Hospital to cut 750 jobs by 2015

26 October 2012 Last updated at 09:18 ET

A hospital trust in South Yorkshire has announced it will be cutting 750 jobs, about 20% of its workforce, by 2015.

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said it needed a "smaller hospital, with substantially fewer beds" and a smaller workforce to save £50m over the next four years.

A report presented to the board by its chief executive said "compulsory redundancies are inevitable".

Unison has blamed the cuts on mismanagement.

Chief executive Brian James said: "The NHS continues to face tough times financially.

"Our staff are our biggest asset, but also our biggest cost and we are exploring how to best manage and substantially reduce our costs whilst ensuring we continue to provide quality healthcare."

The report, entitled Creating Certainty in an Uncertain World, said "radical change" was necessary for the trust to save £50m from its £220m budget before 2015, and meet government targets.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Patients and staff are already feeling the strain, feeling there aren't enough nurses"

End Quote Sue Cookman Unison

Unions and patients have reacted angrily to the announcement.

Unison regional organiser Sue Cookman said it was a "kneejerk reaction" from the trust.

She said: "Nothing's new about the savings. To talk about culling 750 jobs seems to be highly irresponsible and will have a massive impact on patient care.

"I think the patients and staff are already feeling the strain, feeling there aren't enough nurses, feeling that things are taking too long."

Lorraine White, from Rotherham, an outpatient at the hospital, said: "It's unacceptable. There doesn't appear to be enough staff to cover the roles that are required already.

'Unnecessary admin staff'

"This is my local hospital and I'd like to think it was going to stay with at least the amount of staff that it has right now. I can't imagine that it will function effectively with less staff.

"I do rely heavily on this service."

Continue reading the main story

The trust in numbers

• 3,800 employees
• £220m is the current annual operating budget
• £150m of that is spent on staff
• £50m is the amount the trust said it needs to cut from its budget by 2015

Source: Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients' Association, said: "Every hospital needs to put delivering the highest standard of patient care at the heart of re-organisation plans.

"The government's decision to cut £20bn from the NHS budget is affecting the services patients receive - evidence from our research and calls to our helpline demonstrate that waiting times are rising, treatments are being rationed and too many are experiencing poor care.

"The government needs to urgently consider the financial pressure trusts are facing and the inevitable impact on patients."

One staff member, who did not want to be named, told the BBC he was not aware of the plans.

He said: "I think it would be quite nice to see some redundancies from the administrative side of the NHS, rather than the clinical and nursing side... I think there is a lot of unnecessary staff in the admin department.

"I think without further investment in the NHS we're really going to struggle to deliver the service provision when we have an aging population.

"More and more people are seeking hospital attendances as they go on and yet we're shutting hospital beds and making staff redundant."

The British Medical Association said it was "surprised by the scale of the job cuts".

A spokesperson said: "We are also concerned about the impact that this decision will have on patients and the morale of staff.

"It is difficult to conceive of a way in which you can make staff cuts of this magnitude without a reduction in the quality of patient care."

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NHS maternity claims cost £3bn

26 October 2012 Last updated at 07:54 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

The NHS paid out more than £3bn in compensation claims linked to maternity care between 2000 and 2010, figures for England show.

An NHS Litigation Authority report said fewer than one in 1,000 births resulted in compensation.

However, it called for better training and for more senior staff to be available during labour.

The government said the NHS was one of the safest places to give birth, but it was important to learn from mistakes.

Continue reading the main story

Hidden behind the financial burden are countless stories of tragedy to individuals and families"

End Quote David Richmond Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Legal claims resulting from maternity care cost the NHS more than claims from any other type of treatment. The figure is high as children may need care which lasts a lifetime.

Of five and a half million babies born during the decade there were 5,087 claims.

They included mistakes in managing labour and failing to notice an abnormal heartbeat of a foetus in the womb, which can result in death or brain damage.

'Mistakes rare'

The report said claims often involved junior doctors and inexperienced midwives. It said more senior staff should be available.

The chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority, Catherine Dixon, said: "Having a baby while under the care of NHS doctors and midwives remains very safe.

"However, because maternity claims are so serious as they involve harm to mothers and their babies, it's vital that we learn and share lessons from them so that professionals can improve their clinical practice in the future and prevent harm."

The health minister for England, Dr Dan Poulter, said mistakes were rare but "should never be tolerated".

