Cancer patients could get living ‘avatars’ to help treat their tumours, says new study

Cancer patients could get living ‘avatars’ to help treat their tumours, says new study

Zebrafish could be used to host human cancers, allowing tests to find the best drugs to use on tumours which are all different and can evolve Cancer patients could be given living ‘avatars’ to enable doctors to test different kinds of drugs to find an effective treatment. Researchers in Portugal said they had demonstrated for…

Families could get supermarket discounts if they hit NHS exercise targets

Families could get supermarket discounts if they hit NHS exercise targets

Families could get discounts on their supermarket shopping if they hit weekly exercise “step targets” under radical NHS proposals. Free bikes, sprinting tracks on pavements and outdoor public gyms are also proposed as part of efforts to drive out couch potato lifestyles and reward those who try to shape up. The head of the health…

Waiting lists for routine NHS treatment such as hip and knee surgery longest for a decade

Waiting lists for routine NHS treatment such as hip and knee surgery longest for a decade

Waiting lists for routine NHS treatment such as hip and knee surgery are at their highest for a decade, official figures have show An estimated four million people were waiting to be seen by a specialist at the end of June, the first time the figure has been exceeded since 2007. Experts said the milestone marked a…

NHS plans to expand student places for ‘home grown’ doctors from disadvantaged backgrounds

NHS plans to expand student places for ‘home grown’ doctors from disadvantaged backgrounds

A new NHS plan to create more medical school places, confirmed to start next year, will target students from disadvantaged backgrounds to make the medical workforce more diverse, the Government has said. The Department of Health announced in October it will fund up to an extra 1,500 medical training places in England a year by 2020…

Shortage of doctors and midwives putting lives at risk – report

Shortage of doctors and midwives putting lives at risk – report

Lack of trained obstetricians is worrying, experts say, because of high risk of serious complications during and after birth Childbirth experts have warned that mothers’ and babies’ lives in Britain are being put at risk after an NHS inquiry into its maternity services uncovered serious shortages of doctors and midwives in maternity units. Almost nine out of…