Family of woman who died after misdiagnosis by ‘substitute doctor’ criticise govt review

Published

4 months ago

July 16, 2025

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The parents of a woman who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by someone who she thought was a doctor have called a government-ordered review “a missed opportunity”.

Marion and Brendan Chesterton have welcomed many of the recommendations in Professor Gillian Leng’s review of the role that physician associates (PAs) perform in the NHS, but say “they don’t go far enough”.

Emily, 30, died in November 2022 after suffering a pulmonary embolism. She went to see her GP at a north London surgery twice in the weeks before her death – and on both occasions was seen by a physician associate who missed the blood clot and instead prescribed propranolol for anxiety.

The actress from Salford had told her worried parents that she had been seen by a doctor, but she had not.

Her father Brendan told Sky News: “If she come out and said I’ve seen someone called the physician’s associate I’m sure we would have insisted that, you know, let’s go back and insist that you see a doctor. She never knew.”

Now, a government-ordered review led by Prof Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, has recommended NHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already had contact with a doctor for their illness.

The report suggests a major change to the role of PAs after it acknowledged they have been used as substitutes for doctors, despite having significantly less training.

More than 3,500 PAs and 100 anaesthesia associates (AAs) are working in the NHS and there have been previous calls for an expansion in their number.

But a general lack of support for the roles from the medical profession – plus high-profile deaths of patients who were misdiagnosed by PAs – led Health Secretary Wes Streeting to order a review.

Presenting her findings, Prof Leng said: “Crucially I’m recommending that PAs should not see undifferentiated or untriaged patients.

“If (patients) are triaged, they (PAs) should be able to see adult patients with minor ailments in line with relevant guidance from the Royal College of GPs.”

She said more detail was needed on which patients can be seen by PAs and national clinical protocols should be developed in this area.

She added: “Let’s be clear, (the role of PAs) is working well in some places, but there indeed has been some substitution and any substitution is clearly risky and confusing for patients.”

Prof Leng also recommended PAs should be renamed “physician assistants” to position them “as a supportive, complementary member of the medical team” – and have standardised uniforms to distinguish them from doctors – while AAs should be renamed “physician assistants in anaesthesia”.

Newly qualified PAs should also work in hospitals for two years before they are allowed to work in GP surgeries or mental health trusts.

The report said that while research suggests patients are satisfied after seeing a PA, some did not know they were not seeing a doctor.

Prof Leng concluded there were “no convincing reasons to abolish the roles of AA or PA”, but there is also no case “for continuing with the roles unchanged”.

She recommended that both PAs and AAs should have the opportunity for ongoing training and development, with potential to prescribe medicines in the future, and they should also have the opportunity to become an “advanced” PA or AA.

Six patient deaths linked to contact with PAs have been recorded by coroners in England.

Emily’s mother Marion said some of the review’s findings were significant and her daughter would still be alive if the recommendations had been in place when she fell ill.

She said: “I think so, yes, which is so important, which is why we’re so pleased that this review has been made.”

But Mrs Chesterton added that more could have done, including stopping all PAs from prescribing drugs.

“We feel it’s a missed opportunity. It could have gone all the way there and cleared things up totally. Our daughter died. She was prescribed a drug that she should not have been prescribed. And it had absolutely catastrophic circumstances. She died for goodness sake.”

The Chestertons’ concerns are shared by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Dr Emma Runswick, BMA’s deputy chair, said: “It is definitely a problem that the roles of doctors and now physician assistants has been blurred and it’s positive that their name is going to change, that there will be a uniform.

“But whilst they continue to be deployed in a way that mimics doctors at the behest of any local employer decision, we have to have ongoing concerns about their safety.”

But UMAPs, the trade union which represents both PAs and AAs, has warned the changes will undermine their qualifications and their role, lengthen waiting lists and worsen the impact of any strike action.

“By trying to placate them, at a time when they’re striking – and they want their strikes to bite the hardest by taking us out of the workforce – we’re now putting patients at risk,” said Steve Nash, general secretary of UMAPs.

“I think the biggest patient safety risk, out there right now, is the BMA,” he added.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who ordered this review, is expected to implement all the recommendations of the report.

UK

Royal Navy intercepts Russian warship and tanker

Published

4 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Royal Navy intercepts Russian warship and tanker

A Royal Navy patrol ship has intercepted two Russian vessels off the UK coast, the Ministry of Defence has said.

It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey announced last Wednesday that lasers from Russian spy ship the Yantar were directed at RAF pilots tracking it, in an attempt to disrupt the monitoring.

The MoD said on Sunday that in a “round-the-clock shadowing operation”, the Royal Navy ship HMS Severn has intercepted Russian warship RFN Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya off the UK coast in the past fortnight.

The Russian vessels sailed through the Dover Strait and westward through the English Channel, the MoD said.

HMS Severn later handed over monitoring duties to a NATO ally off the coast of Brittany, France, it said, but continued to watch from a distance and remained ready to respond to any unexpected activity.

The ministry added that the UK’s armed forces are on patrol “from the English Channel to the High North” amid increased Russian activity threatening UK waters.

Last week, Russia accused the British government of “provocative statements” after the defence secretary warned the Yantar was nearing the UK.

At a news conference in Downing Street on Wednesday, Mr Healey said the spy ship was on the edge of British waters north of Scotland, having entered wider UK waters over the last few weeks.

He said it was the second time this year the Yantar had been deployed off the UK coast and he claimed it was “designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables”.

Mr Healey said the ship had “directed lasers” at pilots of a P-8 surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities – a Russian action he deemed “deeply dangerous”.

In a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the defence secretary said: “We see you. We know what you are doing. And we are ready.”

The ministry said while tracking the Yantar, Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset and other civilian ships in the area “experienced GPS jamming in a further demonstration of unprofessional behaviour, intended to be disruptive and a nuisance”.

