Older schizophrenia drugs may be as effective as the new generation of medications, experts have suggested. A Manchester University study shows patients respond just as well, and perhaps better, to the older ones. The Archives of General Psychiatry findings run contrary to the widely held view that newer and dearer drugs are safer and more effective. But critics say the newer drugs are better and preferred by patients because they have fewer side effects.

A paediatrician facing accusations of acting inappropriately and causing distress to a bereaved person has begun answering the allegations. Professor David Southall is appearing before a General Medical Council Fitness to Practise panel. The doctor worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London before moving to the North Staffordshire Hospital. He was cleared of one charge of serious professional misconduct regarding the privacy of a woman known as Mrs D.

A blind woman says she has been left a prisoner in her own home after her guide dog was taken from her. Patsy Johnstone, 47, of Wandsworth, was given Cody in June last year by the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. But in May she spent four weeks in hospital after she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act – and while she was away the association took Cody back. Since then she has pleaded with them to return her dog but has had no success.

Paying for the cancer drug Herceptin means treatment for other cancer patients will have to be dropped to “balance the books”, doctors warn. The Norwich team says the body which recommends drugs for the NHS should change the way it works. In the British Medical Journal, they say the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence should say what should be cut to fund new drugs. But the government said it was up to local trusts to plan effectively.

A pioneering new debt centre is being set up on the Bournville estate in Weston to tackle poverty in North Somerset. The Money Advice Service is the first of its kind in the country and is designed to help people who are struggling with mounting debts and rent arrears. North Somerset Housing, North Somerset Citizens Advice Bureau and Weston and District Credit Union have set up the innovative scheme to offer a range of financial advice on debt, low interest loans and money management.

More than half of violent thugs caught by police now escape with a ticking-off, it has emerged. Instead of being hailed before the courts or jailed, more than 50,000 violent attackers were simply handed a caution last year – an increase of more than a third on 2004. They included more than 1,300 louts guilty of life threatening wounding and even threatening to kill their victim. The Conservatives said the revelations were “an insult to the victims of crime”.

An agency supplying care for elderly clients employed a man, found to be a convicted thief, as a home help who went on to steal cash from two elderly ladies. Eden Care Services of Cross Street, Macclesfield – who are contracted principally by Cheshire County Council’s Social Services – last night explained their decision to employ Paul Ashcroft when he had a criminal record. Two years ago he was convicted of stealing from his father.

Authorities are failing to provide homeless women with the help they need, a report by charity Crisis suggests. A survey of 160 single homeless women in England found less than a third of those who applied for housing met the criteria for priority need status. This was despite having traumatic backgrounds and an urgent need for accommodation, the charity said. It is calling for major improvements to council homelessness assessments and general services for women. The report found that more than 20% of the homeless women surveyed were escaping domestic violence. It added many homeless women had entered into unwanted sexual relationships in an effort to secure accommodation.

{mosimage} Crisis said the “male-dominated environment” of some services, such as mixed accommodation, was perceived as threatening and unsafe among those who had experienced sexual abuse or violence. It found that around 60% of homeless women had slept rough and of these, many had been physically attacked or sexually assaulted.

The majority of women Crisis spoke to said they had been turned away or deterred from making a housing application by local authorities, who had said they were not vulnerable enough.

The relentless rise of HIV and other sexual infections in the UK is continuing, with evidence that some groups in the population are ignoring warnings and still engaging in risky sexual behaviour, according to figures published yesterday. There are now 63,500 adults living with HIV infection in the UK, of whom 7,450 were diagnosed during 2005, according to the Health Protection Agency. It is 25 years since Aids was identified and surveillance began. The UK is ahead of most countries in its efforts to prevent infection and treat it, and yet the spread in this country has not been checked, the HPA acknowledged yesterday.

Hundreds of teachers living in England as refugees are not employed because the system fails them, a report says. Their skills are being wasted and an opportunity for a diverse workforce is being lost, a taskforce of teachers and educational organisations suggests. Its co-chairman, Stephen Jones, said the system for helping refugee teachers find work was “about as unfriendly as it is possible to be”. He wants clearer guidance and a national database of refugee teachers.