The Department of Health has recently issued new guidance relating to UK residents visiting the Channel Islands and vice versa.

UK residents visiting the Channel Islands must ensure that they have adequate travel insurance from April 1st. The recommendation comes from the Department of Health as the healthcare arrangements for UK visitors to the Islands are due to change.

The current agreement, which allowed UK travellers to get a limited number of medical treatments in the Channel Islands free of charge, will end on March 31st. Anyone travelling to the Islands, which include Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Herm, will be required to pay for medical treatment should they become ill or injured there after this date.

Visitors should therefore take out adequate insurance before they travel. Visitors from the Channel Islands to the UK will also now be liable for charges for medical treatment when visiting the UK, so they should also have health insurance cover.

Employees on sick leave must be permitted to take annual leave, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

The court’s decision states that employees cannot be denied annual leave simply because they have been unable to take it due to sickness, including employees who have been sick for a whole year. If an employee leaves his job, through choice or through dismissal, the employer must compensate him with holiday pay so that he is a position comparable to that he would have been in, had he taken holiday during employment.

The ruling concludes a lengthy case history dating back to 2006 when former employees of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs first sought redress at an employment tribunal. One had been denied a request to take annual leave during a period of sickness absence. The others were dismissed following long-term sickness absence and claimed payment in lieu for outstanding holiday.

The claimants cited the Ell Working Time Directive, which enshrines the entitlement to paid annual leave. They lost in the Court of Appeal and the case went to the House of Lords, which will now decide whether UK employers may insist that employers return to work before claiming holiday, or be allowed to take the holidays while on sick leave.

The decision is likely to be unwelcome among employers. The Institute of Directors warned this month that new regulations in 2009, including the single equality bill and flexible working extension, will cost business at least £1bn a year.

Legal and General group protection technical manager James Walker said the ruling would put additional pressure on employers and many could be faced with having to provide lump sum payments to employees who retire or whose employment is terminated after a period of long-term sickness. However, group income protection (GIP) schemes can be set up to mitigate against this risk.

He added: “By providing a lump sum option under termination of employment, employers can ensure they aren’t faced with the real possibility of finding the money to make large payments in compensation - particularly in the current economic climate.”

Walker also suggested that advisers use the opportunity to promote GIP to new clients as a means of securing access to rehabilitation experts.

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine have looked at six common myths and discovered that eating close to bedtime will not make you fat.

"People gain weight because they take in more calories overall than they burn up," the experts wrote.

Mothers who insist on their children wearing hats for fear of them getting cold, have also been misled, the study revealed.

Other "fictitious" beliefs include suicides increasing over holiday periods and that giving children sugar makes them hyperactive.

The belief that children become more disruptive is likely to be in the minds of their parents, the experts argued.

"Even in studies of those who were considered 'sensitive' to sugar, children did not behave differently after eating sugar-full or sugar-free diets," the authors wrote.

Research also showed that poinsettias are not toxic, and that there is no such thing as a hangover "cure".

Internet searches carried out by the experts resulted in a myriad of hangover "cures", from aspirin and bananas to Vegemite and water.

But no scientific evidence actually exists to support the theory that you can "cure" a hangover, they said.

What is more, there is also no evidence that the number of suicides increases in the winter months.

In Finland, suicides peak in autumn and are lowest in the winter and, in Hungary, they are highest in the summer and the lowest in winter.

Copyright Press Association 2008

News articles provided by the Press Association for PruHealth. Whilst every care is taken to ensure accuracy of editorial content, PruHealth takes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. The views expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of HealthAssist.