The Gloucester Citizen has decided to stop using the word ‘bed-blocking’ because it considers the term out-dated and insulting to patients who, through no fault of their own, are stuck in hospital while social services and the NHS organise their future care.
Instead, it will use the NHS term ‘delayed discharges’.

The Halifax Evening Courier has set up a sponsorship deal with Rugby Super League club Halifax, in what a club spokesman describes as “the best deal for the club and the community”.
Club chiefs are hoping that its coverage in the paper will win them thousands of new fans, and the Couriers logo will be printed on the players’ shirts.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle has launched an SMS service to provide subscribers with the breaking news.
‘Chron Text’, which costs the price of a normal text message to register and is free thereafter, also gives users the opportunity to give their views on the news, which may then be printed in the paper.

South Londoners are disappointed at the announcement that part of the East London Line extension has been scrapped.
The South London Press ran a No More Delays campaign last year, calling for the vital extension to be completed by 2006, and hundreds of readers wrote in to pledge their support.

Seven-year-old cerebral palsy victim Jodi Barker is closer to full-filling her dream to swim with dolphins, thanks to readers of the Sheffield Star.
Readers began calling in with donations within hours of the Star reporting a campaign to raise £2,000 to fund Jodie’s trip to Miami to swim with dolphins on a five day therapy course.

Former Leicester Mercury advertising manager, Norman Jones, has died at the age of 73.
Norman, who joined the Mercury as a 14-year-old office assistant in the 50s, is described by the paper’s assistant managing director Barry Wootten as “a much respected advertisement manager, both by the business community and his staff”.

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