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Report calls for more consultants
The number of consultant physicians in some specialities needs to be doubled or the standard of patient care will fall, a report warned today. A study by the Royal College of Physicians says chronic shortages in major fields such as intensive care, cancer and diabetes mean that some consultants work more than 65 hours a week.

Tubby tots on the rise
More than one in five children under four is overweight and nearly one in ten is obese, a study revealed. Researchers from Liverpool University who studied 50,000 babies and children under four found that 9.2 per cent were obese in 1998, compared with 5.4 per cent ten years earlier.