He added: "The NHS remains one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, but no matter how well our midwives and doctors look after women giving birth, bad things still sometimes happen to a very small number of mothers and babies.

"If these incidents hadn't happened in the first place, the NHS would have had £3bn more to spend on patient care over the past 10 years."

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the cost was "enormous" and the report was "staggering in its stark facts".

David Richmond, the college's vice president said, "Hidden behind the financial burden are countless stories of tragedy to individuals and families, which are not included in this report.

"This is a serious wake-up call to all with responsibilities in providing maternity care, whether as providers, commissioners or regulators.

"Urgent action is needed to further improve the safety of clinical services for women and their babies."

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Abuse home care workers jailed

26 October 2012 Last updated at 09:58 ET

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Workers from Winterbourne View were shown pinning down and hitting patients, in a BBC Panorama undercover report

Six out of 11 care workers who admitted a total of 38 charges of neglect or abuse of patients at a private hospital have been jailed.

Five other workers from Winterbourne View near Bristol were given suspended sentences after the acts of abuse were uncovered by BBC Panorama.

Ringleader Wayne Rogers, 32, who admitted nine counts of ill-treating patients, was jailed for two years.

Judge Neil Ford QC said there was a "culture of cruelty" at the care home.

'Vile and inexcusable'

Continue reading the main story

It would be naive to believe that this monstrous behaviour had not been continuing for a very long time"

End Quote Victims' families

Judge Ford said no attempt was made to provide a caring environment and if the abuse had not been uncovered by the BBC, it would have continued.

He told the sentencing hearing the home had been "run with a scandalous lack of regard to patients and staff".

"What happened was a gross breach of trust," he said.

Alison Dove, 25, of Kingswood, was jailed for 20 months as was Graham Doyle, 26, of Patchway. Both pleaded guilty to seven charges of abuse.

Addressing Dove, Judge Ford said: "You suggested it was born of boredom during long shifts and that you had viewed patients as playthings."

He also referred to a letter Doyle wrote to him, in which the defendant had described his own behaviour as "disgusting, vile and inexcusable".

'Bite face off'

Judge Ford then told Doyle: "You are considered genuinely remorseful and haunted by guilt.

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Ch Supt Louisa Rolfe: "These vulnerable people were subjected to the most extreme and persistent abuse."

"But your treatment of Simone Blake was often cruel, callous and degrading. It was always wholly unjustified."

Prosecutor Kerry Barker QC, said care watchdogs failed to act on repeated warnings of "inhumane, cruel and hate-fuelled treatment" of patients.

"The so-called restraint techniques were used to inflict pain, humiliate patients and bully them into compliance with the demands of their carers," he said.

Abuse of five residents at the home featured in footage played to the court during a week of sentencing hearings.

Among the hours of graphic footage, support worker Rogers is shown slapping patient Simon Tovey across the cheek before telling him: "Do you want a scrap? Do you want a fight? Go on and I will bite your bloody face off."

In a statement read outside court after the hearing, families of the abused patients said seeing the footage had been "distressing and extremely harrowing".

"The guilty parties were only charged with offences shown on the Panorama programme and it would be naive to believe that this monstrous behaviour had not been continuing for a very long time," they said.

Lawyers representing 17 families say they are now pursuing compensation in a civil action against Castlebeck, who owned Winterbourne View.

Defendant Jason Gardiner, who received a suspended jail term after admitting two charges of abuse, said he wanted to apologise for his actions.

"I take full responsibility for everything I have done," he said outside the court.

'Major flaws'

"It was a very difficult place to work, a tough place to work. We were under-staffed and working 12-hour days without a break.

"All I can do is apologise to everybody for what happened."

Sentencing Gardiner, Judge Ford had said he had heard he was "barely coping" with his remorse and regret.

James Welch, legal director of human rights campaign group Liberty, said he was "disappointed" with some of the sentences but thought the judge had been fair.

The home's owners, Castlebeck, said there had been "extensive changes in board and management" and new measures introduced to ensure it could not happen again.

The Care Quality Commission, which was heavily criticised after it ignored attempts by whistleblower Terry Bryan to inform them of the abuse that was happening at the home, said the responsibility of the abuse rests with the home's owners Castlebeck and individual employees.

