Wednesday 19 January 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Amy Taylor and Clare Jerrom

Hospital ‘starved 11 patients to death’

Eleven older patients on the same hospital ward were deliberately
starved to death, an inquest was told yesterday.

The patients, all men aged between 67 and 93, died after having
their food and drink needlessly withdrawn, according to
relatives.

The men were all terminally ill patients suffering from dementia on
the Rowsley ward at the Kingsway hospital in Derby. The inquest
continues.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 9

Feuding parents may be subject to curfew

Those who ignore courts over access to children face being made to
do unpaid community service under a package of measures unveiled by
the government yesterday.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 8

Teacher devastated by sex abuse claims wins £22,000
payout

Iwan Rees, a teacher from Powys, agreed a £22,000
settlement with Powys Council after being sacked over false
allegations that he had sexually abused two girls aged 12 and
16.

An employment tribunal found there was no basis for finding him
guilty of any misconduct.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 9

Bars should pay for police to deal with drunken yobs, says
Clarke

The licensing industry has to face up to its responsibilities, the
Home Secretary Charles Clarke says.

He also wants much more to be done to speed up the process of
returning failed asylum seekers to their home countries, and wants
more to be done abroad to deter people from coming to
Britain.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 19 January 2005 page 4

Sleep tight dear, from mum in jail

Storybook Dad/Mum, a scheme which allowed people in prison to tell
stories for their children on tape or CD, helps them to be
participating parents

Source:- The Times T2 section Wednesday 19 January 2005
pages 10-11

Investigation into nursing home where 28 died in one
year

A coroner is to investigate the deaths of 16 older residents at a
private nursing home after health officials warned that events
there raised “serious concern.” Birmingham coroner
Aidan Cotton, officers from West Midlands police and officials from
Birmingham and the Black Country strategic health authority are
involved in a review of the deaths of pensioners at the former
Maypole nursing home in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005 page
1

Clarke orders crackdown on race inequality

An extension of ethnic monitoring right across the public services
to provide the first official, systematic picture of racial
inequality in Britain is to be announced by the home secretary
today. The strategy includes measures to improve poor social
housing for ethnic minority families.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005 page
2

Prison attacked for failing to protect suicidal women

The prisons ombudsman yesterday criticised a jail where six
vulnerable women prisoners died in a 12-month period, saying that
he was deeply uncomfortable that they had been placed in a
segregation unit.

Stephen Shaw was speaking at the inquest of Sarah Campbell, 18, the
youngest of the six women to die at Styal Prison in Cheshire.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005 page
6

MPs urged to listen to the young

Politicians should stop regarding young people as troublemakers and
listen more to their views, the charity Barnardo’s said
yesterday in its report Give Us a Chance.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005 page
12

Winning Goals

Despite the promise of reform, fear of crime is on the increase and
the prison population is at record levels. Public figures and
opinion formers say what they would do to overhaul the criminal
justice system.

Source:- The Society Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005
pages 2-3

Method man

Eyebrows were raised when Shelter aligned itself with the
housebuilding lobby. Its director Adam Sampson explains why the
homelessness charity must reinvent itself.

Source:- The Society Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 6

Goodwill hunting

The City Nurses Project in east London improves the sometimes
fraught relationship between psychiatric nurses and their
patients

Source:- The Society Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 7

Emergency exit?

The management of offenders bill has been condemned for giving
criminals an escape route from jail to stem rising inmate numbers.
Paul Goggins, prisons minister, gives some answers.

Source:- The Society Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 8

If it ain’t broke…

As debate rages over plans to bring the Sure Start early years
scheme under local authority control, service users and those
delivering the service say what they think of the changes

Source:- The Society Guardian Wednesday 19 January 2005
page 10

Scottish newspapers

Heroin use falling across Scotland

The number of people taking heroin and valium has fallen by almost
eight per cent, according to statistics.

There were 51,582 people abusing substances in 2003 compared with
55,800 three years earlier, according to a report by the Centre for
Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow.

Source:- The Scotsman  Wednesday 19 January

1,000 to sue over slopping-out

More than 1,000 prisoners are preparing to take the Scottish
executive to court following last year’s ruling that the
practice of sloping-out in prisons was
“degrading”.

It emerged last night that hundreds of prisoners and former inmates
have come forward to challenge the executive about being forced to
slop-out. Robert Napier was awarded £2,450 in damages last
year after he successfully claimed his human rights had been
breached at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow.

Source:- The Scotsman  Wednesday 19 January

Education spending ‘poor value’

Ministers were accused yesterday of failing to improve
Scotland’s schools despite increased public investment.

Spending on education rose by 10 per cent to £3.9 billion in
2003-4 but opposition politicians argued that much of the extra
money had been spent on administration rather than benefiting
pupils.

Source:- The Scotsman  Wednesday 19 January

Bed blocking crisis prompts city summit

High levels of bed-blocking has led to a crisis summit with city
leaders to be arranged.

Deputy health minister Rhona Brankin has called the summit due to
figures, out today, showing that 420 people have been delayed in
Lothians hospitals, only seven lower than last year.

The area is the worst in Scotland for bed-blocking, as it was last
year.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 19 January

Fears NHS to lose ramp in disabled row

A ramp into a patient watchdog group’s offices may have to be
removed due to city planners recommending for its retrospective
planning application to be rejected.

The Lothian Health Council’s base in the West End is in an
Edinburgh World Heritage Site.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 19 January

Welsh newspapers

Most NHS leaders would shun Welsh care

Two out of three NHS leaders in Wales would not rely on the Welsh
health service to look after their friends and relatives.

The anonymous survey by the Welsh Institute of Health and Social
Care at the University also found that most health service leaders
are not convinced current policies will enable the Welsh NHS will
catch up with the NHS in England.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 19 January

Mum awaits New Zealand tug-of-love hearing

A custody battle between a Welsh nurse and her estranged husband
over their six-month baby takes a new turn today.

A hearing will here Stephen Jelicich’s appeal against a
previous court’s decision to give custody of the baby girl to
her mother Diane of Swansea.

Jelicich came out of hiding with the girl in New Zealand when Diane
made an appeal on TV.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 19 January