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0 shares 6 View comments By the middle of September, my surgery is heaving with children who have already fallen ill a couple of weeks into the new school term. Tummy bugs, coughs and colds all seem to thrive once kids are jam-packed in the classroom all day. I certainly notice this with my own children. I think the early mornings and long day at school can take their toll on the immune system, which is why I insist they get an early night. The important thing is most of these back-to-school infections are usually mild and require minimal treatment at home with the help of a pharmacist or your GP. Here is a comprehensive guide to the most common of school ailments – and how to tackle them... KEEP ON TOP OF LICE WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? An itchy head – this may start  three months after the initial infection of head lice. ‘They are parasitic insects between 1mm and 3mm long that live on the head and feed on human blood. Many people mistakenly call them nits, but nit

0 View comments Frustrated by long waiting lists and huge costs here, more and more childless women are seeking fertility treatment abroad to enable them to have a family. This is certainly the case for women seeking egg donation, where Spain is offering accessible solutions. More and more childless women are seeking fertility treatment abroad to enable them to have a family Why would a couple opt for egg donation to conceive? Some women are unable to get pregnant due to premature menopause or a long-standing failure of their ovaries, and do not produce their own eggs. Alternatively, some women’s ovaries may have been affected by chemotherapy. Donation is also considered after several failed IVF attempts, as it can be a problem with the eggs that is causing the failure. For a small group of women, egg donation is an option to avoid passing on a genetic illness. Where do donor eggs come from? Healthy women donate eggs altruistically in order to help other couples concei

5 View comments The horrible label ‘bed blockers’ - elderly patients well enough to go home but with nowhere to go - surfaced again last week as the Department of Health said £4 million a week is spent on these individuals. The label fails to recognise there might be a vulnerable, frightened and unsettled person in that bed. Moreover, to call the patient a ‘blocker’ implies they are to blame, when there are many managerial reasons for a person not being discharged when they should be. The label of 'blocker' fails to recognise there might be a vulnerable, frightened and unsettled person in that bed (file picture) Why are patients kept in hospital when they’re well? They can be waiting for services to be set up before they are discharged safely – for example social services or home rehabilitation. Discharging them without this in place could be unsafe. Circumstances can change while the patient is in hospital and they may be waiting for a residential or nursing

19 View comments There has been a sharp rise in the number of whooping cough cases in the UK - 11 babies have died so far this year. This has led to the Department of Health launching an emergency vaccination programme for pregnant women in an effort to combat this serious illness. Scroll down for video A sharp rise in the number of whooping cough cases in the UK has led to the Department of Health launching an emergency vaccination programme Why has the Department of Health initiated this now? Three times as many cases as normal have been reported: 235 babies under three months have been ill. Most babies who get the disease are so ill that they will require hospital treatment. Why has there been this rise in cases? Parents have been forgetting to get pre-school booster jabs for their children, and many adults vaccinated in the Seventies and Eighties are susceptible as their immunity seems to have waned. Is it safe to have a vaccination when I’m pregnant? It doesn’t co

3 View comments I was interested to read about a new formula that can help predict a woman’s chance of conceiving depending on her age, but I won’t be recommending it to my patients. Investigating infertility is a common consultation for me in general practice, but I don’t think these statistics tell the full story. There are many factors that affect chances of conceiving, some immeasurable, such as stress, which is why fertility cannot always be predicted by science. There are many factors that affect chances of conceiving which is why fertility cannot always be predicted by science At what point should  I go to the doctor to discuss fertility? A few go when they start trying for a family, and this is fine to discuss pre-conception health, particularly if you have any medical problems. But most will wait until there appears to be a problem. It would be normal to try for a baby for a year before seeing your GP if you are under 35, or six months if you are older. Trying

0 View comments Full recovery: Actress Julie Walters with her daughter Maisie Recently, I had to break the news to a parent that their child had leukaemia. As a parent myself, I can’t bear to think about how difficult this must be to take. But there is some good news about this blood cancer  – the outlook for children with many forms of the disease is improving greatly. The most common type of leukaemia  in children is ALL, or acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which affects 450 children a year in the UK. Mamma Mia! actress Julie Walters was devastated when her daughter Maisie was diagnosed with ALL at the age of two, but after undergoing chemotherapy she went on to make a full recovery. How can you get cancer of the blood? It occurs when the bone marrow, where blood cells are made, starts to overproduce immature blood cells. These take over the blood and fewer normal cells are produced, so the blood can’t function normally and carry oxygen around the body. This

5 View comments It’s National Self Care week. The initiative, which is backed by the Department of Health, aims to encourage people to manage minor illnesses at home. The Government estimates that more than 50 million consultations a year are for trivial ailments that do not require a doctor’s appointment. Aside from costing the NHS about £2 billion each year, this also puts pressure on overstretched GP services. Trivial ailments: Five million people go to see their GP about a blocked nose every year All too often the first patients to be seen are those who are fastest on the redial button rather than those who need it most. Isn’t this doctors trying to make their own lives easier?       More from Dr Ellie Cannon...   How to repel the dreaded winter vomiting bug, the norovirus 22/12/12