You and Yours

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Consumer

BBC Radio 4 FM

You and Yours: Digital self-sizing; Doctors shortage; Plastic solutions

06/01/2020

Digital self-sizing; Doctors shortage; Plastic solutions

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Digital self-sizing; Doctors shortage; Plastic solutions

Made-to-measure clothes using your mobile phone, and new attempts to recruit more GPs.

Made-to-measure clothes using your mobile phone. New attempts to recruit more GPs to avert a growing crisis. And a health check on companies trying to eradicate certain plastics.

The boss of Levi's reckons that clothes sizes will go out of the window 10 years from now. Tech companies around the world are coming up with body scanners which can be downloaded onto smart phones so your clothes can be made to measure. It's because retailers, especially those online, want to stop us buying lots of the same item but in different sizes and then returning the ones that don't fit. 

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his Government will recruit 6,000 more GPS by 2024 in order to resolve a growing recruitment crisis and protect patient care. But some surgeries are becoming increasingly concerned about what will happen in the meantime because they're struggling to recruit new GPs right now. The number of fully qualified and permanent qualified GPs has been falling by 6 per cent in four years - according to the NHS's own data. So where will the solution lie as we attempt to fill the GP vacancies?

We'll be checking up on the UK's efforts to eliminate single use plastic. It's a massive task but some of the biggest companies have made a start, promising to eliminate some problem plastics. They've signed a Pact organised by the waste reduction charity WRAP. If it delivers it will transform the way we all use plastic here. But we are nearly two years into the campaign - so how is the UK doing?

And as UK bands express concerns about going on tour because of the amount of carbon generated, we speak to the scientific research centre which has been asked by the band Massive Attack to look at the figures and provide a blueprint for bands and artists who want to continue what they do but reduce their environmental impact.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Craig Henderson

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

You and Yours

Digital self-sizing; Doctors shortage; Plastic solutions

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4