Protesters against plans to merge Scotland’s four neurosurgery units are to deliver a 22,000-name petition to Holyrood, amid growing fears that the move would cost lives.

Teenage girls in Scottish secondary schools are more than three times more likely than boys to deliberately harm themselves, according to a new study.

More than 20,000 attacks against NHS staff are reported each year in Scotland, figures obtained by The Scotsman reveal, suggesting verbal and physical abuse of doctors, nurses and other health service workers has reached record levels.

Two Asian teenagers were stabbed by a gang of youths in Glasgow city centre in a suspected racist attack.

Almost all civil cases in Scotland, including the most complex and expensive divorce proceedings, could be transferred to the sheriff courts under recommendations being drawn-up by Lord Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk.

Absent parents in Glasgow owe their children £37.5m in maintenance payments. New figures published today show there are nearly 13,000 families scraping by, waiting for ex-partners to pay for their children’s upbringing.

The intensive care unit of Glasgow’s hospital for sick children has been closed to new admissions because of concerns over a dangerous bacterium.

A backlog of complaints means patients can wait years before their concerns about the NHS are dealt with, campaigners claim.

The head of a prominent charity was at the centre of a race row last night, after he warned of a cultural take-over by “the wretched Chinese”.

An Aberdeen care home is to move to new premises, it was announced yesterday.