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Dozens of hospitals are facing acute pressure and social care services are being scaled back due to NHS deficits, two separate reports say. The Liberal Democrats said 16 NHS trusts, running 28 hospitals, were facing what they term “high pressure”. They said services will be scaled back and hospitals may even close. And a Local Government Association survey of 55 councils in the areas affected by NHS deficits said some services have been withdrawn.

The number of elderly patients infected with the potentially-fatal Clostridium difficile soared by 17.2% last year in England. A total of 51,690 people aged 65 and over caught the hospital-acquired superbug, according to new figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA). Across England 60% of the 173 hospital trusts reported a rise in cases of the infection in 2005/6, with 15% seeing a “significant” increase. Cases of the bug, known as C diff, had already doubled in the three years to 2004/5 to 44,107 cases – with 2,247 of these causing deaths.

{mosimage} The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has today announced that Paul Snell has been appointed as the organisation’s Chief Inspector. This announcement follows the appointment of David Behan, CSCI’s current Chief Inspector, as Director General for Social Care at the Department of Health. Paul Snell is currently CSCI’s Director of Inspection, Regulation and Review; before he joined the Commission he was Director of Social Services at Nottingham City Council.Commenting on the appointment, CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said: “I am delighted that we have been able to appoint a chief inspector of such high calibre and with such a strong commitment to people who use social care services. Paul Snell is an experienced leader with a strong track record of making a difference for people who use services…

They are the generation who grew up in the Sixties: the middle-aged adults forever associated with free love, rock’n’roll, and drugs. Now a more disturbing legacy of that era is revealed, with new figures suggesting more and more “baby boomers” are becoming addicted to heroin, sleeping pills and tranquilisers.

The Child Support Agency (CSA) could be axed, while absent fathers face being electronically tagged, under plans to be announced by the government. Parents will be encouraged to make their own arrangements over child maintenance, with a new agency focusing on parents who refuse to co-operate. New powers would prevent absent fathers from going out after work and allow passports to be confiscated.

The devastating shortfall in care for young people with mental health problems is revealed today in a leaked government document showing that thousands of families are being left without the support they need. A letter sent from the Department of Health to senior NHS officials shows that the government will fail to meet its three key targets for children and young people’s access to psychiatric care by its deadline of December.

Skills for Care is now the lead agency, working jointly with the department of Health’s Valuing People Support Team, on the development of new Learning Disability Award Framework (LDAF) materials for workers supporting people with learning disabilities.  Since April 2006, Skills for Care has taken over from the Department of Health in developing a new Learning Disability Awards Framework (LDAF) for workers who support people who have learning disabilities. 

Two sets of regulations regarding the procedural rules of the Care Standards Tribunal have been laid before parliament today. A public consultation was held on the draft versions of these regulations, which sought views on how to enable the CST to consider applications for review or revocation of a disqualification order.