New Mums 'Abandoned' During Labour

One in three new mothers is left alone during or just after labour because maternity services are overstretched, according to a survey.

The poll of 3,500 mums found almost half (43%) said they did not have access to a midwife after giving birth.

More than a third (35%) of those questioned by The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and parenting website Netmums.com said they had been abandoned during or after labour at a time when they felt worried.

Sally Russell, co-founder of Netmums.com, said: "This survey's results should demonstrate to the Government just how stretched maternity services are.

"It shows that our members want, need and deserve one-to-one care from midwives but they are not getting this and are left alone and feeling abandoned during labour, and especially in the vital post-natal period."

    All women can expect individual support from a midwife, supported by a wider maternity team, throughout her labour and birth.

Health Minister Ann Keen

One mother said of her labour: "There were too many people on and off shifts.

"There was no continuity of care, therefore no-one was able to make sound decisions.

"I (had) seven different midwives involved just during labour. I ended up having an emergency Caesarean section."

In 2007, the Government said all women in England should be supported by a midwife they know and trust throughout their pregnancy and after birth.

Ministers promised that "by the end of 2009" women would be able to choose where they give birth and have better continuity of midwifery care.

But the survey found only 68% of women were offered a choice of where to give birth.

Baby buggy

Some mothers felt abandoned

There were some positive responses in the research, including 83% of women saying they had the name and telephone number of a midwife they could contact if they were worried.

And 72% said they had their first appointment with a midwife as soon as they wanted it.

RCM general secretary Cathy Warwick said she was pleased some aspects of maternity services were rated highly but that overall the results painted a "worrying and disturbing picture".

Reacting to the survey, Health Minister Ann Keen said: "There has been record investment in the NHS in recent years including an additional £330m for maternity services.

"All women can expect individual support from a midwife, supported by a wider maternity team, throughout her labour and birth."

NEWS BY:http://news.sky.com

Susan Boyle plans for musical

Susan Boyle plans to star in a musical about her life.

The Scottish singing sensation, who shot to worldwide fame after appearing on UK TV talent show Britain's Got Talent in 2009, is in talks to have her meteoric rise to fame chronicled in a new stage production and even hopes to take the lead role in the show.

She said: "I'm definitely going to be on stage. I'd rather that than having to sit watching people up there looking like me.

"I want to be doing the music parts, so I'll be coming in and out of the show. I'm looking forward to doing some live work. It'll be really nice to see so many of the people who have supported me in person."

Producers are reportedly planning to take the show - which will chronicle the 49-year-old star's modest upbringing in Blackburn, West Lothian, her period living alone with her cat and her rise to stardom - on a huge UK tour late next year as they believe it will be extremely popular.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Susan has incredibly loyal fans. People will be travelling from all over the world to see her perform in her own musical.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of them book tickets to watch it five nights in a row."

NEWS BY:http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news

Scottish childcare among the UK’s costliest

PARENTS in Scotland are facing some of the highest childcare costs in Britain with some paying annual bills of nearly £12,000, according to a new report.

Scotland’s out-of-school clubs have the second highest average costs in the UK, while childminding charges are the highest outside of the south of England.

Costs also vary across local authoritieswith the average weekly prices in Scotland for nursery care for children under two ranging from £67.50 to £142.50, according to the report by the Daycare Trust and Children in Scotland charities.

A parent using 25 hours of care over 50 weeks of the year in Scotland’s most expensive nursery would face a bill of £11,688.

Individual authorities were not identified in the report.

Meanwhile, the survey also found that only a fifth of Scottish local authorities said they had enough childcare for parents working full time, while just one in ten had sufficient for those working outside normal office hours or living in rural areas.

The Scottish Government insisted it was committed to bringing down the cost of childcare, but charities have called for legislation to provide universal free childcare.

Daycare Trust chief executive Anand Shukla said: “The high price of childcare faced by many Scottish families is putting significant pressure on family budgets at a time when tax credits have been cut.

“These problems are exacerbated by significant gaps in childcare availability and a postcode lottery in prices.

“Greater management of the childcare market is needed, both at government and at local authority level.

“Today, we are calling on the Scottish Government to take the lead in implementing the Early Years Framework by legislating to provide a childcare place for every child.”

The report also found the cost gap between private and state nurseries was highest in Scotland, at least £20 per week compared with less than £10 south of the Border.

Some costs have improved in the past year in Scotland. Nursery places for children aged two and over dropped by 3.1 per cent and out-of-school clubs decreased 1.9 per cent. But childminding costs for children aged two and up climbed 5 per cent – more than English or Welsh averages.

The report’s authors urged the Scottish Government to put pressure on Westminster to amend regulations to allow self-employed parents to claim childcare vouchers. They also said Scottish local authorities should be forced to collect better data on childcare provision.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was committed to expanding and improving the quality of early learning and childcare provision, focusing on those who were most in need.

