Why is social mobility such an obsession? | Letters

In recent discussions about changes in both the curriculum and forms of examination in English secondary education, one ambition has often been named: that of increasing social mobility.Quite why this aim remains unexamined is unfortunate. Nobody would wish any child to be refused access and support for any number of occupations. But we surely have to ask, as successive governments have not, why a focus on this aspiration obscures the much more socially radical and equitable aim of making all occupations viable, rewarded and respected.Surely there is already sufficient cut-throat competition within the English class system without enshrining ideas which focus on diminishing the value of jobs and occupations to be “escaped” from

‘Better and cheaper’: the case for prostate cancer screening among black men

Junior Hemans was having a routine health check in 2014 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, at the age of 51. He knew there was an increased risk of the disease in black men so asked to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which was not initially included.“And when I went, they said I had a raised PSA level for my age,” Hemans said. “[The diagnosis] was a shock … because I had no symptoms.”The PSA test, which is used to check for conditions including prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate, is not routinely offered on the NHS at present

Stephen Dawson obituary

My friend Stephen Dawson, who has died of cancer aged 78, had the questionable luck of being a newly minted urologist when Aids first struck in London in the early 1980s.The son of Philip, a nuclear physicist at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, and May, a housewife, Steve was born in London, went to King Alfred’s school, Wantage, and studied medicine at University College Hospital before qualifying as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the late 70s. The decade that followed was both clinically fascinating and emotionally challenging.Working in genitourinary clinics around London, Steve helped chart the rise of HIV-opportunistic diseases while being able to do little to treat them. It was typical of him that, in 1988, he left Aids medicine in London for the professionally less glamorous Slough, to work as the first consultant in genitourinary medicine in east Berkshire

Two-thirds of nurses in UK work while unwell, says union

Nurses across the UK are working while unwell in understaffed hospitals, with stress as the leading cause of illness, according to research.A survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) of more than 20,000 nursing staff found that 66% had worked when they should have been on sick leave, up from 49% in 2017.Just under two-thirds (65%) of respondents cited stress to be the biggest cause of illness, up from 50% in 2017. Seven out of 10 said they had worked in excess of their contracted hours at least once a week, with about half (52%) doing so unpaid.The NHS has more than 25,000 nursing vacancies across England

‘I’d run down the road thinking I was God’: a day at the cannabis psychosis clinic

Katie hears voices and has been sectioned 50 times. Isiah became paranoid and tried to kill himself. Both link their illness to cannabis – and the drug is getting more and more potent. Is a tiny London clinic showing the way forward?It’s two years since Isiah found himself on the roof of a south London shopping centre, about to jump. “I was very done,” he says of that night in November 2023

Hundreds of low-paid NHS hospital staff win improved terms after strike threat

Hundreds of low-paid NHS hospital workers are celebrating victory after bosses agreed to improve their terms and conditions following the threat of strike action.More than 330 workers, mainly cleaners, caterers and porters, known as facilities staff, at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier hospital group (GESH) – 98% of those balloted – voted for strike action.Cleaners, caterers and porters were brought in-house four years ago as NHS employees but were denied the same conditions as many other NHS workers, losing millions in pay and other entitlements over the years.The workers said they had been systematically excluded from the NHS’s Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and were prepared to strike unless GESH granted them full AfC contracts.Strike action was averted after a board vote on 6 November approved proposals to implement full AfC contracts