Calling us Auntie or Uncle is no insult | Letters

Re Lola Okolosie’s article (Is calling a woman ‘auntie’ ageist harassment – or a mark of respect? It’s a trickier question than you think, 31 March), I was interested to read uncle/auntie described as honorifics. Growing up (I’m 60-plus years old, Scottish), I think it operated as a familiar term. I was taught to call close friends of my parents Aunt Jane or Uncle John. Otherwise Mister/Miss.Clearly, there is an honorific element – if I am (as a child) calling you Aunt, you are close to my parents, but it was not related to age – I would never have dreamed of calling anyone Aunt/Uncle on an age basis

Young people ‘more likely to leave for health reasons when in low-paid, insecure jobs’

Young people in the UK are more likely to leave their job for health reasons and become economically inactive when they work in insecure, low-paid sectors, a study has found.Research carried out for the Trades Union Congress by the consultancy Timewise charts a connection between the jobs young people are most likely to do – in hospitality, retail and care, for example – and the proportion of people leaving because of ill health.“The occupations that young people are concentrated in are associated with high numbers of people moving into long-term sickness and worklessness,” the analysis said.The authors said that these sectors were also among those most likely to offer precarious or low-paid jobs.More than 40% of staff in accommodation and food services are in insecure working arrangements, for example

NHS rehabilitation care staff shortage fails stroke patients, say health leaders

The NHS is failing stroke patients and limiting their chances of recovery because of a shortage of rehabilitation care staff, health leaders have said.More people are surviving strokes than ever before in the UK. But their hopes of getting better are being dashed because of a lack of physiotherapists and other specialist staff, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Neurology.National guidelines say people who have had a stroke should receive therapy-based rehabilitation for three hours a day, five days a week. But data suggests that, on average, people only receive rehab three to four days a week in hospital, and one to two days once they are discharged, the CSP and Acpin said

CPS considering 13 suspected cases of assisted dying in England and Wales

Thirteen cases of suspected assisted dying are being considered by prosecutors in England and Wales, according to the latest data.Encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person is against the law in England and Wales, under the Suicide Act 1961.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said its latest data showed 209 cases that have been recorded as assisted dying have been referred to it by the police between 1 April 2009 and 31 March this year.This was up from 199 cases that had been referred by the end of March last year.Of the 209 cases, 131 were not taken forward by prosecutors and 42 were withdrawn by police, the CPS said

UK drug exports to US spared tariffs under deal critics say will cost NHS billions

British drug exports to the US will escape tariffs imposed by Donald Trump as part of a controversial UK-US medicines deal that critics fear will mean less money for the NHS.The deal will also give patients in Britain greater access to potentially life-extending drugs because the rules have been relaxed to allow the NHS to pay more for particular treatments.In an announcement on Thursday, the UK government highlighted the recent approval of two cancer medicines as representing good value for money and proof that its agreement with the US administration will benefit the very unwell, not just pharmaceutical firms.They are now available because the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) from this week has increased the amount of money the NHS can spend on a treatment in the hope of giving patients a longer and higher quality of life from £30,000 to £35,000 a year.Ministers, drug industry bosses and patient groups hailed the deal as good news

Streeting hits out at BMA ‘delusion’ as talks to avert resident doctors’ strike fail

The NHS in England is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Many thousands of resident – formerly junior – doctors will stage a six-day stoppage over pay and jobs starting at 7am on Tuesday, just after the Easter weekend. A deadline for agreement ended on Thursday.It will be the 16th walkout the doctors have staged since their first strike in March 2023, and there are growing fears that the dispute could drag on for another year.Streeting confirmed in a letter to the British Medical Association that he had withdrawn his offer to create 1,000 extra places in specialist medical training this year, as that was conditional on the BMA accepting the government’s most recent offer, which it rejected last week