Director-general of fair trading John Bridgeman has announced that he will ask the Restrictive Practices Court to overturn its 1970 decision allowing drug companies to fix the price of branded, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. The decision has angered drug companies and pharmacy pressure groups who claim the abolition of re-sale price maintenance would drive small chemists out of business.
The mother of Georgina Robinson, the woman who died a month after being stabbed by a psychiatric hospital patient at the Edith Morgan unit in south Devon where she worked, has accepted an out-of-court settlement of pounds75,000 from South Devon Healthcare trust. Wendy Robinson said the money would not diminish her loss, and she remains determined to fight for changes to the Mental Health Act to avoid a repeat of the 1993 tragedy.
Plans to move acute services from Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton to Kingston Hospital have been rejected by staff, according to London Health Emergency. The pressure group says staff-side representatives at Kingston fear extra money needed for new wards will not materialise and they will be left to 'pick up the pieces' of 'ill-conceived and finance- driven plans'.
Action Research has given grants of more than pounds500,000 to teams of London scientists investigating brain injury and strokes and a range of problems affecting babies and children. The largest grant, of pounds323,669, has gone to a team led by Professor John Wyatt at University College, which will investigate preventing brain damage in premature babies.
Britain's 'drugs czar' has opened an e-mail address 'to receive views and ideas from experts, organisations and the general public'. Keith Hellawell, whose official title is UK anti-drugs co-ordinator, is at CDCU@gtnet.gov.uk.
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