The deaths of four children who underwent heart operations in recent months are being investigated, with all children’s cardiac surgery at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford suspended till the investigation is concluded. The children had congenital heart problems and had been receiving care for some time before their operations.

In the meantime, the parents of 26 children awaiting heart surgery at the hospital will be contacted and those scheduled for operations will be transferred elsewhere.

NHS figures reveal there has been a 65% increase in the number of under-18s in UK receiving treatment for cocaine addiction.

The figures released today coincide with the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) announcement of a review into the effects of the drug, purely based on a separate set of statistics that show there has been a five-fold increase in cocaine use since 1996, amongst 16 to 59-year-olds.

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse conducting the NHS study found numbers of 18 to 24-year-olds receiving treatment has doubled since 2005.

According to new research, one in three hospital trusts are in the red, resulting in their reducing the number of operation performed.

Because, primary care trusts are over the budget and running a deficit, casualty departments are also facing the axe, despite the Department of Health’s record 2010 budget of around £100 billion.

According to a nutrition watchdog, cinema-goers must be warned about the number of calories contained in popular snacks like popcorn, aerated drinks and ice-cream.

Calling on cinemas to tackle the obesity crisis, the Food Standards Agency is extremely concerned that portion sizes offered to filmgoers in cinema halls are getting out of control.

It claims a large bag of sweetened popcorn contains as much as 1,800 calories, which is the equivalent of a large curry with extras washed down with two bottles of beer.

Plans are afoot by the UK government to restrict foreigners’ access to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS), in other words known as health tourism.

The Health Department will be holding consulting talks on whether to make it mandatory for visitors to the U. K. to have health insurance before they travel, including whether cancelling the asylum seekers entitlement to free health care, who after failing in their bid to remain in UK are refusing to cooperate with the U. K. Border Agency.

Yesterday, ministers announcing a clampdown on health tourism by foreigners, who visit Britain for treatment on the NHS, also had Ann Keen, the junior health minister saying the NHS could not afford to become an international health service.

Among some of the measures proposed are making health insurance compulsory for visitors, by refusing to treat failed asylum-seekers who do not co-operate with the authorities, including banning entry for foreigners with previous NHS treatment debts that are outstanding.

Women are no longer the only ones that can test their fertility at home, as soon there will be a new device on the UK market, which will allow men to check their sperm count themselves.

A new device looking much like the home ovulation and home pregnancy tests, only difference being it checks sperm count will soon be available in Europe.

Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing the test that targets couples struggling to conceive.

Individual contraception consultations, including improvements to school health services is a part of the new teen pregnancy strategy announced by the government, following a report indicating conception rates amongst teens under 18 were not falling as fast as expected.

According to the Office for National Statistics data, in 2008 there were 41,325 under 18 teen pregnancies in England and Wales, a 3.9% decline from 2007, while the number of under-16 teen pregnancies fell 7.6% to 7,577.