Four out of five adults of all ages expect help from their council if they have basic care needs when they reach old age – even though all of these services could be withdrawn completely by 2009, a new report has revealed.

{mosimage}The Local Government Association commissioned Ipsos/MORI to ask people what kind of financial assistance they would expect to receive from their local authority for basic care that will help them live independently in their own homes. The results reveal a startling gap between people’s expectation of what care they will receive and the actual reality.

Only 10% of respondents said they would expect to pay for all their basic care – although 100 per cent of people with low and moderate needs could have to do that within the next three years if current trends continue. Basic care needs include help with shopping, cleaning and getting dressed.

Without a care? – the LGA’s new report – shows central government funding has not kept pace with the needs of an ageing population and older people’s increasingly complex needs.

Support for services such as social care through the general grant has increased by just 14% in real terms since 1997/98. This is in stark contrast to the NHS, which has seen a 90% rise over the same period. Half of local authorities with social care responsibilities received a government grant increase below inflation this year.

A charity supporting homeless people has called on the government to provide £300m for education to help prepare them for employment. The call came from the charity Crisis as it opened seven hostels across London for Christmas.

A global flu pandemic could kill 62 million people, experts have warned. The 1918 pandemic claimed 50 million lives, and experts in The Lancet predict the toll today would be higher than this, despite medical advances.

The manager of a care home has been told she will face a jail term for an “abhorrent” reign of terror over patients in a home. Diane Butler’s “despicable” staff – ill-treated mentally and physically patients in their care. One carer tried to stage a fight between a Down’s Syndrome patient and another resident with autism.

Management guru Sir Gerry Robinson has been set a challenge – to reduce waiting lists at an NHS Trust in Yorkshire within six months and with no additional funds at his disposal. His challenge is the subject of Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS? – a fully-funded Open University series for BBC Two that will broadcast on three consecutive nights from Monday January 8.

An innovative information campaign to improve knowledge of Hepatitis C and tackle stigma has been launched for professionals in Scotland. At least 16,000 health and non-health professionals, including GPs, NHS managers, Hepatitis C nurses, drug support workers and social workers, across the country are being targeted in the Scottish Executive led campaign to ensure people and their families affected by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) get the best care and support available.

A 23-year-old British woman is thought to have made medical history by giving birth to three babies in two wombs. In September this year, Hannah Kersey, from Northam in Devon, had twins who were conceived in one womb, and a third daughter who grew in another.

The UK’s fertility regulator has amended a licence to allow stem cell researchers to recruit egg donors not already having medical treatment. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has been criticised for making the decision during a public consultation on the issue.

Some of the TV shows most popular with children will not be covered by proposed new advertising restrictions, a consumer group has said. Rules developed to curb the impact of junk food commercials on under-16s are “completely flawed”, according to Which?

An outbreak of a PVL superbug struck the maternity unit of a hospital in Plymouth leaving 10 mothers and their babies with severe infections, The Independent has learnt.

Emma Lynch, one of the mothers, developed an abscess almost eight inches long, which required emergency surgery, and her daughter, Daisy, had a boil on her breast which required lancing when she was two weeks old.

{mosimage}Daisy has since had 14 courses of antibiotics in an attempt to clear her of the bug, which is resistant to treatment.

Details of the outbreak emerged yesterday after the Health Protection Agency put out a warning to the NHS last weekend following the deaths of nurse and a patient from the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) form of the MRSA bacteria at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, earlier this year. It was the first time the PVL form had been transmitted and caused deaths within a hospital.