There are also some fine sentiments expressed in Lord Darzi's report about the need to widen patients' choice and to build a more "personalised" NHS. Other proposals are sound too. The process for licensing new drugs should indeed be speeded up. And ...

So the first thing a person in this position should do is to eliminate the word. She can be the child's "auntie" if she likes – though preferable for her to be called by her first name. That keeps the boundaries absolutely clear. She should never int...

So it was with uncharacteristic prescience that we took the decision a year ago not to sell our current home, but to stay put and rebuild. The allure of gaily handing over thousands of pounds to surveyors for properties that were then taken off the m...

Of more concern is what I was told by friends who were keen to go into fostering. Having successfully reared five children of their own, and with plenty of spare rooms, they offered their home to a few children with serious problems. However, they we...

Sadly, when it comes to the health service, it is the gap between policy ambition and the reality of implementation where so many come unstuck. It probably does not help when the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary bill your report as a once-in-a...

Yet that is the scathing verdict delivered today by the Commons Health Select Committee. The committee argues that the new NHS contract for dentists, implemented two years ago, has failed to improve services for patients because, under the new treatm...