Outgoing chair of the CQC, Dame Jo Williams said: "We are committed to do all we can to protect people whose circumstances make them vulnerable - and since the abuse at Winterbourne View was uncovered we have made changes to ensure that we are better placed to prevent abuse."

Care and Support minister Norman Lamb said: "This terrible case has revealed the criminal and inhuman acts some so-called care workers are capable of.

"It has also shone a light on major flaws in the system which we will address. We will publish our final recommendations very soon."

Sentences of all those found guilty are detailed below:

• Wayne Rogers, 32, of Kingswood, jailed for two years after admitting nine charges of ill-treatment.
• Alison Dove, 25, of Kingswood, was jailed for 20 months for seven counts of abuse;
• Graham Doyle, 26, of Patchway, was jailed for 20 months for seven counts of abuse;
• Nurse Sookalingum Appoo, 59, of Downend jailed for six months for wilfully neglecting patients;
• Nurse Kelvin Fore, 33, from Middlesbrough, also jailed for six months for wilfully neglecting patients;
• Holly Laura Draper, 24, of Mangotsfield, pleaded guilty to two charges of abuse and was jailed for 12 months;
• Daniel Brake, 27, of Downend, pleaded guilty to two charges of abuse and was given a six month jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work;
• Charlotte Justine Cotterell, 22, from Yate, pleaded guilty to one charge of abuse and was given a four-month jail term suspended for two years. Cotterell was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and complete 12 months supervision;
• Michael Ezenagu, 29, from Shepherds Bush, west London, admitted two counts of abuse and was given a six month jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work;
• Neil Ferguson, 28, of Emerson Green, admitted one count of abuse and was given a six month jail term was suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work;
• Jason Gardiner, 43, of Hartcliffe, who admitted two charges of abuse, was given a four month jail term was suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

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Three-person IVF trial 'success'

24 October 2012 Last updated at 13:01 ET By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

US scientists say a human and animal trial of a controversial new IVF treatment has yielded promising results.

The findings in Nature magazine show healthy-looking embryos can be created from a mix of three adult donors.

Human embryos were grown in the lab and some appeared normal, while monkeys born using the same technique remained fit and well, now aged three.

A public consultation on the ethics of using this IVF in the UK is under way.

Its findings will be reported to the health secretary in spring 2013.

The technique is designed to prevent debilitating and fatal "mitochondrial" diseases, which are passed down only from mother to child and which cause muscle weakness, blindness and heart failure.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It is still a long way off ready for human use"

End Quote Prof Peter Braude King's College London

By using two female egg donors, these DNA errors could be cancelled out, scientists believe.

Three-person IVF uses the core genetic information from mother and father as usual, but puts it into a donor egg which contains healthy mitochondria.

Mitochondria sit in the cystoplasm of the egg - akin to the white of a hen's egg. They contain only a tiny fraction of our genetic material, with the bulk that determines things like our hair and eye colour housed in the nucleus - a speck in the yolk if you use the hen's egg analogy.

Scientists have been studying two ways of creating three person embryos.

One way is to take the nucleus from the mother's egg and put it into a donor egg that has healthy mitochondria and has had its own nucleus removed. This new egg can then be fertilised with the father's sperm.

Another way is to fertilise the mother's egg first before removing the nucleus and putting it into the donor egg.

The latest study looked at the first method.

Testing

The Oregon Health team took eggs from seven women who had volunteered to take part in the research.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The question is which method will work best in humans? Neither the US nor Newcastle researchers has allowed any human embryos to be implanted - all were destroyed after just a few days when still smaller than a pinhead."

End Quote

The scientists were able to replace the mitochondrial DNA in 65 of the eggs and then looked to see how well these fared over the next week or so.

The fertilisation rate afterwards was similar to the 33 control eggs that had not been manipulated, although over half had abnormal qualities.

Those that did fertilise normally developed to blastocyst stage - five or six days later, the point at which IVF embryos are normally transferred into the mother's womb - at a similar rate to the controls.

Dr Masahito Tachibana and colleagues say their research shows that the technique can work, at least in the lab. It is still not clear if it could lead to a healthy baby.

The scientists now want to be able to do more studies to ensure the treatment is also safe.

UK expert Prof Mary Herbert, of Newcastle University, has also been studying three person IVF, but using the other method which takes the nucleus out of an already fertilised egg.

She called the latest findings "encouraging" and said they were further proof that the concept was sound, although she believes the technique she uses will provide better results.

