• Hit F5 for the latest or use our auto-refresh button below • Live scoreboard: all of tonight’s Champions League goals • Check out our all-singing, all-dancing stats centre • Email your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Follow Valencia v Chelsea here 18 min: “So Chamberlain’s got his first of the season and now us Saints fans get to be treated to the usual game of the big six media pretending he sprouted out of one of their academies (a la Bale and Walcott),” writes Lee James, who appears to be that rarest of creatures: a paranoid football fan with a persecution complex. “Also, at Southampton he favoured going only by Chamberlain, presumably to make life a little easier for journo’s- has he gone back to both names now?” 15 min: Slack Arsenal marking at the corner enables Olympiakos to go close again. The corner was pulled back to an Pablo Orbaiz on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, who shot. his effort pinballed off a couple of players and broke kindly for Rafik Djebbour lurking on the edge of the six-yard box. He shot for the bottom left-hand corner, but with Wojicech Szczesney beaten, Mikel Arteta was on hand to clear the ball off the line. 13 min: Rafik Djebbour crosses into the Arsenal penalty area after a good Olympiakos attack down the left flank. Emmanuel Frimpong is back to cover and puts the ball out for a corner at the near post. 13 min: Chamakh has a pop from distance. Wide. 11 min: From the centre of midfield, Andrei Arshavin strokes the ball out wide for Tomas Rosicky to chase down the inside left channel. Right-back Vassilis Torossidis wins the race to the ball and clears it up the field. 10 min: Corner for Arsenal, which Mikel Arteta swings into the near post. Olympiakos clear. GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Olympiakos (Oxlade-Chamberlain 8) That’s a great goal from the 18-year-old making his debut in the Champions League. Running on to a through ball to the edge of the box, Oxlade-Chamberlain catches a break when the ball breaks off an Olympiakos defender and bounces back into his path, allowing him to stroke a diagonal shot into the bottom right-hand corner from 18 yards. 7 min: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ambles down the right flank with the ball at his feet, passing it square to Mikel Arteta before I’ve got to the hyphen in ‘Oxlade-Chamberlain’. 4 min: The first chance of note falls to Olympiakos, with Ljbomir Fejsa getting on the end of a cross to prod the ball wide of the upright from 10 yards when he should have at least hit the target and could probably be expected to have scored. 3 min: The camera cuts to Olympiakos goalkeeper Franco Costanzo. Sadly, he isn’t small, hunched, red-haired and wearing a cheap pullover under a cheap tweed jacket. 2 min: “Here’s a grievance,” writes Bruce Cooper. “Wenger never properly replaced Fabragas and Nasri despite knowing they were going to go all summer. Where is the Joey Barton shaped piece needed to hold together their crumbling puzzle. Serenity now, the Championship later.” 1 min: Arsenal kick off playing from left to right in an Emirates Stadium that looks fairly sparsely populated by its usual match-night standards. Not long now: To warm applause, a blushing bride and groom took their seats in the Emirates as the teams made their way out on to the pitch, with the bride wearing a long white dress, Arsenal’s players wearing their usual home kit of red and white shirts, white shorts and white socks, and Olympiakos’s in blue shirts, shorts and socks. How they’ll line up tonight: With Robin van Persie and Aaron Ramsey the surprise omissions from Arsenal’s line-up, they’ll play a 4-3-3 with Emmanuel Frimpong and skipper Tomas Rosicky on the left and right of Mikel Arteta in the midfield trio, while Andrei Arshavin and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will bookend Marouane Chamakh up front. Boasting former Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg, scorer of the first ever goal at the Emirates Stadium, in their defence, Olympiakos will line up in a 4-2-3-1, with Ljubomir Fejsa and Pablo Orbaiz patrolling the space between the back four and a midfield trio of Kevin Mirallas and David Fuster on the left and right of Ariel Ibagiza, with Rafik Djebbour on his own up front. An email from Mark Coale: “I thought water bottles were on the Arsenal sideline just for Wenger to kick when he got angry and/or ejected,” he writes, forgetting that Mr Wenger will be watching tonight’s match from the directors’ box, as he sits out the second game of his two-match touchline ban. SERENITY NOW! No, your eyes don’t deceive you, the Olympiakos goalkeeper’s name really is Franco Costanzo. “Welcome, newcomers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you’re gonna hear about it!” Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Song, Andre Santos, Frimpong, Arteta, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arshavin, Chamakh. Subs: Fabianski, Park, van Persie, Ramsey, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Coquelin. Olympiacos: Costanzo, Torosidis, Mellberg, Marcano, Holebas, Orbaiz, Fejsa, Ibagaza, David Fuster, Djebbour, Mirallas. Subs: Megyeri, Modesto, Pantelic, Papadopoulos, Makoun, Potouridis, Abdoun. Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain) Preamble: With their recent 3-0 win against Bolton and the mild turmoil enveloping Manchester City having moved their team from the unforgiving focus of the Crisis Spotlight, Arsenal fans will tonight be hoping for a routine home win that will help steady a ship that spent the early part of the season listing in choppy, waters, like one of those trawlers you see on Deadliest Catch, but with a stubborn Frenchman gazing impassively from the wheelhouse, rather than a chippy Scottish cursing the cameras for forcing him to pretend his natural inclination is to put the safety of his crew over the prospect of landing a giant haul of cod. At the time of writing, no Arsenal players have refused to play in tonight’s match, while Arsène Wenger is understood to have banned his substitutes from wearing tracksuits or drinking from water-bottles so that anyone wishing to throw a showbiz hissy-fit will have nothing to fling to the ground in anger in order to show just how angry they really are. Having drawn with Borussia Dortmund in their opening Group F match, tonight Arsenal entertain Olympiakos, who began their Champions League campaign with defeat at the hands of Marseille. Eschewing this reporter’s perfectly adequate nautical metaphor in favour of a rail-related one of his own, Wenger has acknowledge that his side is “a train that left the station a bit late” and said they “cannot afford any more to drop our consistency”. In the Olympiakos camp, his opposite number Ernesto Valverde has been bigging up his team’s chances, saying the match is “going to be very difficult for us”, pointing out that Arsenal “have a lot of quality players with a great deal of experience” and pointing out that his side are “up against the toughest of opponents”. For Arsenal, Gervinho, Laurent Koscielny and Theo Walcott are among the lame and halt who miss out through injury, while Olympiakos players Giannis Fetfatzidis, Giannis Maniatis and Francisco Yeste have also been ruled out. Tune in around 7.15pm for more team news. Champions League 2011-12 Arsenal Olympiakos Champions League Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Another gruesome discovery in Mexico: Police found a crate with five severed heads outside a primary school in Acapulco, reports the BBC . The victims haven’t been identified. The not-so-subtle threat comes amid a teachers’ strike in the once-popular resort city, notes NPR . Educators refuse to reopen schools because they say…
Continue reading …Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid
September 28, 2011 No Comment
Prosecutor close to French president in court over allegations of spying on Le Monde journalists investigating Bettencourt scandal The threat to Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid from corruption scandals intensified on Wednesday after a leading state prosecutor close to the president was summoned before judges over an alleged dirty tricks campaign to spy on journalists. Seven months before the presidential election, Sarkozy, who once promised to be Mr Squeaky Clean of French politics, has seen his close circle come under pressure in a series of corruption investigations whose plots thicken by the day. Investigators are untangling a web of scandals involving alleged illegal party-funding with banknotes variously stuffed into bags, briefcases and brown envelopes, as well as phone interceptions. As the beleaguered president unveiled his austerity budget on Wednesday, his government was waging a public relations war to try to dampen the talk of sleaze and to stress that Sarkozy himself had not been personally implicated. But with his closest allies being dragged into investigations, questions were being raised over Sarkozy’s role. Coupled with the humiliating political defeat of the senate falling to the left for the first time in more than 50 years, voices in Sarkozy’s own ruling party even began to question whether he was the best candidate to stand for the right in the 2012 presidential race. The latest scandal involves an alleged “cabinet noir”, or office of shady operations, at the highest reaches of the state after Le Monde complained that the secret services had spied on its journalists to uncover their sources. French state intelligence agencies are accused of illegally obtaining detailed phone records of every call and movement of Le Monde’s investigations editor Gérard Davet in order to uncover his source on a story about the Bettencourt affair – the family saga which exploded into a series of tax-evasion and illegal party funding scandals that were extremely damaging to the French right. The source of one story was uncovered as an official in the justice ministry and was swiftly demoted by the government and posted to French Guiana. Le Monde claims two other journalists’ phone records were illegally obtained. The episode was seen as an attempt by the highest echelons of the French state to lean on the media and its sources and scare them into silence. Opposition Socialists are demanding an independent commission