Daily digest October 7 2015

Top Tory claims half of NHS beds are facing the axe fuelling fears of health privatisation

A senior Tory privately suggested that 50% of NHS beds could be axed, the Daily Mirror reports.

Lord Prior – now NHS Productivity Minister – made the revelation in an email to a consultancy firm after it paid for him to tour private health facilities in the US.

More than 13,000 beds have already gone since David Cameron became Prime Minister – and Kailash Chand, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, warned the government was 'already doing' what Lord Prior suggested in his email.

Read more on the Mirror website

Councils reject two-thirds of requests for care

Two-thirds of older and disabled people in England who turn to their local councils for help with care are turned away, figures show.

The BBC reports nearly 1.85 million requests for support were made last year, but just more than 650,000 people received help.

Councils have been warning for a number of years that a shortage of funding is causing problems.

But the figures - the first to be compiled in this way - illustrate how difficult it is for people to get help.

Read more on the BBC News website

Pregnant women 'should not touch a drop of alcohol'

Pregnant women should not touch a drop of alcohol, because there is no evidence of a ‘safe’ threshold, doctors have said.

The Telegraph reports on an article in the British Medical Journal in which experts in paediatrics and pregnancy said women planning a family were being given too much ‘conflicting advice’ which could put their child at risk.

Mary Mather, a retired paediatrician, and Kate Wiles, a doctoral research fellow in obstetric medicine at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said the ‘only ethical advice that can be given is complete abstinence from alcohol in pregnancy’.

Babies can suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome, mental retardation, development and behavioural abnormalities, and low birth weight, if they are exposed to alcohol in the womb.

Read more on the Telegraph website

Ovarian tissue transplants safe and successful, study suggests

Ovarian tissue transplants for women who want to have a baby after cancer treatment appear to be safe and are very successful, according to a team of experts in Denmark, where the procedure is routinely offered.

The Guardian reports one in three young women who had a transplant and wanted to become pregnant succeeded in having a baby, analysis of results over the last 10 years has shown. Half of the children were conceived naturally, without the help of IVF.

The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, is likely to be a game-changer. Many doctors have been wary of ovarian tissue transplants, worried that they might cause a return of the cancer. But among the 41 women in the study, none had a recurrence as a result.

Read more on the Guardian website