The Accident & Emergency crisis is now so severe that doctors can no longer guarantee safe care for patients, NHS officials have warned in a leaked letter seen by The Independent.

A private company that took over the running of a GP out-of-hours service in north London has been severely criticised by the NHS regulator for failing to provide enough doctors to keep patients safe.

Doctors were placed under “unprecedented pressure” to go live with the new NHS 111 helpline before some were ready, contributing to the A&E crisis in Britain's hospitals, documents seen by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

This week in Paris, the world's leading Aids scientists will gather to mark the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV. At least one of them, who won the Nobel Prize for her work, is quietly confident that very soon something approaching a cure for HIV will be possible.

The popular image of the modern, hands-on father might have to be scrapped. The idea that men are cutting back on work to help their partners with childcare is a myth, according to a provocative new book that presents stark evidence illustrating the British male's reluctance to step back from his job.

Richard Wallace is making great strides. "I have no problem with discarding things that are of no further use and I recognise that you can't keep everything," he says. "It's just not possible."

An NHS trust at the centre of a row over children's heart surgery is to replace its chief executive, it said on Saturday.

It is over 1,000 pages long, has undergone more than three years of revisions and has set doctors at each other's throats. But the latest version of the psychiatrists' bible is finally out - to a chorus of criticism that it is pathologising everyday life.

While a recent article by Angelina Jolie about her mastectomy and reconstruction raised awareness, it may have left the impression that the surgeries are quick and easy procedures, some doctors fear.    

If you take coated aspirin and have concerns about its absorption, you are better off crushing the tablets than splitting them. But uncoated aspirin may be the best, most cost-effective option.    

Although most attention is focused on the safety of infants and toddlers, their sudden jabs, bites, head-butts and kicks can inflict injuries on parents and other caregivers.    

With pimples emerging well before the teenage years, and a rise in the number of preadolescent patients, doctors have put together guidelines on treatment for children as young as 7.    

Bed rest is widely recommended in high-risk pregnancies. But there is little evidence to support it, and in some cases it may cause harm.