examine whether the president’s circle used state intelligence agencies to try to limit the damage to the ruling right UMP party from the growing Bettencourt scandal. Le Monde reported on Wednesday that the magistrate and French state prosecutor, Philippe Courroye, seen as close to Sarkozy, was to be interviewed by a Paris judge as part of the investigation into the spying scandal. The paper said a judge had written to Courroye to summon him for questioning and warn him he could be charged in the case. If so, it would a first in French legal history. The case threatens to raise questions about the president’s influence over state prosecutors. Courroye issued a statement dismissing all allegations and saying he was outraged by the “calumny” against him. He has denied being too close to Sarkozy. The president decorated him with an honour in 2009 and announced they were friends. Two other key figures of Sarkozy’s circle, the head of the secret services, Bernard Squarcini, and chief of police, Frédéric Péchenard, are also to be summoned as witnesses by the judge investigating spying on journalists. The spying saga – described by one magazine editor as evidence of France’s “banana republic” – is the latest in a bewildering array of corruption investigations to hit the right. The Bettencourt affair continues to damage Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party. One inquiry is focused on whether Sarkozy or his party members took brown envelopes of cash from the billionaire L’Oréal shampoo heiress Liliane Bettencourt for illegal party funding. Bettencourt’s former accountant told Liberation on Wednesday that the elderly widow handed Sarkozy’s party treasurer 50,000 euros in cash five months before the 2007 presidential election. In another affair known as “Karachigate”, two of the president’s closest friends, including his best man at his marriage to Carla Bruni, have been charged by judges investigating alleged kickbacks on arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s. Judges are examining whether kickbacks illegally funded the presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor, former rightwing prime minister Édouard Balladur. The former interior minister Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy’s oldest friend, faces a legal complaint for leaning on witnesses after he was recording calling one of Sarkozy’s allies who has been charged the Karachi case and warned him that his estranged wife had been “blabbing” too much to investigators. Hortefeux has counter-sued for defamation, denying the charges. The scandals facing Sarkozy The Bettencourt affair : An investigation into whether the billionaire L’Oréal heiress handed envelopes of cash to Sarkozy’s treasurer, party members or even Sarkozy himself to illegally fund his previous presidential campaign. Allegations that the Élysée leant on the judiciary to try to stifle the affair. Eric Woerth, Sarkozy’s treasurer and former budget minister, denies involvement. Karachigate : Allegations that kickbacks from French arms sales to Pakistan in the early 1990s secretly funded the failed presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor Édouard Balladur. Sarkozy was his campaign spokesman. Sarkozy’s office said he had nothing to do with the case. The Lagarde-Tapie affair : Former finance minister Christine Lagarde is under investigation for a 285m euro arbitration deal in favour of the controversial tycoon and Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie. Did Sarkozy order the deal and did he personally benefit? The government spokeswoman said justice should be allowed to take its course and the presumption of innocence respected. Briefcases of African cash : An Africa expert close to Sarkozy claimed the former president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin received briefcases of banknotes from African leaders to fund party politics. Others suggest this practise continued under Sarkozy. The interior minister said allegations against Sarkozy were “scandalous”. Nicolas Sarkozy France French elections 2012 Europe Le Monde Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid
September 28, 2011 No CommentProsecutor close to French president in court over allegations of spying on Le Monde journalists investigating Bettencourt scandal The threat to Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid from corruption scandals intensified on Wednesday after a leading state prosecutor close to the president was summoned before judges over an alleged dirty tricks campaign to spy on journalists. Seven months before the presidential election, Sarkozy, who once promised to be Mr Squeaky Clean of French politics, has seen his close circle come under pressure in a series of corruption investigations whose plots thicken by the day. Investigators are untangling a web of scandals involving alleged illegal party-funding with banknotes variously stuffed into bags, briefcases and brown envelopes, as well as phone interceptions. As the beleaguered president unveiled his austerity budget on Wednesday, his government was waging a public relations war to try to dampen the talk of sleaze and to stress that