Children are a Costly Business

What do you get for £200,000 nowadays?   Not a lot it seems as this is allegedly the price of having a child nowadays.   I am not quite sure just how they arrived at such an eye-watering figure – but presumably it doesn’t include designer baby wear or champagne instead of baby milk.

All of which got me wondering why is it that some people are so determined to have children.  We spend all our teenage years being urged to ‘be careful’  - then apparently millions of us then spontaneously suffer fertility problems when we try and have a baby.  Now we are told one in six couples have difficulty conceiving.  Although I suppose on the plus side striving for a baby does have its moments.

All of which brings me to the tricky subject of IVF. It costs £5000 for one course – and involves all sort of unpleasant procedures.  Up to three courses are necessary for success apparently.  Yet the NHS only funds one treatment.  Which kind of suggests either the NHS is a heartless organisation.  Or the government has decided that the NHS is not here to provide babies.

But if IVF is so unpleasant, why are there so many couples queuing up at private infertility clinics to pay through the nose for treatment?   Maybe they haven’t heard of the answer to fertility problems called Duofertility that was in the news recently.

Duofertility is the brainchild of a group of Cambridge University scientists – and is so effective that they promise to refund your money if you don’t get pregnant in one year.  Interestingly Duofertility is also proving to be at least as effective as IVF for couples experiencing  real difficulty in conceiving at a tenth of the cost.

As Duofertility is as simple as wearing a patch – and offers a stylish hand-held device that tell you when you are fertile up to a week in advance I know which I would rather try.  And whilst £500 might seem rather a lot to try and have a baby, maybe now we know that actually having a baby costs £200,000 – I guess by that yardstick it is a bit of a bargain

Our big thighs are keeping us alive

Bad news for skinny exercise freaks and good news for those of us with thunder thighs.   High-grade medical research has revealed that men and women with thighs over 60cm (23.6in) in circumference have a lower risk of heart disease and early death. 

Yes this was in The Sun – but they got the dstory from the world-renowned British Medical Journal.  A Danish study of 3,000 people suggests this is true – which is one of the weirdest medical facts I have ever heard

The relationship remains even when body fat, smoking and blood cholesterol are taken into account, according to the Danish trial.

Those with narrow thighs may not have enough muscle mass to deal with insulin properly, raising the risk of diabetes and, in turn, heart disease, they say.

Experts cautioned that the research needed corroborating.

Some said it was too early to change current advice on eating and exercise for heart health, but the researchers said thigh size could be used as a marker for at-risk patients.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, followed men and women in Denmark for more than 10 years. They were measured for height, weight and thigh, hip and waist circumference and their overall percentage of body fat was calculated.

 Researchers also looked at the activity levels of the participants, whether they smoked, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

They then monitored incidence of heart disease over 10 years and death rates over 12-and-a-half years. 

During this time, 257 men and 155 women died, 263 men and 140 women developed cardiovascular disease and 103 men and 34 women suffered from heart disease.

The team at the Copenhagen University Hospital found that those with the smallest thighs – below 55cm – had twice the risk of early death or serious health problems

Professor Berit Heitmann, who led the research, said: “The increased risk was independent of abdominal and general obesity and lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure.

“Additionally we found that the risk was more highly related to thigh circumference than to waist circumference.

Hmmm – I think I will now go and measure my thighs.

Management Consultants Plan for NHS Rejected

Management Consultants Plan for NHS Rejected

I wonder how many of us who have seen the lack of care given to our elderly under the NHS would like to sort out the NHS given a chance?  I see from the news today that some men and women at suits at an expensive management consultancy grabbed the chance with both hands. 

According to the lovely Sian Williamson this morning on breakfast television, the government says it has rejected advice from management consultants to cut the NHS workforce in England by 10% over the next five years.   I doubt they care overmuch.  Even if their advice is total rubbish (and how can plausible young men and women in suits be such experts on absolutely everything?).  Presumably they will just wait until they get commissioned again – change the date on the front of the report and re-submit it with minor changes.

The plans to close 137,000 clinical and admin posts were proposed by McKinsey and Company to save £20bn by 2014.  They didn’t say how much the McKinsey bill for producing this tosh was – but clearly, with an election approaching and the NHS being a sacred cow, they came to the wrong conclusions. 

The consultants also said a recruitment freeze and early retirement programme should be established, the Health Service Journal reported.  But the Department of Health said many services needed more staff, not fewer. 

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the government needed to be honest about its position on the NHS.

“One minute Labour ministers are going out telling the public they’re going to protect the NHS, the next they’re spending taxpayers’ money on management consultants who are planning to cut 10% of the staff of the NHS,” he said.

The health service budget is due to rise by more than 5% each year until 2011.  But after that, many predict it will see a cut in real terms.

The government invited consultants to come up with proposals for how savings could be made and McKinsey responded by proposing drastic cuts.  I challenge anybody who diagrees with those findings to spend 5 minutes in the geriatric ward at Addenbrookes.  And perhaps sit in on a meeting with the bed manager.  Personally I think those job cuts should be made with a very blunt knife.