Extensive research has shown fuel poverty has a negative impact on health.1 The recent Marmot review concluded that fuel poverty is avoidable and contributes to social and health inequalities.2 The graph below shows that the number of excess winter deaths has remained at a level of around 25,000 deaths per …
I have had chronic back problems for over 2 years and am currently receiving treatment at Homerton Hospital. I have not responded to more conservative treatments and was discharged by the physiotherapy team after it was clear to them that I was not improving. My consultant has recommended that I …
Shift.ms is an online community where people affected by Multiple Sclerosis can support each other. Most people are diagnosed with MS in their 20s and 30s. Through the website they share experiences and information. They ask each other questions that only other MS’ers will know the answers to. The Lancet …
Rising repossessions due to mortgage debt are forecast this year by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. After a fall in the number of arrears and possessions the rise is anticipated due to poor market conditions, mortgage borrowers exhausting lenders forbearance procedures and because of a weakening in state support to defaulting borrowers (through reductions in …
I am a nurse who works in an outpatients department and we have experienced recent cuts to our frontline services. We are a small team of five nurses with responsibility for delivering a range of care to patients. There is currently a vacant Band 7 post due to a nurse being off …
Background In April 2011, the UK Government released a leaflet called “Working Together for a Stronger NHS” 1. The purpose of the leaflet is to explain to the public the health service reforms proposed in the White Paper “Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS”2. Shortly after its release, epidemiologist and Guardian …
I should explain that I am a gastroenterologist who is also training in population health. Doctors working in A&E, psychiatry, medicine and general practice see the harms of alcohol on a daily basis, but one only need to walk through any town centre in the UK on a weekend evening …
The Health and Social Care Bill converts the NHS, which at present is overwhelmingly a public service into a series of lightly regulated, competitive markets. The basis upon which this is going to built is the ‘purchaser-provider split’. This is an artificial split between GPs as purchasers of patient care …
Maternal and child benefits are important because poverty has a direct impact on health. Poorer women are more likely to have poorer health and psychological problems when pregnant.1 Babies from manual backgrounds have a 50% higher rate of infant death, lower birth weights and higher incidence of morbidity and mortality …