Sarkozy himself had not been personally implicated. But with his closest allies being dragged into investigations, questions were being raised over Sarkozy’s role. Coupled with the humiliating political defeat of the senate falling to the left for the first time in more than 50 years, voices in Sarkozy’s own ruling party even began to question whether he was the best candidate to stand for the right in the 2012 presidential race. The latest scandal involves an alleged “cabinet noir”, or office of shady operations, at the highest reaches of the state after Le Monde complained that the secret services had spied on its journalists to uncover their sources. French state intelligence agencies are accused of illegally obtaining detailed phone records of every call and movement of Le Monde’s investigations editor Gérard Davet in order to uncover his source on a story about the Bettencourt affair – the family saga which exploded into a series of tax-evasion and illegal party funding scandals that were extremely damaging to the French right. The source of one story was uncovered as an official in the justice ministry and was swiftly demoted by the government and posted to French Guiana. Le Monde claims two other journalists’ phone records were illegally obtained. The episode was seen as an attempt by the highest echelons of the French state to lean on the media and its sources and scare them into silence. Opposition Socialists are demanding an independent commission examine whether the president’s circle used state intelligence agencies to try to limit the damage to the ruling right UMP party from the growing Bettencourt scandal. Le Monde reported on Wednesday that the magistrate and French state prosecutor, Philippe Courroye, seen as close to Sarkozy, was to be interviewed by a Paris judge as part of the investigation into the spying scandal. The paper said a judge had written to Courroye to summon him for questioning and warn him he could be charged in the case. If so, it would a first in French legal history. The case threatens to raise questions about the president’s influence over state prosecutors. Courroye issued a statement dismissing all allegations and saying he was outraged by the “calumny” against him. He has denied being too close to Sarkozy. The president decorated him with an honour in 2009 and announced they were friends. Two other key figures of Sarkozy’s circle, the head of the secret services, Bernard Squarcini, and chief of police, Frédéric Péchenard, are also to be summoned as witnesses by the judge investigating spying on journalists. The spying saga – described by one magazine editor as evidence of France’s “banana republic” – is the latest in a bewildering array of corruption investigations to hit the right. The Bettencourt affair continues to damage Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party. One inquiry is focused on whether Sarkozy or his party members took brown envelopes of cash from the billionaire L’Oréal shampoo heiress Liliane Bettencourt for illegal party funding. Bettencourt’s former accountant told Liberation on Wednesday that the elderly widow handed Sarkozy’s party treasurer 50,000 euros in cash five months before the 2007 presidential election. In another affair known as “Karachigate”, two of the president’s closest friends, including his best man at his marriage to Carla Bruni, have been charged by judges investigating alleged kickbacks on arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s. Judges are examining whether kickbacks illegally funded the presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor, former rightwing prime minister Édouard Balladur. The former interior minister Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy’s oldest friend, faces a legal complaint for leaning on witnesses after he was recording calling one of Sarkozy’s allies who has been charged the Karachi case and warned him that his estranged wife had been “blabbing” too much to investigators. Hortefeux has counter-sued for defamation, denying the charges. The scandals facing Sarkozy The Bettencourt affair : An investigation into whether the billionaire L’Oréal heiress handed envelopes of cash to Sarkozy’s treasurer, party members or even Sarkozy himself to illegally fund his previous presidential campaign. Allegations that the Élysée leant on the judiciary to try to stifle the affair. Eric Woerth, Sarkozy’s treasurer and former budget minister, denies involvement. Karachigate : Allegations that kickbacks from French arms sales to Pakistan in the early 1990s secretly funded the failed presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor Édouard Balladur. Sarkozy was his campaign spokesman. Sarkozy’s office said he had nothing to do with the case. The Lagarde-Tapie affair : Former finance minister Christine Lagarde is under investigation for a 285m euro arbitration deal in favour of the controversial tycoon and Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie. Did Sarkozy order the deal and did he personally benefit? The government spokeswoman said justice should be allowed to take its course and the presumption of innocence respected. Briefcases of African cash : An Africa expert close to Sarkozy claimed the former president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin received briefcases of banknotes from African leaders to fund party politics. Others suggest this practise continued under Sarkozy. The interior minister said allegations against Sarkozy were “scandalous”. Nicolas Sarkozy France French elections 2012 Europe Le Monde Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andy Burnham calls for Ucas-style applications system for apprenticeships
