Giving up smoking won’t just improve your health, it can also put thousands of pounds a year back into your wallet. The following information from the Which? website explains how you could save money this No Smoking Day, 14 March 2012.

The financial benefit of giving up cigarettes

A 20-pack of Silk Cut Purple costs around £7 at Tesco. If you smoke 20 a day, that’s as much as £2,555 a year. Put the money into a 3% Best Rate cash Isa each month and you’d earn an extra £50 in interest in the first year, too.

Even if you smoke five a day, that’s £639 a year you’d save by giving up smoking, plus an extra £10 in interest.

Life insurance for smokers

A 55-year-old male smoker buying a £100,000 life insurance policy over a 10-year term could pay around £41.20 a month for the cover.

If the same man was a non-smoker (or had been tobacco-free for 12 months), he’d pay just £16.89 a month. Over the 10-year term, that’s £2,917 less in premiums.

If he’d put the monthly difference into a Best Rate cash Isa paying 3%, he’d have almost £3,400 in the bank at the end of 10 years.

Income protection, private medical insurance and critical illness cover

It’s not just life insurance premiums that usually fall 12 months after you give up smoking. Most insurance policies that are based on your health are more expensive if you smoke. Insurers charge smokers more as they’re more likely to fall ill or be unable to work, and therefore to make a claim. This affects anyone buying income protection, private medical insurance (PMI) or critical illness cover.

Even home insurance can cost more for smokers with some providers because of the increased fire risk.

Ex-smokers could save by switching

If you took out a life insurance, income protection or PMI policy when you were a smoker, but have now been tobacco-free for 12 months, you could save money by switching to a policy for non-smokers.

It’s best to take independent financial advice to make sure you’re not giving up any valuable guarantees, but many people could save. You often don’t even have to switch to a new insurance provider.

Smokers and buying a pension annuity

There is some good news for smokers. When you approach retirement and want to turn your pension pot into a regular income, smokers can often get a much better deal through buying an enhanced annuity.

An enhanced annuity pays a higher annuity rate to people with particular lifestyles, including smokers and obese people. As smokers are more likely to die early, annuity providers are willing to pay out more each month while you’re alive.

Read more on the Which? website at http://ht.ly/9Edxy

Julian Huppert, Member of Parliament for Cambridge, has today voted in favour of two bids to drop the Health Bill.

Julian voted in favour of an amendment tabled by some Liberal Democrats saying that the House “declines to support the Bill in its current form; and calls for an urgent summit of the Royal Colleges, professional bodies, patients’ organisations and the Government to plan health reforms based on the Coalition Agreement”.

Julian said, “I voted against this Bill when it left the House of Commons last September. While it has been improved significantly, it is not improved enough.

“Crucially, this Bill is now opposed by the medical professionals who would have to implement it. I have therefore voted to drop the Bill.

“I firmly believe that the NHS does need reform and improvement. Citizens of this country deserve a first-class health service which protects everyone, regardless of ability to pay. Labour’s failed reforms have put that in jeopardy.

“Labour introduced private sector providers into the NHS, and paid them more than NHS providers for the same service – they even paid one £250 million for operations they didn’t do! They spent £12 billion on a computer system that never worked, and left the NHS with a £60 billion bill from PFI contracts. And their manifesto called for even greater involvement of the private sector.

“When this mismanagement came to light, they spent millions on managers and consultants. Between 2008 and 2010 the number of management consultants in the NHS increased by 80 per cent.

“The result of all this is health outcomes which are below the EU15 average and near-bankrupt hospitals. There is a pressing need for reform.

“But I believe that the only way to maintain free, universal health care is through bottom-up reforms which are fully supported by clinicians on the ground. The Government’s reforms do not have that backing so I cannot support them.

“I call on the Government to engage with the medical professions, withdraw the Bill and introduce new, bottom-up reforms in line with the Coalition Agreement.

“I am proud of Liberal Democrat amendments to improve this bill. Our changes have substantially changed the bill, ensuring that competition is not the focus, that there is a duty to reduce health inequality, and that there is greater priority for medical research. We would still have a universal health care system free at the point of care.

“And there are some good sections in the bill – never again will Governments be allowed to favour private sector contracts when there are existing NHS providers.

“The Government will also increase spending on the NHS, a huge achievement given the circumstances.

