The records of more than 2,000 women who had breast-cancer screening at Trafford General Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital between April 2003 and last month are being urgently reviewed “to ensure patient safety”, according to Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust. The review does not involve any who were routinely checked under the NHS breast screening programme.
NHS Direct set up a helpline for concerned women to call between 9am and 5pm today, tomorrow and Monday, and between 8am and 8pm from Tuesday. The helpline number is 01204-599598.
200 ill on cruise
More than 200 passengers on the P&O cruise liner Oceana have been stricken with the winter vomiting virus and isolated. Norovirus struck the liner during a 17-night Mediterranean cruise that left Southampton on May 19. About 50 of the 2,015 passengers were still ill but no new cases had been reported.
Uist cull ends
The rescue of hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides finished for another year with a record 241 saved. More than £4,100 in bounties was also handed out to islanders who were paid £20 for each hedgehog that they rescued from the cull in the Uists by Scottish Natural Heritage, the government wildlife agency.
Hospitals conned
A financier was jailed for four years at Southwark Crown Court after duping 18 NHS hospitals out of nearly £370,000 between 1996 and 1998. Peter Nicol, 51, of Spring Hill, East Kilbride, leased equipment to hospitals, but extended the payment terms by changing the fine print to make up to £54,000 at a time.
Nazi loot setback
Ministers were criticised after the High Court ruled that the British Museum could not return four Old Masters drawings stolen by the Nazis to the heirs of a Jewish lawyer. The Commission for Looted Art in Europe said that they had been promising a law since 2000 to return stolen art to Holocaust victims’ families.
Beyond rescue
A mountain rescuer banned for being too outspoken has quit after 40 years. Stewart Hulse, 69, well known on the slopes above Windermere in the Lake District, was suspended after colleagues took exception when he told The Times that some walkers were abusing the rescue service he helped to found.
Record attempt
A student is aiming to become the youngest and fastest person to row solo across the Atlantic. Oliver Hicks, 23, from Thorpeness, in Suffolk, set off from New Jersey in an attempt to row the 3,000 miles to Falmouth, Cornwall, in fewer than than the 62 days it took Frenchman Emmanuel Coindre, 29, in 2002.
Dealer returns looted statue
An ancient sculpture is to be returned to Greece after a London dealer who bought it discovered it had been stolen from a museum there more than 60 years ago. James Ede, a member of the Government’s Advisory Panel on Illicit Trade, said that a bronze statuette that he bought from a private collection, should go back to Samos.
The kouros, a depiction of a youth which dates from the early 6th century BC, had been taken from the town’s Archaeological Museum during the Second World War. Mr Ede said it was worth about £30,000 but that he declined a reward offered by the Greek authorities.
BBC strike off
A two-day strike planned by BBC employees for Tuesday and Wednesday was suspended after the BBC’s Director-General offered a series of concessions to end the dispute over plans to make 3,800 staff redundant. Mark Thompson offered to delay any compulsory redundancies until July 2006.
Banker shooting
Police are still searching for clues six months after the murder of a bank manager in Nairn. Alistair Wilson, 30, a father of two, was gunned down on the doorstep of his home in the Moray town. Detectives said that there remained a number of unidentified DNA profiles from the crime scene.
Murdered student
A missing A-level student who was kept alive for six days before her body was found in undergrowth was stabbed in the heart only 500 yards from her home, detectives believe. It had been thought that Jeshma Raithatha, 17, was killed elsewhere and then her body dumped in the field in Sudbury Hill, North London.
Helpers attacked
A man attacked three people who rushed to help him after he crashed his mother’s car outside their homes in June last year. Lewis Neal, 23, of Sunderland, was jailed for four years by Newcastle Crown Court for the attack that left one victim, Russell Ward, 43, a BBC Radio Newcastle journalist, with brain damage.
Photographer Fay Godwin dies
Fay Godwin, the photographer famed for her portraits of the writers Ted Hughes and Doris Lessing, has died aged 74.
She broke through in 1975 as a force in landscape photography with The Oldest Road. Her reputation was cemented in 1979 by Remains of Elmet, a collection of poems and photographs in collaboration with Hughes, the late Poet Laureate.
Godwin passionately fought for open access to the countryside and used her position as the president of the Ramblers’ Association between 1987 and 1990 to write Our Forbidden Land, which won the first Green Book of the Year award. She died in Hastings, East Sussex.
Figures on GP performance
New figures disclosing how GP surgeries in Scotland are measuring up against each other were made public. Andy Kerr, Health Minister, hailed the development and said Scotland was leading as the first country in the UK to publish the information.
The voluntary scheme produces figures on how each practice has performed across a range of measures — some medical, like the treatment of conditions like asthma, and some organisational, like record-keeping.
They are also measured on how well they are meeting the target of patients having access to a health professional by phone or in person within 48 hours.
Gay rape faked
The Reverend Martin Knight was so anguished by his homosexuality he faked his own rape to leave the Church, Manchester Crown Court was told. Knight, 27, was told to pay £10,000 compensation to police after staging the rape at Grosvenor St Aiden’s United Reform Church, in West Didsbury, in Manchester.
Van driver shot
A delivery driver has been shot in a road-rage attack after his vehicle blocked a side street. Two men in a BMW were said to have forced open the van’s door, punched the driver and shot him in the leg. The man, in his 50s, was taken to hospital bleeding heavily after the attack in Southwark, South London.
Verdict on doctor
A Home Office pathologist was found to have been incompetent in post-mortem examinations that led to Sally Clark being wrongly jailed for the murder of her two babies. The General Medical Council will now decide whether Alan Williams, 58, of Knutsford, Cheshire, was guilty of serious professional misconduct.
Fur off the racks
Selfridges has stopped selling fur after pressure from customers and animal rights campaigners. Items such as fur-trimmed gloves and clothes are banned from all four of its stores. Selfridges said that it had closed down its fur department in 1993 but had continued to sell it as trimming on gloves and coats.
Skin cancer death
Alexandra Lines, 22, a music student from Romford in Essex, has died after a two-year battle with skin cancer. She had red hair, blue eyes and fair skin, used sunbeds and enjoyed sunbathing. Her father, John, said: “You think it can never happen to you and then it does. Nobody is exempt.”
Who fans appeal
Fans are being asked for home movie footage of The Who for a new documentary on one of the biggest British rock bands. My Generation: Who’s Still Who charts the rise of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, and promises to tell their story “like it’s never been seen or heard before”.
