PATIENTS may have a vastly different experience of NHS hospital care depending on whether they live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it was reported today.

Hundreds of thousands of NHS patients are seen every year without doctors having access to their full medical records, an investigation has found.

A MERSEYSIDE health authority that "blazed a trail in public and patient involvement" was named top in its field at a national awards ceremony. Wirral primary care trust was awarded Primary Care Organisation of the Year 2007 at the Health Service Journal's (HSJ) annual awards ceremony in London.