“However, you simply cannot reform the health service without the support of doctors, GPs, nurses, health professionals and industry experts.

“Our NHS is too precious – too vital for the welfare of every single person living in Cambridge – for it to be bankrupted by inefficient structures, or broken up by unpopular reforms.

“I hope that the Government will be able to improve the NHS over the coming years, but I believe that the current Bill will not make the changes needed.”

Liberal Democrat Backbenchers have today called for the Health Bill to be pulled and for a meeting of Royal Colleges to be convened, in order to allow plans to be formed for the health service in line with the coalition agreement, in a Lib Dem Backbench Amendment tabled ahead of today’s Labour opposition day debate.

The Amendment, tabled by Lib Dem backbench MPs, adds to the Labour motion, which calls on the Government to drop the Health and Social Care Bill and declines to support the Bill in its current form.

Convenor of the Lib Dem Backbench Group, Greg Mulholland commented:

“There has been considerable concern with Government’s Health and Social Care Bill from both those within the NHS and from those who use it. I have made clear on previous occasions that I am not willing to support the Bill in its current form and that is why I have put my name to this Lib Dem Amendment.

“The Bill should now be pulled and interested parties and colleagues should come together and plan reform of the health service, in line with the collation agreement, instead of pushing ahead with these reforms.

“Pushing a Bill through in any area, never mind in one so important as the NHS, with so many professional organisations and medical professionals opposed is not a sensible or acceptable way to make policy and it is time to get people round the table and find a different and acceptable way forward.”

The links between the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccination and cases of autism and bowel cancer have been categorically disproved but the perception still persists today and this is putting thousands of young children at risk.

A NHS report from December 2010 showed that just 86.3% of children by the age of 2 had been given the MMR vaccine Manchester in the 12 months prior to this survey, which meant that Manchester was one of the most at risk places in the country and still is today.

This week, the MEN reported that 48 confirmed cases of measles in the North West and a further 108 possible reports. Any parents knows just how quickly infections and illness can be passed onto one another by young children, this danger is more acute with something as highly contagious as measles. The safest thing to do for your children is to get them pre-emptively vaccinated at your local GP if they have not already been.

The symptoms of measles are; cold-like symptoms, a mild to severe temperature, aches and pains, red eyes and sensitivity to light, fever and grayish white spots in the mouth and throat After a few days a red-brown spotty rash will appear, usually starting behind the ears, then spreading around the head and neck before spreading to the legs and the rest of the body.

If you suspect that you or your child has measles please contact your GPs surgery by phone before visiting, the same applies if you need to visit the local walk in centre of or A&E department. This is to reduce the risk of further infections.

Measles can have serious long term health effects and can even cause death very rare cases, so it is not something that should be taken lightly.

I would advise that all children who have not be vaccinated are done so then we will all have one less potential health problem to worry about.

More information on the NHS Choices website can be found at: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Measles/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Leeds North West, Greg Mulholland, will next week host a briefing for MPs with Sue Ryder Care and the National Council for Palliative Care, to add pressure on the Government to review legislation that piles the burden of Irrecoverable VAT on hospices. Later in the week Mulholland, who has been leading a cross party campaign on the matter, will also meet with Treasury Minister, David Gauke, on Wednesday, to discuss this issue.

Sue Ryder Care and other palliative care associations have been campaigning to change laws that mean that charities cannot claim back VAT costs on the goods, services and staffing costs they pay, which add expense to their operations.

Greg Mulholland MP has given his unyielding support for the campaign; securing meetings with Treasury Minister David Gauke MP, and raising the issue of irrecoverable tax for health charities in the Commons on numerous occasions. Mulholland will also meet with David Gauke MP to discuss the ongoing campaign

Organisations, such as Sue Ryder Care, who run Wheatfields Hospice in Headingley, last year saw almost £300,000 lost in VAT payments. Local Authorities would be able to reclaim the full amount, and the NHS over half, and Mulholland argues that this should also be the case for health charities offering care and treatment.

Greg Mulholland MP commented:

“It is concerning that at a time when the Government are pushing for more hospices and end of life services to be outsourced to specialist providers, and when they are encouraging more volunteering and charitable work, that charities such as Sue Ryder, which rely on donations, are unable to recover VAT for business supplies, in a similar way to the NHS

“Wheatfield’s Hospice in Headingley, alone has to raise over £2 million a year to fund the services it provides. The extra burden of losing out on any amount of this funding to VAT seems unfair and could have a detrimental affect the important front line service they provide

“I hope that by continuing to push to Government on this issue we will see a change in legislation, to ensure that the valuable donations that hospices like Sue Ryder receive are put straight in to front line care for those who rely on their service and not VAT.”

