For the past 30 years the NHS has been trying to modernise its communications and update its computer systems and each time it has ended in disaster and cost millions. The latest attempt, a £12.7bn project to link the country's 35,000 GPs with 300 hospitals and provide electronic versions of all patient medical records, has been similarly blighted by delays, cost overruns and cancelled contracts.

Obesity has overtaken smoking and is now a bigger threat to people's health, American scientists have warned.

Alcohol should be priced at a minimum of 60p per unit to drive down binge drinking, public health experts said today.

Of three pioneering sculptors celebrated in a stirring show, it is the one who died young who is the star

Whitehall is proposing a pay freeze for 40,000 senior public servants and a 1 per cent ceiling on rises for a further 750,000 workers in the public sector.

Yvonne Hossack has dedicated her life to helping the elderly and disabled. She saved 80 care homes from closure. Yesterday, after a witch hunt by council leaders, she was allowed to continue with her crusade.

Medical Life

Premium-rate phone numbers are to be banned across the NHS. Charges that force patients to pay more than the cost of a local call will be scrapped in England after a public consultation drew almost 3,000 responses.

No one can dispute that there is an unhealthy attitude to alcohol in this country. Hopes that liberalising the licensing hours would quickly produce a Continental-style "cafe-culture", where people would sit in the sun slowing sipping a glass of wine, have sadly proved vain. Alcohol consumption is rising across the board, with under-age and binge drinking as prevalent as ever. Doctors report an alarming rise in liver disease, especially among the young.

The tobacco war has been won. Now it is the turn of alcohol. The British Medical Association opened a new front in the battle to cut excessive drinking today with a call for a total ban on advertising and marketing of alcohol, including sports and music festival sponsorship, an end to happy hours and the imposition of a minimum price per unit on alcoholic drinks.

Frank Warren wouldn't want his daughter to box and Amir Khan thinks the ladies who punch should stick to swapping forehands on the tennis court.

Medics have issued a warning over new rules limiting the number of hours junior doctors can work, after the EU regulations slashing the working week from 56 to 48 hours come into force.

Britain's main nurses' organization has dropped its opposition to assisted suicide, as a new poll shows solid support for the right to die.

Gordon Brown banned one of his senior aides from attending the G8 summit of world leaders because he had contracted swine flu, it has emerged.