She added: “Since 2007, we have delivered real increases in free pre-school provision, benefiting around 100,000 children each year.

“In addition, we’re providing £4.5 million over the next three years to local authorities to deliver additional early learning and childcare for all looked after two-year-olds; and a further £4.5m to promote community-based solutions to family support and childcare.

“This government is committed to tackling the high cost of childcare through changes to the welfare and tax systems. Having control over our tax and benefit systems would undoubtedly help deliver this.”

A total of 26 of the 32 Scottish local authorities took part in the survey, carried out between November 2011 and January 2012.

• Glasgow mother of two Steffi Keir, 41, who works in the charitable sector, pays about £600 a month for three days a week of childcare for her daughters, aged five and 17 months.

She said to go private would cost far more and there should be a system of universally subsidised childcare, except where parents can really afford it.

“We got our oldest into a local authority nursery at the age of three, so before that we paid a childminder £500 a month,” she said. “I could be a stay-at-home mum, but it would be difficult for me not to even work part-time, because it’s a very fulfilling job.”

NEWS BY:http://www.scotsman.com

Cambridge University unveils letter from Charles Dickens to his son

It's like any letter written by an affectionate dad to his student son at university: work hard, keep a close eye on your spending, and if you have any problems, let me know.

A revealing missive penned by Charles Dickens to his son Henry nearly 150 years ago has been highlighted by Cambridge University today on the 200th anniversary of the great writer’s birth.

The letter was written while the author of Great Expectations was staying at a hotel in Liverpool, in October 1868. Dickens’ son, Henry, then just 19 and the first of the writer’s 10 children to go to university, had just arrived at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, to study maths.

His message to his son, which begins "Dear Harry", reveals that student debt is by no means just a 21st century phenomenon. It says: "I enclose you another cheque, for £25," and goes on to discuss his allowance, £250 a year ("handsome for all your wants") his requirements for furniture and clothes ("I strongly recommend you to buy nothing in Cambridge") and his decision to send him a consignment of drink, so he can enjoy the undergraduate life – three dozen bottles of sherry, two dozen bottles of port, three dozen light clarets, and six bottles of brandy.

Dickens Senior then exhorts his young son to be prudent when handling money: "Now observe attentively – we must have no shadow of debt." Throughout his life, Dickens was haunted by the memory of his own father sinking into debt, and being sent to prison as a result. Charles was sent to the pawnbroker’s with the family books and much of their furniture, and was later sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, aged just 12.

The letter, given to the Cambridge college in 1957 by Christopher Dickens, one of Henry’s grandchildren, tells the young student: "You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after I was a child. If you ever find yourself on the verge of perplexity or difficulty, come to me. You will never find me hard with you while you are manly and truthful."

Dr Jan-Melissa Schramm, fellow in English at Trinity Hall, has written two books for Cambridge University Press about Charles Dickens. She said: "The letter speaks very powerfully to the parents of students today, not only about caring for their children’s spiritual well-being, but also about supplying their material wants.

NEWS BY:http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Education-and-Training/Universities/Cambridge-University-unveils-letter-from-Charles-Dickens-to-his-son-06022012.htm

Analysis: Which university has the fattest wallet?

How has the fall in the value of the stock market since The THES' first analysis of university wealth in 2001 affected the financial health of UK institutions? Claire Sanders and Alison Goddard report.

Cambridge University is still the richest institution in the UK, despite a fall of 26 per cent in the value of its endowments since 2000.

In the second analysis of university wealth by The THES - the first was carried out in 2001 based on 2000 figures - the fall in the value of the stock market can be clearly seen. Bristol University has seen the value of its endowments fall by more than a third.

Others have fared extraordinarily well. Surrey University, which The THES identified in 2000 as one of the up-and-coming wealthy universities, has seen its endowments fall by just 0.1 per cent. Since the publication of the last set of league tables, Surrey has announced that it is looking at plans to go private.

Other institutions that have performed strongly include Reading, Coventry and Wolverhampton universities.

The balance sheets used by The THES were supplied by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and are for the year to July 31 2002. They have been compared with those for July 31 2000.

Net assets

Net assets, or total funds, show the value of an institution's fixed assets such as buildings, its endowment assets and its current assets minus its liabilities. A university's net assets also include whatever it owns in spin-off companies. They reflect the size of a university as well as its wealth.

Cambridge has net assets of just over £1.2 billion, a 0.6 per cent increase on 2000. Oxford University's net assets are smaller at £809 million, a 0.2 per cent increase on 2000. Unlike Cambridge, Oxford does not include buildings more than 50 years old in its fixed assets.

