Plaque and memorial garden to mark scandal of Britain’s forced adoptions

Survivors of forced adoptions and unmarried mothers’ homes will gather at the first-ever public commemorations of a national scandal affecting hundreds of thousands of British people.A plaque will be unveiled at noon on Saturday at an open event at Rosemundy, St Agnes, in Cornwall. Meanwhile, in Kendal, Cumbria, on 23 May, a memorial garden will be opened, with attendance by invitation.Women from across the country, adoptees and relatives are expected to attend the events – at the locations of two former unmarried mothers’ homes – after years of waiting for a formal UK government apology.There were hundreds of unmarried mothers’ homes operating in the UK between the 1940s and the 1980s

Hospitals in England reducing staff and services as part of NHS ‘financial reset’

Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make “eye-watering” savings demanded by NHS bosses.Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapies services cut and beds for end-of-life care reduced as part of efforts by England’s 215 NHS trusts to comply with a “financial reset”.Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s new chief executive, has ordered them to make unprecedented savings during 2025-26 to avoid a projected £6.6bn deficit becoming a reality.But trust bosses are warning that delivering what for some equates to 12% of their entire budget in “efficiency savings” will affect patients and waiting times

Eve Thompson obituary

My grandmother Eve Thompson, who has died aged 95, was variously a theatre stage manager, a secretary and a nursery nurse – until later in life she became involved in voluntary work and advocacy, particularly in relation to mental health.After Eve’s son Ben was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the early 1980s, she volunteered for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (now Rethink Mental Illness), working with service users, carers and professionals to improve services, establish supported housing and ensure families received the help they needed.She became its national chair in 1990, a position she held for five years, and was also a trustee. Outspoken about funding shortfalls, in a 1993 article in the Independent newspaper she said: “The size of the cheque is the most important thing. You cannot make bricks without straw

A cocktail that’s too much of a good thing | Letters

Regarding the Brompton cocktail, a mixture of heroin and cocaine that was used for severe pain in terminally ill patients (Letters, 6 May), the Glasgow recipe was heroin, cocaine, gin, Largactil and honey. It could be alarmingly effective. Many years ago, my late partner, faced with a patient in intractable pain, issued a prescription for the cocktail.In the middle of evening surgery, my partner was called to an emergency at the local pub. The patient had felt so much better, he decided to go for a drink, and the combination of the Brompton plus the traditional “hauf an’ a hauf” (whisky and ale), had proved too much

UK woman who took pills during lockdown cleared of illegal abortion

A woman has been cleared of illegally terminating a pregnancy, after taking abortion pills during lockdown.Nicola Packer took the pills at home in November 2020. She had been prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol after a remote consultation.She later delivered a foetus, which the court heard was estimated to be about 26 weeks in gestation, which she brought with her to Chelsea and Westminster hospital, Isleworth crown court heard.She was arrested in hospital and later charged with “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage”

At least 216 children died in first high severity US flu season in seven years, CDC says

At least 216 children have died of influenza in the US during the last flu season in what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said was classified as the first high severity season overall and for all age groups since 2017-2018.That number marks the highest pediatric death toll in 15 years; the previous high reported for a regular (non-pandemic) season was 236 pediatric deaths in the 2009-2010 season, according to the CDC. More recently, 207 pediatric deaths were reported during the 2023-2024 season.Based on data from FluSurv-NET, the cumulative hospitalization rate for this season is the highest observed since the 2010-2011 season. It estimates that there have been at least 47m illnesses, 610,000 hospitalizations and 26,000 deaths from flu so far this season