Several high profile cases in recent months have shown that NHS Trusts are taking an intransigent line when patients want to short circuit the NHS system and pay for drugs or treatments not approved by NICE. Now the debate has been taken up in one of Britain's leading medical journals.

Direct social care payments for disabled adults, the elderly and carers of disabled children were introduced in the UK in 1996. But now an expert in healthcare policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services believes that this scheme should be extended to those with long term, chronic conditions.

New evidence from Age Concern’s "Hungry to be Heard" campaign reveals that only 45% of all NHS Acute Trusts have taken action to tackle shocking levels of malnutrition among older people on hospital wards.

Counsel and Care, the national charity getting the best care and support for older people, their families and carers, has launched a new campaign to produce a national manifesto for older people for the next General Election.

While overstretched pensioners struggle to pay their inflated Council Taxes, and some even end up in jail, new figures reveal that town halls have simply "written off" more than £130 million of unpaid council tax.

Apparently more than one in three MPs would not want a friend or neighbour to cut their toenails, yet as many as one in three adults over 65 - that's two million people in England - cannot cut their own toenails and often have to resort to such desperate measures.

Some of the most moving stories in the media in recent years have concerned elderly people being forced to leave their care homes against their will. Ken Mack, Carer and Independent National Voluntary Campaigner for People with Disabilities, is challenging Health Secretary Alan Johnson to “take the battle out of disability” for those in care homes facing eviction.