Chesterfield legal high addict went berserk over pile cream

A New Whittington man waved a sledgehammer around outside a chemist and assaulted two police officers while on legal highs, The Star reports.

Jamie Hudson, 20, of Devonshire Avenue North, appeared at Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and assaulting two police officers.

The court heard that on November 4 he went to a pharmacy on High Street in New Whittington where he asked for some haemorrhoid cream. He got angry when they did not have the cream he wanted.

NHS snubs private sector’s extra help

The National Health Service has turned down the chance to buy thousands of operations from private hospital groups, even as hospital waiting times have lengthened to record levels, the Financial Times reports.

David Hare, chief executive of NHS Partners Network, which represents independent providers, said private hospitals had offered to deliver 55,000 surgical procedures and 200,000 diagnostic tests in the final three months of the year.

The work would have been performed at NHS prices and was intended to be additional to the work the private sector already undertook for the health service, when patients choose to have treatment delivered privately.

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However, Mr Hare wrote to Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, to express his disappointment that less than 1 per cent of the capacity on offer had been taken up.

'Shocking' sugar levels in High Street hot drinks, warns charity

There are "shocking" amounts of sugar in some hot drinks sold in High Street cafes, the BBC reports.

Campaign group Action on Sugar analysed 131 hot drinks and found a third contained at least as much sugar as a can of Pepsi or Coca-Cola, which contains nine teaspoons.

The charity said in some of the worst cases the drinks contained 20 or more teaspoons of sugar. Coffee shop chains Starbucks and Costa said they were committed to reducing sugar content in their drinks.

Elderly hospital patients given eviction warnings

Hospitals have begun imposing eviction notices on frail elderly patients who are left on wards because relatives cannot find a satisfactory care home, an investigation has found, The Telegraph reports.

It comes amid a growing crisis in care of the elderly, with soaring levels of bed-blocking in parts of the country with some of the highest care home fees.

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Official NHS figures show more than 220,000 days of delays are being caused each year when patients are stuck in hospital because relatives cannot decide on a care home.

Hospitals in the West Midlands are warning elderly patients who need residential care that they could face legal proceedings if they are not out within three weeks of being declared medically fit.

The 900,000 patients with just ONE out of hours GP: Sick being forced to wait up to 12 hours for a call back because of a lack of doctors willing to work unpopular hours

Just one GP is providing emergency cover for more than 900,000 people on some nights, a whistleblower at an NHS out-of-hours care firm has revealed, the Daily Mail reports.

Patients are having to wait more than 12 hours for calls after contacting the 111 non-emergency hotline.

Overworked doctors are also having to work 15-hour shifts in some cases because of a shortage of GPs willing to work unpopular hours.

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The 'unsafe' service putting people's lives at risk in Norfolk and Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, is run by Integrated Care 24 (IC24), where staff have been told to alter records to conceal serious problems, according to a leaked report last month.