The Health News Untied Kingdom January 25 2018

• A report warns that children are being doomed to an early death by their lifestyles – with 4 in 5 obese school pupils destined to remain dangerously overweight for life. Senior paediatricians recently said millions of families were stuck in “a terrible destructive cycle” which would cut lives short by decades, as they called for sweeping measures to reduce Britain’s consumption of junk food.
• Cancer charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has warned that young women are not attending smear tests because they are embarrassed about their bodies. The charity said it was concerned that body image issues, including the perception of what is “normal,” could be putting women’s lives in danger. One in 4 eligible women (aged 25-64) do not attend smear tests, the charity warned as it emerged figures shot up to one in three among 25-29 year olds.
• Sexual health clinics in central London say they have had to turn patients away due to increased pressures on services. Six clinics have closed in the last 12 months, and there have been delays to the rollout of an online self-testing system. Councils say in some cases clinic locations or providers have changed in order to improve services. Commissioners say service levels have been kept up by clinics offering more appointments and longer opening hours.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 24th of January 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/23/obese-children-doomed-early-death-doctors-warn/

A report warns that children are being doomed to an early death by their lifestyles – with four in five obese school pupils destined to remain dangerously overweight for life. Senior paediatricians recently said millions of families were stuck in “a terrible destructive cycle” which would cut lives short by decades, as they called for sweeping measures to reduce Britain’s consumption of junk food. The report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Child Health calls for curbs on advertising of unhealthy foods before the watershed, and action to stop fast food outlets opening near schools.

And it accuses the Government of stalling or going backwards in efforts to tackle “alarming” failings in child health. Official figures show that one in three school pupils are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school.  

Obese parents were far more likely to have obese children, with many born into lifestyle habits that were hard to shift.

The Royal College is calling for a ban on advertising of foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt on television before nine pm, and action to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools and leisure centres.

Caroline Cerny, from the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than forty health charities, campaign groups and Medical Royal  Colleges, said Government efforts to tackle childhood obesity were insufficient. The report, which compared Government policies in England, Scotland and Wales, praised plans to introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks and mandatory sex and relationship lessons in schools in England.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/embarrassed-women-not-attending-smear-tests-due-to-body-fears-cancer-charity-warns-a3745881.html

A cancer charity has warned that young women are not attending smear tests because they are embarrassed about their bodies. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust said it was concerned that body image issues, including the perception of what is “normal,” could be putting women’s lives in danger. One in four eligible women (aged twenty five to sixty four) do not attend smear tests, the charity warned as it emerged figures shot up to one in three among twenty five to twenty nine year olds. It is even as high as one in two in some areas of the UK.

The charity conducted a survey which found that more than a third of women (thirty five percent) are failing to get tested because of their body shape, while thirty four percent were worried about the appearance of their vulva. Concerns over smelling “normal” (thirty eight per cent) was also a factor.

But despite low screening attendance, almost every woman (ninety four percent) said they would have a free test to prevent cancer if one was available. The charity is releasing the data at the start of Cervical Cancer Prevention Week and as it launches its smear test campaign hashtag SmearForSmear.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women under thirty five, yet the poll of two thousand seventeen women found three out of five (sixty one percent) were unaware they were in the most at-risk age group for the disease. Just under one thousand women die from cervical cancer every year in the UK.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42771665

Sexual health clinics in central London say they have had to turn patients away due to increased pressures on services. Six clinics have closed in the last twelve months, and there have been delays to the rollout of an online self-testing system. Councils say in some cases clinic locations or providers have changed in order to improve services. Commissioners say service levels have been kept up by clinics offering more appointments and longer opening hours.

Guy’s and Saint Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust reduced the number of its clinics from six to three last year. The trust’s impact report shows it had to “turn away” eleven thousand four hundred forty seven patients on their day of attendance across its remaining three sites between April and September two thousand seventeen.

Not all clinics collect and publish data on the number of people they have to turn away, so this can be difficult to measure and analyse. On its website the Dean Street Express clinic in Soho, central London, says it is “massively oversubscribed due to the closure of several other clinics in London”. It says this means that more than one thousand five hundred patients are trying to reserve about three hundred time slots each day.

A government spokesperson said over sixteen billion pounds was being given to councils by the government to spend on public health, and more people than ever were being tested for sexually transmitted infections.