2,000 docs warn PM on NHS funding
Trial told woman urged boyfriend to fire at tot
THERESA May has been warned by 2,000 senior doctors that NHS cuts are putting patient safety at risk.
GPs, specialists and consultants signed a letter saying they are “exasperated” at being unable to provide excellent care.
They call on the Government to increase spending to at least 10% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
And the letter, organised by consultant anaesthetist Anita Sugavanam and Rob Galloway, an A&E consultant at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, calls for a ring-fenced social care budget.
Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA, said: “The Government cannot continue to stick its head in the sand. It must look at long-term funding, capacity and recruitment issues.”
The major ongoing issue is post-traumatic seizures. Harry is having several a day
ANDREW MACFARLANE PROSECUTOR, IN COURT YESTERDAY
A MUM urged her boyfriend to shoot a crying toddler with an air rifle to “scare him”, a court heard yesterday.
Harry Studley, 18 months, was hit in the face. He survived, but lost the sight in one eye and now suffers daily seizures.
Emma Horseman, 24, denies GBH by aiding and abetting partner Jordan Walters, who fired the rifle in a Bristol flat where two neighbouring couples met with their children last July.
Walters, also 24, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm last year.
Harry’s mum Amy Allen, 22, sobbed as she told Bristol crown court: “Because Harry was crying, Emma turned around and said, ‘How do you cope with them crying all the time?
“I said, ‘It’s easy, you have to just get on with it’. She said, ‘Jordan shoot it and scare him’.
“I looked around and said, ‘No’. Next thing I heard was the gun. It sounded like a pop with a sound of bus hydraulics.
“He aimed the gun at Harry. I just heard the noise and Harry screaming in pain.”
BLEED
Paul Cook, defending, asked Ms Allen what she would say if he said Emma did not tell Walters to shoot. She said: “I would disagree.” According to Ms Allen, Walters and Horseman said they thought the firearm was not loaded.
Paramedics called to flats in the Hartcliffe area of Bristol found Harry had suffered a shattered skull and a bleed on the brain.
He was hit on the right side of the head in the temporal region between his forehead and his ear, the court heard.
The pellet, which is still inside his head, caused his brain to become “extremely swollen” and he had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot.
Neurosurgeon Mike Carter told the court in a statement that Harry initially suffered “significant weakness” in his left leg and arm. He said Harry had to have another operation three months later to replace a “bone flap”.
Harry, now two, has seizures every day and might need a tube to drain fluid away and a splint on his leg. Prosecutor Andrew Macfarlane said: “The major ongoing issue is post-traumatic seizures. He’s having several a day.”
The rifle, around three and a half feet long, was shown to the jury. A forensic scientist said the air gun fired 0.22 calibre lead pellets and was powered by CO2 canisters with a telescopic sight.
The trial continues.