Chief Executive of Sue Ryder, Paul Woodward, added:

“We’re delighted that Greg Mulholland MP has agreed to host this briefing on the issue of Irrecoverable VAT for Hospices. Greg does an enormous amount for Wheatfields, his local Sue Ryder hospice, and we’re hugely grateful for his continued support.

“Greg has seen first hand the vital care that hospices like Wheatfields provide to patients and families when they need it most. We’re so pleased he supports our VAT campaign to try and ensure that when people donate to Sue Ryder their funds go into frontline care and not VAT.”

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Leeds North West, Greg Mulholland, has today called on the Government to review procedures for reassessing recipients of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for those who are permanently incapacitated, and whose circumstances will not change.

Greg asked the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller MP, during Department for Work and Pensions questions on the floor of the House today, to review the reassessment procedures of DLA for people living with a permanent condition.

Those receiving DLA are currently subject to periodic reassessment of their entitlement. For those living with a permanent disability, however, the reassessment appears unnecessary, and can prove to be a huge disruption in their day-to-day lives.

Greg specifically raised the case of constituent Vicky Gilbert, who sadly had a leg amputated and relies in day-to-day life on the mobility component of DLA and the blue parking badge that comes with it. She was forced to undergo periodic reassessment; however, due to a DLA backlog she was forced to wait 5 weeks to renew her parking badge.

Greg has called for the Government to review this process for those who have permanent and irreversible conditions to stop reassessing the claim of those with a non-changeable condition.

Greg commented:

“It it ludicrous that those who are clearly permanently incapacitated should be subject to periodic reassessment of the mobility part of Disability Living Allowance, when it is clear that the nature of their disability will not change.

“Vicki Gilbert, a constituent of mine, sadly had to have one of her legs amputated and recent delays in DLA processing meant that she was without her blue badge for five weeks. Vicki has three young children and runs her own business and this caused unnecessary inconvenience for herself and her young family.

“The Government should stop periodic reassessment for those who are permanently incapacitated, as in such cases it is clearly superfluous, inconvenient and a waste of money to the taxpayer. It is important to stop others having to wait unnecessarily to get the blue badges that they are clearly entitled to and rely on.”

Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, is encouraging thousands of smokers to ‘take the leap’ and stop smoking this month on No Smoking Day.

This year smokers are being asked carry out the campaign slogan ‘take the leap’ from February 29 – leap year day – and get ready to quit on No Smoking Day itself – Wednesday 14 March.

Annette Brooke MP, posing with a giant version of the light-hearted campaign poster, said: “Stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do to boost your health and the money in your pocket. Quitting can be hard, but there is lots of support available and you can do it in the knowledge that you’ll be one of thousands of others trying to do the same thing.”

One in five (21%) UK adults smoke, including 18 per cent of people in the South West. But UK figures show two thirds want to quit.

Vishnee Sauntoo, a smoking cessation adviser who now works on the No Smoking Day campaign, said: “Now is the time for smokers to get ready to quit, so stock up on patches and gum, or visiting your GP or stop smoking service for help and advice.

“Tell friends and family what you’re going to do so they can support you along the way. However you decide to quit, the preparations you make can play a big part in how successful you are when you come to take the leap.”

No Smoking Day, which recently merged with the British Heart Foundation, is an annual health campaign now in its 29th year. It is responsible for helping more than 750,000 smokers attempt to quit on the day, and for inspiring another two million to seek out information to help them quit in the future.

For more information on the benefits of quitting as well as top quit tips, visit www.taketheleap.co.uk

Up to £22 million will be spent on helping one million children and young people access vital mental health therapies.

Local MP and Minister of State for Care Services, Paul Burstow, has announced the funding alongside Lib Dem party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

The new investment in the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies project will be spent over the next three years to expand state-of-the-art psychological therapies and extend training for people like school teachers and youth group leaders.

Currently around two million under 19-year-olds have access to these kinds of services, largely thanks to funding of £32 million that was announced by Paul Burstow last year.

The new £22 million announced this week will help another million children and young people receive the help they need.