Two years ago, Cambridge estimated that its colleges' net assets amounted to £1.5 billion. Oxford put the figure at somewhere between £1.2 billion and £1.5 billion. Neither university could provide updated estimates.

The ten universities with the biggest assets account for more than 35 per cent of the sector's assets.

The highest ranked new university is Manchester Metropolitan at 16. Leeds Metropolitan, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Brighton universities all come in the top 30.

These all tend to be universities with large student numbers. A spokesperson for Wolverhampton said: "We are in the process of a major building programme, called New Horizons. This has significantly increased our net assets. We are also the tenth largest university in the UK in terms of head count."

The past two years have seen serious swings in the net assets of some universities. The University of East London has seen a fall of 28 per cent, Greenwich University a fall of 19.6 per cent and Heriot-Watt University a fall of 17.4 per cent.

A UEL spokesperson said: "This fall is due to the sale of properties, including Maryland House in Stratford." The university has also changed the basis of the valuation of its Longbridge Road campus.

At the other end of the scale, Exeter University has seen an increase in net assets of 64.4 per cent, York University an increase of 52.8 per cent, Sussex University an increase of 46.6 per cent and London Guildhall University an increase of 40 per cent.

A spokesperson for Exeter said: "The £65 million increase is due to investment in new facilities, particularly the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. We have also carried out a revaluation of the university's estate and seen its value go up due to big increases in property and land values in this area." 

NEWS BY:http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=178107&sectioncode=26

FDA's mobile medical app guidelines get everybody talking

cWASHINGTON – The questions and comments are pouring in over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s draft guidance on mobile medical apps, making it obvious that the government’s first attempt to clarify its regulatory authority over this fast-growing field won’t be the last.

While the 30-page draft establishes three categories of devices that would fall under FDA perusal, it leaves out – either specifically or by omission – several other uses. Among them: App sellers (like Apple), telecommunications providers and handset manufacturers, to name a few.

“What we have done is we have taken that approach and formulated policies that were narrowly focused on a very small subset while allowing apps that are out there to foster and continue developing that space,” said Bakul Patel, an FDA policy advisor who helped draft the guidelines, in news reports. “We wanted to make sure that we are consistent in regulating medical devices so nothing has changed. … (If) somebody makes a stethoscope on an iPhone, it doesn’t change the level of oversight we have of a stethoscope.”

Chuck Parker, executive director of the Continua Health Alliance, a 230-member global alliance of healthcare and technology companies working to improve the quality of personal healthcare, said the draft “opens up the market” by giving the industry rules to work with.

“It sort of clears the thoughts out a little bit, and that does help us out,” he said.

“It’s pretty consistent with what I expected them to do,” said Yarmela Pavlovic, an associate with the global law firm of Hogan Lovells. “What’s been happening (in the mobile medical app space) is very, very fast development, and there needed to be an interpretation of existing regulations.”

Zachary Bujnoch, a senior industry analyst for telehealth and healthcare with Frost & Sullivan, called the draft document a much-needed entry into a “market full of hype.” He said the regulations will help “vet out the market” and target the thousands of healthcare apps on the market.

“This is going to hinder innovation in the market – there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “But that’s good. It’s a very confused market right now … that needs clarification.”

Pavlovic said she was “surprised by the way they narrowed” the classifications of apps to come under FDA guidance. “There’s definitely things that fall outside the categories that will be discussed,” she said. For example, she said, should accessories apps be treated the same as their connected devices?

Both Parker and Bujnoch questioned whether electronic health records should fall under FDA review (electronic and personal health records currently fall outside the FDA’s scope, according to the draft). An issue expected to generate a lot of comment, both said, is the definition of clinical decision support. If a device takes healthcare data and translates that into a clinical decision that can affect one’s healthcare, should it fall under the FDA’s guidelines?

“It depends on where the decision factor comes in,” said Parker. “Who defines the intelligence that gets sent back to the individual?”

The FDA draft will be a topic of discussion at two upcoming conferences. On Wednesday, it’s on the agenda for the American Telemedicine Association’s Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. (co-hosted by the Continua Health Alliance); and it will be the subject of a keynote panel discussion during the World Congress 3rd Annual Leadership Summit on mHealth, scheduled for Friday, July 29.

The mHealth Regulatory Coalition is also expected to weigh in, taking part in the ATA/Continua conference on Wednesday and issuing its own version of mHealth guidelines within a few weeks.

In addition, the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center, based in Billings, Mont., will co-host an August 15 “”Brown Bag Webinar” with the Center for Telehealth & e-Health Law on the topic. The webinar, titled “Are You a Medical Device Manufacturer: The FDA’s Final Rule on Medical Devices,” will feature Anthony Pavel, an attorney with the law firm of K&L Gates and a CTeL board member.

NEWS BY: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/fdas-mobile-medical-app-guidelines-get-everybody-talking