Welcome back to this week’s news summary blog. This blog will outline the highlights in medical and health news from the 14th to 20th November. Highlights this week include: hospital bosses suggesting NHS’s £8 billion budget plan is not enough, dementia has become the leading cause of death in England and Wales as well as a survey that has shown over half of fizzy drinks have more sugar in one can than the recommended adult daily limit.
It is believed that patients in England will see rising waiting times and cuts in the number of staff unless the NHS receives more money. The five year plan to increase the NHS budget by £8 billion a year by 2020 was set out last year, however, now NHS bosses believe this will not cover the current deficit. From April to September 2016, NHS trusts overspent by £648 million despite the extra £1.8 billion extra given this year. Mr Hopson, Chief Executive of NHS Providers, believes that the extra demands being placed on hospitals, general practitioners and council-run care services have been underestimated and that the target to save £22 billion is too ambitious.
New research has revealed that 55% of all carbonated drinks on sale in supermarkets contain over 30 grams of sugar, the recommended daily limit for an adult. The high sugar content is even more detrimental to children as almost 73% of canned drinks contain more than 24 grams of sugar. The drink that contains the highest amount of sugar is ginger beer, according to the British Medical Journal. Flavoured colas had the second highest sugar content. Low sugar drinks that should be recommended as a substitute are elderflower, lemonade and ginger ale. Tesco have announced that it was cutting the amount of sugar in its own-brand drinks. It is thought that other companies will cut down on the amount of sugar in their drinks prior to introduction of the UK Sugar Tax in 2018.
Statistics released by the Office for National Statistics has shown that Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is now the leading cause of death in England. Last year 61,000 people died from the disease which accounted for 11.6% of recorded deaths in both England and Wales. The condition which usually affects those aged 65 and above killed twice as many women than men. Coronary heart disease, which was the previous leading cause of death in the UK, is still the number one cause of death worldwide. The change is thought to be due to the fact that people are living longer and there has been an improvement in the diagnosis of heart disease.
Words: Joelle, 20th November 2016
