Patient Neglect To Be Made A Criminal Offence

Wilful neglect of patients will be made a criminal offence under NHS reforms being introduced in the wake of the Mid Staffs and other care scandals.

Prime Minister David Cameron said health workers who mistreated and abused patients would face "the full force of the law" in a package of measures to be unveiled next week.

The offence will be modelled on laws against the wilful neglect of adults under the Mental Capacity Act, punishable by fines or up to five years in prison.

The move was one of the central recommendations of a patient safety review commissioned by ministers in the wake of findings that there were up to 1,200 excess deaths at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

It was led by Professor Don Berwick, a former adviser to US President Barack Obama, who said it was needed to target the worst cases of a "couldn't care less" attitude that led to "wilful or reckless neglect or mistreatment".

Mr Cameron said: "The NHS is full on brilliant doctors, nurses and other health workers who dedicate their lives to caring for our loved ones.

"But Mid-Staffordshire hospital showed that sometimes the standard of care is not good enough.

"Never again will we allow substandard care, cruelty or neglect to go unnoticed and unpunished.

"This offence will make clear that neglect is unacceptable and those who do so will feel the full force of the law."

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Mum's Pain After Children 'Snatched By Dad'

By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent

A mother has told Sky News that her husband abducted their children and took them to Libya because England is "too Western".

In an exclusive interview, Priscilla Micalleff, 30, from Birmingham, told how Jamal Dgham, 35, who she is separated from, took Aisha, four, and 21-month-old Zakaria, abroad, after telling her they were going to the park.

She said: "He said England was too western you know, because they are Muslims, we came here because there are lots of Muslims."

The couple left Ms Micalleff's home country of Malta for "better mosques and schools" in the UK.

But seven weeks ago, without warning, Mr Dgham unlawfully took the children to his home country of Libya.

It is thought they are living with the children's grandmother in the Bin Ashur area of Tripoli.

Ms Micalleff said her husband had sent her a text message warning her that she would not see her children again.

The text read: "From tomorrow u r not gona hear or c the kids anymore and u won't know where they r."

Ms Micalleff has managed to speak to Aisha on the phone.

She said: "Sometimes it's hard, they don't answer the phone they make it hard for me.

"When she comes on the phone she's always crying, she tells me 'mummy I'm scared'."

In tears as she stands in her daughter's bedroom surrounded by her toys, she added: "You feel a very big pain in your heart that you can do nothing to get them back, all kids need their mum.

Family lawyer Pam Sanghera said: "We successfully obtained an order from the High Court that was served on him by email which he has read, but he says he is not going to return the children to UK."

Ms Sanghera, from The Family Firm Solicitors, says it is "inevitable" that the illegal movement of children will become more serious every year.

Latest figures from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office show that the number of children abducted by parents has almost doubled.

A total of 512 cases involving 84 different countries were reported to British authorities in 2011/2012 - up from 272 in 51 countries in 2003/2004.

Ms Sanghera said: "Libya is not a country which is signatory to The Hague Convention, so there's no automatic obligation on Libya to assist with the safe return of the children to the UK.

"The mother is going to have to initiate some sort of proceedings in Libya which may be obtaining a mirror order of the UK order that was made or another type of order which is similar in that it orders the father to return the children to the UK."

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Elizabeth Kinston: Body Found In GP Search

A woman's body found in grassland is believed to be that of missing GP Elizabeth Kinston - in what police said was a "tragic conclusion" to their investigation.

The 37-year-old mother, who had been suffering from postnatal depression, was last seen on November 1 after leaving her home in Beeston, Nottinghamshire.

The body was discovered near Enterprise Way in the Dunkirk area of Nottingham on Thursday afternoon by officers searching for her.

A post-mortem examination has taken place but the results are expected to take several weeks.

Police released CCTV images in an attempt to trace her

The death is not being treated as suspicious at this time, a police spokesman said.

The discovery came after emotional appeals were made by Mrs Kinston's husband David and her sister Charlotte for her to return home.

Police also released CCTV images of Mrs Kinston's movements on the day she went missing in an attempt to trace the missing doctor.

The 37-year-old woman had been on maternity leave after her second child was born in January.

Police have said she was known to have been battling with postnatal depression since the birth.

Detective Inspector Kev Broadhead, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Formal identification has yet to be confirmed, but at this stage we do believe we have found Elizabeth.

The 37-year-old woman had been on maternity leave since January

"It's a tragic conclusion to the inquiry and one we were all desperately hoping we would not have to face.

"On behalf of the force and of Elizabeth's family I would like to thank the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who helped in the search for Elizabeth, whether by sharing appeals on social media, distributing posters or getting out on the streets to search.

"It's been an unprecedented response and something I know her family would like to give heartfelt thanks for.

"It has given them incredible strength through these difficult days.

