Kieran Lamb's List: Carlisle News & Star 02/09

A FURNESS hospital needs cleaning up, health chiefs have been told.

A report published by NHS watchdog the Healthcare Commission reveals that Furness General Hospital fails to meet cleanliness and infection control standards.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, which runs FGH, has been given six months to clean up its act.

OUT-of-hours GP services in Southport from 11pm have been relocated to Formby.

The service is currently run from a purpose-built centre within Southport hospital grounds from 6.30pm-8am daily.

A similar facility in Litherland will also be shut, with patients directed to Phillips Lane, Formby.

A new children’s centre will form part of a £14.6m health complex in Cockermouth.

Cumbria County Council yesterday approved plans for Sure Start to open up as part of the new cottage hospital development on Isel Road.

It will include a consultation room and crèche and will share conference rooms with the neighbouring hospital.

TABLETS to combat the effects of radiation are being issued to people in Barrow ahead of the switch on of the reactor of a nuclear submarine.

The reactor switch on is the first in the town for ten years.

A PLANNING application has been submitted for a new dental practice in Egremont.

It is part of the 30,000 new NHS dental places being created by Cumbria’s primary care trust.

There will be at four new dental practices – in Whitehaven, Egremont, Workington and Maryport.

CUMBRIA’S top public health expert insists breast cancer screening is still the best weapon – as he revealed his wife had just undergone treatment.

“Had it not been for the screening programme, her condition may not have been detected until it was too late,” said Professor John Ashton, director of public health at NHS Cumbria.

FIONA SAYS: CALL A HEALTH EXPERTNHS Direct is a service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and every day of the year.

I sometimes wonder whether I should be going to the doctor with a health problem, or whether I should just rely on the local chemist or the internet to try and find an answer.

THERE are more than 20,000 people suffering with type 2 diabetes in Cumbria.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body not producing enough insulin or not using what it produces effectively. It’s the most common form, and accounts for around 90 per cent of all diabetes.

HOME-TESTING kits are encouraging more people in Cumbria to get checked for bowel cancer, say health bosses.

In 2008 a £600,000 bowel cancer screening programme was launched in Cumbria and North Lancashire, to encourage more people to get tested.

As part of the scheme, letters are sent out to 73,000 people, aged between 60 to 69, asking them to take part.

Clinicians have recommended that a new ‘super surgery’ in the south of Carlisle is built at Hilltop Heights, despite protests from city MP Eric Martlew.

The Primary Care Trust’s professional executive committee, made up of the trust’s leading clinicians, has given its backing to the Hilltop Heights site off London Road.

ealth bosses today voted in favour of rebuilding the new West Cumberland Hospital at its current site in Whitehaven.

They rejected proposals for a complete new build after hearing there was not enough money.

It was revealed last month that a maximum pot of just £100 million was available – not be enough to deliver the new-build facility they had earlier envisaged.

A baby’s tiny heart has to beat harder every time its mother smokes, as its essential oxygen supply is restricted with every cigarette.For free help and support, contact the NHS Pregnancy Smoking helpline on 0800 1699169.

A BOWEL cancer screening programme in Cumbria has been hailed a success, with 42 cases of cancer detected.

The scheme was launched last October by NHS Cumbria in an attempt to crack down on the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.

Forty-two cases of bowel cancer have been detected among a group of people in Cumbria who agreed to use a home testing kit.

Last year, 73,000 60 to 69-year-olds across Cumbria and north Lancashire were sent a letter asking them to take part in a screening programme. Kits, with instructions and advice, were sent to their home.

The number of teenage girls getting pregnant in Cumbria increased five times faster than other parts of the country during 2007, worrying new figures have revealed.

Latest findings from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that 40.1 per 1,000 15 to 17-year-old girls became pregnant in Cumbria in that period, compared with 35.3 per 1,000 the previous year.

Empty business premises at St Nicholas Gate in Carlisle should be considered as potential sites for a new super surgery, says city MP Eric Martlew.

He believes such a move would help regenerate the area during the current economic downturn and allow GPs to tap into funding from Carlisle Renaissance.

Let us have freedom of choice. If you go to a shop and ask for two pork chops and the shopkeeper said: “Out of the question, they are bad for you, but here are some vegetable chops”, would you go there again?

BREAST cancer screening is still the best weapon in the early detection of the disease.

That’s the conclusion of Professor John Ashton, director of public health at NHS Cumbria.

He made his comments after an article in the British Medical Journal raised concerns over the quality of information provided to women taking part in the national screening programme.

THE NUMBER of girls aged between 15 and 17 years old getting pregnant in Cumbria increased five times faster than other parts of the country, figures have revealed.

Statistics released by the Office of National Statistics show that 40.1 per 1,000 15 to 17-year-old girls became pregnant in Cumbria in 2007, compared with 35.3 per 1,000 the previous year.

IT has been estimated that more than 12,500 people in Cumbria will have a stroke or be living with the symptoms of a stroke this year.

Now a three-year campaign has been launched to teach people about the dangers of strokes and how to spot them.