Medicine and Health
Mental health charity warns of “nightmare scenario” for North East England
By Mark Blackwood, December 22, 2012
A report reveals that when compared to the London area, the UK’s poorest region in the North East has almost three times the rate of self-harm/attempted suicide hospital admissions.
Private consultants reap rewards from UK National Health Service privatisation
By Richard Duckworth, December 19, 2012
Private consultancy firms have been central to the coalition government’s plans to carve up the National Health Service.
Massive job losses in UK’s National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, November 26, 2012
The ongoing offensive against the National Health Service (NHS) has led to 28,500 health workers losing their jobs since the Conservative Party/Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010.
UK unions and Socialist Party isolate striking Mid Yorkshire NHS workers
By Mark Blackwood, Paul Mitchell, November 24, 2012
The Socialist Party is helping public sector unions Unison and Unite isolate 300 National Health Service clerical and administrative workers employed by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust.
Germany’s long-standing thalidomide scandal
By Werner Albrecht, Konrad Kreft, November 19, 2012
It has taken the Grünenthal company 50 years to apologise for its role in subjecting thousands of people around the world to the disastrous effects of thalidomide poisoning.
Thousands demonstrate to save children’s heart surgery in Leeds
By our reporters, July 30, 2012
Some 3,000 people gathered in Millennium Square, Leeds on July 23, to protest the proposal to end paediatric heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline fined $3 billion
By Will Morrow, July 5, 2012
Monday’s settlement is the latest in a long list of cases in which pharmaceutical giants have paid cash fines for fraudulent and criminal practices, without anyone being held accountable.
UK hedge funds and ex-bankers take over first privatised NHS hospital
By Paul Stuart, April 9, 2012
The first privatised hospital since the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, Hinchingbrooke Cambridgeshire, began operating under Circle Healthcare Limited on February 1.
Putting profits before health: Siemens abandons cancer therapy project
By Elisabeth Steinert, February 2, 2012
The Siemens group has decided not to commission its particle therapy cancer treatment facility in Kiel.
Totally drug-resistant tuberculosis reported in Mumbai
By Debra Watson, January 27, 2012
Doctors in Mumbai, India’s largest city, reported in December that they had confirmed four cases of Totally Drug Resistant Tuberculosis.
UK: Breast implant failures threaten health of thousands
By Eileen Rose, January 25, 2012
The ongoing scandal over PIP (Poly Implant Prostheses) breast implants makes clear the human cost of the privatisation of health care in the UK, and the callous indifference of the political elite towards its consequences.
Profit drive leads to shortage of critical drugs, deaths in US
By Nicholas Russo, January 11, 2012
Since 2010, at least 15 deaths have been linked to the shortage of critical drugs in the US.
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