Media Centre

The winners of the prestigious Medical Journalism Awards wereannounced at a ceremony in London last night (14 November2006).

The winners, who came from a wide range of national, regional andtrade media, showcase the best of healthcare journalism and itscritical role that it plays in educating and informingaudiences.

The awards are now in their fifteenth year of sponsorship byNorwich Union Healthcare and are administered in conjunction withthe Medical Journalists’ Association.

Gil Baldwin, managing director of Norwich Union Healthcare, said:“Norwich Union is delighted to sponsor the Medical JournalismAwards again this year as it is a great way to highlight theefforts of the journalists. Their role in portraying thedevelopments in health and medicine to readers and to make complexsubjects interesting and relevant to people’s daily lives isinvaluable.

"I add my congratulations to the winners and look forward to seeingnext year’s entries.”

Norwich Union Healthcare Medical Journalism Awards winners for2006:

General medical

Consumer news

• £1,000 first prize – Sarah Hall, Norwich EveningNews, “Clean up your act to fight superbug".

Consumer feature

• £1,000 first prize – Jo Revill, Observer,"Miracle workers who rebuilt Danny's life"
• Special commendation – Rory Clements, EveningStandard, "They told me I was to blame for the illness thatwas killing my son".

Trade news

• £1,000 first prize – Daniel Cressey, Pulse,"Mass opt-out fear as rule change hits child vaccine pay"
• Special commendation – Helen Mooney, Health ServiceJournal, "Treatment centre programme in disarray as contractsaxed".

Trade feature

• £1,000 first prize – Amena Saleem, Doctor, "Sowhy is this practice being put out to tender?".

Best newcomer

• £750 prize – Pamela McGowan, News and StarCumbria, "Dead: after 8-hour wait for oxygen".

Financing healthcare

Consumer

• £1,000 first prize – Emma Brady, BirminghamPost, “IVF cycle remains a lottery”
• Special commendation – Dave Masters, The Sun Online,“We Win £27m for Hospices”.

Trade

• £1,000 first prize – Johanna Gornitzki, Cover,"Putting a price on life".

Best newcomer

• £750 prize – Stephanie Denton, Post Magazine,“Casualty rates - NHS Clawbacks”.

Broadcast – TV

• £1,000 first prize – Ross McWilliam, BBC Scotland,"Great health divide"
• Special commendation – Kirsty Hemming, ITV West EyeView, "Sick of waiting".

Broadcast - Radio

• £1,000 first prize – Matthew Chapman, BBC Five Live,"Quack qualifications"
• Special commendation – Michelle Martin, BBC Radio 4,“Inside the ethics committee".

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Media contacts:
Melanie Corbett or Emilie Lien, Lexis Public Relations on 020 79086488.

Press office contacts:
Cheryl Cox 01904 452791 Out ofhours 07800 695 275
Louise Soulsby 01904 452617 Out of hours 07800 699 526
Rob Pell 01904 452659

Notes to editors:

About Norwich UnionHealthcare
Norwich Union Healthcare was founded in 1990 asthe healthcare arm of Norwich Union and now provides a range ofincome protection and private medical insurance products that coverover 870,000 lives. It is one of the largest providers of incomeprotection and private medical insurance in the UK.

Norwich Union Healthcare provide occupational health solutionsservices to a wide range of industry sectors. By utilising thelarge fleet of purpose built mobile clinics and approved medicalcentres, staffed by a team of experienced occupational physiciansand nursing staff, all the occupational health services aredesigned to meet the individual needs of their clients.

Norwich Union Healthcare is authorised and regulated by theFinancial Services Authority and is a member of the Association ofBritish Insurers and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Norwich Union’s news releases and a selection of images areavailable from Aviva’s internet press centre at www.aviva.com/media.

About The Medical Journalists' Association
The MJA isan independent professional association for anyone who writes,edits or produces material on health or medicine in the media. Thecurrent membership includes medical and healthcare journalists, aswell as doctors, nurses and therapists, contributing to nationaland provincial newspapers, specialist, business and consumermagazines, radio and television, the web and books. www.mja-uk.org.