What do we expect of our emergency services? Good Community rapport, assistance in an emergency, life saving efforts? These are all things that spring to mind but should we be concerned that health and safety regulations in place are going to prevent them from carrying out all of these points?

One Scottish headline to hit today’s news would lead me to say yes.

This will be a shocking and disappointing story for many of you to read but I think it is important for our blog readers to be aware of developments involving such services.
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Peter Kidd’s Review of Cutting Edge: Scams, Claims and Compensation Claims, broadcast on Channel Four Thursday 25 February 2010.

The latest in a long line of instalments in Channel Four’s often controversial “Cutting Edge” Series of claims saw the programme tackle the role of Personal Injury Lawyers. The programme centred on Steve Ireland a personal injury solicitor in Liverpool and his attitude towards the process of making a personal injury claim. 

The programme’s portrayal was unfortunately bias in that confirmed many of the untrue clichés regarding the Personal Injury profession. For example one of the case studies was of a child who had fractured his toe whilst playing football at school in an uneven grate. Although the narrator did not specifically state this was a spurious claim, with its accent on the fact that the child claimant was looking to spend his money on a car and new football boots it was clear that the programme was showing that potential claimants were simply interested in bringing a claim to make a quick thousand pounds – making it clear what its makers were trying to say.
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Yes, we saw the program; and of course I couldn’t stop myself from writing about it! For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, the title of this article is from a recent Channel 4 television program that takes a look at both sides of the business in claiming for compensation; the innocent victims, and those alleged to be at fault for their accidents…

www.channel4.com/scams-claims-and-compensation-games

And some of the contents of the program were certainly true! Unfortunately we personal injury lawyers do on occasion get a bad rep for the work we do. But it doesn’t half make us feel good when we get a top result for a victim of an accident that wasn’t their fault!

But to discuss some of the issues in the program:
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A Scottish brewery has controversially launched what it describes as the world’s strongest beer – with a massive 32% alcohol content.

According to the BBC, the beer, named Tactical Nuclear Penguin, has been unveiled by BrewDog of Fraserburgh.

BrewDog has already been reprimanded and branded irresponsible for an 18.2% beer it produced called Tokyo.
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According to the BBC, John Summerfield is accused of failing to take reasonable care of pupils by taking them on to the roof of Sacred Heart Catholic College in Crosby, Merseyside.

The pupil, Joel Murray, 18, fell 8ft through a skylight, fracturing his skull, in August 2008.

Magistrates at South Sefton heard Mr Summerfield will deny the charge.

The head teacher’s barrister Patrick Cassidy said Mr Summerfield would be pleading not guilty and would be pleading not guilty and wanted to be tried by a crown court jury.
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According to the BBC, the warden, 55, was writing in his notebook in Quebec Avenue, Southend, when a man and woman approached him.

The warden was verbally abused by the male of the two, before the man put out the cigarette on the warden’s left cheek and then walked off.

A police spokesman, who said that the woman laughed during the attack, called it “vicious and totally unprovoked”.
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According to the BBC, Malcolm Griffiths admitted 16 charges relating to 11 patients at a rehabilitation clinic in Edinburgh.

One of the charges which was levelled at Mr Griffiths was that he fitted a left foot to patient Patrick Morrison, who had had his right foot removed after an amputated toe became infected with MRSA following hospital treatment.

Not only that, but Mr Griffiths failed to spot his mistake at two further checkups.
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Air traffic controllers have been forced to change instructions to pilots after confusion led to two planes colliding while taxiing on to a runway in 2008.

According to the BBC, the pilot of the Boeing 737 involved in the accident, who drove this plane in to the tail of a passing plane, stated that he found the words “give way” confused him.

Following a report by the Air Accident Investigations Branch, Manchester Airport opted to withdraw the term from use to avoid any further confusion occurring.
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A damning report by the Air Accidents Investigations Branch (or AAIB) has found that safety work was not properly completed on a plane whose landing gear collapsed.

According to the BBC, the British Airways Avro 146 flight, which was carrying 67 passengers, filled with smoke as it landed in February 2009. The incident occurred at London City Airport and was the result of a fatigue crack in the landing gear.

Although records showed that improvement work had been undertaken on the plane by its manufacturer, it clearly had not been completed.
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The family of a woman who died after she was prescribed an overdose of morphine say they are “disgusted” that the pharmacist involved has been cleared to continue in his position.

According to the BBC, Catherine Rodger, 75, died of a heart attack within hours of taking her first pill.  She was usually prescribed 10 mg of morphine to help with her back pain but was given a prescription of 100 mg on this occasion, 10 times her normal dosage.

Damages were paid by the practitioner, a Dr Salahuddin Malik and the pharmacist, Mr Andrew Nixon. It was Mr Nixon who distributed the prescription and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society found that, although he should have realised the doctor’s error and they acknowledged that he had made a serious mistake, his fitness to continue to practice was not impaired.
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