Daily digest June 15 2015

NHS trust pays temporary boss £47,000 a month

A struggling NHS trust is paying £47,000 a month for a temporary finance chief despite a government order to halt the 'excessive and indefensible' rates paid on short-term contracts, an investigation by the Daily Telegraph found.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which has the highest bill for agency doctors and nurses and is forecasting the greatest deficit in the history of the NHS, is paying rates equivalent to an annual salary of £561,000.

In a private letter to the heads of all NHS trusts, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, health secretary Jeremy Hunt orders a clampdown on the practice that allows roving NHS executives to earn up to £600,000 a year. Some senior managers have earned up to £3,000 a day.

A Barts spokesperson said: ‘The trust’s previous finance director left in February. This, coupled with the significant financial challenges the trust was facing, meant it was imperative for the board to appoint a highly experienced finance expert to lead its financial recovery programme.’

Read the full story on the Telegraph website

Number of people with diabetes up 62% in a decade

The number of people with diabetes in Britain has soared 62% in less than a decade, official figures show.

Experts warn that the crisis, driven by the nation’s spiralling obesity problem, threatens to bring down the NHS if it is not brought under control, Mail Online reports.

NHS figures show there were 3.3 million adults registered with diabetes in Britain in 2013/14, a huge increase on the two million registered in 2004/05.

The figures, published to coincide with diabetes week, come from the NHS Quality and Outcomes Framework, which records prevalence of common health complaints.

Read more on the Mail Online website

Cervical cancer figures bring call to screen women over 64

Experts have called for NHS screening for cervical cancer to be offered to women over 64 because research has found one in five new cases is diagnosed in this age group.

Around 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year and it is the most common cancer in women under the age of 35.

But researchers at Keele University said that on average, 20% of the 3,121 new cases diagnosed annually were in women aged 65 and over – the age at which the screening programme, commonly known as smear testing, currently ends.

Women over this age accounted for half of deaths from cervical cancer.

Read more on the Mirror website

Cheap and powerful statins ‘could end prostate misery in men’

Statins could be a 'miracle cure' for 2.5 million men in Britain with prostate problems, the Express claims.

A study conducted by researchers in China shows statins ease the condition for men with benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common condition in those over 50. 

The study, published in the World Journal of Urology, suggests statins could be a cheap and powerful new treatment.

Read more on the Express website