Paul Burstow said: “We’re working with young people and staff to start to change the way mental health is delivered by the NHS.

“Half of those with mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14, and three quarters before their mid-20s. This pioneering work will focus on early and effective treatment.

“We know psychological therapies work. My aim is to transform existing mental health services for children so our children get the best treatment possible, from services that are more responsive to their needs.”

Today, Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams have written to all colleagues in the Commons and Lords expressing their views on the proposed Health Bill.

Dear Colleague,

The Health Bill currently in the House of Lords is now undoubtedly a better Bill because of the Liberal Democrats. A number of people deserve credit for improving this Bill. Firstly, and most important, are our Party members who made it clear at our conference in Sheffield in March last year that we would not accept a Bill that puts profits before patients. We secured a “pause” in the legislation, which led to a number of substantial changes to the Bill, for instance that competition could only be on quality and not on price. Since the “pause”, there have been further changes, which owe a great deal to the hard work of our Health Minister, Paul Burstow and our parliamentary health committee led by co-chairs, John Pugh and John Alderdice. Second, our Liberal Democrat peers in the House of Lords, led superbly by Judith Jolly, have done an outstanding job scrutinising the Bill line by line.

With the help of the House of Lords Constitution Committee, several eminent Conservative peers, Labour’s Lords team led by Baroness Thornton and Lord Hunt, and a determined group of cross-benchers, many members of the medical professions, an all-party consensus has now ensured that the Secretary of State will remain responsible and accountable for a comprehensive health service financed by taxpayers, accessible to all and free at the point of need.

This should guarantee the future of the NHS, one of Britain’s greatest social achievements. In addition, led by Phil Willis and others, arrangements have been put in place to make the UK a world leader in medical research, to raise the status and protect the independence of the Public Health service, and to ensure that all profits from the treatment of private patients in Foundation Trust hospitals must benefit the NHS.

The Bill has now undergone more than 200 hours of scrutiny and had more than 1,000 amendments made to it, amendments that have put patients and the people who know them best at the very heart of the legislation. This is not the Bill that we debated as a party last March. Crucially, some elements of Labour’s 2006 Health Act, which opened up the possibility of a US-style market in the NHS, have been radically changed, such as the gold plated contracts for the private sector, which allowed a Labour Government to pay private providers a total of £250million for operations that weren’t even performed. We can also take pride in the fact that it was the Liberal Democrats who changed this Bill to ensure that no government will once again be able to favour the private sector over the public sector like the last Labour government.

The Bill also now has in place safeguards to stop private providers “cherry picking” profitable, easy cases from the NHS, and we have made sure that private providers can only offer their services where patients say they want them. We are also clear that no one should be allowed to spend public money without telling us how they are going to use it. That is why we have insisted that decisions about patient services and taxpayers’ money must be made in an open, transparent and accountable way.

We now have a Bill that delivers on the issues that Liberal Democrats have campaigned on for years. For the first time, there will be real democratic accountability in the NHS through new Health and Wellbeing Boards that will give councils a real role in shaping local health services. Public health will finally be returned to its rightful place in local government. Integration between health and social care will become the norm rather than the exception.

However, given how precious the NHS is, we want to rule out beyond doubt any threat of a US-style market in the NHS. That is why we want to see changes made to this Bill that have been put forward by our Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords to make sure that the NHS can never be treated like the gas, electricity, or water industry. First, we propose removing the reviews by the Competition Commission from the Bill to make sure that the NHS is never treated like a private industry. Second, we want to keep the independent regulator of Foundation Trusts, Monitor, to make sure hospitals always serve NHS patients first and foremost. Third, we will introduce measures to protect the NHS from any threat of takeover from US -style healthcare providers by insulating the NHS from the full force of competition law. We will also insist that anyone involved with a commissioning group is required to declare their own financial interests so that the integrity of the clinical commissioning groups is maintained. Finally, we will put in place additional safeguards to the private income cap to make sure that Foundation Trusts cannot focus on private profits before patients. These changes are needed, not just because of this Bill, but also to plug the holes left by Labour’s 2006 Health Act that allowed private providers to make profits at the NHS’ and taxpayers’ expense. It was that Act that started the process of the marketisation of the NHS by allowing private providers to be paid on average 11% more than the NHS. These changes will ensure that competition and diversity in the NHS will always be done in the interests of patients and not profits.

