A new five-in-one immunisation programme will start at the end of September.

The major alterations to the vaccination programme as recommended by the joint committee on vaccination (JCVI) are:

• Polio immunisation is no longer given as live oral polio vaccine. It has been changed to inactivated polio vaccine because of reduced risk of an epidemic and because the live vaccine carries a small risk of paralysis. Because the vaccine is no longer being given orally, it can be combined with other injected vaccines.
• Acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine replaces whole cell preparations. Acellular pertussis vaccines cause fewer adverse reactions at the injection site.
• There is no thiomersal in the new vaccines. Thiomersal is a preservative containing mercury that has been used for the last 60 years in vaccines. It is considered to be safe by the World Health Organisation, and no connection with autism has been found, despite public outcry. However, it is being removed as part of a global goal to reduce exposure to mercury.

Children will receive the following vaccines:

• Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b — a type of flu that can affect babies) in three doses at two, three and four months old.
• Meningitis C at two, three and four months.
• MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) at 13 months.
• Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio as a pre-school booster.
• BCG (against tuberculosis) at 10 to 14 years old.
• Diphtheria, tetanus and polio at 13 to 18 years old.

Ever since a tenuous link between the MMR vaccine and autism was made public, the subject of combined vaccinations has caused much emotive debate among parents. Health campaigners fear reduced uptake of this combined vaccine could lead to epidemics.

Primary care trusts are being encouraged to contract core GP services out to commercial firms.

The alternative provider medical services (APMS) contract allows PCTs to work with major companies. It adds an alternative to PMS (personal medical services) and nGMS (new general medical services).

All GP practices provide essential services, but they are able to opt out of additional, extra and out of hours services. The DoH is encouraging PCTs that cannot acquire all these services from GPs to turn to major private sector players such as Pfizer and Mercury Health.

According to Health Service Journal, City and Hackney teaching PCT is to advertise all future service gaps to the private sector under APMS as well as to NHS providers. The trust's director of primary care and community services, Steve Gilvin, admitted that the PCT could not care for its population without using the private sector.

An HIV and AIDS charity has struck out at the government for lack of action in the fight against this disease.

The National AIDS Trust (NAT) criticises the government for not including sexual health in the NHS Planning and Priorities Framework for 2005-08, despite promising the UN that it would tackle the disease.

Deborah Jack, chief executive of the trust predicted that infection rates would rise as a result.

In 2001, 189 UN members adopted the Ungass Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS. Each promised to fight the disease in their own countries and agreed to work to targets on leadership, prevention and human rights.

Countries agreed to report on progress to the UN in October 2003. The UK did not, according to NAT. In its own report, the charity says the UK has no national HIV prevention targets and is not battling HIV discrimination. It calls for cross-departmental strategy to keep policy consistent and for less focus on tackling the international HIV crisis and more focus on the crisis at home.

The DoH countered these accusations, saying that it had updated the national strategy for sexual health and HIV originally published in 2001. Sexual health was a major theme in the chief medical officer's report on the state of the public health.

New walk-in centres are to be opened across England, making healthcare more easily accessible.

Health minister John Hutton announced that the 17 new centres will give instant access to healthcare. No appointment is necessary, and 65 centres already open have seen 4 million attendances since 2000.

The new centres will be opened in:

• Barking/Dagenham, London
• Birmingham
• Derby
• Folkestone, Kent
• Halton, Cheshire
• Harold Wood, London
• Ilford, London
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
• Newham, London
• North Kirklees, Leeds
• Oldham, Mancheste
• Romford, London
• Rugby, Warwickshire
• Southport, Merseyside
• Western-Super-Mare, North Somerset

Meanwhile, a small team from the A&E department at Scarborough Hospital decamped to the seaside. The team treated beach injuries — including jellyfish stings, sunburn, cuts and grazes and twisted ankles.

A&E matron Mick Grant, who came up with the idea, said: 'We are taking A&E to the beach. All the senior nursing staff in A&E are taking turns to do a shift at the beachfront minor accident station.'

The scheme aims to take pressure off the A&E department, which sees an extra 1,200 patients each month over the summer, on top of its normal 1,800. Less than 20 per cent of these cases are serious. Mick Grant explained to BBC News: 'The simple solution seemed to be "Why don't I go to them?"'

'Someone called me from A&E the other day and asked if they could send a few cases down to me because they were so busy and we were pleased to help out.'

The team also walks up and down the beach inspecting suncream application. 'We ask if people have put cream on and if their little ones have a hat.'

Pharmacists are also going to their patients. Staff of Co-op Pharmacy are just popping down the pub — not for a swift half, but to offer on-the-spot health checks and cholesterol-reducing statins to those most in need.

Men over the age of 55 — the group most at risk of CHD — are considered to be unlikely to ask for help.

Until July, statins were only available on prescription, but they are now available over the counter. They are usually only sold to male smokers over the age of 55.

Critics believe the easy availability of statins will encourage a 'live like a slob and take a pill' mentality. But Co-op pharmacist Naomi Buttell said: 'We've come here because often the people who need the information don't come into the pharmacy or go to their GP.'