Adviser resigns in junior doctors row

Another senior adviser to the system for training doctors has resigned, saying that the goodwill of a generation of graduates was being lost.

Professor Shelley Heard, national clinical adviser to Modernising Medical Careers, also criticised a Department of Health review group set up to save the appointment process, saying that it had become “so immersed in detail that it cannot see a way forward that is both equitable to doctors and supports the aims of MMC”.

The body representing trainee anaesthetists demanded that the whole appointments system be scrapped immediately, describing it as illogical, unfair and an appalling waste of time and resources.

Sterilisation plea

Surgeons have called on the Government to rethink plans to move the sterilising of medical instruments away from hospitals to regional centres. None of the specialist centres has opened and many theatre staff argue that the traditional system of cleaning instruments within hospitals is safer and more efficient.

Muslims action plan

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, announced a £600,000 Faith and Social Cohesion Unit within the Charities Commission. Mosques and madrassas will be encouraged to seek charitable status. She said: “We need to recognise the central role that Iraq plays in violent extremists’ arguments.”

Counting the cost

The financial costs of natural disasters caused by climate change have risen alarmingly, by as much as 2 per cent a year, since the 1970s, Robert Muir-Wood, a leading analyst, will tell the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it meets in Brussels today.

Middleton settles harassment case

Prince William’s girlfriend, Kate Middleton, has settled her complaint against the Daily Mirror over press harassment. The Press Complaints Commission said that the announcement by her lawyers came after the newspaper’s “prompt public expression of regret and admission of error”. The Daily Mirror said at the time: “We got it wrong and we sincerely regret that.” Ms Middleton made the complaint to the PCC after the paper used a close-up photograph of her on her way to work.

Hawker inquest

An inquest has been opened into the death of Lindsay Ann Hawker, the English language teacher found buried in a bath of sand in a Tokyo apartment. A postmortem examination last week showed that Miss Hawker, 22, from Brandon, Coventry, was beaten and strangled. Michael Coker, the Warwickshire coroner, opened and adjourned the inquest at Leamington Spa Town Hall.

Cheat detectors

Lie detectors are to be used to try to to cut the £700 million annual bill for benefit fraud. John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that council staff will use voice-risk analysis software to identify suspect claims over the phone. It will be trialled next month by Harrow Council in North London. Callers may then be asked to provide further evidence to support claims.

Horse fire charge

A youth aged 16 was charged with arson following the deaths of four horses in a fire at a barn in Elvington, Kent. He was also charged with four counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. He will appear in court at Folkestone on Tuesday. The animals were trapped in the burning barn and could not be rescued, despite efforts by more than 30 firefighters.

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