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Seven days in medicine: 3-9 October 2018

BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4234 (Published 11 October 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k4234

Cancer

May announces new strategy to boost survival

The prime minister, Theresa May, said that the UK government will lower the age of bowel cancer screening from 60 to 50 and invest in new equipment as part of a new cancer strategy for the NHS. By 2028 this will mean 55 000 more people than today being alive five years after their diagnosis because of earlier detection, she told the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham. The strategy will form “a central part” of the government’s long term plan for the NHS, she said. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.k4198)

NHS payout

Teenager with brain injury gets £20m

The NHS will make compensation payments that could total nearly £20m (€22.9m; $26.4m) to an 18 year old woman who was left severely brain damaged when deprived of oxygen during treatment at age 5 months. The sum is a near record amount for clinical negligence compensation in the UK. A judge decided that doctors at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff had failed to ventilate the patient adequately before and after respiratory arrest. She stopped breathing and turned blue after an operation to correct a malformed oesophagus. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.k4159)

Mental health

Support scheme for doctors expands to secondary care

NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, announced funding for a new mental health support scheme for all NHS doctors in England. The current national scheme is available only to GPs, and support for hospital doctors’ mental …

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