A nurse cleared of poisoning patients(kill eight) at a hospital has been suspended for three months!!!!!!!!!!

pic:::front lady..suspended nurse for 3 months!!! rebecca who killed by poison more then eight people and ill more then 20 people..pic courtesy::wp/Ebc
health crime reporter(weastar times/wp/Ebc):::

A nurse cleared of poisoning patients at a hospital has been suspended for three months after admitting taking drugs from the site.

The decision came after a three-day disciplinary hearing for Rebecca Leighton, 29, who worked at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.

She has been suspended from nursing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Ms Leighton spent six weeks in jail but was freed as there was not enough evidence against her.

Panel chairman Susan Hurds said: "We are satisfied that Ms Leighton has learned a tremendous amount from the experience and we are satisfied she would not repeat her actions."

The disciplinary panel found that she was "not fundamentally dishonest" and had worked hard to mediate her conduct since the incident.

Ms Hurds said she had sought no intentional financial benefit and had a "previously unblemished nursing career".

She was questioned in 2011 by police investigating the poisoning of 22 patients, eight of whom died.

The charges were later dropped but she admitted stealing drugs and medicines from the hospital. Police found packets of painkillers and opiate-based drugs at her home.

'Trustworthy and reliable'!

She is currently working at a care home in Stockport.

Sue Jackson, who runs the care home, told the hearing she has known Ms Leighton since she was a teenager and took her on after she was sacked from Stepping Hill.

She said Ms Leighton had been trustworthy, reliable, creative and caring in the six months she has worked at the home.

Ms Jackson added Ms Leighton had thought seriously about her actions and deeply regretted them.

The hearing was told that during police interviews, Ms Leighton claimed staff regularly took drugs such as the painkiller ibuprofen for their own use.

Her claim was rejected by Stockport NHS Foundation Trust.

It said: "We totally refute the false allegations, which were raised at the hearing, about the habitual theft of drugs by staff from our premises.

"These unfounded allegations were immediately investigated by our organisation as soon as they were raised at Miss Leighton's original disciplinary hearing in November 2011.

"The investigation found no evidence to back them up."

Patient deaths

Twenty-two people suffered hypoglycaemic episodes after saline drips were allegedly sabotaged with insulin between June and July 2011 at Stepping Hill.

Eight of these victims - who were treated on acute care wards for seriously ill patients - have now died!!!.

A second nurse who worked on the same wards, Victorino Chua, was later held on suspicion of three counts of murder and 18 counts of causing grievous bodily harm.

He was further arrested on suspicion of tampering with medical records and has been released on police bail.

Mr Chua was held over the deaths of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Derek Weaver, 83.

Alleged poisoning victims William Dickson, 82, Linda McDonagh, 60, John Beeley, 73, Beryl Hope, 70, and Mary Cartwright, 89, are believed to have eventually died from natural causes.

Wye Valley NHS Trust 'could be broken up!!!!!!!!!!!

Pic:::worcester county hospital ......wp/Ebc/weastar times
health reporter,worcester(weastar times/wp/Ebc):::

An NHS trust in Herefordshire could be taken over, broken up or privatised to help it out of its financial problems!

Managers at the Wye Valley NHS Trust said they needed to save £8.8m over 2013-14 and that the trust was too small on its own to survive.

They said the trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, had to become a junior partner in another trust or go into partnership with a private firm.

Interim chief executive Derek Smith said "no change is not an option".

Continue reading the main story

However, he added that whatever happened, several essential services had to remain local to the area, including an accident and emergency department, emergency surgery and maternity and children's care.

He said: "We're going to have to make some tough decisions, but we will not lose sight of the fact that patients are at the heart of what we do and that any decisions will be centred on meeting the needs of the people we serve."

job loses

Mr Smith said that over the next five years, the trust's financial position "if anything gets worse" and said it would be unable to become a foundation trust.

He said that the government had a set a deadline of March 2014 for all NHS trusts to become foundation trusts, meaning they would have greater freedom over how money is spent.

The trust said it did not yet know how many jobs would have to go over 2013-14 and said most would go through "natural turnover". However, it said it could not rule out compulsory redundancies.

