Hospitals could cancel outpatient appointments

Health reporter(wp/es):

NHS hospitals could suspend outpatient appointments as a cold snap hits the UK, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The Health Secretary also issued a warning for people to stay away from A&E as emergency departments face mounting pressure.

In a statement to the Commons, Mr Hunt said hospitals were on the whole coping better than this time last year but that, with further cold weather on the way, some "distressed" trusts would be able to take action to relieve pressure.

This may include ensuring people in care homes and residential homes really need taking to hospital, and trying to open more care beds so elderly people who are medically fit can be discharged from hospital

He said the commitment to see patients within four hours must only apply to those needing the most urgent care.

 He added: "With further cold weather on the way this weekend, a spike in respiratory infections and flu, there will be further challenges ahead. 

"So NHS England and NHS Improvement will also consider a series of further measures which may be taken in particularly distressed systems on a temporary basis.

"These may include temporarily releasing time for GPs to support urgent care work, clinically triaging non-urgent calls to the ambulance service for residents of nursing and residential homes before they're taken to hospital, continuing to suspend elective care, including, where appropriate, suspension of non-urgent appointments.

"(We will also be) working with CQC (Care Quality Commission) on rapid re-inspection when this has the potential to reopen community health and social care bed capacity, (and) working with community trust and nursing teams to speed up discharge."

The Met Office has announced that milder temperatures expected at the beginning of the week will plummet on Wednesday night as “wintry showers” travel across the UK and through the Channel.

Boy, 14, fighting for life after fleeing park knife attack over fence

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A 14-year-old boy climbed a fence to escape after being stabbed in a park in west London, it was claimed.

The teenager was fighting for life in hospital today after he was found collapsed at a bus stop outside Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith.

He was treated at the scene in Goldhawk Road before being rushed to a central London hospital.

Police said they were called to reports of a man being found injured in the street near a bus stop on Goldhawk Road, near the junction with Ashchurch Grove at 7.50pm last night.

The stabbing is thought to have taken place minutes earlier in Ravenscourt Park.

A sealed off area inside the park includes a playground which residents said was a popular hangout for young people after dark.

Today blood stains remained on the pavement 20 yards from the bus stop where it is believed the boy ran to from the park.

Detectives from Hammersmith and Fulham CID appealed for witnesses to come forward.

Police refused to give further information about the boy’s injuries but said his condition was potentially life threatening.

The stabbing took place yards from Ashchurch Grove, where a four bedroom home is worth close to £2 million.

A resident said: “The park is closed at night and the boy would have had to have scaled a five foot fence to get out.”

Residents spoke of their shock that the stabbing occurred in “such a nice area.”

Lindy Holston, who lives in Goldhawk Road opposite where the boy was found, said: “It is a really nice area so it’s a big shock that a boy has been stabbed here. When I saw the lights and police last night I thought it must have been a traffic accident. For such a young boy to have been stabbed is just shocking.

“The playground is behind my house in the park. There are sometimes young people in there.”

A resident of Ashchurch Grove said he had seen the boy being put in the back of an ambulance in a wheelchair.

He said: “He was white with short hair. They had taken off his top and his shoes to work on him. His top half seemed to be covered in bandages. It looked serious.

“It was a really big police scene. There were emergency vehicles everywhere and the road was sealed off. It’s a surprise something like this has happened around here. But this is London and these things can happen anywhere.

“I saw the blood on the pavement from when he must have come out from the park. I hope the boy is going to be okay.”

A total of 12 teenagers were murdered in London last year, all of them stabbed.

Killer jailed for life for stabbing grandfather

Pic: James Roberts, 32, of Ambleside Avenue, Hornchurch who stabbed the victim to death.
Crime reporter(wp/es):

A man who stabbed a grandfather to death for defending a barmaid at a pub in Essex in a brutal Sunday rampage has been jailed for life.

James Roberts, 32, was in a “foul and aggressive mood” when he knifed 60-year-old Spurs fan Aiden O’Mahoney through the heart in a brutal attack in January last year.

Roberts, of Ambleside Avenue in Hornchurch, began picking flights with pub goers including the victim Mr O’Mahoney, who was quietly enjoying a Tottenham Hotspur game.

The attacker began to threaten the barmaid and granddad Mr O’Mahoney stepped in to defend her.

The argument moved outside and as the pair left the pub, Roberts spun round and lunged towards the victim, stabbing him once in the chest.

On Friday Roberts was handed a life sentence at the Old Bailey and told he must serve a minimum of 23 years for murder.

He was found guilty on Friday, December 23 following a retrial.

Police said others inside the pub had to barricade the doors shut to stop the violent Roberts forcing his way back inside following the fatal attack in the JJ Moons pub in Hornchurch on January 10, 2015.

