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... Providing new details on the mistakes found at Miami's center, for example, the report said workers there didn't know for almost five years that they should have been sterilizing an irrigation part on an endoscope used for routine colonoscopies. They also weren't cleaning a water tube between each procedure as recommended by the manufacturer and were mistakenly attaching the water system to the scope during the colonoscopy instead of before, possibly allowing contamination of sterile components.

Cancer patients are to be denied drugs which could keep them alive after the NHS rationing watchdog ruled that they are too expensive. Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death". Four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years. Nice said the drugs were too expensive, at about £24,000/year per patient, for the benefits they offered and would mean the health service was less able to afford more cost-effective drugs...

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans. The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment." Clinton said such measures would apply only to workers who can...

The end of employment-based health insurance isn’t in sight yet, but a study released this morning raises the possibility of a “tipping point” that will cause employers to consider alternatives. The Employee Benefit Research Institute said that “if one larger employer actually did drop its health benefits, others might follow for competitive reasons.” The report, published this morning on www.ebri.org, said work-based health insurance benefits, which are held by the majority of Americans who have health insurance, are still a competitive reason to attract employees.

OLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov 29 (Reuters) - Public health advocates on Thursday called for tighter restrictions on salt content in food, arguing that cutting the nutrient's overuse by most Americans could save thousands of lives annually. Excessive salt in Americans' diets is a major factor in high blood pressure and increases risk for heart disease, while most Americans exceed recommended limits, according to health experts. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cited these factors in urging stricter regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at a public hearing, held on Thursday at the FDA. Trimming the...

Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected. Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare. The charges are assessed retrospectively, so in most cases the money has long since been spent on salaries, medicine and supplies. After absorbing huge assessments for several years, often by borrowing at high rates, a number of...

Make sure to watch TONIGHT, Friday, Sept 14 ABC at 10 pm EDT And Stossel previews here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=446

Suing the government for the right to see and live Jcarpay@CanadianConstitutionFoundation.Ca John Carpay National Post Friday, September 07, 2007Get immediate surgery to treat a brain tumour -- or risk permanent blindness and possibly death. That was the choice presented to 43-year-old Shona Holmes of Waterdown, Ont. But Ontario's government-run health care system offered her only a waiting list. Ms. Holmes, a self-employed family mediator and the mother of two children, began losing her vision in March, 2005. She also experienced severe headaches, anxiety attacks, high blood pressure, extreme fatigue and weight gain. In spite of these symptoms -- and an...

EXCLUSIVE    NHS sends organs on coaches     By EMMA MORTONAugust 27, 2007   SKINT NHS bosses are using National Express coaches to transport organs for transplants.  And The Sun can reveal it meant an EYE went missing on its way to hospital.It was sent in a box on a coach and disappeared on the way to Northampton General.Hospitals should use private ambulances to carry the organs. But many have axed the contracts to save money.Delivery firm TNT was due to collect the eye — for a cornea transplant — from Northampton bus station where it had been taken...