"David's priority will be his two little girls and getting them through this. We are supporting them during this difficult time."

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Illegal Animal Item Seizures Rise By Millions

By Harriet Hadfield, Sky News Reporter

The number of endangered species items seized by the UK Border Force has increased tenfold during the past year.

The number of items confiscated has reached an all-time high

A total of 2.5 million illegal items were seized during the period 2012-13, compared with just under 250,000 in 2011-12.

Criminals can make millions of pounds each year from smuggled items ranging from ivory and rhino horn to trophy animals, birds of prey and species facing extinction.

Organised criminal gangs are believed to be behind the smuggling

In the last year, 3,890kg of medicinal products containing extracts from endangered species were seized, along with 326 items of ivory and 93 live endangered animals.

Other seized items included £4,000 shawls made of Tibetan antelope wool, books bound in elephant hide, a Rolls-Royce upholstered in alligator skin and a piece of artwork featuring a rare £35,000 rock pigeon clutched between the jaws of a human skull.

Senior Officer Grant Miller displays some of the items

The seizures partly reflect a crackdown on large international smuggling organisations - which are responsible for huge shipments, often by courier, of illegal goods.

Rhino horn is widely used in traditional Chinese medicines and carries huge value on the black market.

These marine turtles were among the items

Grant Miller from the UK Border Force said: "Poaching levels are unprecedentedly high, for example we are anticipating 1,000 rhinos will be slaughtered in South Africa alone next year.

"We are seeing ivory being trafficked from Africa and new products are emerging in the health and beauty industry which are using endangered species as an active ingredient in those products."

Laws prevent the trade of goods using endangered species

The penalty for importation can be up to seven years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Live endangered species are sent to zoos, farms and wildlife parks around the country.

Rachel Jones from London Zoo said: "All kinds of animals, there's huge trade in reptiles, tortoises, turtles are often confiscated, and it's extremely difficult trying to find homes for these animals.

Officials say poaching levels are 'unprecedentedly high'

"Organisations like my own become saturated."

The other items, for example furs and stuffed animals, are often donated to educational organisations.

Ivory is often used for medical research but rhino horn holds no value other than on the black market so is often burned by border officials.

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Manhunt As Murderer Escapes From Hospital

Police have appealed for help from members of the public after a man serving a life sentence for murder escaped from hospital.

John Murch had been in Stamford Hill Prison, Kent, and on Saturday, August 31 he was admitted to Medway Maritime hospital in Kent with chest pains. The next day he absconded.

Police have received reports that Murch has been in the Richmond area since he absconded, in particular the town centre and Sheen High Street.

Murch is of medium build, six feet in height and has greying brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a distinctive tattoo on his right arm saying Liverpool FC Liver Bird.

The 52-year-old was serving a life sentence for the murder of a man in Liverpool.

He is known to wear a flat working man's hat and dark-coloured pinstriped suit.

A police spokesperson said: "Murch is not currently considered to be a direct threat to the public, however we advise you not to approach him and call 999 immediately. We are keen to speak to anyone who has any information regarding his whereabouts."

Anyone with information should call Kent Police, or the Wanted Offender Unit at Twickenham Police Station on 020 8247 7191 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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'Family Doctors' To Be Restored In New GP Deal

The elderly will be given named doctors in a move aimed at "restoring the ethic of family doctoring", the Health Secretary has said.

Under a new GPs contract all over-75s will have a designated doctor who will be responsible for co-ordinating all of their treatment.

The agreement will see an "enhanced service" for patients with complex health needs to avoid them being unnecessarily admitted to hospital or A&E.

GPs will also take on more responsibility for out-of-hours care, with a commitment to monitor the quality of those services being used by their patients.

Concerns have been raised over the quality of out-of-hours care since Labour's 2004 GP contract enabled family doctors to opt out of night and weekend work by sacrificing £6,000 a year in salary. It also ended the requirement for all patients to have a named family doctor.

Jeremy Hunt has said the personal link between patients and GPs was broken

Jeremy Hunt told Sky News the move that will see those over 75 being given a named GPs was just the beginning of the return to "family doctoring".

He insisted that improving access to GPs for the elderly would not make it more difficult for others to get appointments at their local surgery.

Mr Hunt said: "Frankly if we look after the over-75s better it helps everyone in the NHS because that's where the real pressure point is. People who find it hard to see a GP will find it becomes easier because we are looking after that crucial group of people so much better."

He added: "If you talk to A&E departments across the country and see what the best thing, the one thing that we can do that's going to make life easier for you in the busy period, it's better out-of-hospital care for the over-75s."

Around 30% of those admitted to A&E are aged over 75.

Mr Hunt has also said that GPs, who earned on average £103,000 last year, will be forced to reveal their salaries from next year, which will allow the public to judge if they are getting value for money.

However, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "No amount of spin can hide the fact that David Cameron has made it harder to get a GP appointment.

"This announcement will not put an end to patients phoning the surgery at 9am and finding it impossible to get an appointment - many of whom, not happy with a phone consultation, will still turn to A&E."

The British Medical Association (BMA), which negotiated for doctors, said the changes would cut unnecessary targets, reduce bureaucratic box-ticking and give doctors more time to focus on the needs of their patients.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said: "We recognise that GPs are facing unprecedented pressures on workload with rising demand and limited resources.

"From the outset of this year's contract talks, the BMA has sought to positively engage with the Government to address the difficult financial and workload pressures facing general practice, in order to find new ways of improving patient care, while at the same time freeing up GPs and practice nurses from pointless bureaucracy.

"Our agreement will deliver real benefit to patients and build on the work already carried out by GPs."

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Hamzah Khan: Charity's Child Protection Fears

By Gerard Tubb, Sky News Correspondent

A serious case review will be published today into the death of a four-year-old boy whose body lay undiscovered for almost two years after he was allowed to starve to death by his mother.

Mother-of-eight Amanda Hutton, 43, was jailed for 15 years in October after she was found guilty of the manslaughter of her son, Hamzah Khan.

Hamzah's decomposed body was found in a cot in Hutton's bedroom at their home in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

The review into the youngster's death is the latest in a series of investigations in recent years into children dying from starvation and neglect in Britain.

Now one children's charity is warning of a "frightening" demand for crisis support in parts of Bradford, with underweight, hungry children being brought to nursery by parents who can't afford the food they need.

Across the UK in the past eight years at least seven children have wasted away, as Hamzah did, from what academics call extreme deprivational neglect.

Most of them, like Hamzah, were simply starved to death.

Research from University of East Anglia for children's charity the NSPCC shows none of them were on an 'At Risk' register - in other words child protection agencies did not know they were dying of hunger.

Amanda Hutton lived with her son's dead body for almost two years

In Hamzah's case the police, social services and health workers all discussed the risks he faced from the alcoholism and chaotic lifestyle of his mother Amanda Hutton, who was the victim of sustained domestic violence, but his weight loss, like his death, went unnoticed.

It was almost two years before his dried out body, wearing a filthy nappy and dressed in clothes made for a nine month old baby, was found in his cot.

Bradford Council's Child Poverty Action Strategy, a document which has been a legal requirement since 2010, states: "The levels of child poverty in Bradford are unacceptably high."

Statistics show a link between poverty and child welfare: children living in areas of high deprivation are at greater risk of injury and early death and are more likely to be subject to child protection measures.

According to reports from the charity The Children's Society, Hamzah and his siblings were far from the only children suffering from malnutrition in Bradford.

At the city's Gateway Children's Centre, in a neighbouring postcode district to Hamzah's squalid home, it talks of a current "frightening and well documented demand for crisis support, most notably, food bank referrals".

Photographs showed the squalid conditions inside Hutton's home

In August this year the charity says staff talked of parents skipping meals in order to provide for their families and children regularly coming to the nursery hungry, having not had breakfast.

"Many of the children visiting the centre at Gateway are underweight," It states.

Kath Tunstall, the head of children's services in Bradford, says Hamzah's case is tragic, but insists her department and other agencies were simply unaware of his plight.

"No serious concerns were reported to the statutory agencies," she told local MPs in a briefing note sent on the day Hutton was sentenced for Hamzah's manslaughter.

"This is not a case where lots of agencies were involved and didn't see the signs, the question is how can this happen and professionals, neighbours, communities not be aware of it and so there will be lessons to be learned," she wrote.

It is a claim that has been dismissed by a former neighbour of Hutton who cannot be named to protect the identity of Hamzah's siblings.

"For them to blame the community is ridiculous, the community including those who lived next door didn't even know Hamzah existed so how could they have done anything about it," she said.

"The point is social services did know he existed. They knew a lot more than the community."

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A&E Services: NHS Plans Two-Tier Service

By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent

Specialist emergency care could be concentrated in regional hospitals under radical plans for a two-tier A&E service.

NHS England is considering the new-look service as part of a major shake-up of emergency care.

It says other A&E units would not be run down and would still have the staff and resources to treat seriously ill patients.

But according to Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England's Medical Director, critical patients with complex life-threatening problems need expert care - even if it means travelling further in an ambulance.

"We have demonstrated the benefits of transferring patients far outweigh any differences in travel time," he said.

"For example, stroke care in London, where the number of services has been reduced from 32 to eight, has resulted in a significant increase in survival and a return to independent living."

The plans would see the development of specialist emergency care centres

A panel of doctors has drawn up the plans for NHS England in an effort to stem the rise in demand for emergency care.

The number of hospitals breaching treatment time targets has trebled in the last year.

The plans would mean many more patients being treated in the community.

