Kieran Lamb's List: Lancashire Telegraph 02/09

A MAN who sued the hospital which saved his life following a suicide attempt has claimed mental health patients are "treated like second-class citizens".

Michael Dexter, 58, of Orchard Drive, Oswaldtwistle, has accepted £90,000 from the NHS in an out-of-court settlement after a six-year legal battle.

THREE Cumbrian health directors have this week been re-appointed to stay on for a further four years.

Allan Buckley, Keith Little and Bob McCulloch serve as non-executive directors on the board of NHS Cumbria, the county’s primary care trust. Their stints came to an end on February 28 but have been extended by the Appointments Commission until 2013. All three have years of experience in health and social care and joined NHS Cumbria in March 2007.

A MAJOR project to revamp health services in Padiham, at a cost of around £1 million, will begin this summer, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

Key upgrades are set to be made at Padiham Clinic, in Station Road, including a new GP surgery, with four consulting rooms, and accommodation for the mobile mammography service.

DISABLED children in East Lancashire wait an average of two years - the longest in the UK - for specialist electric wheelchairs, a charity has said.

NHS East Lancashire, the primary care trust which covers Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale and the Ribble Valley, was slammed by charity the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, which submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to trusts throughout the country.

THE postcode lottery for healthcare must be brought to an end.

It is grossly unfair that people living in certain areas of the country should receive better treatment than those in other places.

There have been a number of cases in recent years where cancer-sufferers have moved to other areas to receive drugs which are not funded locally.

HEALTH trusts have submitted their first reports to the Government on how they are coping with big changes to the way care is organised.

Both NHS East Lancashire and NHS Blackburn with Darwen, the local primary care trusts, have been given the thumbs-up by the Department of Health, as well as advice on how to further improve their performance.

PAY-day drinking is causing a huge headache for paramedics in Lancashire, with alcohol-related incidents more than doubling on the last weekend of every month.

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) logged 47 specifically alcohol-related incidents on February 22, rising to 99 a week later on Saturday 28.

CHARITY groups have been told to abandon baby knitting projects for fear of spreading deadly infections in hospitals.

Disappointed knitters have been ordered to put down their needles as Burnley General Hospital and Royal Blackburn Hospital will no longer accept blankets, hats and bootees for babies in its neo-natal intensive care units.

A CONTROVERSIAL new drugs and alcohol rehabilitation unit will be based at a health centre, after initial plans to locate it in the community were thrown out.

NHS East Lancashire had remained tightlipped about the exact whereabouts of the new centre but it can now be revealed that it will be at the new Accrington Pals health centre in Paradise Street.

ONE month ago I was admitted to Ward 10 at Burnley General Hospital for a knee replacement. I would sincerely thank staff for the superb treatment that I received.

Nothing was too much trouble and if I was in a position to reward these people I would very highly. Some people criticise the NHS but they have not been in Burnley General.

WORK is now underway on the £10m Rossendale health hub.

Health chiefs visited the site in Bacup road for the official green light for the project, which is due for completion in Spring next year.

The old Tomlinson’s footwear factory at Albion Mill was completely demolished last month to make way for the steel structure to be erected.

YOU have probably had numerous comments about the new NHS facility in Blackburn.

But as someone who no longer lives in the town and had to use the new facilities, I am impressed with the way people are accepting the shambolic system used for car parking at ‘The Royal’ (the TV programme is much better but then only half the number of vehicles were on the road in the 1960s).

A CHARITY aimed at raising awareness of the most common men’s cancer has said sufferers are dealing with a “historical legacy of neglect”.

It is a little known fact that men diagnosed with prostate cancer report the worst NHS experience of all common cancers. A recent survey carried out for The Prostate Cancer Charity, in the run up to its first ever awareness month, showed that 80 per cent of people remained unaware of the inequality of care for men with the disease.

HEALTH bosses have announced a new location has been found for a controversial drugs and alcohol rehabilitation centre - but are remaining tightlipped about its exact whereabouts.

NHS East Lancashire revealed the location for the new centre had been found in Accrington but it would not directly affect residents.

COUNTERFEIT cigarettes flooding into Lancashire are putting smokers at even bigger health risks, and helping children become hooked, experts said.

Trading Standards officers in Lancashire have seized almost 1,000 packets of fake cigarettes and tobacco in the last year, but say this is only the tip of the iceberg.

CASH to the tune of £60,000 has been pumped into tuberculosis services in North Lancashire.

The service provides care for TB sufferers and screening services and the extra funding will mean the number of staff will be doubled and will allow for a new base to be set up in Lancaster.

A NEW report has revealed the Ribble Valley is the second best place in the country to grow up – but just down the road children in other districts and towns in our area are lagging far behind.

Five of the area’s six boroughs have been placed in the bottom half of the Government’s Local Index of Child Wellbeing (CWI) 2009.

CUMBRIA’S top public health expert has rubbished claims that breast cancer screening can lead to unnecessary treatment, saying his wife’s life was saved by a mammogram.

Professor John Ashton, director of public health at NHS Cumbria, has urged women not to be put off going for tests, following an article in the British Medical Journal which raised concerns about the national screening programme.

THE first patients are being treated at a new state-of-the-art mobile clinic — set up in the car park of a DIY store.

Hundreds of people will be seen at the clinic in a bid to further reduce waiting times and improve access to a range of minor treatments.

The clinic, located at B&Q at Bolton Gate Retail Park for the next seven years, was launched yesterday (Tuesday

A CHILDREN’S ward is set to close to make way for further measures to bring emergency hospital services up to scratch.

The paediatric day case unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, which includes 16 beds, consultation rooms, a reception area and play room, will be emptied, ready for a new surgical triage unit, which bosses hope will bring an end to queues of ambulances waiting outside the emergency department.