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Daily digest July 20 2015

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Daily digest

Dear Mr Cameron... junior doctor's furious open letter over plans to overhaul NHS

A junior doctor’s damning open letter to the prime minister highlighting NHS workers’ low pay and long hours has been shared online over 40,000 times, after the government announced plans to push for seven-day services.

Janis Burns, 34, a Cambridge graduate who works as a junior doctor for the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, captured the mood in a furious open letter on Facebook in which she said Mr Cameron was acting ‘irresponsibly’ by suggesting NHS doctors don’t provide a seven-day service.

As reported in The Independent, Ms Burns’ letter is signed off with #ImInWorkJeremy – a hashtag, referring to health secretary Jeremy Hunt, which doctors attached to tweets with pictures of themselves at work this weekend and which was used tens of thousands of times.

Read more on The Independent website

Number of people donating organs after death falls for first time in 11 years

The number of people in the UK donating organs after their death fell by 3% last year – the first drop in 11 years. 

The decline has led to fewer transplants taking place and prompted calls for families to ensure they discuss the issue and know their relatives’ wishes.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which runs the service and published the report, warned that people waiting for transplants would continue to die unless there was a revolution in people’s attitudes.

Read more on The Guardian website

End of the thermometer as first NHS hospital trials wireless monitoring

The era of a nurse diligently making the rounds with a thermometer may be coming to an end after a British hospital began trialling new technology which monitors vital signs remotely.

St James’s University Hospital, in Leeds, has become the first to ask patients to wear a lightweight wireless patch which checks heart rate, respiration and temperature.

The patch takes readings every two minutes, sending the data wirelessly to hospital IT systems, and if the readings exceed pre-set thresholds, alerts are issued to nurses on handheld devices who can then respond immediately.

Read more on The Telegraph website

Cost of a packet of cigarettes could rocket to £15 as part of new measures in the fight against cancer

The price of a packet of 20 cigarettes could reach £15 by 2020 in the latest bid to cut down the number of cancer patients.

The measure is part of six health 'priorities' suggested in a report by the Independent Cancer Taskforce, which was set up by NHS England in January.

The £2 billion five-year plan will focus on prevention and early diagnosis and experts hope it could help save 30,000 lives each year.

Read more on the Mail Online website