September 28, 2011 No Comment
Shadow education secretary says teenagers should be able to apply for apprenticeships in the same way they do for university The shadow education secretary has called for the creation of a national Ucas-style system for apprenticeships to provide a clear path for teenagers who do not go to university. Andy Burnham told delegates at the Labour party conference in Liverpool: “As a country, we haven’t focused anything like enough on the opportunities for the 50% or more of kids who don’t plan to go to university. Young people who want to head towards work or an apprenticeship are left to fend for themselves.” Burnham’s speech echoed Blair’s “education, education, education” mantra. He said because of the foundations laid by Blair, Labour could go further towards: “aspiration, aspiration, aspiration”. Before his speech, delegates were addressed by Andrew Chubb, a headteacher from Hull, who said the government’s English baccalaureate was damaging and divisive. The English baccalaureate is awarded to pupils who achieve good GCSE passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language and geography. Chubb has launched an alternative called the modern baccalaureate for pupils who gain passes in eight GCSE subjects including English, maths, science and information and communications technology. Burnham called for a true baccalaureate , which would prepare young people for the modern world. He argued that the education secretary, Michael Gove, was promoting Latin and ancient Greek – two of the GCSE options in the English baccalaureate – over engineering, ICT and business studies. “I want as many children as possible to take the subjects in the English baccalaureate. But they are not right for everyone. And yet the message is clear – any school or student who doesn’t succeed is second best. As we have heard today, there is a growing grassroots rejection of Mr Gove and his elitist and divisive policies.” Burnham said free schools “can embody the comprehensive ideal”, but warned this ideal was under attack from changes to the school admissions code and the use of the English baccalaureate as a measure. Before his speech, the conference was also addressed by Yvonne Sharples, a headteacher from a school in Speke, who endeared herself to delegates by declaring: “I was never really cut out for school – I was naughty.” She praised her teachers, who “kept on nurturing me”. Her school has been turned around after going into special measures, the Ofsted term for a failing school. It has gone from 1% of children achieving five good GCSE passes, including English and maths, to 29% this summer. She criticised Gove’s decision to raise the minimum standard for secondary schools from 30% to 35% last year. “In Mr Gove’s eyes we are a failing school,” she said. “Shame on you, Michael, how dare you? 47% of my students gain English GCSE. They believe they’re the best kids in the world because that’s what we tell them.” Labour conference 2011 Andy Burnham Labour Labour conference Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andy Burnham calls for Ucas-style applications system for apprenticeships
September 28, 2011 No CommentShadow education secretary says teenagers should be able to apply for apprenticeships in the same way they do for university The shadow education secretary has called for the creation of a national Ucas-style system for apprenticeships to provide a clear path for teenagers who do not go to university. Andy Burnham told delegates at the Labour party conference in Liverpool: “As a country, we haven’t focused anything like enough on the opportunities for the 50% or more of kids who don’t plan to go to university. Young people who want to head towards work or an apprenticeship are left to fend for themselves.” Burnham’s speech echoed Blair’s “education, education, education” mantra. He said because of the foundations laid by Blair, Labour could go further towards: “aspiration, aspiration, aspiration”. Before his speech, delegates were addressed by Andrew Chubb, a headteacher from Hull, who said the government’s English baccalaureate was damaging and divisive. The English baccalaureate is awarded to pupils who achieve good GCSE passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language and geography. Chubb has launched an alternative called the modern baccalaureate for pupils who gain passes in eight GCSE subjects including English, maths, science and information and communications technology. Burnham called for a true baccalaureate , which would prepare young people for the modern world. He argued that the education secretary, Michael Gove, was