Superbug scandal: 6,500 killed

Health bosses have admitted they failed to tackle a hospital superbug that killed almost 6,500 people in one year. Health Minister Ben Bradshaw admitted the Government had not done enough in previous years.

Q&A: Hybrid embryos

Why are human-animal embryos in the news?
UK scientists have won approval to create human-animal embryos.

Why create human-animal embryos?
Scientists developing these embryos say they will provide a source of stem cells - immature cells that can develop into many different types of tissue.

Who is trying to create them?
A team led by Professor Stephen-Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College London, has been offered a licence by the HFEA to use human-bovine embryos to study degenerative neurological diseases.

Dr Lyle Armstrong, of the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute, has been offered a licence to use cow eggs to research replacement tissues for treating conditions such as diabetes and spinal paralysis.

A third team led by Professor Ian Wilmut, the Edinburgh-based creator of the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, although it has yet to apply.

What happens next?
The research teams at King's College and Newcastle have to formally accept the offer of the licences. They must also meet certain criteria.

What are the objections?
There were 300 responses to the government consultation, with 277 opposed to the research, many of them from pro-life groups opposed to the research.

What does the law say?
A 2006 white paper to overhaul the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act-1990 proposed banning hybrid work. Under existing law, hybrid embryos could not legally be implanted into a woman's womb.

What is the situation in other countries?
In 2004 researchers at the Mayo-Clinic produced pigs with hybrid pig-human blood cells. Chinese scientists were reportedly the first to successfully create human-animal embryos. In 2005 researchers at the Salk-Institute in San Diego reported they had created mice with 0.01% human cells.

Via Guardian-Unlimited

GovTube - PM outlines NHS reforms

Seen on: YouTube

Brief excerpts from a speech in which the Prime Minister outlined a programme of "deeper and wider" reform of the National Health Service to enhance its role in care, prevention and personalised health services.

Speaking to health professionals at King's College London, the PM said that the NHS had to embrace technological change, meet rising expectations of healthcare and adapt to a shift in priorities from tackling infectious disease to managing long-term conditions and "lifestyle diseases".

Brown plans constitution for NHS

Gordon Brown has signalled his intention to press ahead with a constitution for the NHS in the health service's 60th year. In a new year message to NHS staff, he said it would form part of a package of "reform and change" which will secure the future of Britain's tax-funded state healthcare service for another 60 years. In a message released by 10 Downing Street, in which he paid tribute to the efforts of NHS staff, he said: "Over the course of the next year the Department of Health, under Alan Johnson's leadership, will be setting out how the NHS needs to continue to reform to meet the new challenges of 21st century healthcare.