Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are too scared to leave their homes for fear of falling on uneven pavements, according to a survey by Help the Aged.

A fresh row over the government’s crime statistics broke out last night after two criminologists said the authoritative British Crime Survey excludes 3 million offences a year.

Falls are costing the NHS nearly £1bn a year, mainly due to older people tripping on damaged or uneven pavements, a charity warned last night.

Four in 10 people in England do not believe the NHS has got better under Labour, a poll says. The British Medical Association said the findings should act as a “stark message” to Gordon Brown as he prepares to become prime minister this week.

The number of pensioners being abused in their own homes in Bolton has increased by more than a quarter in just a year. There were 148 reports of elderly people being physically abused by family, close friends or care workers between April 2006 and April 2007 – an increase of 30.

Millions of people are to be prescribed cholesterol-busting drugs on the NHS in Britain’s biggest mass medication programme for adults. The government’s drugs watchdog is expected this week to recommend the systematic screening of all adults at 40, 50 and 60 for heart disease.

Government ministers are considering the crisis at Brent tPCT after being presented with a dossier by Brent Council, which highlights the financial pressures placed on the authority and the impact on residents of huge cuts to local health services.

The decision to deny hundreds of thousands of people with Alzheimer’s disease drugs that can improve their condition will be condemned in the high court today as callous, irrational and deeply flawed.

Doctors are threatening an all-out attack on the government’s NHS reform programme, labelling it “not fit for purpose” and damaging to patients. Hundreds of medics will debate the critical motion at the start of the British Medical Association’s four-day annual conference in Torquay.

Thousands of gravely ill older people will no longer have to spend their savings or sell their homes to pay for round-the-clock medical care, under government guidelines to be revealed