Two little shockers in this morning's news:

1) What a surprise - UK survival rates for cancer are poor, in international terms, below the European average and even lagging behind some Eastern European countries.

We keep hearing triumphal propaganda about increasing survival rates but how does this tally? Isn't it long past the time we should cease to rely upon animal experimentation for development of treatments? These are bound to end in failure and, in reality, do so. Money should be spent on compiling data, so we might be able to sort out the causes. In the meantime, diet, lifestyle and pollution seem pretty high on the list. Why not try to sort them out, instead of squandering untold billions on useless torturing of animals?

Let's face it, cancer and cancer research are big-earning industries. Curing or preventing cancer could be bad business.......

2) Another big surpirse, this one - the further a patient travels by ambulance, the more likely death becomes.

With the increased risk of MRSA and other superbugs by concentrating more and more patients into a smaller number of larger facilities, do we need this additional disadvantage of centralisation to convince us that 'small is beautiful'. It is well-known in veterinary preventive medicine - stressing facilities by stocking density or throughput brings more disease. Stop destroying local facilities, for goodness sake.