News

There have been 89 violent deaths in London since January and violent crime has risen by 40% since 2010. Gang-related violent crime has nearly halved over the same period, according to Met Police figures obtained by the BBC.

But some experts are unconvinced the statistics really show gangs have gone.

The Met Police has put the drop down to the implementation of the Gang Violence Matrix. The database, set up in the wake of the 2011 riots, holds information on about 3,800 people of interest.

The NHS standard is for children to receive a wheelchair within 18 weeks from the time of referral, but in 2017-18 it was missed for more than 5,100 children, according to an analysis published on Tuesday in the Health Service Journal (HSJ).

That equates to 82% of eligible children receiving their wheelchairs on time, compared with the target of 92%. NHS England has set a more ambitious target of 100% by the end of 2018-19, although the latest figures suggest commissioners will struggle to hit it.

A study of how long men and women are living in 18 wealthy countries has found that life expectancy is on the rise in Australia but declining in Britain, the United States and several other nations.

By comparison, British women and men have seen their life expectancy dip to 82.7 years and 79 years respectively. There’s been a similar pattern in the US, where men now live an average of 76.4 years and women for 81.4 years. Overall, Switzerland has the longest life expectancy for men at 81.6 years, while Japanese women live to a ripe old age of 87.2 years.

More than 4 million people a year have been denied the use of a wheelchair despite needing one after breaking a leg or having surgery, the British Red Cross has claimed.

While those who needed a wheelchair for at least six months were generally given one, people needing it for less time often went without, the charity said.

The mercury reached 35C (95F) on Thursday at Heathrow, west London, and is expected to go even higher before thunderstorms bring some relief. The Met Office says the all-time record of 38.5C could be exceeded in south-east England on Friday.

The weather has brought with it serious concerns about health as higher temperatures increase the probability of dying from cardiac, kidney and respiratory diseases for some people, with associated higher air pollution also posing a risk. On Thursday, a “high” air pollution alert was issued for London.

The number of “serious incidents” involving what the NHS calls “sub-optimal care of deteriorating patients” is going up in hospitals, ambulance services and mental health settings.

The trend has emerged in previously unpublished NHS England figures provided to former Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb, who has branded them “deeply disturbing”.

While up to one in five mothers have problems such as postnatal depression and post-traumatic stress disorder linked to childbirth, many are going untreated because specialist NHS care for them is so limited and the “gap” in help so wide, the research found.

The secret report, the first in-depth audit of how much care there is for maternal mental illness, found that in many areas of England, services are patchy, and in many others there are none at all.

The health and social care secretary has pledged almost half a billion pounds to transform technology in the NHS in an attempt to reduce staff workloads and improve patient care.

In his first speech since being appointed to the post, Matt Hancock listed technology as one of his top three initial priorities and evangelised about how it could help achieve improvements in the other two – workforce and prevention of illness.

About £412m will be made available to transform technology in hospitals, to improve care and give more patients access to health services at home. A further £75m will be available for trusts to replace paper-based systems with electronic systems, which Hancock said could reduce medication errors by up to 50%.

The national unit that supports the family drug and alcohol court(FDAC), an initiative that aims to help addicted parents and their children, will close in September because of a lack of support from local authorities and funding from central government.

The unit, hailed by Sir James Munby, president of the family division of the high court of England and Wales, as one of the most important developments in family justice in the last 40 years, needs £250,000 a year to survive.

FDAC offers an alternative and, research suggests, a cheaper and more successful form of care proceedings for children at risk of significant harm by parents suffering substance misuse. Alongside a team of social workers, psychiatrists, substance misuse specialists and domestic violence experts, the court uses a problem-solving approach that works to enable parents to keep their children. Families involved are seen by the same judge every two weeks to monitor their progress.

He served for five years and 308 days as health secretary – a long time in politics – but Jeremy Hunt’s record breaking tenure saw him oversee a notable funding and staffing crisis.

However, his final act of securing a £20bn budget increase for health by 2023 was better than many dared hope for – though less than experts said was needed.

His successor, Matt Hancock, joins at a turning point in the health service’s fortunes and Mr Hunt has left more than a few problems for his successor at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Here The Independent looks at the issues he might face.