Catch up on the week's most vital healthcare news with Julie McAnulty's News Roundup.

Health campaigner Julie McAnulty gives her unique take on the week's news and its implications to the NHS.

Sex, Money and Obama
In an age where sex is talked about freely, sexually transmitted diseases are seen as a taboo subject. Anyone who mentions STDs is seen as a spoilsport at best and a prudish murdering medic at worst. That’s why the scheme to bring chlamydia screening to nightclubs and bars was never going to take off, as the most recent report on the project admits.

Warding off evil
Paedophiles, murderers, car clampers. The worst elements of mankind, you would think. All deserving of disdain; worthy only of having TB-rich spittoons dunked over their heads. I hope that for most people reading this, first-hand experience of paedophiles and clampers is pretty limited. And as for murderers, well it’s not too often you get to cosy up to one of those and live to tell the tale.

Charitable status
How much do you worry about the plight of others? Do you care enough about animals to shun a juicy steak and avoid cosmetics that have been tested on bunny rabbits? What do you feel about working conditions in the sweatshops where they make your clothes? And exactly how far do your toes curl in revulsion as they enter a Nike trainer?

Tat by name etc.
You see them everywhere these days. If yours isn’t on public show, someone else’s surely will be. Naturally, in gym locker rooms and showers up and down the country they are always to be prominently displayed, perhaps even paraded and boasted about. But even the modest can let theirs slip out, unbeknownst to their owners, perhaps as a result of a sudden stretch or yawn or when trying to reach for that something just out of grasp. I refer, of course, to tattoos.

Pregnant pause
It is one of the great wonders of nature that to every new mother her freshly delivered offspring is gorgeous and cute no matter how hideous its prune-like visage. It is indeed a wonder that despite all the peer pressure and indoctrination there are still modern, fashionable women who yearn for motherhood and delight in the frankly unfashionable ordeal that is their shrivelled bundle of rather questionable joy.

Liz Patience is our new agony aunt, and is always willing to give you her sensitive, qualified advice.

With extensive experience in the NHS and in General Practice, Liz is ready to help, whether your problems are to do with relationships, are work related or otherwise.

Read her latest replies to questions put to her by our registered users! Doctor Who
I am a social worker and I have been having problems with the doctor assigned to my cases. In our hospital meetings he constantly ignores the points that I make and talks down to me. One lady that I had warned was not capable of looking after herself suffered a fall in her home and lay there for 2 days. Had he listened to my advice (to put her into a home) she would not have suffered needlessly. I don't want to take the situation as far as a tribunal (mostly because I still think I will be ignored in favour of him) but how can I approach him without getting his back up? His back is already up! Jen H
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