:: Patients with minor problems would be given more support to look after themselves.

:: There would be an enhanced 111 phone service, with patients speaking directly to doctors and nurses.

:: And there would also be seven-day appointments with GPs.

Dr Clare Gerada, head of the Royal College of General Practitioners, cautiously welcomed the plans.

"Of course it's important that patients get the same quality of service on a Sunday afternoon as a Tuesday morning," she said.

"But it's equally important that in the quest for seven-day working we don't remove resources from where they are best used, which is in general practice, and when patients see us most, which is in the working day."

Some A&E departments could end up dealing with less serious injuries

The plans also suggest specially trained paramedics could treat many 999 patients at home rather than simply transporting them to hospital.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service already has some 'paramedic practitioners', who keep 30,000 patients a year out of A&E.

Sky News spoke to 92-year old Gwendolyn Kimpton, who had a badly infected wound dressed by one of the paramedics.

She said she was relieved not to be going to hospital: "I would have been a bit frightened, I must admit."

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons on Tuesday that the review would not shy away from taking "difficult decisions".

"We all know that the NHS needs to change to meet the needs of an ageing population," he said.

Earlier this week, Downing Street confirmed that Prime Minister David Cameron was getting personally involved in overseeing the NHS's response to the winter pressure on A&E departments.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham warned a failure to act now on "the brink of a dangerous winter" would see A&Es forced to go into the winter with too few nurses, doctors and beds.

In 2012/13, more than a quarter of all patients attending major A&E departments were admitted to hospital, up from 19% in 2003/04.

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Prince Charles Backs Farmers In Country Life

By David Blevins, Sky News Correspondent

A month after he took on the banks, the Prince of Wales has spoken out against the big retailers and expressed his fears for the farming community who supply them.

On the eve of his 65th birthday, His Royal Highness has guest edited a national magazine for the first time - a special edition of the rural affairs publication Country Life.

He describes the countryside as "the unacknowledged backbone of our national identity", adding, "it is as precious as any of our great cathedrals and we erode it at our peril".

"It cannot be right that a typical hill farmer earns just £12,500, with some surviving on as little as £8,000 a year, whilst the big retailers and their shareholders do so much better out of the deal, having taken none of the risk," he added.

Dean Irwin of Greenmount Farm in Richhill, County Armagh, described Prince Charles as, "a friend of the farmer" and welcomed his support for those making their living off the land.

He said: "As farmers, we are on the front line.  We have to produce to a certain specification … and if you don't meet that specification, the supermarkets don't take your product. 

Dean Irwin described Prince Charles as a 'friend of the farmer'

"The bottom line for all the supermarkets, no matter what they say, is profit."

One customer in the Greenmount Farm Shop told us she chose to go there "because I know all the meat is from the farm up the lane".  

Another added: "Supermarkets have got too big and the farmer's not getting a good deal for his product."

Mark Hedges, the editor of Country Life, said, "The Prince has become the countryside's strongest voice, his support for it is something that, as a nation, we should treasure.  What the next king thinks matters."

"There was some struggle reading his handwriting," he revealed "But he worked incredibly hard.  Some of his emails were sent at two in the morning.  He's an incredibly good writer."

The heir to the throne, who turns 65 on Thursday, would appear to have no plans for a quieter life, despite reaching the age of retirement while awaiting the ultimate promotion.

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Harold Percival: WWII Veteran's Funeral Held

By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

Two thousand people have turned up to mark the funeral of a World War Two veteran who died with no close relatives or friends.

An internet campaign was launched after a Lancashire funeral director advertised the service for Harold Jellicoe Percival in a local newspaper.

Mr Percival died aged 99 last month in a nursing home. He had never married, had no children, outlived his siblings and was described as "a solitary man".

He served during the Second World War with RAF Bomber Command and worked as ground crew for the famous Dambuster Squadron.

He left the RAF after the war and led a nomadic lifestyle.

The chapel at Lytham Park Crematorium was packed for his funeral service and several hundred more people stood outside in the rain.

Funeral director Dawn Whitehead-Brown said: "It is humbling and heartwarming to see so many people who never knew this man turn up here to pay their respects.

"We had no idea what kind of response we would get when we put the ad in the paper ... but to see this turnout is unbelievable."

Many serving and former servicemen and women attended the funeral held on Armistice Day.

It began as a two-minute silence heralded by a bugler sounded the Last Post at 11am.

Mr Percival's nephew, Andrew Collier-Worsell, said the response from members of the public was "outstanding".

"It is just remarkable to see so many people turn up ... strangers ... people who never knew him in his life," he said.

"I think if he'd known, he'd have been sheltering around the corner, hiding from it all.

"He wasn't a very public man. He was a private man, a solitary loner.

"I think it shows there is a deep feeling for the veterans and the service they put in."

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