Patients are dying because young doctors no longer receive adequate training in prescribing drugs, leading pharmacologists said yesterday. Four eminent specialists said knowledge of how to use drugs was alarmingly low among medical students and junior doctors at a time when increasingly complicated medications were being taken by more people. Speaking at a meeting to mark the 75th anniversary of the British Pharmacological Society in London, they said that many clinical pharmacology departments had closed and blamed Government performance targets for marginalising the subject.

Stroppy, irritable and inattentive pupils don’t endear themselves to their teachers. Withdrawn, quiet, uncommunicative children can be equally unrewarding to have in a classroom. But both groups may be showing symptoms of depression. The condition has, until recently, gone largely unrecognised in a school setting, but experts in child and adolescent mental health fear it is on the increase.

{mosimage} The NHS has barely begun to implement recommendations made over two years ago to improve care of people with multiple sclerosis, a report by doctors says. The NHS treatment watchdog had called for faster diagnosis, more specialist services and better tailored care. But the report commissioned by the MS Trust and the Royal College of Physicians found services were of “low quality and inadequate quantity’. The government said it expected the NHS to adhere to the guidelines on MS care. MS, which affects about 85,000 people in the UK, is a disease of the central nervous system.

A police chief has given his “absolute assurance” that elder-ly people will not suffer from the loss of an OAP care project. Superintendent David Chinchen defended the decision of Southwark police and council bosses to axe the borough’s Elderly Care Project. It was brought in four years ago to support vulnerable pensioners and cut crimes such as distraction burglaries. Rather than shelving successful aspects of the scheme, Supt Chinchen says its work will now fall under the day-to-day duties of a range of police units. He denied the “mainstreaming” drive would affect the service given to elderly victims of crime.

It can be how soft a boiled egg should be, and at whose risk, or how to open a bank account without a passport, utility bill or ability to get to a branch. The issues raised by care home residents seeking the help of an advocacy project run specially for them by Age Concern Leicestershire and Rutland are many and varied. “There is a large and expanding population of older people in care homes who are virtual prisoners, with no contacts in the community, and are considered to be quiet and therefore content,” says the project in its entry in a directory, which claims to be the first attempt to map the availability of advocacy services for older people across England, whether in residential settings or not.

The extent of sexual abuse, including rape, on mental health wards has been unveiled in a shock new report. Following pressure from Mental health charity Mind, the Department of Health has released research conducted by its safety watchdog, the National Patient Safety Agency. It reveals at least 122 reported sexual incidents including 19 rapes, while stating that a  significant number of under-reporting.

Plans for regulating and inspecting childcare for older children could prove too confusing for providers and parents, warn sector leaders. Childcare organisations are currently preparing their responses to a consultation on the new Ofsted Childcare Register, which was published recently. But the plans have already been branded as complicated and unclear. The register will apply to childcare for over fives. Registration will be compulsory for childcare catering for children aged up to eight unless run directly by a school. Childcare run by schools will be inspected as part of school inspections.

Some NHS doctors boost their income by dabbling in private practice, but one psychiatrist has opted for a markedly different approach – selling his medical knowledge on the online auction site eBay. Syed Shah, a community psychiatrist for North East Essex mental health trust, is auctioning an “education” on 36 mental health topics, ranging from schizophrenia and manic depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. At a starting price of £25, eBay customers can bid to email him five questions on their chosen subject.

Specialist teams are being sent into Birmingham primary schools to target inappropriate sexual behaviour, as teachers become increasingly worried about young pupils interacting in a “sexualised” manner with each other. Teachers are concerned that children as young as seven are playing inappropriate school playground games with one another, such as the old-fashioned kiss and chase game. In Birmingham, the city council has been sending experts from its Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour Teams into schools across the city where teachers have raised concerns.

The Government’s Office for Disability Issues (ODI) has published its first Annual Report to the Prime Minister, detailing the progress that is being made towards realising the Government’s ambitious vision for real equality for disabled people by 2025.