It said the options for the future would be firmed up by the end of March and they would then be explained in a consultation process with patients, staff and members of the public.

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, several NHS trusts have used private finance to help deal with debts.

In September, the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust announced it was going into partnership with private firm Serco and the health watchdog warned the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust last month it had to find funds from elsewhere or face possible insolvency.

The King Philip&Queen Elizabeth2 visits new Royal London Hospital

Royal Pic:::The King&The Queen of THE ROYAL ENGLAND visit THE ROYAL LONDON hospitals..patent,doctors,staffs..pic courtesy:Ebc/Royal Images/wp
THE ROYAL(BP) correspondent(weastar times/wp/Ebc/TIME):::

 The King Philip&Queen Elizabeth2 has meet a 7 July survivor, as she officially opened the revamped Royal London Hospital in east London.

Dance teacher Bruce Lait previously met the Queen at the hospital the day after the 2005 bombings in London.

The former professional dancer, 39, of Suffolk, was treated there after the Aldgate Tube station blast.

The Queen and The King visited the Whitechapel hospital which underwent a refurbishment to include a new cancer and cardiac centre.

The monarch last visited the hospital in 2005 after suicide bombers targeted London's Tube and bus network.

Mr Lait, of Ipswich, and his dance partner, Crystal Yelland, were invited by Buckingham Palace to attend the event.

7 July survivor meets the Queen

The dance teacher, who was left partially deaf and suffered burns to the face in the bombing, said: "I said that I looked a bit different to the last time she saw me.

"She said, 'Yes, I remember. You look a lot better now.'"

Recalling his first meeting, he said the Queen had "seemed genuinely concerned".

The Queen and The King took a tour of the new London Children's Hospital, which treats 40,000 patients a year and is based at the Royal London Hospital.

They also visited the Renal Centre and officially opened the National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation.

The centre, which opened last year, includes laboratories and a video link from the operating theatre to a training room to enable surgeons to watch new procedures being carried out.

More than 40% of councils--- council tax in THE ROYAL ENGLAND are planning to increase this yr

business correspondent,London(weastar times/wp/Ebc):::

This is despite local authorities being offered money by the government to freeze bills.

However the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (Cipfa) survey suggested that the overall average increase would be less than 1%.

The Local Government Association said it had been a difficult decision for councils in the face of cuts.

Tight budgets

Local authorities in England are being given extra money by central government for the third year running if they freeze bills.

But this time a larger number of councils are increasing council tax (41%) - last year 85% took up the government's offer.

Cipfa said 102 out of 250 authorities surveyed planned to put up council tax in April, typically by about 1% percent.

Any increase over 2% percent is supposed to trigger a local referendum - but some councils are finding ways to increase it by more than that without a poll.

These councils have taken legal advice and plan use a loophole that allows them to increase waste and transport costs by more than the 2% cap. Others have opted to put up taxes by 1.99%.

A small number of authorities are managing to reduce council tax by finding more efficient ways to deliver services.

Regional variations included an average 1.2% rise across Yorkshire and Humber, and a 0.1% increase in London.

Cipfa director of policy Ian Carruthers said tight budgets meant councils had to make difficult choices between tax rises and cuts in services.

"Councillors must take council tax decisions based on local priorities," he said.

"As the pressures from this period of unprecedented austerity intensify, all councils are having to strike an increasingly difficult balance between protecting hard-pressed taxpayers and maintaining local services.

"The imminent changes to local authority funding systems are bringing added uncertainty to councils' financial management and making it more difficult than ever for councillors to take the medium and longer term decisions required."

'Fully accountable'

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the small average increase across England meant it was "a tax cut in real terms".

A Local Government Association spokesman said: "This has been a tricky decision for councils.

"Collectively local authorities are facing a 33% cut in funding from government at the same time as the cost of providing services like adult social care is climbing through the roof.

"The council tax grant from government is very small when set against those pressures and it lasts just two years with no certainty beyond that.

"Ultimately councils have to take a long-term view. Some have clearly decided that increasing council tax is one way of meeting current costs and alleviating pressure in the longer term.

"Councils are fully accountable to their electorates for these decisions."