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More patients will have to pay ‘top-up’ fees for private care because of budget cuts in the NHS and long waiting times, a group of doctors say in a report. Doctors for Reform says the idea that health care is free across the UK is now a “political mirage”.

Voters are worried about illegal immigrants who are “undermining” the jobs market and health and safety measures, John Reid has said. The home secretary said people were not opposed to incomers but were angered by a sense of “unfairness”.

An experimental drug may be able to compensate for the genetic error responsible for some cases of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, US scientists hope. In rodents, the drug PTC124 was able to restore the muscle function normally lost in this disease, Nature reports.

Plans to add a hormone which suppresses hunger to baby formula food is unlikely to work say experts. University of Buckingham researchers are looking at adding leptin to formula milk to curb future over-eating.

A community programme which aims to encourage obese children to be more healthy has proved highly successful, a study has found. A year after the nine-week programme, the eight to 12-year-olds were fitter healthier, and more confident.

The possibility of a national strike across the NHS will move one step closer today when Unison health workers ballot for industrial action at their annual health conference in Brighton.

A cultural change is needed in the way old people in care are treated, a committee of MPs and peers was told. People are being put into care homes that do not meet their needs and given the wrong drugs without their consent, the joint Human Rights Committee heard.

{mosimage}“We are seeing too many instances where it is accepted practice for old people to be treated in a low level way,” said charity boss Gary Fitzgerald. The committee is examining the rights of old people in hospitals and homes. It heard that people were being given the wrong medication – or medication was being used as a form of “chemical restraint” for dementia sufferers – which then became part of their routine care. There was a “definite link” between over-medication and homes that were short staffed.

Mr Fitzgerald, chief executive of Action on Elder Abuse, said he had heard of a case where an elderly person was given someone else’s medication to “keep them quiet”. He said he had sympathy with many care providers which did an excellent job but struggled with lack of resources.