Roberts eventually fled the scene but was found after a police manhunt. 

When the assailant was sentenced, DI Garry Moncrieff said: "There was no reason for Aiden to die that afternoon. He was doing no more than enjoying a drink with friends and watching football. Aiden did not know Roberts and Roberts did not know Aiden.

"Roberts was in a foul and aggressive mood and decided to just take it out on anyone who he felt crossed him. 

“Aiden was being a gentleman and tried to help a member of staff who was being violently threatened by Roberts after she asked him to leave. Aiden's brave intervention unfortunately cost him his life.”

Boy, 16, fighting for life after horror quad bike crash with eight-year-old cyclist in Croydon

Staff reporter(wp/es):

A teenager is fighting for his life after a horror crash with an eight-year-old cyclist in Croydon.

The 16-year-old boy was driving down Cheston Avenue in Shirley on a quad bike when he lost control, mounted the pavement and smashed into the young cyclist, according to police.

Eyewitnesses told the Croydon Advertiser that the eight-year-old boy was thrown into the air by the force of the impact.

The quad bike’s driver was unable to stop and smashed into a nearby bus shelter.

Witnesses rushed to help the the teenager, and the boy was comforted by the side of the road by his mother after the crash on Monday afternoon.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene where paramedics treated the teenager before taking him to Croydon University Hospital with “life threatening injuries”. 

The boy was also taken to hospital with minor injuries.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: “Police were called at around 3.50pm on Monday January 2nd to a report of a collision between a quad bike and a pedestrian at Cheston Avenue junction with Wickham Road, Shirley.

“Officers attended along with the London Ambulance Service.

“The 16-year-old male rider injured at the location and was taken to a south London hospital where he remains. His injuries are being treated as life threatening.

“The pedestrian - an eight-year-old boy - was also taken to a south London hospital with minor injuries.

“Officers from the Serious Collisions Investigations Unit are investigating. There have been no arrests.”

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 3.54pm on Monday January 2 to reports of a road traffic collision in Wickham Road.

“We sent an ambulance crew to the scene, which arrived in under a minute.

“We treated a teenage boy at the scene and took him as a priority to a hospital in south London.

“A second patient, a child, was also taken to hospital.”

Police hunt man after teenager 'shot in back of head with BB gun' on London bus

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A teenager was left bleeding from the back of the head after he was shot with a BB gun on a London bus, police said.

The 18-year-old victim was struck on the head by a pellet as he travelled on a Route 25 bus from Romford Road, Manor Park towards Ilford.

Police said he was sat at the front of the bus on the top deck when he felt something hit the back of his head. 

He immediately turned around but saw no-one looking suspicious.

But when he touched the back of his head, he felt the BB pellet protruding from his skin, which was slightly bleeding, police said.

Scotland Yard released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incident, which happened at about 1.45pm on Friday, November 11. 

A Met Police spokesman said: “Police believe the victim was struck by a metal ball fired from a ball bearing (BB) pellet gun.

"The injured man required hospital treatment but has since been discharged.

“The incident is being investigated by detectives from the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command.

“No arrests have been made. Enquiries are ongoing.”

Motorcyclist fighting for life after colliding with lorry in south west London

Staff reporter(wp/es):

A motorcyclist is fighting for life in hospital following a crash with a lorry in south west London.

Metropolitan Police officers, London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance rushed to Traps Lane in New Malden shortly after 9am on Thursday.

The male biker, whose age is not yet known, was taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting where he remains in a critical condition, Kingston police said.

Police said the driver of the lorry stopped at the scene.

A police cordon is in place close to the junction with Coombe Lane West while investigations into the crash continue.

No arrests have been made, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

Woman arrested after baby found 'abandoned' outside Whitstable Co-op supermarket

Crime reporter(wp/es):

An 18-year-old woman has been arrested after a baby was found abandoned in a pram outside a Co-op in Kent, police say.

Officers were called to the supermarket in Whitstable on Tuesday evening after receiving a call about an abandoned child.

The caller said they were concerned about the baby and its mother.

Alison Barrett, a bystander, said the officers had to change the child's nappy.

On Facebook, she wrote the child was "playing and laughing with the police officer" and did not appear upset or distressed.

A police spokesman said: "Kent Police received a report of concern for the welfare of a woman who was last seen outside a supermarket in Canterbury Road, Whitstable, on January 3 at around 6.20pm. 

"The caller also told police there was an unaccompanied child at the location.

officers carried out a search of the area and located the woman shortly afterwards.

"She has been arrested in connection with the incident and remains in custody."

Police say the baby is well and being looked after.