The RNIB has accused the government body charged with deciding what drugs are available on the NHS of “massive incompetence” that could lead to up to 10,000 people in the UK going blind unnecessarily.

Almost half of all hospital kitchens in England are failing to meet basic standards of cleanliness, with evidence of medical waste found on food handling equipment, staff with poor standards of hygiene and infestations of cockroaches and mice, according to inspection reports.

Victoria Climbie’s little body had 128 injuries. The social services department blamed for her death is now facing another scandal after the death of a toddler.

{mosimage}An inquiry has been launched into the conduct of social workers at Haringey Council in North London following the death of the 17-month- old boy, who had been subjected to appalling abuse.

Despite being monitored by social workers, the boy suffered a broken back and fractured ribs. He is also believed to have had a number of his fingernails removed by pliers.

The case – currently being treated as suspicious death – is expected to be officially turned into a murder inquiry this week.

Details have emerged about the missed opportunities to save the boy.

For months he had been watched by social workers from Haringey, the authority blamed for a series of catastrophic blunders which led to the death of African-born eight-year-old Victoria Climbie.

A 17-year-old has been arrested in Cambridge over the murder of youth worker Nathan Foster in south London. Mr Foster, 18, was found by police with bullet wounds on Friday night in Marcus Garvey Way near Brixton Tube station.

Tackling underachievement and a “culture of low aspiration” in black boys could boost the economy by £24 billion in the next 50 years, according to a report published today.

Mental health care and cell overcrowding at a Cambridgeshire prison have been criticised for a second time. An inspection at Littlehey Prison, Perry, said “nothing had changed” since similar findings were disclosed last year.

A care assistant who covered an elderly dementia sufferer’s head with a plastic bag as a punishment has been convicted of ill treatment of a patient. Liudas Poderis, 35, attacked Stanley Kelly, 88, at Southfield nursing home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, last November.

Use of medicines to prevent disease may not prolong or improve life in elderly people, say doctors. Drugs such as statins, prescribed to combat heart disease, may simply switch the cause of death to cancer or dementia in older people, they warn.

Conditions at Pentonville prison are “a matter of deep shame”, according to a report published by the prisons watchdog. The independent monitoring board found evidence of “endemic squalour” and rat and cockroach infestations in the north London prison, which was built in 1842 and has the capacity to house 1,127 inmates.

While many people in the UK say they are scared by people with mental health problems, many also realise the positive qualities of people who suffer from mental illness, according to research commissioned by the Priory Group.