Women will be offered the test during their regular smear.At a conference in Geneva yesterday - organised by the London-based Economists Advisory Group (EAG) and backed by the US Digene Corporation, which manufactures an HPV test - figures suggesting that HPV testing could cut spending on cervical cancer by 23 per cent, and save lives.Jeremy Holmes, managing director of EAG, said: "In the UK, 1,106 women died from cervical cancer in 1999. The introduction of HPV testing could improve detection of cervical cancer by up to 40 per cent, and this increased sensitivity, combined with the slow development of the disease, means that screening intervals could be safely extended from three to five years."HPV testing would lead to better-targeted treatment, reducing the number of women requiring visual examination of the cervix by up to 70 per cent, the conference was told.Mr Holmes said: "There is still caution amongst policy makers regarding the introduction of HPV testing. Yet there is substantial scientific evidence that HPV testing should be urgently incorporated."A spokeswoman for the NHS Cancer Screening programme said the tests could "enable a more targeted approach".. Finance directors from Britain's main teaching hospitals have warned they do not have the resources to match Government targets.
Finance directors from Britain's main teaching hospitals have warned they do not have the resources to match Government targets. A letter from the Main University Hospitals Finance Directors to to Nigel Crisp, the NHS's chief executive, said next year's plans were "beyond the resources available"."We will not be able to deliver the key targets required," it said "We feel obliged to alert you to our professional concerns. We are resolute in our belief that the financial gaps we are now facing cannot be closed by normal measures."But Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, dismissed the warning as a bargaining bid ahead of the next NHS funding round. "There is a negotiation going on and there will be noise around the negotiations," he said. "Since that letter has been written I have just put out an extra 11 per cent on training budgets into the National Health Service, a lot of which will benefit precisely the teaching hospitals that are complaining" he said."Every year there is a negotiation between the providers on the one side, the teaching hospitals and indeed other hospitals, and those commissioning the care."An extra £400m will go into research and development and £140m into mainstream budgets, he said.Mr Milburn also attacked Tory plans, announced last night, to cut taxes on private health care, calling it a plot to part-privatise the NHS.Liam Fox, the shadow Health secretary, clearly divided the two main parties by pledging to axe £500m worth of taxes on company health schemes if the Tories win the election.But Mr Milburn said the plan would rob the NHS of much-needed funds.
"This is not a big idea for the NHS, it is a bad idea for the NHS.". Britain's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among pigs in more than 20 years has been confirmed. Britain's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among pigs in more than 20 years has been confirmed. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) immediately warned farmers to check their animals after the disease was discovered at an abattoir and farm in Essex.It set up a five-mile exclusion zone around the abattoir and farm after the cases were confirmed by Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore.The disease was spotted after a routine inspection of an abattoir by a vet working for the State Veterinary Service.He alerted officials after his checks had proved "highly suspicious", with suspected symptoms of foot-and-mouth found in a total of 27 pigs.The infected pigs arrived at the abattoir last week from two farms - one at Great Horwood in Buckinghamshire and another at Freshwater Bay in the Isle of Wight.Exclusions were placed around the farms yesterday but MAFF said there had been no confirmation of an outbreak of the disease at either of those farms.MAFF said it was working with local authorities to contact farmers within the exclusion limits who were being warned to look out for animals either lame or off their feed.A spokeswoman said: "We need the assistance of the farming community to check their stock and report any potential symptoms, because this does spread very rapidly."There is no threat to humans, she said.The movement restriction zones apply to all cloven hoof animals, including pigs, sheep, goats and cattle, and will remain in place pending further investigation.Foot-and-mouth is a highly infectious viral disease which can affect cattle, pigs, sheep and goats characterised by the development of blisters in the mouth causing increased salivation and lameness.. Health Secretary Alan Milburn this morning published his proposals for the most radical overhaul of doctors' contracts since the NHS was established in 1948. Health Secretary Alan Milburn this morning published his proposals for the most radical overhaul of doctors' contracts since the NHS was established in 1948. Newly-qualified hospital consultants could be barred from working in the private sector for up to seven years under the new proposals.In return, starting salaries for consultants will rise by £10,000, with further pay hikes after five and 10 years for doctors who pledge loyalty to the NHS.The Government proposals are aimed at overhauling consultants' contracts and increasing manpower in the health service.But the plans are likely to meet with serious opposition from doctors' leaders who are against any controls on consultants working in the private sector.The proposals include tying new hospital consultants to the NHS for seven years after they qualify and barring them from doing any private work.After seven years they will be allowed to work in the private sector once they have fulfilled NHS duties but may not be eligible for a range of new benefits and bonuses proposed for consultants who do more work for the health service.The contracts are to be reformed, setting out job plans for consultants and stating the hours they will have to work for the NHS, including out-of-hours commitments and specific targets.In return, a newly-qualified consultant's salary will rise from around £50,000 to a minimum of £60,000.Two new pay thresholds will be introduced so that after five years salaries again go up by £10,000 and by a further £10,000 five years after that.. Not long ago, the Grammys were considered a near irrelevance in the music business, an awards ceremony organised by ageing executives unwilling to admit that the 1970s are over.
