BMA votes for – and against – NHS co-payments

The British Medical Association has supported the right of patients to “top up” their NHS treatments from their own pockets (Nigel Hawkes writes).

After a bruising debate decided by the narrowest of margins, the BMA ended facing both ways.

Although it acknowledged that patients should have the choice of buying drugs and treatments not available on the NHS, and adding them to NHS-delivered treatments, it drew the line at demanding that governments must allow this to happen. The section of the resolution demanding implementation of co-payments failed by a margin of 50.2 per cent to 49.8 per cent – a single vote or two in a hall packed with 400 delegates.

In Edinburgh for its annual meeting, the BMA also called for a Royal Commission to report back by next summer. The Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has asked Michael Richards, the National Director for Cancer, to produce a swift report this autumn. The BMA’s view is that this will take too narrow a view.

Man charged with students’ murders

An unemployed man will appear in court this morning, charged with the murders of two French students found tortured to death at a burnt-out flat in London. Nigel Farmer, 33, will appear before Greenwich magistrates charged with murdering Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo, both 23. He was arrested after walking into Lewisham police station in the early hours of Monday and being taken to hospital for treatment to serious burns.

Rape case strategy

Specialist police units should be set up across Britain to increase conviction rates in rape cases, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said. It was not good enough that only 6 per cent of rape cases resulted in conviction, Mr Yates said. Only 15 per cent of rape victims report the crime and less than a third of the complaints make it to court.

False air fares ban

Airlines will be banned from advertising low ticket prices that hide the true cost of the journey, the European Parliament has agreed. The full cost of the air fare, including airport taxes, handling fees, baggage and seating charges, will have to be the first price quoted in adverts and on websites. Budget airlines said they already displayed full prices at the first opportunity.

Bike fine ‘laughable’

The family of a teenage girl who was fatally injured by a cyclist criticised his “laughable” fine and said that he should have been tried for manslaughter and jailed. Jason Howard, 36, was fined £2,200 by Aylesbury magistrates for dangerous cycling. He hit Rhiannon Bennett, 17, of Buckingham, who struck her head on the pavement and died of her injuries.

Texting doubt over crash death

A student who died after crashing into trees had sent text messages to her mother minutes earlier, an inquest was told (Fran Yeoman writes).

Joanne Malcolm, 17, from Poole, Dorset, had passed her driving test three weeks before the crash last November 13. The coroner, Sheriff Payne, recorded a verdict of accidental death, adding: “The evidence is not close enough to say she was using her mobile phone at the time.”

Soldier’s bronze memorial stolen

Thieves have stolen a brass plaque from the grave of a soldier killed in Afghanistan last year to sell for scrap. Staff at Enfield Crematorium, North London, will now mark Corporal Darren Bonner’s grave with an acrylic replica plaque.

Divorcee sues after £1.4m deal

A divorcee who secured a £1.4 million payout says she could have got twice that and is suing her legal team. Carol Williams, 61, claims that her lawyers should have told her of a pending landmark case ruled on by the Lords two months after she settled.

£500,000 of fake pills in shed

Two men from North London were caught selling fake Viagra and Valium when £500,000 of pills were found in a shed, medicine regulators said. One was given four years’ jail and the other a suspended term and community service.

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