Nursing standards will improve – PM
MORE funding for training and surveys of friends and family will help improve nursing standards this year, the Prime Minister said today.
David Cameron said the standard of care in the NHS would be a key priority for the Government in 2013.
The moves followed criticism of nursing by Labour MP Ann Clwyd who raised the poor care of her late husband in Prime Minister’s Questions last year.
Top earners’ pension break threat
PENSION tax relief for top earners could be slashed to provide guaranteed jobs for the long-term unemployed, under plans unveiled by Labour today.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the £1 billion scheme would see 130,000 people out of work for more than two years offered posts on at least the minimum wage.
But they face losing benefits if they refuse to take the jobs.
Public hostile to welfare spending
THE Government has been accused of spreading “prejudice and ignorance” over benefits after new research showed the public was hostile to welfare.
A poll by the TUC revealed that more than two out of five people believed benefits were too generous, while three out of five agreed that the UK’s welfare system had created a culture of dependency.
The survey of 1,800 adults came amid a political row over welfare spending ahead of a Commons vote next week on plans to impose a real-terms benefits cut.
Man, 51, in hand transplant first
A 51-YEAR-OLD man has become the first person in the UK to have a hand transplant.
Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) said Mark Cahill underwent the complex, eight-hour procedure on December 27 when a donor hand became available.
They said a new technique was used which involved Mr Cahill, from Greetland, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, having his non-functioning right hand removed during the same operation as the donor hand was transplanted.
Tories accused over parking charges
CONSERVATIVE-RUN councils rake in far more from parking charges than town halls under Labour, according to research published by the opposition.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has vowed to expose what he calls a “great council cash-cow cover-up” by forcing authorities to publish parking revenue.