Russia’s UK embassy dismissed the accusations and insisted the Yantar is a research ship in international waters.

The defence secretary also repeated government plans to increase defence spending and work with NATO allies to bolster European security.

And he stressed how plans to buy weapons and build arms factories will create jobs and economic growth.

A report by a group of MPs, also released on Wednesday, underlined the scale of the challenge the UK faces.

It accused the government of lacking a national plan to defend itself from attack.

The Defence Select Committee also warned that Mr Healey, the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet are moving at a “glacial” pace to fix the issue and are failing to launch a “national conversation on defence and security” – something Sir Keir Starmer had promised last year.

The UK has seen a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters in the past two years, according to the MoD.

But the ministry maintained the UK has a wide range of military options at its disposal to keep UK waters safe.

Three RAF P-8 Poseidon aircraft have deployed to Keflavik Air Base in Iceland in the largest overseas deployment of the RAF P-8 fleet so far, the MoD said.

They are conducting surveillance operations as part of NATO’s collective defence, patrolling for Russian ships and submarines in the North Atlantic and Arctic.

The operations come just weeks after HMS Duncan tracked the movements of Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov, and frigate HMS Iron Duke was dispatched to monitor Russian Kilo-class submarine Novorossiysk.

UK

Ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for Aston Villa game ‘based on false hooligan claims’

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4 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for Aston Villa game 'based on false hooligan claims'

West Midlands Police has defended the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending an Aston Villa match after it was claimed that false intelligence was used.

Supporters of the Israeli club were barred from the Europa League fixture at Villa Park on 6 November.

West Midlands Police chief superintendent Tom Joyce told Sky News before the game that a “section” of Maccabi’s fanbase engaged in “quite significant levels of hooliganism”.

According to The Sunday Times, West Midlands Police claimed in a confidential dossier that when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam last year, Israeli fans threw “innocent members of the public into the river”, and added that between 500 and 600 supporters had “intentionally targeted Muslim communities”.

The report also said 5,000 Dutch police officers had been deployed in response.

However, the Netherlands’ national police force has questioned the claims, reportedly describing information cited by its British officers as “not true” and in some instances obviously inaccurate.

Sebastiaan Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division, told The Sunday Times that he was “surprised” by allegations in the West Midlands Police report, which had linked 200 travelling supporters to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Mr Meijer denied that his force had such intelligence, adding that the claim was meaningless given the country had a policy of conscription.

Also, Mr Meijer said that Amsterdam’s force “does not recognise” the claim in the British report, attributed to Dutch law enforcement, that Israelis were “highly organised, skilled fighters with a serious desire and will to fight with police and opposing groups”.

The Dutch police added that the only known case of a fan being in the river appeared to involve a Maccabi supporter. While being filmed, he was told he could leave the water on the condition that he said “Free Palestine”.

In an interview with Sky News before the game, West Midlands Police referenced disorder when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam last November.

Mr Joyce said ahead of the Villa Park match: “We’ve had examples where a section of Maccabi fans were targeting people not involved in football matches, and certainly we had an incident in Amsterdam last year which has informed some of our decision-making.

“So it is exclusively a decision we made on the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans, but all the reaction that could occur obviously formed part of that as well.”

Maccabi’s visit to Birmingham came amid heightened tensions due to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

A safety advisory group (SAG) recommended that Maccabi fans should be banned from attending the fixture on the advice of the police. The ban drew criticism, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was the “wrong decision”.

West Midland Police’s statement in full

Following The Sunday Times report, West Midlands Police stood by its “information and intelligence”, adding that the “Maccabi Fanatics… posed a credible threat to safety”.

In a statement to Sky News, the force said: “West Midlands Police’s evaluation was based primarily on information and intelligence and had public safety at its heart.

“We assessed the fixture between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam as having involved significant public disorder.

“We met with Dutch police on 1 October, where information relating to that 2024 fixture was shared with us.

“Informed by information and intelligence, we concluded that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters – specifically the subgroup known as the Maccabi Fanatics – posed a credible threat to public safety.

“The submission made to the SAG safety advisory group was based on information and intelligence which helped shape understanding of the risks.

“West Midlands Police commissioned a peer review, which was conducted by UKFPU [United Kingdom Policing Unit], the NPCC [National Police Chiefs’ Council] and subject matter experts.

“This review, carried out on 20 October, fully endorsed the force’s approach and decision-making.

“We are satisfied that the policing strategy and operational plan was effective, proportionate, and maintained the city’s reputation as a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”

Sky News has approached Dutch police for comment.

UK

Titanic couple’s pocket watch sells for record £1.78m

Published

4 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Titanic couple's pocket watch sells for record £1.78m

A gold pocket watch that belonged to an elderly couple who drowned as the Titanic sunk has sold for a record-breaking £1.78m at auction.

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch was owned by first class passenger Isidor Straus, who died when the ship sank in April 1912.

He and his wife Ida were portrayed in the film Titanic as a couple who held each other as the ship went down.

When he was offered a seat on a lifeboat due to his age, he replied that he would not go before other men.

His wife refused to leave him, and the couple were last seen alive sitting on deckchairs, facing fate by each other’s side.

They were among very few first class passengers to perish in the disaster.

The watch was recovered from Mr Straus’s body along with other personal items and returned to his family.

It had been a present for his 43rd birthday in 1888 – the same year he became a partner in the New York department store, Macy’s.

The watch, which had remained in the couple’s family, was sold at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.

The £1.78m for the item is the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, according to the company.

A letter written by Mrs Straus on Titanic stationery and posted while onboard the ship fetched £100,000.

The previous record was set last year when another gold pocket watch presented to the captain of a boat that rescued over 700 passengers from the liner sold for £1.56m.