Next month we will return to where this process all began a year ago when we meet at our party’s Spring conference. Once these final changes have been agreed, we believe conference can be reassured that it has finished the job it started last March and the Bill should be allowed to proceed. We believe these changes will appeal to those in the House of Lords and the House of Commons who share our commitment to the NHS, and believe it can now embark on the reforms that matter: putting patients at the centre, working with local communities, and responding to the financial challenges of an ageing population.

That will demand a united effort not only from the NHS but from all of us who cherish it. Then the essential work will begin to ensure that the necessary changes are introduced as smoothly as possible in full collaboration with everyone who works in the NHS. The real test will be to demonstrate tangible benefits to patients. After all, in the end, it is the interests of patients, which should count most of all.

Best wishes

Nick Clegg
Baroness Shirley Williams

Thousands of hospital admissions for falls and fractures among older people could be prevented by better, more integrated care. If significant improvements aren’t made to prevention services, admissionsare expected to will double and the NHS and Local Authorities will need to spend £6 billion a year on hip fractures by 2036.

According to a new report published last week by Age UK and the National Osteoporosis Society, almost 90,000 hospital admissions a year are caused by falls and fractures, primarily in older people, and the situation will only get worse if the NHS doesn’t change.

The report, commissioned by Liberal Democrat Care Services Minister Paul Burstow, considers how the NHS can reduce falls and improve care. This would improve the lives of many older people and save the NHS money that can be ploughed into other essential services.

The report also sets out how the future NHS structure will give opportunities to improve care of people who suffer falls and fractures, notably that:

• Clinicians will be able to design services to suit their patients;

• Health and Wellbeing Boards offer an excellent opportunity for holistic approaches to health, social care and public health to be taken across local areas;

• Financial incentives for delivering better outcomes for patients will be available to the NHS;

Paul Burstow said:

“A fall or a fracture can turn a person’s life upside down. Action to prevent trips and falls is critical to turning the rising tide of hospital admissions and costs.

“We also know that the best practice in treating fractures can make a huge difference to a person’s recovery both physically and in terms of self confidence.

“Both prevention and treatment are at their most effective when social care and the NHS work together. Integrated care can go a long way to improve services for older people. The Coalition Government is putting in place the legal conditions and financial incentives to drive greater integration.

“I look forward to continuing to work with AgeUK and the National Osteoporosis Society to make progress on reducing falls and improving the care of people affected by them.”

The report, Breaking Through: Building Better Falls and Fractures Services in England, recommends that:

• Local GPs and hospitals must work together with local authorities to put in place better care programmes for older people who suffer from falls and fractures.

• Local health leads should run health campaigns on how people can look after their bone health and prevent falls themselves.

• Local health leads should offer financial incentives to improve care.

• A national database should be set up to monitor non-hip fractures.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director General of Age UK said:

“Falls and fractures are a serious threat to older people’s health, wellbeing and independence, affecting one in three people over the age of 65. Falls cause pain, distress and loss of confidence and can be life threatening, yet they are preventable.

“It is extremely worrying then that in many areas of the country, people are not receiving all the care, treatment and support they need to help them back to recovery and prevent further falls from happening in the future.

“In addition to the pain and distress caused to the individual, there is an economic impact too; we have seen a 32% increase in the number of bed days attributed to falls from 1998/09 – 2008/2009. We know that by investing in specialist services that help older people to avoid falling and breaking bones we can save the health service money.”

Claire Severgnini, Chief Executive of the National Osteoporosis Society said:

“1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of fifty will break a bone but many of these fractures are preventable. I am pleased that the Minister is taking this widespread issue, with its devastating consequences seriously, and welcome his commitment to work with us to prevent falls and fractures.”

The National Osteoporosis Society and Age UK are taking action and now we want a commitment from others. We need health professionals, patients, those who commission services and the Department of Health to work together to reduce falls and fracture rates. Only by working in partnership can we lessen the devastating effects that falls and the resultant broken bones have on older people.

Finbarr Martin , Consultant Geriatrician at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust said:

“The lynchpin of our secondary prevention approach is a specialist nurse, who is able to perform both a brief falls risk assessment and fracture risk assessment. Then they can directly advise on treatment, or link up to other services in the hospital, community health and primary care. This connects patients initially presenting in one place such as the emergency department, to the services they need elsewhere.”