Plans to introduce a new scheme to ensure the safety of north-east prisoners being held in custody have suffered a major setback after a key member of staff suddenly quit her job.

Dementia costs Scotland £1.4bn a year but not enough is being done to tackle the problem, according to a leading charity. Alzheimer Scotland said that 58,000 people in Scotland are currently diagnosed with dementia, but that number will almost double to 102,000 by 2031.

Patients were removed from official waiting list figures because of staff shortages at a Scottish hospital, prompting claims last night that the statistics were being manipulated. People waiting for hip and knee replacements in one part of Glasgow were excluded from the Scottish Executive’s much-vaunted waiting times promise.

A childminder has been struck off after it was discovered she was looking after as many as 15 youngsters – five times her legal entitlement – strapping some toddlers into car safety seats in the cramped living room of her home. Inspectors acting on a tip-off found nine children crammed into a cold room with only limited space to move around.

When Donald Gibson enters the renal unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary he is flanked by two security guards who watch his every move. It should be a typical hospital scene of patients preparing for a gruelling three-hour dialysis session.

All of Scotland’s major hospitals have passed a crucial cleanliness test for the first time. A recent quarterly cleanliness audit has found that all hospitals and 14 health boards covered achieved a minimum 90% compliance rating.

Volunteers in Scotland will have fewer forms to fill in as a result of new vetting and barring legislation currently going through the Scottish Parliament.

Plans for a pilot project to target drug misusing young male offenders and those with other underlying problems have been announced by the Scottish Executive.

Poor food and a lack of qualified staff were just some of the hundreds of complaints triggered by old people’s homes, according to a new report. Elderly care homes accounted for most of the complaints upheld by the care sector’s watchdog body.

{mosimage}The Care Commission investigated 792 complaints about old people’s homes in 2005-06 and upheld more than three quarters of them in whole or in part.

The review was based on the findings of more than 55,000 inspections.

OAP care homes accounted for 57% of all the complaints upheld by the commission.

The private sector had the most complaints, with 37% of privately-run elderly care home services having a complaint against them upheld, compared to just 11% of council-run services and 8% in the voluntary sector.

But this could be because councils have their own well-established complaints procedures, resulting in fewer complaints going to the Care Commission.

The findings came in the annual “quality review” of the commission, which considers evidence from the first four years of the its existence to provide what is claimed to be the first comprehensive national picture of care in Scotland.

As many as one in seven adults has turned to debt consolidation in the past three years to try to get their borrowing under control. Millions have taken out unsecured loans or remortgaged their homes in an attempt to put their debts in one place. In Scotland, the average loan taken out to cover previous debts was £14,439 – among the highest in the UK.