Scottish parliament votes against legalising assisted dying

The Scottish parliament has voted against legalising assisted dying after critics and religious groups led a concerted campaign to block the measures.MSPs voted 69 to 57 to reject the proposals in a late night vote on Tuesday – a larger margin than expected, despite a series of last-minute amendments designed to placate critics of the private member’s bill.The bill’s defeat followed four days of intensive debate at Holyrood last week about whether disabled and infirm people were properly protected from coercion. In May last year, Holyrood had voted to allow the bill to go forward for scrutiny by 70 votes to 56.In the biggest concession, Liam McArthur, a Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP, agreed last week to limit access to people judged to have six months left to live, despite previously arguing that a time bar was too arbitrary, in an effort to placate wavering MSPs

Desperate parents calling pharmacies for meningitis jab as stocks run low

Worried parents are contacting pharmacies in an “increasingly desperate” effort to get their children vaccinated against meningitis after the outbreak in Kent that has killed two young people and left 13 seriously ill.The surge in demand has led to stocks of the vaccine running so low that many pharmacies cannot get hold of supplies from wholesalers.Students living in halls of residence at the University of Kent, in Canterbury, are being offered the vaccine as health officials seek to curb the spread of what Wes Streeting, the health secretary, described as an “unprecedented” outbreak of the rare but sometimes deadly infection.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) sought to reassure the public that the outbreak – which has been closely linked to those attending the Club Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury on 5, 6 and 7 March – has not spread beyond Kent.“We have no evidence of any wider spread,” Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam said

‘Missed opportunities’ to prevent woman’s death in prison cell fire, inquest finds

There were “missed opportunities” that could have prevented the death of a woman with severe mental illness from “sustained inhalation of smoke” after a fire in her prison cell, an inquest has found.Clare Dupree, 48, from Cardiff, died after she used a vape to start a fire at HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire just after Christmas 2022.Directed to reach a narrative conclusion by the coroner Maria Voisin, after a four-week inquest at Avon coroner’s court, the jury found that a “lack of automatic in-cell fire detection caused a delay in detecting the fire”.Jurors also found that an incorrect diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder had “contributed to her incarceration” in the first place.Her sister, Rachel Thorrington, said “Clare was just such a happy, kind, outgoing person, she’d do anything for anyone”

Meningitis B: what are the symptoms, how is it spread and is there a vaccine?

Health officials have confirmed that meningitis B is the strain identified in some of the cases in Kent, in an outbreak that has killed two young people and left 15 others seriously ill.Meningitis is an infection of the protective lining of the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by different bacteria and viruses. Meningitis B, known as MenB, is the most common form of invasive meningococcal disease. It is caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, also known as the meningococcus

Sally Berry obituary

My friend and former colleague, Sally Berry, was a psychotherapist who spent many years engaged in two pioneering projects in London – at the Arbours Association, where she lived and worked with people with emotional difficulties, and at the Women’s Therapy Centre, where she provided counselling to women experiencing struggles in their personal lives.Sally, who has died aged 85, began living and working at the Arbours Association in one of their homes in Crouch End, north London, in 1971, and eventually headed up one of the Arbours houses elsewhere in London while also serving as chair of its training committee, which oversaw the mentoring of therapists and residents alike.In 1976 she also joined the Women’s Therapy Centre, where I was a co-founder with Luise Eichenbaum, as a one-day-a-week psychotherapist, juggling that role with her continued presence at the Arbours community and becoming the centre’s part-time clinical director in the late 1980s. The Women’s Therapy Centre closed in 2005 and she retired from the Arbours Association in 2018, after which she ran her own small private practice until 2021.Born in Oklahoma City in the US, Sally was the daughter of Alma (nee Payne) and Max Berry, a broker for a grocery store

Kent meningitis outbreak: a timeline of the health authorities’ response

Two young people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in Kent as private supplies of vaccines run out. Here’s what we know about how the disease spread and what the authorities did to tackle it.All the cases of the meningitis outbreak are linked to those who attended the Club Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury, Kent, on 5, 6 or 7 March. The club has since closed voluntarily. Anyone who attended the club on these dates or who believes they were in close contact with someone who was, has been urged to take up the offer of antibiotics