A Polish care worker shot in the head when she walked into a gangland fight in London was talking to her sister in Poland on her mobile phone when she was hit.

{mosimage}Magda Pniewska’s sister listened in horror, from their home town of Brzeg, as two gunshots rang out before the line cut out. She spent the next hours trying to get a reply.

Miss Pniewska, 26, who left Poland about four years ago to take up opportunities when her native country joined the European Union, had become another crime statistic.

She was killed when two young men traded gunshots from 50 yards apart near her home in New Cross, southeast London, on Monday evening.

Moments earlier Miss Pniewska had closed the door behind her at the BUPA nursing home where she worked with mentally ill patients to walk 150 yards home to the flat she shared with her Polish boyfriend.

As she approached a set of steps on the housing estate, where one of the men was standing, the gun battle started. She had no time to take cover and was hit in the head by a bullet. She was pronounced dead at King’s College Hospital.

An old friend, Tomasz Dragan, 26, told The Times last night that her family was “in deep sadness and cannot believe media reports”.

Care homes should be barred from hiding drugs in the food and drink of elderly residents, campaigners said yesterday.

{mosimage}The call follows concern that nursing staff are dishing out sedatives to the frail and elderly without their knowledge or consent. The new campaign follows official acknowledgement that drugs are often badly handled in care homes.

Last year the Government’s inspection body, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, reported that nearly half of all care home residents do not get the correct drugs and warned of risks of ‘wilful maladministration of medicine’.

The ‘chemical cosh’ for confused and vulnerable people can make life easy for those who are looking after them.

But it can also lead to a rapid decline in health and risk of death for the residents who are sedated.

Complaints over covert medication were raised with the Scottish Parliament by Hunter Watson, who discovered that care home staff were giving medication to his mother disguised in her meals.

He told the BBC: “It shouldn’t happen. It is very very convenient for staff at care homes to conceal drugs in the food and drink of residents, not for therapeutic problems but to make the residents easier to manage.

The owner of two Devon care homes has called in administrators following trading difficulties. Starlight Care Ltd, which owns the Swallowcliffe home in Seaton and the Koppers home in Kilmington, has called in Exeter corporate recovery firm Begbies Traynor.

Plans have been unveiled to build six state-of-the-art residential homes. The proposals are part of a 10-year plan by the county council and primary care trust to modernise care for the elderly in north and west Cumbria.

A care home nurse stuffed a plastic apron into a 99-year-old woman’s mouth as punishment for being noisy at lunch time, a hearing was told.

{mosimage}Anne Fisk ordered the vulnerable pensioner to ‘shut up’ after screwing up the disposable apron into a ball and forcing it into her mouth, it is claimed. The 52-year-old nurse allegedly told shocked fellow staff “You did not see that” after the incident at the Ghyll Royd House nursing home in Leeds.

Fisk later grabbed the pensioner – referred to as Resident A – by the wrist before smacking her because she had started banging cutlery on the table at tea time, it is claimed.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard that Fisk force-fed another 91-year-old patient who had trouble swallowing her food.

Fisk allegedly left the frail pensioner sobbing when she forced several mouthfuls of meat into her mouth.

Fellow staff had to comfort the woman, known as Resident B, after Fisk allegedly told her: “You are pathetic.”

Fisk, from Guisley, Leeds, denies the allegations of acting inappropriately to both residents. She faces being struck off. The committee heard that Resident A had hypertension and arthritis and needed a Zimmer frame to keep her mobile.

A care home manager who delayed getting a seriously ill 95-year-old resident vital medical treatment for nearly a fortnight has escaped with a caution.

Thirty six of the most innovative and effective social care and training providers across England have won the chance to win a national award at the Skills for Care Accolades gala presentation evening.

Two elderly residents were rescued from a Birmingham care home when a fire broke out. The man and a woman were taken to safety as firecrews tackled the blaze at Meadow Lodge in Edgbaston.

Dozens of people joined a protest in Staffordshire over plans to change the way day centres and care homes are run.

Six threatened county care homes are being advertised to property buyers on-line – despite an ongoing consultation over their future.