Labour to propose immediate halt to hospital closures

Labour has promised to immediately stop the proposed closures of A&Es and other health services across England and instead carry out a full-scale review of controversial government plans.

The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, revealed that a flagship commitment in his party’s manifesto, to be published later this month, will be a moratorium on so-called sustainability and transformation plans (STPs).

“We have listened to the hundreds of patients and campaigners up and down the country that have been pleading with the government to hear their concerns about their local services,” he said.

“Threats of hospitals being closed, A&E services moved miles up the road, and children’s wards being shut, have caused widespread concern and confusion. What is more, these decisions have been decided behind closed doors, with no genuine involvement of local people. It’s a disgrace.”

He said Labour would ask a new body – called NHS Excellence – to lead a review that would place local people at the heart of decisions.

STPs were meant to be necessary local blueprints designed to keep the NHS afloat in the face of massive pressure and a £22bn financial black hole. But they have caused huge controversy with critics claiming they amount to plans for hospital closures, cutbacks and radical changes to the way that health is delivered.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, hit back by calling Labour’s policy proposal a “nonsensical Jeremy Corbyn idea”. He claimed that Ashworth had supported the policy as recently as December and that Labour had backed the plans in its last manifesto.

“These local plans are developed by local doctors and communities, backed by the top doctors and nurses of the NHS, and will improve patient care. This is all underpinned by an extra £10bn for the NHS, which we can only afford thanks to our strong economy,” he said, claiming Corbyn would put that at risk.

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said the original purpose behind the STP process of bringing fragmented parts of the service together was a good one. “But it is based on the fantasy that there is enough money to deliver this vision, when the plans are now hundreds of millions of pounds short,” he said.

Lamb argued that only the Lib Dems would take the “tough action” needed to increase investment by making the case for increasing tax to support the NHS.

Labour to propose immediate halt to hospital closures

White Property and USDA propose principles for free of charge lunches and ad limits in schools

Moving past the lunch line, new guidelines that will be proposed Tuesday by the White Home and the Agriculture Department would limit marketing of unhealthy foods in schools. They would phase out the marketing of sugary drinks and junk foods about campuses throughout the college day and make sure that other promotions in schools have been in line with well being specifications that already apply to college meals.

That means a scoreboard at a high school football or basketball game eventually wouldn’t be allowed to market Coke, for illustration, but it could promote Diet program Coke or Dasani water, which are also owned by Coca Cola. Same with the front of a vending machine. Cups, posters and menu boards which advertise food items that don’t meet the specifications would also be phased out.

Ninety % of this kind of marketing and advertising in schools is relevant to drinks, and several soda businesses presently have began to transition their income and advertising in schools from sugary sodas and sports drinks to their very own healthier products.

The proposed rules are component of very first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to combat child weight problems, which is celebrating its fourth anniversary this week. Mrs Obama and agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack will announce the new guidelines at a White Residence occasion.

“The idea right here is simple – our classrooms should be healthier places in which little ones aren’t bombarded with adverts for junk foods,” the very first lady mentioned in a statement launched just before the announcement. “Because when mothers and fathers are operating difficult to educate their little ones wholesome routines at home, their operate shouldn’t be undone by unhealthy messages at college.”

The principles also would enable far more youngsters accessibility to cost-free lunches and guarantee that colleges have wellness policies in spot. The proposed rules come on the heels of USDA regulations that are now requiring foods in the college lunch line to be healthier.

Guidelines set to go into effect next college yr will make other food items around college more healthy as well, like in vending machines and separate “a la carte” lines in the lunch area. Calorie, body fat, sugar and sodium limits will have to be met on almost every food and beverage sold in the course of the college day at a hundred,000 schools. Concessions sold at after-college sports activities video games would be exempt.

The healthier food rules have come under fire from conservatives who believe the government shouldn’t dictate what kids eat – and from some college students who really do not like the more healthy meals.

Mindful of the backlash, the USDA is enabling schools to make some of their personal selections on what constitutes advertising and marketing and asking for feedback on some alternatives. For illustration, the proposal asks for remarks on initiatives like Pizza Hut’s “Book It” plan, which co-ordinates with colleges to reward little ones with pizza for reading through.

Rules for other college fundraisers, like bake sales and marketing and advertising for these events, would be left up to colleges or states.

Off-campus fundraisers, like an occasion at a regional fast-meals outlet that rewards a college, nevertheless would be permitted. But posters advertising the quickly foods may possibly not be permitted in college hallways. An e mail to mothers and fathers, with or without having the marketing, would have to suffice. The thought is to market place to the mothers and fathers, not the little ones.

The rule also makes allowances for significant infrastructure expenses – that scoreboard advertising Coca Cola, for illustration, wouldn’t have to be immediately torn down. But the school would have to get one particular with a more healthy message the up coming time it was replaced.

The beverage sector, led by Coca Cola, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo, is on board with the move. American Beverage Association President and CEO Susan Neely explained in a statement that aligning signage with the more healthy drinks that will be supplied in schools is the “logical subsequent step”.

“Mrs Obama’s efforts to carry on to strengthen college wellness make sense for the properly-currently being of our schoolchildren,” Neely stated.

Although Mrs Obama lobbied Congress to pass the school nutrition bill in 2010, most of her efforts in recent years have been focused on the personal sector, constructing partnerships with foods firms and retailers to sell healthier meals.

The youngster nutrition law also expanded feeding packages for hungry college students. The guidelines currently being proposed Tuesday would boost that even more by allowing the highest-poverty schools to serve lunch and breakfast to all students for totally free. In accordance to the USDA and the White House, that initiative would enable nine million children in 22,000 schools to receive free of charge lunches.