promoting Latin and ancient Greek – two of the GCSE options in the English baccalaureate – over engineering, ICT and business studies. “I want as many children as possible to take the subjects in the English baccalaureate. But they are not right for everyone. And yet the message is clear – any school or student who doesn’t succeed is second best. As we have heard today, there is a growing grassroots rejection of Mr Gove and his elitist and divisive policies.” Burnham said free schools “can embody the comprehensive ideal”, but warned this ideal was under attack from changes to the school admissions code and the use of the English baccalaureate as a measure. Before his speech, the conference was also addressed by Yvonne Sharples, a headteacher from a school in Speke, who endeared herself to delegates by declaring: “I was never really cut out for school – I was naughty.” She praised her teachers, who “kept on nurturing me”. Her school has been turned around after going into special measures, the Ofsted term for a failing school. It has gone from 1% of children achieving five good GCSE passes, including English and maths, to 29% this summer. She criticised Gove’s decision to raise the minimum standard for secondary schools from 30% to 35% last year. “In Mr Gove’s eyes we are a failing school,” she said. “Shame on you, Michael, how dare you? 47% of my students gain English GCSE. They believe they’re the best kids in the world because that’s what we tell them.” Labour conference 2011 Andy Burnham Labour Labour conference Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Great white shark sighted as 42-year-old man fights for life after reportedly losing parts of both legs at Fish Hoek in Cape Town A Briton has been attacked by a shark while swimming in South Africa, authorities said. The 42-year-old man is fighting for his life after the attack by a great white at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. Reports said the man, who is believed to live in the city, was rescued by a bystander after he ignored shark warnings to go swimming. National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon told the South African Press Association (Sapa): “It appears he was rescued from the water by a bystander who left the scene before we could identify him. “On arrival, a 42-year-old man was found on the shore suffering complete amputation of his right leg, above the knee, and partial amputation of his left leg, below the knee.” Lambinon said the victim was believed to live in the suburb of Plumstead. He was stabilised at the scene and then airlifted to Constantiaberg medi-clinic in a critical condition. Lambinon added: “The man was conscious when paramedics attended to him on the beach, but was sedated on-scene by paramedics in their efforts to stabilise the patient.” The city of Cape Town told Sapa that, when the man entered the water, the beach was still closed. A shark flag, indicating the presence of a great white, was flying. A shark spotter stationed on the beach was warned by a spotter on the mountain that someone had entered the water. The spotter then ran to Clovelly Corner to try to get the swimmer out of the water, but the attack took place before he could reach him. Spotters had sighted the shark 90 minutes before the attack, and closed the beach. The white shark flag was raised and the siren set off. The victim of the attack was the only person in the water at the time. The beach, together with another three locally, was closed as a precaution until further notice. The shark was still in Fish Hoek Bay in the afternoon and being monitored by the spotters. South Africa Africa Marine life Wildlife guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Google+ ditched its invite-only policy last week and was rewarded with a massive surge in traffic—a 1,269% rise, according to Experian Hitwise. The Internet metrics company believes that on the day after the policy changed, Google overtook Twitter to become the third-most popular social media site in the…
Continue reading …
Investigation raises questions over safety at Queen’s hospital in Romford, Essex after deaths of Violet Stephens and Sareena Ali The deaths of two women shortly after giving birth have raised questions about the safety of care at an NHS hospital which boasts the largest maternity unit in the country. Violet Stephens died at Queen’s hospital in Romford, Essex, in April, just one month after a review by the care watchdog said Queen’s was failing to meet essential maternity standards. An independent investigation into Stephens’s death, seen by the Guardian, reveals that she saw at least 30 different healthcare staff in the last three days of her life, including five consultant obstetricians, 11 junior doctors and 12 midwives. She was known to be at risk – two previous babies had been delivered by caesarean section because of complications linked to high-blood pressure – but she did not get the standard of care to which she was entitled, says the report. “The number and extent of service provision weaknesses revealed by this investigation casts doubt on the organisational integrity of the maternity services,” it says. Stephens’s