Category: news

A Northern Ireland family’s medical negligence case has lasted 27 years while 55 others have been ongoing for longer than 15 years, it has emerged.

The figures were given in an Assembly written answer in response to a question on Northern Ireland health bodies by Sinn Fein MLA John O’Dowd

Mr O’Dowd said legal fees over 27 years could run into millions of pounds.

He said he knew of one family who had been waiting 16 years for their medical negligence case to be heard.

“They are seeking compensation for their son who has been left severely disabled after medical treatment went wrong,” he said.

“The case is continually cancelled just before it reaches court, leaving the family in limbo.

“Meanwhile, the lawyers are paid and in one case, for this last 27 years, legal fees have been continually paid out.”

Mr O’Dowd said he had only been provided with the cost of legal fees for the past two years – almost £2m – but the figures for 27 years “could be frightening”.

The Written Reply reveals that the Health and Social Care Board has 55 cases which have been ongoing for between 15 and 27 years.

The board has paid out legal fees amounting to £233,459 for cases ongoing for 15-plus years, £140,595 for cases initiated 11-15 years ago and £81,159 for cases taken in the past 5-10 years.

Among the various regional bodies, the Western HSC Trust has paid £204,184 for actions taken in the past 5-10 years and £49,843 for cases initiated 11-15 years ago.

Belfast HSC Trust legal fees for ongoing cases initiated in the past 5-10 years have so far cost £154,877.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety said:”Every effort is made by hospital staff to ensure that the highest standards of care are provided to all patients.

“Over 2.5 million patients are cared for in NI hospitals each year.

“Inevitably, there will be a small number of occasions, particularly in emergencies involving critically ill patients with complex needs, where problems occur.

“The Department is keen to ensure that cases of clinical negligence are kept to a minimum, and that those who have suffered harm as a result are properly compensated for it.”

The spokesperson said the DHSSPS played no active role in the management of claims and litigation cases.

“Claims management is totally devolved to the Health and Social Care Board and Health and Social Care Trusts,” the spokesperson said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

An inquest jury has found that explosives expert Terry Jupp died following top-secret trials which were not appropriately planned. He died eight years ago after mixing chemicals at a testing station in Essex.

Terry Jupp was a chemist. He worked for the Ministry of Defence.

He did not talk about his job. He could not as much of what he did was highly classified, top-secret work in the interests of national security.

“We didn’t know anything,” his mother, Anne Jupp, told BBC News.

“I think I did ask him once. I said: ‘What sort of job do you do, Terry?’

“‘Something to do with plastics,’ he replied.”

His sister, Alison Davis, says she was stunned but incredibly proud to find out exactly what her brother did.

Homemade bombs

The secret world of Terry Jupp slowly began to emerge as he lay fatally injured in hospital. Between 60 and 90% of his body was burned when he was engulfed in a fireball at the MoD’s test firing range – operated by private contractor QinetiQ – at Foulness Island in Essex.

As part of a joint US-UK counter-terrorism project, the 46-year-old had been conducting experiments with improvised explosives – homemade bombs – to assess the capabilities of organisations such as al-Qaeda.

Mr Jupp, a senior chemist with the Forensic Explosives Laboratory, had been working with a 10kg (22lb) mixture of three substances in a paint container when it unexpectedly ignited.

The plan had been to prime the mixture and then take it to a remote part of the range where it would be detonated, far away from the small group of scientists and experts.

There had already been several similar test firings, using different combinations and ratios of various materials.

But on 14 August 2002 something went tragically wrong and Mr Jupp died from his injuries six days later, leaving behind his wife Pat and two children, then aged 11 and 15.

Shrouded in secrecy

For eight years his family had unanswered questions, and now the inquest has provided some explanations about what went wrong and why.

But many of the details remain shrouded in secrecy.

The inquest jury had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, the lawyers had to be security vetted, and while Mr Jupp’s family were allowed access throughout, the media and public were excluded during the most sensitive evidence.

The American participants – almost all of whom refused to come and testify – were given anonymity, referred to only by letters of the alphabet.

We were told nothing of the US organisations said to have initiated and funded the trials, except that one of them was a branch of the National Security Council in Washington DC.

As for the lethal mixture that killed Mr Jupp, it consisted of substances known only as A, B and C.

It was said that such secrecy was required because it would be “catastrophic to both the UK and US national security if the results of the tests were compromised in any way by the criminal or terrorist fraternity”.

There is, of course, always a risk when handling explosives, but was Mr Jupp just unlucky or could more have been done to prevent this terrible accident?

Bill Warren, a laboratory manager involved in research and development for the Ministry of Defence and later the defence company QinetiQ, said: “It was avoidable. It should never have happened. He was let down.”

Mr Warren, now retired, says it certainly was not Mr Jupp’s fault.

“I knew Terry. He wasn’t a cowboy. He was professional, very experienced,” he added.

Before any large-scale trials of potentially dangerous chemicals are carried out, he said tests of very small amounts of the ingredients should first be conducted in a laboratory.

He told the inquest he had checked his database going back 40 years but had no record of any small-scale test on the fatal mixture.

‘Pain never goes’

A month after the fatal accident, Mr Warren was asked to test the substances involved. He used just 27 grams (just under an ounce) but within 10 minutes of it being mixed together, it spontaneously ignited.

He described it as a whoosh, a rapid burning, like a firework going off.

So did Mr Jupp know what he was working with?

The inquest heard he was not wearing full protective clothing and the paint container used had the wrong ingredients listed on the label.

There were allegations that the list of proposed test firings was changed at the last minute. The Americans claimed the fatal mix was not on the original list and was not authorised by them.

Dr Maurice Marshall, a renowned explosives specialist and the man in charge on the day, flatly denies these claims.