The USDA has previously tested the program, which is developed to boost participation for students and minimize paperwork and applications for schools, in 11 states.

In addition, the Obama administration will announce new recommendations for college wellness policies. Schools have been needed to have standard wellness policies that set their own general requirements for meals, physical action and other wellness pursuits considering that 2004. But the new rules would need parents and other individuals in the college community to be involved in individuals decisions.

White Property and USDA propose principles for free of charge lunches and ad limits in schools

Feds Propose New Crash Tests For Kid Vehicle Seats, But Suitable Use Stays Lax

There’s no query that infant and kid safety seats have assisted slash highway death tolls in current years. When set up and employed properly, the National Highway Site visitors Security Administration says safety seats can minimize fatalities between infants by up to 71 percent and 54 percent for toddlers. Sadly motor motor vehicle crashes nevertheless stay the variety one result in of death among youngsters.

As part of its ongoing efforts to aid lessen serious injuries among the nation’s youngest motor-automobile passengers, NHTSA recently announced it is searching to improve the federal specifications for child automobile-seats offered in the U.S. by requiring them to pass a side-influence crash check.

Auto seats would be affixed to a specially developed test sled and subjected to a “T-bone” collision in which the front of a automobile going thirty mpg strikes the side of a modest auto traveling at 15 mph. Test dummies simulating each a twelve-month infant and a 3-yr outdated toddler would be used and all security seats would be needed to safeguard a child’s head and chest from crash forces. NHTSA estimates that the new guidelines could save five lives and avert 64 injuries each year.

(Photograph credit score: stevendepolo)

“Car seats are an crucial instrument for retaining younger youngsters safe in cars and have a confirmed track record of saving lives,” says NHTSA acting administrator David Friedman. “Today we continue to build on our comprehensive little one seat safety program by incorporating side-effect crash protection for the initial time.”

Assuming they are implemented in the coming months, auto-seat makers would subsequently have a 3-year time frame in which to make any style alterations essential to pass the check and comply with the new regulations.

This is all fine and well, and we’re surely all for doing whatever it takes to safeguard a vehicle’s most valuable cargo, but even with greater types and stricter solution testing there stays two wild cards in the deck: Mom and Dad. A research carried out by the AAA Chicago Automobile Club determined that three out of four automobile youngster seats are being improperly utilised or set up. This kind of infractions variety from not fastening a seat tightly enough to moving children out of infant or child seats ahead of it’s otherwise prudent.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends infants and toddlers trip in a rear-dealing with auto seat until age two (or till they reach the seat’s fat and height limits), moving to a front-dealing with seat with a harness till at least age four, and then into a seatbelt-positioning booster seat right up until they’ve reached 4 feet, 9 inches tall and are at least eight years previous. The AAP even more recommends kids who’ve out grown their booster seats continue to trip the back seat till they’re at least 13 many years old.

Right here, according to AAA Chicago, are the twelve most typical blunders parents make with regard to child auto seats:

1. Moving a youngster out of a booster seat too soon. Seatbelts are designed to restrain grownups, not kids. Based on the child’s physical development, a seat belt will not match properly until he or she is among the ages of eight and 12.


2. Not installing the seat tightly enough. A kid’s seat shouldn’t slide front-to-back or side-to-side, and there shouldn’t be far more than an inch of “wiggle room” in the seat belt.


3. Harness straps are also loose. Little one seat straps must be straight and flat and adjusted tightly enough to totally restrain a kid in a crash.


4. The harness retainer clip is set as well low. This should be set at armpit degree for appropriate restraint.


5. Moving a infant into a forward-dealing with seat prematurely.


6. Allowing a youngster below 13 to ride in the front seat.


7. Neglecting the best tether. This secures a forward dealing with seat to the auto and keeps the best of the seat from moving forward in a crash when a child’s head and neck could otherwise snap forward with excessive force.


8. Incorporating padding, toys or mirrors to a car seat. This kind of items might interfere with the seat’s performance or could come loose and turn into hazardous projectiles in a collision.


9. Putting in a automobile seat through a vehicle’s built-in “LATCH” (Reduced Anchors and Tethers for Young children, essential in all designs since 2002) in the center position, when it is otherwise not authorized by the automaker – verify the owner’s manual for particulars.


10. Carrying unsecured items – which includes pets – in the automobile. Once again, these can turn into injury-inflicting projectiles beneath sudden braking.


11. Putting in a vehicle seat making use of each a car’s LATCH connection and a seatbelt. The AAA says mothers and fathers must use a single technique but not the two, as they typically work towards each other in a crash.


12. Making it possible for children to wear bulky coats even though secured in a car seat. This can generate undue slack in the harness method – it is much better to place blankets more than youngsters in the car for warmth.

Having moved a couple of youngsters ourselves by way of numerous auto security seats buckled in the back seats of hundreds of manufacturers’ test cars and trucks over the many years we’d include 1 important caveat: Make confident the vehicle seat is as considerably a excellent match for your motor vehicle as it is for your kid. The bolstering and cushioning in some designs is far more hospitable to specified kid-seat designs than others. And ditch that comely coupe – select a vehicle that functions a wide-opening rear door that makes it straightforward to appropriately set up a seat and restrain the kid. However they even now endure a “soccer mom” social stigma, minivans with their huge sliding rear doors perform ideal in this regard, specifically in crowded parking plenty in which door clearance can otherwise be slim.

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Feds Propose New Crash Tests For Kid Vehicle Seats, But Suitable Use Stays Lax