News In Brief 6 May 2009

NHS Failings Left Schizophrenic On Streets To Kill

Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust has admitted to a catalogue of errors that allowed a schizophrenic law student to stab to death a heavily pregnant women, only months after he had threatened to kill his nurse.

Tina Stevenson was almost eight months pregnant with twin boy when she was stabbed in the back by Benjamin Holiday in a random attack in Hull in January 2005.

David Snowdon, the trust’s chief executive, said that Benjamin Holiday was in effect under treated.  His situation and condition could and should have been more assertively managed.

Were More Patients Put In Peril By German GP

The Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, is facing calls to overhaul the system of out-of-hours care after details emerged of two other cases involving the German doctor who gave a British patient a fatal overdose.

Nurse Saved Own Life After Surgery

A nurse has lodged a formal complaint against the hospital in which she works because she claims she almost died after having surgery there.

She had to be rushed back to hospital with life threatening blood clots after she was sent home too soon without anti-clotting medication from Whittington Hospital, North London.

Tsar Gets £120,000

A flu Tsar was appointed last nigh on a salary believed to be £120,000 a year. Ian Dalton is the new National Director for NHS Flu Resilience.

Mr Dalton, a former chief executive of NHS North East said that preparing for and dealing with the threat of pandemic flu was extremely important.

Baby P Stepfather Guilty Of Raping Two Year Old Girl

The 32 year old stepfather of Baby P has been found guilty of raping a two year girl.  Baby P’s mother was found not guilty of charges for the same child.

Neither person can be named and the trial has been subject to a new blackout.  It is also  unusual in that the court took evidence from the man’s victim – now four years old – via video link, making her the youngest person ever to give evidence in a British court. 

The verdict also means that several inquiries into Baby P’s case can now be published.

Public Sector Pension Bill To Rise

Public sector pensions are expected to rise because of longer life expectancy, according to financial consultants, Watson Wyatt.

They claim that £12.5 billion has been added to the taxpayers’ liability for NHS workers alone, because of health workers drawing their pensions for longer and longer periods, in some cases until they reach their 90s.

John Ball of Watson Wyatt said any employer offering 30 years of pension after 40 years of work is going to find their pension scheme very expensive.

Tax Firm Cons NHS Out Of £250K

An investigation by the Sunday press highlighted the case of a patient transport service that charged NHS trusts in London £250,000 for journeys that never took place.

It is alleged that Lewis Day Medical falsely charged trusts on average 20 times a day.

Cancer Risk Higher For Women Smokers

New research from oncologists in Switzerland showed that women smokers were more likely to develop lung cancer than male smokers.  The survey was based on a sample of 683 patients in St Gallen, Switzerland.

Dr Martin Frueh, who led the study, said that the findings suggested women might have increased susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens.  They were alarming because they showed that women, despite smoking less than men, got lung cancer at an earlier stage.

New Rules That Label Quarter Of One-Year-Olds As Too Heavy

Parents will be told to feed their babies less under new guidance designed to control Britain’s rising level of obesity.  More specifically, new growth charts –devised by the World Health Organisation- that aim to reflect the slower weight-gain of breast feeding babies, rather than the faster growth of those fed on formula milk, are to be introduced.

The new charts replace measures used since 1990, which are believed to have increased obesity levels because they were based on the growth of babies predominantly fed with formula milk.  The new charts are supported by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and cover children up to the age of four.

A Department of Health spokesman said that the new UK/WHO growth charts would not only provide more accurate measurements for infant growth of breast-fed babies, but would also help healthcare professionals and parents to identity early signs of overweight or obesity and provide support.

Longevity Linked To Older Mums

Women who have babies naturally in their 40s and 50s tend to live longer, as do their brothers, according to research from scientists at the University of Utah.

The study found that women who had ‘late fertility’, giving birth at 45 or older, were 14 to 17 per cent less likely to die during any year after age 50 than women who had not delivered a child after the age of 40.

The research also revealed that brothers who had at least three sisters, including one sister who gave birth at 45 or later, were 20 to 22 per cent less likely to die during any year after age 50 than brothers who had ‘no fertile’ sisters.

Prison For Surgeon Who Ran £3.5m Cannabis Empire

A surgeon at a leading private hospital has been jailed for five years for laundering millions of pounds in profits from a network of cannabis farms.

Chinh Nguyen, 43, was already suspended this year following the death of a patient in a routine operation. 

Nguyen, who lived in the Holloway Road area of North London, went on trail at Wood Green Crown Court in March.  In 2007, he was investigated at the Whittington NHS Hospital in North London, when three patients nearly died after he operated on their banks.

Nguyen was eventually cleared to return to work.

Panic Alarms Plan

Panic alarms will be given to 30,000 NHS staff in areas which suffer from high crime rates under plans to reduce violence against vulnerable workers.

Administration Costs

An investigation conducted by one of the Sunday newspapers using the Freedom of Information Act has revealed that health authorities across Britain are spending massive sums on ‘red tape instead of patient care’.

One NHS trust spent £8.50 in every £100 of its budget on administration.

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the Taxpayers; Alliance, said that taxpayers wanted more doctors’ appointments and cancer drugs, not faceless bureaucrats.

MRSA Incident

Seven babies have tested positive fro MRSA in the maternity unit at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester.

NHS Contract Leaves BT With Painful Results

The Department of Health has handed BT almost £100 million in advance payments for its work computerizing patient records despite years of delay, systems failures and overspending on BT’s £1 billion NHS contract in London.

Binge Drinking Britain: Surge In Women Consuming Harmful Amounts Of Alcohol

Binge drinking among women has almost doubled since 1998, according to research conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Across Britain, they found the average consumption of women aged 16 to 24 rose from 7.3 units a week in 1992, to 10.8 in 2006.  The biggest increase in consumption was among women over 65, rising from 2.7 units to 5.1 units per week.

However, the study also concluded that young adults of both sexes were drinking less, a trend particularly pronounced among young men.

The number of males aged 16 to 24 who indulge in binge drinking fell from 39 per cent in 1998 to 30 per cent in 2006.

China Tackled On Swine Flu Moves

The World Health Organisation has asked China to justify its quarantine of travellers from Mexico, as criticism grew of the aggressive measures that went beyond official scientific advice in responding to swine flu.

The World Health Organisation said yesterday it had begun verifying what measures were being taken by China, as part of a procedure defined in international health rules in the face of an infectious disease outbreak.

Flu Plan To Award GCSEs Without Exam

Examination boards are working on contingency plans to award children GCSE and A-level grades based on coursework marks if they are unable to attend an examination because of swine flu, the schools’ minister, Jim Knight, has revealed.

Mr Knight said that examination boards were considering new contingency plans but urged schools not to panic and rush to close unless they received specific advice from the Health Protection Agency.

His advice comes after one school, the Dolphin School in Battersea, South London and its nursery closed without taking advice from the Agency.