Review

Before either method could be used to help couples have a healthy baby in the UK, the government would need to give its approval and any clinic would need to obtain a license from the regulator - the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Similar approval would be needed in other countries.

Last year the HFEA was asked to review the scientific effectiveness of both techniques. That review panel decided that the two methods might be useful in preventing mitochondrial disease, but asked for further experiments to assess their safety.

Prof Peter Braude, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King's College London, said: "It is exactly the sort of science that the HFEA expert committee recommended needed doing, and demonstrates further the feasibility of this technique.

"However it is still a long way off ready for human use."

He said: "Only one in five of the original eggs obtained fertilised normally and made it through to the implantation stage.

"This would mean that in order to be certain of getting embryos that might be suitable for transfer, around 12 eggs might be needed, not always possible in an IVF procedure."

How do you make a baby from three people?

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Elderly care target 'is at risk'

24 October 2012 Last updated at 19:06 ET By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

The government's pledge to try to make England a world leader in elderly care is at risk of becoming "superficial" words, council chiefs are warning.

The Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said the social care crisis had to be solved first.

The target of becoming the "one of the best" in terms of elderly care was made by the health secretary last month.

Jeremy Hunt will be expanding on the aim in a speech later.

He is expected to tell the annual ADASS conference in Eastbourne on Thursday that he wants England to become "one of the best countries in Europe to be old" and that councils "must take the lead".

To help, he will be announcing a £50m fund for hospitals and care homes to help pay for improvements to help patients with dementia.

These could include things such as hi-tech lighting, smells and sound to stimulate those with the condition.

'Danger of collapsing'

But the two groups have warned that mainstream services are under too much strain to achieve the goal.

A joint analysis they have produced has shown nearly £2bn has been trimmed from the social care budget in the past two years - a cut of nearly 15%.

Continue reading the main story

Unless we see urgent action the growing funding crisis threatens our ability to provide basic daily services that older people rely on, such as help with washing, getting out of bed and meals on wheels"

End Quote Councillor David Rogers Local Government Association

It predicts the funding gap will get worse in the coming years, partly because of the growing demands of the ageing population.

And it goes on to say that unless councils are given extra money, other budgets, including those covering leisure, libraries and transport, will have to be raided.

The government is considering reforming the system to cap the costs individuals have to pay. This was an idea put forward by the Dilnot Commission last year.

But the two groups have argued that such a change while helping individuals avoid huge costs, will do nothing to solve the funding problem they are facing.

ADASS president Sarah Pickup said the Dilnot proposals were just "one piece of the puzzle".

In reference to Mr Hunt's call made at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month that England should become the "best in the world" at caring for the elderly, Ms Pickup said if an answer was not found all that talk would be just "superficial" words.

"At the moment [social care] is a minimum wage industry. We have to think about what good care costs and be prepared to pay it."

David Rogers, from the Local Government Association, said: "The current care system is in danger of collapsing.

"Unless we see urgent action, the growing funding crisis threatens our ability to provide basic daily services that older people rely on, such as help with washing, getting out of bed and meals on wheels."

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Tenth whooping cough baby death

25 October 2012 Last updated at 06:24 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

A tenth baby has died in the worst outbreak of whooping cough for decades, Health Protection Agency figures for England and Wales show.

Cases continue to soar with 1,322 more people infected in September, bringing the total to 6,121 this year.

Newborn babies are most at risk of death from the disease.

Last month a UK-wide campaign was launched to vaccinate pregnant women in order to pass protection on to their child while it is still in the womb.

There have been more than 1,000 cases of whooping cough in Scotland and nearly 200 cases in Northern Ireland, but no reported deaths.

The infection can stop a baby breathing or lead to pneumonia, brain damage, weight loss and death.

Continue reading the main story

• It is also known as pertussis and is caused by a species of bacteria, Bordetella pertussis
• It mostly affects infants, who are at highest risk of complications and even death
• The earliest signs are similar to a common cold, which then develop into a cough and can even result in pneumonia
• Babies may turn blue while coughing due to a lack of oxygen
• The cough tends to come in short bursts followed by desperate gasps for air (the whooping noise)
• Adults can be infected - but the infection often goes unrecognised

However, newborns are too young to be protected by routine vaccination, which starts at two months of age.

