Healthcare News

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday re-appointed Margaret Chan as its chief, who declared universal health care as her top priority.

People suffering long-term illnesses with a high level of pain are not receiving the relief they need from doctors unsure when to prescribe strong drugs, a medical body said.

More than 6% of hospital patients in England had a healthcare-associated infection last autumn, a snapshot survey from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has shown.

The Government's plans to reform education and training in the NHS are unclear and lack detail, MPs have warned.

Cases of a notorious hospital bug may be going unreported because of the threat of Government-imposed fines, it has been claimed.

More than a third of malaria drugs examined by scientists in Southeast Asia were fake, and a similar proportion analysed in Africa were below standard, doctors warned on Tuesday.

The Government needs to look again at the issue of foreign nationals' use of the NHS, to ensure the country's healthcare system is "not free at the point of abuse", a Conservative MP has warned.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ronald Reagan's foundation expressed outrage on Monday at a British company's auction of what it says is a vial of the late U.S. president's blood taken at the hospital where he was treated after a 1981 assassination attempt. PFC Auctions, a company based in Guernsey in the United Kingdom, announced …

Italian doctors in March implanted the smallest ever artificial heart into a 16-month-old baby before the infant received a permanent organ donation, said the hospital that performed the operation.

An NHS trust has been fined £90,000 after details of almost 60 patients were sent to the wrong person, the information watchdog has said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's BTG swung to a pretax profit for the year to end-March, helped by its move to direct sales of its specialist anti-poison drugs, and said it had acquired the European named-patients supply rights for another antidote, uridine triacetate. The speciality pharma company, which already has the U.S. …

The Health Secretary has challenged Labour to bring forward the evidence that shows waiting-time rules are being breached across the NHS.

The number of breaches of rules on mixed-sex NHS wards rose by nearly 100 last month, according to new figures.

A doctor has denied recommending a spiritual healer to a 15-year-old schoolgirl in the weeks before she died from tuberculosis.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs can benefit even apparently healthy people with no previous history of heart disease, a study has found.

More than a third of people prescribed drugs for high cholesterol are putting themselves at a dramatically increased risk of heart problems by failing to take their medication for the condition, a health charity has warned.

Almost a third of diabetic hospital patients are victims of medication errors that can cause dangerous blood glucose levels, a report has found.

Outbreaks of the potentially fatal norovirus have fallen in recent years, Scotland's top doctor has said.

A drug to treat advanced prostate cancer should be given to patients on the NHS, a health watchdog has said.

The number of children receiving brain surgery for epilepsy is set to almost treble under plans for a major expansion of services across England.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called on NHS staff and patients to hold the Government to account for difficulties resulting from its controversial reforms to the health service.

Two more wards at a hospital have been closed to new patients because of an outbreak of a bug thought to be the norovirus.

Blocking the publication of a report into the risks of NHS reforms is a sign that ministers want to downgrade freedom of information laws, a watchdog has warned.

LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline is paying 61 million pounds to take full control of Cellzome, a Anglo-German biotech whose drug discovery platform it is already using to develop treatments for inflammatory diseases. GSK took an initial stake in Cellzome in 2008 as part of its strategy to license more drugs from outside …

Patients are suffering because of a shortage of some NHS prescription medicines, a Parliamentary group has warned.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces a worsening shortages of medicines because vital supplies are being sucked out of the country by exporters who can sell them for higher prices elsewhere, MPs said. The All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) said on Tuesday the government needed to consider ways to curb this so-called parallel trade, …

Two more patients suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting thought to be the Norovirus bug have died in hospital.

NANTERRE, France (Reuters) - French drug maker Servier and its founder went on trial on Monday accused of misleading patients and authorities about a diabetes drug often prescribed for weight loss that officials blame for at least 500 deaths. The case, one of France's worst health scandals, has put authorities under scrutiny …