The government ‘thoroughly mishandled’ the introduction of the new system for out-of-hours health care in England, a group of MPs has said.

Equal pay claims for up to 1.5 million public sector workers could cost the taxpayer more than £10 billion and mean that hundreds of thousands of men will lose up to 40 per cent of their salary.

The Board of the Social Care Institute For Excellence (SCIE) is delighted to announce the appointment of Julie Jones to the post of Chief Executive, as successor to Bill Kilgallon who retires at the end of March.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA’s GPs Committee, commenting on the Public Accounts Committee report on out-of-hours care, said: “We would confirm the Committee’s findings that the quality of many out-of-hours services leaves a lot to be desired.

A boy, aged 10, who terrorised his neighbourhood while stealing from his family to buy cannabis and drink has become one of the youngest people in Britain to be given an anti-social behaviour order.

{mosimage}Despite his age, Lewis Green already has criminal convictions for burglary, possessing a knife and causing criminal damage. A court allowed him to be identified yesterday while issuing one of the most far-reaching Asbos to a juvenile. It includes a night-time curfew and ban on communicating with six people who live near him.
He is banned from possessing a “bong” – a water pipe – and other items associated with drugs, having alcohol or being drunk, throwing stones or eggs and possessing a knife or screwdriver in public,

Barnsley borough council produced a catalogue of his misdemeanours over seven months in its application for a full Asbo against him. They included threatening a child with a knife, theft, buying cannabis and being persistently abusive. He also damaged cars, threatened neighbours, smashed fences and assaulted his family and stole his mother’s mobile phone, his father’s Playstation and his grandfather’s car stereo to feed his habits. He regularly stole cigarettes and drank alcohol.

The head of the Army has defended the hospital treatment of soldiers who are injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. General Sir Richard Dannatt said the authorities were “working hard” to create excellent facilities at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where many troops are treated.

A school teacher who was cleared by a court of assaulting a pupil claims to have been offered her job back, but is banned from chaperoning her own grandchildren.

As Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (19 – 25 March) highlights the most common cancer of men in the UK, the largest ever global trial in the area of prostate cancer is investigating the best treatments for the disease.

Cannabis cultivation is booming behind the closed doors of suburban Britain, a study published today has found. Police are raiding three indoor production sites a day and have closed down 1,500 cannabis farms in London alone since 2005, a threefold increase over the previous two years.

The family of a London woman who died six days after giving birth to a baby girl have received £600,000 in damages. Jessica Palmer died from an infection after giving birth in June 2004. A coroner concluded she could have been saved had she been treated earlier.