Increasing numbers of care homes could be forced out of business because local authorities are no longer able to pay them the going rates, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Its website quotes David Pearson, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services who argues that the current care system is ‘unsustainable’.
He added: ‘It is a tribute to our health and care systems that we are all living longer but this warning comes amid fears that some local authority budgets will not be able to carry the rising tide of additional responsibilities that growing numbers of older and disabled people with multiple health conditions and disabilities are placing on them.’
The Daily Mail reports on a new form of weight-loss surgery that involves folding the stomachs into pleats.
Primary Obesity Surgery Endolumenal is less invasive than other forms of surgery, and involves placing a tube or endoscope down the throat into the stomach, where it gathers up the stomach wall and lining. A stitch is then made in the gathered tissue, which prevents the stomach expanding for food.
Dr Thomas Lavin from Louisiana in the United States is leading a trial of the procedure. He said: ‘It could mean tens of thousands of patients may have a compelling new option to consider if they have struggled to lose weight with diet and exercise.’
Low calorie fizzy drinks are directly linked to obesity, the Daily Express reports. The website describes a study from the University of Texas, where researchers found that people who regularly had diet fizzy drinks typically saw their waist size increase 3.16 inches over nine years. Lead author Sharon Fowler said: ‘Calorie-free is not consequence-free.’
Comedian Russell Brand and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith have become unlikely allies in a campaign to save a pioneering London drug addiction service.
The 1NE rehabilitation centre in Woodford Green, east London – which uses an abstinence-based approach – has lost a contract to a national provider and is having its council funding cut. Mr Brand described the centre as ‘exactly the kind of place that saved me.’