death followed that of Sareena Ali in January. Ali, who was having her first baby, died of a heart attack brought on by a ruptured womb. She had been left without midwife support for two hours. While the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors were in the maternity unit – failing it on six different safety standards – Ali was lying on a life support machine in another part of the hospital. The CQC officers were not told. Queen’s, which is part of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Foundation Trust, says it is doing all it can to improve maternity care. But Sarah Harman, the solicitor representing the families of the two women, as well as around 20 less serious complaints, said: “On the basis of all the cases coming forward to me, this is a maternity department that is not providing safe care.” The CQC report in March demanded “immediate improvements” to ensure the safety of women giving birth at Queen’s, warning that it was short-staffed, midwives were under-skilled and some equipment did not work. Queen’s responded that it was hiring 49 more midwives, half of whom had already been recruited. But the independent inquiry into Stephens’s death, dated July, suggested there were still fundamental problems in the maternity unit when she died. The independent “serious untoward incident” inquiry into her death, carried out by a professor of complex obstetrics and a senior midwife, found that Stephens had suffered severe pre-eclampsia in her fourth pregnancy, as she had in her earlier ones. Pre-eclampsia is one of the most common conditions that kill women in childbirth. In Stephens’s case it became particularly serious because her liver was affected. The report found her case was not well managed and there were delays in giving her a caesarean and blood transfusions. In the antenatal clinic, she saw six different doctors and midwives. In the last three days at Queen’s, no less than 30 different healthcare staff were involved. It is well-documented, said the report, that the more handovers of information and responsibility there are, the greater the risks for the patient. “The severity and deterioration of VS’s condition was not recognised or managed in a co-ordinated way,” it said. “The tragedy at the centre of this investigation is the death of a mother, which most profoundly affects her family, friends and the three motherless children left behind.” The report found evidence of good care, kind staff and effective working but “significant factors were identified which prevented VS from receiving the standard of care she was entitled to expect and to which the trust aspires”. Ali was 27 when she died at Queen’s hospital in January. Her husband Usman Javed has said she was in agony in the labour ward, but midwives did not respond to his requests for help. She suffered a ruptured womb, which brought on a heart attack. Her baby was delivered by caesarean section but born dead. At one point a team tried to resuscitate Ali with a mask that was not attached to the oxygen cylinder. “When I first took on Usman’s case, I thought it was a tragic and isolated incident,” Harman said. “In the best hospitals that run good maternity services, a tragedy can arise which is not in line with the care they provide.” Other complaints Harman is pursuing against the hospital include two allegations of caesareans carried out without enough anaesthetic and women having to be re-admitted with serious illnesses because they were discharged too soon. Queen’s sees nearly 7,000 births a year. The CQC inspection was a “compliance review” – designed to ensure the hospital had met all the necessary standards in maternity and midwifery care. It had not. The CQC said improvements were needed in six essential areas, including the safety of equipment, staffing numbers and safe and appropriate care for women. Inspectors said they had “major concerns” over delays in going to theatre when a caesarean was needed, pain relief and women being left alone in labour. Staff spoke of being “very stretched” at busy times when it was “like working on a conveyor belt”. Averil Dongworth, chief executive of the trust, said of the report she commissioned into Stephens’ death: “I was very concerned to hear that we had failed to give this seriously ill woman the high standards of care that she should have been able to expect from us and would like to apologise for this on behalf of the trust. I’m determined these issues are addressed so every woman can be confident about our maternity service.” Following the death, staff held a special conference to learn lessons and new guidelines were put in place. The hospital now has one of the highest levels of specialist doctor coverage in the country and enough midwives for one-to-one care, Dongworth said. “These changes are part of a comprehensive action plan to improve our maternity service across the board and make sure every woman can have a good experience of childbirth in the safest possible environment.” A further review of services by the CQC is underway and will report in a few weeks’ time. Health NHS Childbirth Health & wellbeing Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …