Should patients be allowed to top up their care by paying privately for drugs? The question has confounded experts and now the government has an unenviable task in making a final...

HEALTH bosses in Lothian were today handed 2.5 million to help tackle childhood obesity over the next three years. The cash is part of 19m worth of funding for health boards across the country to implement the Scottish Government's Healthy Eating, Active Living Action Plan to improve diet and increase...

The BMA said a generation of children could have chronic health problemsChildhood obesity rates are worryingly high and not being tackled by the Scottish Government's action plan, the British Medical Association has...

THE NHS in Scotland could save more than à £8 million a year by carrying out more day surgery and cutting the number of patients kept in hospital overnight, a report reveals...

No we don't. You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you, and they really are out to get us. Every GP except Dr Van Winkle is familiar with the litany of anti-GP smear that has appeared in the media over the past few years that can only have come from Government...

Exclusive - GP investigation finds public has 'serious concerns' about most PCTs' plans. PCTs in England are pressing ahead with GP-led health centres on APMS contracts despite overwhelmingly negative public feedback from...

Medical and business sources suggest privately-run centres will push GP practices to compete for patients. Privately-run Darzi centres will have their income guaranteed for up to two years, while ministers push to scrap the...

Parking charges were scrapped at Scottish hospitals yesterday prompting angry claims that English patients are once again the victims of NHS 'apartheid'.

The British Medical Association has launched an appeal in the High Court to prevent GPs aged over 65 from having to pay to stay on the GMC's register. A BMA spokesman said: 'The BMA regrets that we have been forced to pursue this course of action, but we feel it is necessary to do so on..

The British Medical Association (BMA) has criticised plans to move health visitors out of GP attachments and into social work...

Health chiefs in England were under pressure to scrap hospital car parking charges after a move by the Scottish government to abolish the charges at 14 NHS...

Many hospital public finance initiatives are not providing good value for money because they are being undermanaged, MPs have concluded. The Commons public accounts committee said many authorities were undermanaging PFI projects, which are long-term contracts the public sector enters into with private...

Community health councils held the NHS to account - their abolition has left a huge void, says Jacky Davis Jacky Davis The Guardian , In Neal Lawson and Robert Philpot's debate on the future direction of Labour, Philpot claims the party is 'giving greater control over public services to those who use them'...

A spot poll of 100 GPs shows that controversial moves by LMC leaders to bid for the Government's new polyclinics have divided the...

By Graham SatchellBBC NewsDiane Wishart faces a struggle to get drugAs more new drugs for cancer become unavailable on the NHS should you be able to top up your care and buy the drugs privately? England is already reviewing the rules and later this week Scottish health minister, Nicola Sturgeon, will clarify.

Dozens of GPs have joined forces over fears their patients may be poached by super-sized medical clinics. Around 50 doctors are bidding to run a so-called polyclinic with a possible location being Falcon House, the former residential care home, in Deepdale,...

EXCLUSIVE Patients hit out at plans to scrap pills at surgeries Six hundred pharmacies in GPs' surgeries are facing the axe. Only those more than a mile from a chemist will continue dispensing prescriptions to patients under cost-cutting...

Health leaders have condemned Tory plans to abandon the acclaimed traffic light labelling guide which helps consumers easily avoid unhealthy foods. Experts claim the Tory health spokesman, Andrew Lansley, has 'sold out' to the food industry, which is opposed to the introduction of a mandatory easy-to-use...

The BMA is appealing to the High Court to stop GPs over the age of 65 being charged to remain on the GMC's register. The GMC plans to abolish the exemption from the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) for doctors aged over...

IT'S fair to say that cycling in the Capital is about to take off in a big way. All over the city, cycle shops are reporting soaring sales, with the credit crunch making two wheels a more attractive prospect than four and a certain Mr Hoy and his gold medals setting an inspiring...