News round up: Baby P case: second doctor suspended

Baby P case: second doctor suspended

A second doctor who saw Baby P before he died has been suspended by the General Medical Council.

Dr Jerome Ikwueke, Baby P’s general practitioner, saw the child more than a dozen times before his death in Haringey, north London, in August 2007. Ikwueke sent the child to hospital after he was brought to him extensively bruised in December 2006.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Woman with multiple sclerosis loses assisted suicide case

A woman with multiple sclerosis today lost her court of appeal case to have the law on assisted suicide clarified.

Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, wanted to know if her husband, the Cuban violinist Omar Puente, would be prosecuted if he helped her travel to die in a country where it is legal.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Free needles for drug users ‘good use of NHS money’

Providing free needles and syringes to people who inject heroin and cocaine is a cost-effective use of NHS money, the government’s medicines watchdog said today.

Homeowners will get £500m in mortgage assistance to counter rise in repossessions

Ministers will promise up to £500 million today to help struggling homeowners to keep their homes, as official figures are expected to show that repossessions soared by 70 per cent to 45,000 last year.

Read more on this story in The Times

‘My baby was put in care after I was wrongly accused of abuse’: Mother’s nightmare after doctor  misdiagnosed medical condition

A young mother was arrested and her ten-day-old baby taken into care after doctors misdiagnosed a bump on his head as a sign of abuse.

NHS blunders set schizophrenic patient free to stab woman 21 times

Health workers caring for a paranoid schizophrenic who stabbed a woman in a supermarket 21 times have admitted a series of failings, her family revealed.

Samuel Reid-Wentworth was yesterday ordered to remain at Broadmoor high security mental hospital indefinitely for his ‘premeditated’ and ‘ frenzied’ attack on Lucy Yates, 20.

The news came as it emerged that Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has implemented stringent changes in its care for mentally ill patients.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

‘Rockpools of joblessness’ still lingering

Significant parts of the country have not fully recovered from the 1990s recession before the latest one struck, the Local Government Association said on Wednesday.