benefitting from the £500m fund to help reduce A&E pressures must also ensure 75% of their staff are vaccinated.
Alcohol ads during TV football should be restricted, scientists have warned. A study suggested football fans see advertising for alcohol twice a minute while watching a match, which it said could have a negative impact on children. In response, the researchers called for either a reduction in alcohol advertising during TV football or a complete ban, the Guardian reports.
Women should have babies before the age of 35, writes the Scotsman on its front page. British scientists have warned women not to wrongly assume that new fertility treatments are effective enough so that they can delay childbirth indefinitely. However, campaigners responded by saying that it wasn’t as easy as setting a date in your late twenties.
Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: ‘You can’t always have babies to order. If you want to have a partner and a secure place to live you don’t necessarily get that all done by the time you are 32. The right man doesn’t always just come along.’
