Health visitors are losing track of vulnerable families because they are overworked and there are too few of them, research has revealed. A survey of 1,000 health visitors commissioned by Amicus/CPHVA found 55% are making fewer visits to families and cutting routine development checks in a bid to cope with increased workloads.

The public do not support proposed laws that would make it easier to detain and treat people with mental health problems against their wishes, according to a new YouGov poll.

An increasing number of doctors are refusing to carry out abortions, leading to a crisis in NHS services, experts have warned. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there has been a big rise in the number of doctors who are “conscientious objectors”.

Controversial plans to allow mentally ill people to be detained against their will, even if they have not committed a crime, are due to be discussed by MPs. The government has been trying to overhaul mental health laws since 1998.

{mosimage}It was spurred into action by the conviction of Michael Stone for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell. Stone was regarded as a dangerous psychopath but, because his condition was untreatable, he could not be held under mental health powers.

The Mental Health Bill, rejected by the Lords in February, is expected to face heavy criticism in the Commons. Ministers say the proposals will help to keep the public safe.

But the Tories say the plans will make it easier for people to be detained at a time when the NHS is being forced to close beds in mental health wards.

The number of NHS beds for the mentally ill fell from 36,601 in 1997-8 to 29,802 in 2005-6, the Conservatives claim. And, over the same period, the number of formal admissions to NHS facilities rose by 325 to 25,740, they say.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the government’s latest proposals would make it easier to have people sectioned, so increasing the pressure on the system. “With more demand on these services, and fewer hospital beds, we will see even more people who should be cared for in hospital instead left in the community,” he said.

The Alzheimer’s Society today called for UK leadership in tackling the global rise in dementia, in response to new estimates which put the worldwide cost of dementia at US $315.4 billion per year.

Nurses’ leaders say patients are being harmed by job cuts in the profession caused by continuing NHS deficits. The Royal College of Nursing, whose conference opened on Sunday, claims that 22,300 NHS posts have been lost in England in the past 18 months.

More than 20 social enterprise pathfinders are set to launch across England after the DoH announced the initiatives that will benefit from £1.4 million of funding. Altogether 26 schemes will be created over the next three years.

Britain should consider making the legal drinking age 21 as it has “lost the plot” when it comes to regulating alcohol, policy pundits claim. The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.

The NHS is having the “life squeezed out of it” by cuts imposed because of deficits, says the UK’s nurse leader. Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, congratulated ministers for tripling the health budget since 1997.

An investigation by an undercover reporter working as a prison officer has exposed conditions in a private jail where inmates have easy access to drugs and mobile phones and subject overstretched staff to intimidation if they are too diligent in their work.