We will work with the Government to ensure these essential services are in place for deaf children under five and their parents.”Early detection of deafness enables families to get professional help before their child starts having difficulties. Other family members can begin to learn sign language and choices can be made more quickly about whether to use hearing aids or cochlear implants.Yvette Cooper, the Public Health Minister, said the Government was “very keen” on proposals for the universal neonatal screening programme for deafness in children.. Women over 40 could be deprived of infertility treatment on the NHS under plans being drawn up by the Department of Health. Women over 40 could be deprived of infertility treatment on the NHS under plans being drawn up by the Department of Health.
A government report out this week has come up with the embarrassing finding that the provision of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) services on the NHS is “patchy” across England and Wales.Tony Blair’s government came into office promising to end the “post code lottery” of care on the NHS but, three years later, it seems the problem is as bad as ever.The report leaves Alan Milburn, Secretary of State for Health, with a dilemma over how to deliver uniform levels of IVF treatment across the country that the taxpayer can afford.One controversial option is to impose an upper age limit of 40 for women to qualify for the treatment on the NHS, forcing older women to pay.A leading fertility expert, Professor Alan Templeton, who chaired a Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ working party on IVF for the Government, said Mr Milburn should follow Scotland in establishing a national service framework for IVF care with an age limit of 40 on the NHS.”We found the effectiveness of IVF dropped dramatically at 40,” he said.

“There is a 10-fold difference in the likelihood of success between women in their 40s compared to women below that age.”Mr Milburn may seek comfort from the remarkable results being obtained at a Midlands clinic which has pioneered a new treatment for infertility by hypnotising childless couples into conceiving.More than 100 women who have tried hypnotherapy at the Midland Fertility Services clinic have become pregnant since the treatment was introduced two years ago. While IVF costs £2,000 to £3,000 for each course of treatment, the hypnotherapy comes free.Dr Peter Bromwich, who runs the clinic based in Walsall, says hypnosis relaxes patients and reduces the levels of prolactin, a naturally occurring substance in the body, which can prevent or inhibit ovulation.Ruth Horton-Smith, 37, who was the first woman at the clinic to become pregnant after undergoing hypnotherapy and gave birth to her son Zachary last year, said: “We had terrible trouble conceiving our first child Jacob So when we wanted another child, I was extremely stressed. But the hypnotherapy made me relaxed, it gave me a very positive attitude and about five weeks later I was pregnant “Hypnotherapy is unlikely to be a cure-all, however. Clare Brown, executive director of Child, the National Infertility Support Network, said: “It has its place but it isn’t going to relieve everybody’s infertility by any means. It certainly isn’t going to open blocked tubes.”National figures suggest one in six couples will seek medical help to become pregnant but at an average cost of £10,000.. The return of the matron to NHS hospital wards is to be announced by Alan Milburn as part of the health service plan to enhance the role of nurses.

The return of the matron to NHS hospital wards is to be announced by Alan Milburn as part of the health service plan to enhance the role of nurses.
The Secretary of State for Health has told officials that he wants a modern matron to be put in charge of hospital wards to give patients a clear “point of authority”.”Patients and nurses want to see greater nurse leadership on the wards so that patients have a clear point of contact with authority,” Mr Milburn said in an interview for the Independent on Sunday.The return of matrons could be controversial with staff, and ministers are keen to avoid reviving the image of the “battle axe” portrayed in the Carry On films by Hattie Jacques.However, Mr Milburn is keen to see a matron figure on the wards alongside ward sisters who have been given their own mini-budgets of £5,000 per ward to carry out improvements in services for patients.The move is part of the drive to revive nursing as a career, ending the fashion under the previous government for creating more management posts. That forced many nurses to become managers to further their careers.Nurses are to be told they will have an enhanced role carrying out more tasks previously reserved for doctors.”We need to address some of the great fault lines that run through the National Health Service. In part, they are a hangover from the 1948 settlement where you have absurd demarcations between doctors and nurses, which means you are not getting the full potential from NHS staff.”It is not a question of doctors versus nurses. One of the things that became clear this week with the final session for the NHS planning teams is that there is a consensus on the need to break down the barriers between them,” he said.His determination to act was reinforced by a survey of trusts which showed that in a third of hospitals, nurses cannot order pathology tests and x-rays. One in three hospitals also bar nurses from prescribing medicine, while in 44 per cent of hospitals, nurses cannot admit or discharge patients.The Health Secretary is soon expected to announce a shift away from waiting list targets to waiting times, with a possible manifesto commitment to guarantee all patients will wait no more than three months for non-urgent surgery by 2005. Ministers say that it will depend on increasing staff numbers..