News

In brief

UK announces pilot schemes for sending NHS patients abroad: Health authorities and primary care trusts in Portsmouth, East Kent, and West Sussex/East Surrey are to send groups of patients to other European Union countries for treatment to test out the Department of Health's new policy of sending patients abroad. The announcement follows a European Court of Justice ruling in July, which said that patients had the right to be treated abroad if they faced unreasonable delays at home.

Suicide is leading cause of death in young Chinese women: Suicide is the leading cause of death among Chinese women aged 20-34, the World Health Organization said recently. Rural women are more likely than urban Chinese women to commit suicide, and in 1999 China was the only country where more women than men killed themselves.

NHS plans the "world's biggest university": The prospectus for the NHS University, which will provide courses for the one million staff in the NHS, was published this week. The NHS University, launched by the prime minister Tony Blair, is expected to be the largest university in the world for training and educating staff. The prospectus is available online at www.doh.gov.uk/nhsuniversity

Netherlands votes in favour of therapeutic cloning: Dutch MPs have voted to amend the Netherlands embryo bill to allow the possibility of creating embryos specifically for the purposes of scientific research. Scientists will be allowed to create embryos either through in vitro fertilisation techniques or by cell nuclear transfer (cloning).

Numbers waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States reach record levels: More than 50000 people in the United States are now waiting for a kidney transplantthe highest ever recordedthe United Network for Organ Sharing reported last week. The problem is a lack of available organs.