access | Common News Update

Feb282020 by adminNo Comments

West Midlands to get access to ultrafast home broadband

Technology

One million households in the West Midlands will be able to access ultrafast gigabit-capable broadband from March, Virgin media says.The company says the switch-on of its gigabit services is the largest in the UK, and will be available in Coventry, Birmingham and the surrounding areas.Gigabit technology allows for download speeds of more than 1,104 megabits per second. The average UK speed is 54Mbps.But the ultra-high speeds will cost at least £62 a month - that's £744 a year.Customers who pay for the high-speed connectivity will be able to download an ultra-high resolution 4K film of 20 gigabytes in a little over three minutes, rather than the hour it would take on an average connection.Virgin's gigabit offering is already available in Southampton, Manch...

Jan42020 by adminNo Comments

Pope Francis: Lack of access to healthcare is social justice issue

World

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Pope Francis on Friday said governments and institutions should work to ensure everyone has access to healthcare. In a message for the World Day of the Sick, the pope said the lack of access to healthcare is a matter of social justice. "For this reason, I urge healthcare institutions and government leaders throughout the world not to neglect social justice out of a preoccupation for financial concerns," he said. In his address, the pope also encouraged the use of principles of "solidarity and subsidiarity" to ensure access to treatments that will preserve or restore health. Subsidiarity is a concept in Catholic thought that matters should be handled by the smallest or least central unit of social organization at which they will function. He also encouraged healthcare prof...

Sep62019 by adminNo Comments

Most doctors think Obamacare opened up healthcare access, study says

Health

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Most doctors think Obamacare has helped patients get better healthcare, even as a lengthy court battle threatens to strike down the law, new findings show. About 60 percent of physicians in the United States thought the Affordable Care Act gave more people access to the medical treatment they wouldn't otherwise have had, according to research published September in the journal Health Affairs. Roughly 20 million people in the United States got coverage through the Affordable Care Act once the law was passed in 2012. "A slight majority of U.S. physicians, after experiencing the ACA's implementation, believed that it is a net positive for U.S. health care," the authors wrote. The study included 489 responses from 1,200 physicians surveyed in 2017. About 53 percent of docto...

Jul212019 by adminNo Comments

Renters may get access to rogue landlord database

Business

A database of rogue landlords would be opened up to prospective tenants under government plans.The Rogue Landlords Database was launched in 2018 and includes those who have been banned for failing to make a property habitable, or have been convicted of serious offences.At the moment the list is only open to local authorities but under a package of rent reforms it will be opened up.The proposals apply to England as housing policy has been devolved."This database has the potential to ensure that poor quality homes across the country are improved and the worst landlords are banned, and it is right that we unlock this crucial information for new and prospective tenants," said Communities Secretary James Brokenshire."Landlords should ...

May282019 by adminNo Comments

Millions ‘lack access’ to parks and green spaces

Science

Millions of people in Great Britain do not have access to a nearby park or green space, a study suggests.The Green Space Index by Fields in Trust found that more than 2.5 million people lived more than a 10-minute walk from the nearest area.The charity has calculated that the average amount of green space per person is less than half of a six-yard-box on a football pitch.A growing body of research links parks and green spaces to wellbeing."We actually found that 2.6 milion people did not live within a 10-minute walk of a green space," explained Field in Trust policy and insight manager Alison McCann."In Great Britain, there is no statutory protection for green spaces," she told BBC News."At the moment, we protect about 6% of our ...