So women who are between 28 and 38 weeks pregnant are now offered a whooping cough vaccine. The idea is to boost the mother's immunity, which is passed on to the child.

'Very concerned'

Dr Mary Ramsay, the head of immunisation at the Health Protection Agency, said: "We have been very concerned about the continuing increase in whooping cough cases and related deaths.

"All parents should ensure their children are vaccinated against whooping cough on time, even babies of women who've had the vaccine in pregnancy - this is to continue their baby's protection through childhood.

"Parents should also be alert to the signs and symptoms of whooping cough - which include severe coughing fits accompanied by the characteristic "whoop" sound in young children but as a prolonged cough in older children or adults.

"It is also advisable to keep babies away from older siblings or adults who have the infection."

Dr David Elliman, who's an immunisation expert at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, encouraged mothers to have the vaccine.

"When people have looked at where young babies get whooping cough, how they acquire it, common sense would tell you it's probably someone within the family and in fact, in practice it turns out to be the mother, which again is what you'd expect.

"So this is the logic behind giving the vaccine to mothers.

Routine vaccination was introduced in 1957. Before then cases could affect in excess of 100,000 people and kill 300 in a single year.

There are surges in whooping cough cases every three to four years. The current outbreak started at the end of 2011, but cases are already seven times higher than the last outbreak in 2008.

Health experts do not know why the outbreak is so large this year, especially as vaccination for whooping cough is at record levels.

One theory is that the bacterium which causes the infection, Bordetella pertussis, has mutated.

Another idea is that tight control of whooping cough is part of the problem. Repeated infections of whooping cough used to naturally boost people's immune systems.

However, after years of low levels of whooping cough the whole population may be more vulnerable to the infection.

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Inhale less, smokers told by NHS

23 October 2012 Last updated at 20:44 ET

Smokers who struggle to quit should inhale less or stop during set points of the day, such as at work, an official NHS body is suggesting

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) believes for hardcore smokers the approach will act as a stepping stone to quitting.

Traditionally the NHS has focused on advising smokers to give up completely.

But this proposal, which covers England, is an acknowledgement that for some a softer approach is needed.

Smoking rates dropped dramatically from the 1950s - when the link with lung cancer was proved beyond all doubt - to the turn of the century.

But over the past decade they have remained stubbornly stuck above the 20% mark.

'Kick-start'

Research shows that two-thirds of smokers want to quit and so this guidance is an attempt to reach out to those who are struggling.

Continue reading the main story

• Smoking is responsible for more than five million deaths worldwide every year
• Smoking tobacco is a known or probable cause of around 25 diseases
• Cigarette smoke contains 4,000 chemicals that can damage the human body
• Eighty of which are known to cause cancer

Source: BBC Health

It still makes clear that giving up completely is the best option and it even acknowledges it is questionable how big the health effect of smoking less will be.

Prof Mike Kelly, a public health expert at NICE, said: "If you are a smoker, quitting smoking is the best way to improve health and quitting in one step is most likely to be successful.

"However, some people - particularly those who are highly dependent on smoking - may not feel able or don't want to do this.

"Harm reduction approaches provide an alternative choice... for some people this can kick-start a gradual change in behaviour that eventually leads them to quit smoking."

Among the tactics being advocated is a temporary abstention by stopping smoking at home or at work or smoking less of a cigarette.

The guidance, which will now be consulted on, also said nicotine replacement therapy could be used to help with this approach.

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Malaria drugs scheme questioned

24 October 2012 Last updated at 05:09 ET By Jane Dreaper Health correspondent, BBC News

The charity Oxfam has cast doubt on an international scheme that aims to boost the provision of the most effective treatment for malaria.

The UK government has contributed £70m to the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm).

Oxfam says there is no evidence the programme has saved the lives of the most vulnerable people.

The body behind the AMFm says an independent study shows it has improved access and reduced drug prices.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is a dangerous distraction from genuine solutions like investing in community health workers"

End Quote Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni Oxfam

The scheme was introduced three years ago by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.

It acts as a global subsidy to provide greater access to combination therapy for malaria, particularly through private-sector drug retailers in developing countries.

The idea is to reduce the use of older treatments that carry a higher risk of resistance, and to untap the potential of the private sector in reaching remote communities.

More than 200 million people contract malaria every year and 655,000 die from the disease - most of them are young children.

