News

The collapse of civilisation and the natural world is on the horizon, Sir David Attenborough has told the UN climate change summit in Poland.

The naturalist was chosen to represent the world’s people in addressing delegates of almost 200 nations who are in Katowice to negotiate how to turn pledges made in the 2015 Paris climate deal into reality.

Recent studies show the 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, and the top four in the past four years. Climate action must be increased fivefold to limit warming to the 1.5C scientists advise, according to the UN.

A cross-party group of MPs has called for a review of the government’s controversial benefit sanctions regime after concluding that it was arbitrary, punitive and at times “pointlessly cruel”.

The Commons work and pensions committee inquiry said the human cost of stopping benefit payments to claimants judged to have breached job centre rules was too high and there was scant evidence that it helped or incentivised people to get a job.

The risk of a disorderly Brexit and growing signs of weakness in the world economy are combining to drag several UK business sectors close to stalling point in the final months of the year.

Suggesting that the period of relatively robust economic growth over the hot summer months has begun to cool, the latest surveys of business activity for October revealed a marked slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2018

One in three young people is suffering from mental troubles such as depression, negative feelings or inability to focus, a survey of more than 5,500 British teenagers has found.

The findings suggest that more school-age children than previously thought are struggling with their mental and emotional wellbeing, including problems sleeping properly.

Of the 5,555 people aged between 13 and 15 from across the UK who answered the charity Action for Children’s survey, 1,840 were found to have an issue.

High levels of air pollution are linked to an increased risk of mouth cancer, new research has revealed.

Scientists have previously linked high air pollution to a host of health problems, from an increased risk of dementia to asthma and even changes in the structure of the heart, with recent research suggesting there is no “safe level” of air pollution.

Fewer problem drinkers are receiving treatment even though record numbers need help, figures from the House of Commons library show.

Just 80,454 people in England were treated in 2016-17 for addiction to alcohol,about one in seven of the 605,688 people being deemed to be “alcohol dependent”.

Since 2010 they have been subject first to a complete pay freeze and then a 1% pay cap. This year, when the government said that, despite pay offers of more than 1% for other public sector staff, pay rises would be capped at 1%-1.5% for civil servants and those working in related areas, our members said they’d had enough and voted for strike action.

Our own research shows that the effect of the pay cap will be that by 2020, average civil service pay will have fallen in value by more than 20%. Given what our members have had to put up with, our 5% claim this year was a moderate demand.

A quarter of a million families bringing up babies and infants in England are living in privately rented accommodation that fails to meet the decent homes standard, it has emerged.

The number of households bringing up children aged under four in squalid conditions, which can include damp walls, broken heating and infestations of rats, has increased by an estimated 75,000 since 2007, according to analysis of official figures.

For the 11th time since 2005, Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP) is asking health campaigners across Europe to help it compile the annual EURO HEALTH CONSUMER INDEX. The 2018 INDEX will measure the user-friendliness of national healthcare systems across 35 countries in Europe.

ABOUT THIS SURVEY

The survey is being carried out on a specialist survey website, so allowing all responses to be completely ANONYMOUS (unless you wish otherwise). The survey’s closing date is Monday, December 10th 2018. To thank you for participating, PatientView, the survey manager, will be more than happy to provide your organisation with the link to the INDEX, if you wish to receive it, upon publication (February 2019).

To take part in the survey, please click HERE