They did little or nothing to alter record sales, and only diehard fans of Tony Bennett or Eric Clapton bothered to tune in. Not long ago, the Grammys were considered a near irrelevance in the music business, an awards ceremony organised by ageing executives unwilling to admit that the 1970s are over. They did little or nothing to alter record sales, and only diehard fans of Tony Bennett or Eric Clapton bothered to tune in. This year, however, promises to be different, thanks to the incendiary publicity surrounding Eminem's four award nominations, and a whole ragbag of controversy that has followed.Tonight, as the stars head up the red carpet into the Staples Center in Los Angeles, there will be hundreds of jeering protesters along the police barricades, outraged at Eminem's casual depiction of "bitches" and "fags" and the unspeakably gruesome ends they tend to meet in his aggressively catchy three-minute rap numbers.Meanwhile, inside the hall, Sir Elton John will be risking the fury of some supporters by joining Eminem in a rendition - whether with beeps or expletives deleted is not clear - of the rapper's hit single "Stan".The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will reveal if it has the guts to give Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP its Album of the Year accolade, or if it will retreat into its habitual haze of Seventies nostalgia and reward the likes of Paul Simon or Steely Dan, who are nominated in the same category.The arguments have been flying for some time, with Eminem's defenders praising his wit, his verbal agility and his defence of the little guy - bigotry and all - against the slickly correct guardians of mainstream culture. For his detractors he is simply an attention grabber, a homophobe and a misogynist.Everyone has something to gain by jumping on the Eminem bandwagon. With sales of his album hitting eight million and climbing, there seems to be no mileage in hoping that he will simply go away.Several stars have defended Eminem's freedom of artistic expression but none of the big names who find him distasteful have dared go on the record. Madonna said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times: "I like the fact that Eminem is brash and angry and politically incorrect. At least he has an opinion." Randy Newman said: "I don't know from his work that he genuinely hates women or genuinely hates his mother, but I know that he's funny."Elton John has gone further, defending his decision to perform with Eminem.
"I honestly don't think people will go out and start beating and killing people because of this album," he said. "It appeals to my English black sense of humour."The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has said that Eminem's website is full of e-mail from fans railing against "sluts" and "faggots", including Elton John.A gay activist, Robin Tyler, wrote a letter to Sir Elton last week denouncing him as a "collaborator" and a gay Uncle Tom. She said the Grammy organisers had picked a prominent gay man as "window dressing to cover themselves from the charge that they're promoting anti-gay hate". She added: "This is a familiar game in American politics - choose a representative of an oppressed group to deflect criticism from hateful policies or rhetoric.". Stanley Kramer, one of Hollywood's first independent producers who pushed the industry away from pure escapism towards social issues such as racism and nuclear proliferation, has died at the age of 87. Stanley Kramer, one of Hollywood's first independent producers who pushed the industry away from pure escapism towards social issues such as racism and nuclear proliferation, has died at the age of 87. Although frequently criticised these days for making difficult themes "safe" for the entertainment industry, rather than truly confronting them, he nevertheless went out on a limb at a time when most of the film business was taking refuge from the McCarthy anti-Communist witch-hunt and attempting to play it safe.Among Kramer's credits as a producer were award-winning titles such as High Noon, On The Beach, The Defiant Ones, Judgement at Nuremberg and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - the last three of which he also directed.His boldest period was in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, when he chose to make films under his own banner for roughly half the usual cost of studio pictures - much as independent producers do today. Titles from that time included Champion, a anti-boxing film that helped make Kirk Douglas a star, and The Men, a tale of paralysed war veterans that marked Marlon Brando's screen debut.Financial difficulties forced Kramer to go into business with Columbia Pictures in 1951.