The scheme is being piloted in seven countries including Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Its future will be considered at a meeting of the Global Fund's board next month.

Oxfam has criticised it as "risky and dangerous".

The charity's senior health policy advisor, Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni, said: "It is dangerous to put the lives of sick children in the hands of a shopkeeper with no medical training, and to pursue a scheme that doesn't help those people who need it the most.

"There is no cheap option or short cut to combat malaria.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This programme is getting life-saving medicine to people who need it most."

End Quote The Global Fund

"The AMFm is a dangerous distraction from genuine solutions like investing in community health workers, who have slashed the number of malarial deaths in countries such as Zambia and Ethiopia.

"The Global Fund board must act on the evidence and put a stop to the AMFm now."

The Global Fund said Oxfam's claims were "simply untrue".

Continue reading the main story

How is malaria spread?

• Malaria is caused by an infection of the red blood cells with a tiny parasite called a protozoa
• It is a vector-borne disease, which means it is spread by another organism - the Anopheles mosquito
• When it bites an infected person the mosquito sucks up blood containing the parasite, which is then passed on to its next victim
• Latest estimates suggest there are about 250 million cases each year, resulting in more than one million deaths

Source: BBC Health

In a statement, it said: "Some Western aid groups oppose a pragmatic approach that includes any involvement of the private sector.

"But the reality of this programme is that it is getting life-saving medicine to people who need it most from the private sector outlets where they already seek treatment.

"Before the launch of AMFm, life-saving malaria treatments cost up to 20 times as much.

"An extensive study has shown that AMFm has increased availability and reduced prices for high quality anti-malarial drugs."

The UK's Department for International Development (DfID) allocated £40m to the scheme in its first two years, and boosted it by £31.6m this year. AMFm is also supported by the Canadian government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A DfID spokesman said: "DfID is helping to halve the number of malaria deaths in the most badly affected countries by 2015 in a number of ways, including improving access and availability of life-saving drugs.

"Studies have shown that quality drugs have got through to remote areas - and that more vulnerable groups, including children under five in rural areas and from the poorest backgrounds, are now being reached."

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New food label system 'by 2013'

24 October 2012 Last updated at 05:24 ET By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

A consistent system of front-of-pack food labelling will be introduced in the UK next year, the government says.

A combination of guideline daily amounts, colour coding and "high, medium or low" wording will be used to show how much fat, salt and sugar and how many calories are in each product.

The scheme will be voluntary, but ministers are confident they have the food industry on board.

Talks will take place later this week over the exact design of the labels.

If those discussions go well it could mark the end of what has been a long-running campaign to introduce front-of-pack labelling.

The issue has been under discussion for the past decade with campaigners seeing it as a way of tackling the rising rates of obesity.

But the introduction of a consistent system has proved difficult, and instead a range of different labels have gradually been introduced over the years.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Despite the government's confident announcement, this is still not quite a done deal.

Within the food industry - and particularly among manufacturers rather than the supermarkets themselves - there are still grumblings about front-of-pack labelling.

But after years of discussions and research and a detailed consultation over the summer, ministers are effectively sticking their necks out to force the sector over the line.

Talks are due to take place on Thursday and by making this announcement now it puts the pressure on industry representatives to sign up.

If a consistent system is not in place by the summer of next year the government will feel it can lay the blame elsewhere.

Some retailers and manufactures have used "traffic-light" labelling, in which the least healthy foods are labelled red and the most healthy are in green, while others use guideline daily amounts - or GDAs - which give the percentage of recommended intake. Some use both.

There has also been confusion over how a system could be introduced.

To make it mandatory, regulations would have to be agreed on a European level, but agreement between countries has been hard to reach.

The situation meant the UK government sought to introduce a voluntary system.

It carried out a consultation on the issue over the summer, which paved the way for this announcement.

Continue reading the main story

What the new labels might look like

• Consumers prefer the traffic light system because it offers key information 'at a glance', according to a Food Standards Agency study.
• The GDA system is based on percentages of daily value for fat, sugar, and salt. The study suggests GDA proponents prefer more information over the simplistic colour coding system.
• For each nutritional category there are specfic high, medium and low ranges that are based on recommended daily values.

Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: "The UK already has the largest number of products with front-of-pack labels in Europe, but research has shown that consumers get confused by the wide variety of labels used.

