Britain’s life expectancy can be raised with a bit of Japanese-style nannying
Stephen Dunn: Compared with Japan, we are in the midst of a public health crisis. It will take more than a nudge to get us out of it
HIV and Aids epidemic ‘has not gone away’
HIV awareness has fallen under the radar despite diagnoses at double 1990s rate, peers warn
Incapacity benefit was a lifeline after my accident – would I be so lucky now?
Tim Rushby-Smith: The cuts get personal: Welfare helped me rebuild my future after a spinal cord injury
North/South health – an expert view finds right, and wrong, in both political camps
Guest blogger David Buck, Senior Fellow in Public Health at the King's Fund, pitches in on the debate started by Northerner political columnist, Ed Jacobs
How do we tackle the North/South divide on health funding?
The Northerner blog's Friday columnist Ed Jacobs looks at serious inequalities in our small country, and rival views about how to iron them out
Having cancer is an education, and this is what I have learned
Mike Marqusee: Illness introduced me to a beautiful network of dependence – and a struggle for autonomy I can't win on my own
These work capability assessments are a farce
Sue Marsh: So, politicians designed an incapacity benefits system in which virtually nobody qualifies for help. How can that be justified?
Tough action needed for better public health
Nudging people towards healthier lifestyles has been shown to be unlikely to work. So it's time for some radical action by ministers
Elderly care in the NHS: ‘There is nowhere for people to go’
The NHS is desperate to cut beds and the time people stay in them. But many frail old patients must remain on the wards because there is no suitable care for them at home. In the second of three reports from Birmingham's busy Heartlands hospital, Amelia Gentleman spends a day in the packed elderly care unit
Birth defects linked for first time to smoking in pregnancy
Clubfoot and missing limbs among malformations in newborns proven to be associated with expectant mothers who smoke