He told the inquest jury Mr Jupp knew what he was doing and had not expressed any concerns. He said no-one involved had thought there was a safety hazard.

After a police investigation, Dr Marshall and another scientist working with him, Bob Weighill, were charged with the manslaughter of Mr Jupp through gross negligence. All charges were later dropped.

Following the inquest verdict, Mr Jupp’s family believe they finally have some idea of what happened and why.

“It’s eight years,” his mother Anne said. “But the pain never goes.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The mobile operator O2 says it is still investigating iPhone customer complaints that they have been wrongly charged for data roaming while abroad.

Customers have complained that the switch that deactivates data roaming doesn’t work, a fault O2 was first made aware of in May.

Neither of the other UK networks that carry the iPhone, Orange and Vodafone, says it has been hit with the problem.

Apple forum posts suggest the problem may lie with O2’s “visual voicemail”.

The fault can cause big bills for customers who receive emails and web pages when they are overseas – even though they didn’t choose to receive them.

The default setting on the iPhone should prevent data from loading up abroad. However, customers on the Apple and other forums are complaining that e-mails and web pages are sometimes downloading when they are abroad – even when the data roaming setting is off.

O2 says it is “investigating these reports with Apple”.

One recent post on an Apple online forum reported that: “Even with data roaming off, I received a visual voicemail message which appeared to then trigger the downloading of 25 e-mails and enabled selective web browsing and app activity. I’m going to call my network operator (O2) tomorrow, but others have complained about this bug that first appeared with the 3G iPhone and was fixed by an update.”

An Apple spokesperson told BBC News that “we are aware that some O2 customers have reported receiving unexpected data roaming charges and are investigating. To avoid unexpected data roaming charges while traveling outside the UK, O2 customers can turn off Cellular Data in their iPhone settings.”

Adrian Mars, an independent technology journalist, said he has some sympathy with the mobile operator.

“The big problem here is that Apple has a policy of not admitting to known faults in the phone so the operators are really stuck,” he said

“They don’t know whether there is a fault there.”

O2 will be faced with a difficult choice in deciding whether to refund customers who complain they have been hit with undeserved data roaming charges, as Mars acknowledges.

“It’s terrible. Looking at the bulletin boards, some have got their money back; some are saying they have.

“But until Apple holds up their hands and say these are the circumstances when it happens it will be very hard for them to know what to do.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

An expert died following top-secret explosives tests which were not properly planned and organised, an inquest jury has ruled.

Ministry of Defence scientist Terry Jupp died six days after the accident in August 2002 at the Foulness Island site in Essex.

The 46-year-old suffered between 60 and 90% burns when 10kg of an undisclosed mixture of chemicals suddenly ignited.

It happened during a joint US-UK counter-terrorism project.

The jury at the inquest in Southend, Essex, made a number of criticisms of the experiments in which Mr Jupp, from Hatfield in Hertfordshire, was involved.

They concluded that planning and risk assessment procedures had not been carried out properly, and that a small-scale test involving the potentially dangerous chemicals should first have taken place.

Speaking after the narrative verdict had been delivered, Mr Jupp’s widow Pat said listening to the evidence had been “extremely harrowing”, but the inquest had been “fair and thorough” and she was “very pleased” with the outcome.

“I think the jury got it right. I don’t want anything like this to ever happen again,” she said.

“The Ministry of Defence have lost a highly experienced, loyal, dedicated scientist.

“I feel very proud in the knowledge that he helped to save thousands of lives doing the research work that he carried out.”

After the inquest, Frances Saunders, chief executive of the MoD’s Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), said: “(We) note and acknowledge… the findings of the jury.

“Terry Jupp was carrying out work of national importance, helping to protect the UK, its armed forces and its people and I want to acknowledge publicly his contribution to this vital research.

“Some of the work that DSTL does is, by its very nature, extremely hazardous. But we aim to take every step we can to control and minimise the risks – clearly in this case the measures in place at the time did not safeguard Mr Jupp.

“We take the health and safety of our employees and the public very seriously and since Mr Jupp’s tragic death we have done everything we can to prevent such incidents happening again.”

The coroner, Peter Dean, had asked jurors to consider a number of questions relating to planning and risk assessment.

One key issue raised at the inquest was whether Mr Jupp knew what chemicals he was mixing at the time of the explosion.

The jury concluded that he did know and had been reassured by risk assessments and his knowledge of explosives.

Mr Jupp was working with a 10kg (22lb) mixture of three substances in a paint container when it unexpectedly ignited.

The jury heard he was engulfed in a fireball, causing horrific injuries from which he never recovered.

A subsequent test involving 27g (less than one ounce) of the mixture produced a violent and sudden ignition, described by one scientist as like a firework going off.

The jury also decided that adequate regard had not been paid to personal protective equipment on the test site, and highlighted communication and organisational problems.

Mr Jupp was involved in tests aimed at combating terrorists in the months following the 9/11 attacks in New York.

Much of the hearing was held in secret to prevent sensitive information falling into the hands of terrorists, and the chemicals involved in the fatal test were referred to only as A, B and C.

One witness said the results could be “catastrophic” if information about the testing fell into the wrong hands.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ferrari has decided to recall all of the 458 Italia cars it made this year, following reports of a number of the luxury cars catching fire.

Ferrari said its engineers had flown around the world to investigate five reports of “thermal incidents”.

As a result, it will be asking the owners of more than 1,200 of the supercars to bring them in for modification work.

The 458 Italia typically costs about £170,000 ($260,000).

There were reported incidents in California, Paris, Switzerland, China and one other unnamed location.

Ferrari said the problem had been traced to adhesive used in the wheel-arch assemblies.