"By having a consistent system we will all be able to see, at a glance, what is in our food. This will help us all choose healthier options and control our calorie intake.

"Obesity and poor diet cost the NHS billions of pounds every year. Making small changes to our diet can have a big impact on our health and could stop us getting serious illnesses - such as heart disease - later in life."

She said she expected the new system to be in use by the summer of 2013.

Guideline daily amounts (GDA)
Source: Institute of Grocery Distribution
	Women	Men	Children (5-10 years)
Calories (kcal)	2000	2500	1800
Protein	45g	55g	24g
Carbohydrate	230g	300g	220g
Fat	70g	95g	70g
Fibre	24g	24g	15g
Sodium	2.4g	2.4g	1.4g

Prof Alan Maryon-Davis, an expert in health promotion from King's College London and a former president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "This is welcome news - at long last.

"The Food Standards Agency recommended this scheme years ago - but a few big retailers succeeded in blocking it until now.

"This is a triumph for public health and common sense - but just goes to show how the voluntary approach can be so much slower than government regulation."

But Barbara Gallani, of the Food and Drink Federation, said the industry in the UK had "led the way" on the issue.

She added: "Our members are committed to continuing to provide clear nutrition information to consumers and we well be actively engaged in further discussions with the Department of Health following today's announcement."

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X-ray tricks cut breast scan dose

23 October 2012 Last updated at 08:02 ET

An international research team has proposed a way to make high-resolution, 3D images of breast tissue while reducing the delivered X-ray dose.

Breast tissue is particularly susceptible to X-ray radiation so 3D scanning is generally not employed.

Now a team reporting in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests a different form of X-rays and a new image analysis approach.

However, new compact X-ray sources are needed to bring the idea to the clinic.

Taken together, the two improvements lead to high-resolution 3D images while reducing the delivered dose to just 4% that of standard "computed tomography" (CT) scans.

A phenomenally successful technique in X-ray scanning over the past half-century, CT scans are made with a number of X-ray images taken from various angles that are analysed to yield a 3D view.

The approach is reserved for the imaging of parts of the body for which these multiple X-ray exposures is deemed safe, generally excluding "radiosensitive" breast tissue.

Instead, what is known as dual-view mammography is employed, producing two conventional X-ray images of the breast - a methodology that is known to miss 10-20% of tumours.

One to watch

Recent years have seen growth in the use of what is called phase contrast imaging, which measures not only how much X-ray light gets through tissue, but also in a sense how long it takes to get there. This yields a far clearer picture of subtle changes in density that can show tumours.

Now researchers from the US and Germany working at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France have refined the phase contrast approach using what they call equally sloped tomography.

The improvement is in the mathematics used to analyse X-ray images - instead of taking a number of images at evenly spaced angles around a sample, EST takes images at irregular angle intervals and uses improved equations to reconstruct the 3D representation.

Co-author of the study Paola Coan of Ludwig Maximilians University explained that an analogy of the process is a watch.

"Instead of having a hand that measures every second, we have a hand that follows a certain scheme, the first hand movement is 1.2 seconds, then 0.7 then maybe 0.9, but at the end, thanks to EST, we still measure perfectly the minute," she explained to BBC News.

"With this mathematical trick we avoid interpolation and the image looks better - we even need to take fewer radiographs to reconstruct the computed tomography full image."

Testing the approach at the ESRF with a whole mastectomied breast, the team showed that they could acquire images as sharp as those of conventional CT scans using just a quarter of the delivered X-ray dose.

But they carried the work further by using the ESRF's capabilities to run the same test with higher-energy X-rays. Soft tissue is more transparent to these "harder" X-rays and therefore less radiation is absorbed.

As members of the team showed in an article in Physics in Medicine and Biology in April, images of a quality comparable to standard CT can be acquired with harder X-rays corresponding to just a sixth the radiation dose.

In combination, the techniques result in the resolution of a full CT scan while delivering a dose just 4% as large.

"We've demonstrated that by combining X-rays at high energy plus this sophisticated CT reconstruction, we're able to perform a complete CT with high resolution, but with a dose that is much lower than than in conventional CT and potentially... lower than dual-view mammography," Prof Coan said.

"This is an extraordinary result."

However, she added that compact, high-quality X-ray sources capable of the higher-energy regime are still necessary to get the technique established in the clinical setting, a research effort that is underway for a number of industries.

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