More than 200 patients died last year as a result of mistakes made by hospital staff while another 1,800 were made worse during treatment, it has been revealed.

{mosimage}Some patients were given overdoses of radiation or had healthy organs removed in operations, while others died after being wrongly attached to medical equipment.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 2,109 events which could injure patients, staff or public – known as serious untoward incidents – were reported to health authorities in 2006.

At least 221 resulted in avoidable deaths, including a 76-year-old man who had a feeding tube inserted into his lungs instead of his stomach and a pensioner who was given air instead of pure oxygen. Hundreds more patients were made worse while in hospital because of wrong diagnoses or mistakes in treatment, such as a woman who had chemotherapy and surgery for ovarian cancer when she never had the disease.

The proportion of profits GPs take out of their practices has increased since the new contract started in 2004, pushing average pay above £100,000. In an interview with the BBC News website, Patricia Hewitt said in hindsight ministers would have wanted to ensure doctors did not take so much.

A retired general labourer living in a Lancashire nursing home died after falling on the way to the bathroom, an inquest was told. Seventy-two-year-old Norman Hurst Kenyon was a resident of Starmount Villa Residential Care Home when he died on October 11, 2005.

Sutton’s services for people with learning disabilities have been slammed by watchdogs who uncovered 15 incidents of serious abuse including two sexual assaults on the same female patient.

Medical staff are to strike over plans they claim will `devastate’ Manchester’s mental health care and put patients and the public in danger.

Folic acid supplements can improve the memory and brain power of ageing brains, research shows. Men and women aged 50 to 70 who took daily supplements had similar mental abilities to contemporaries almost five years younger, The Lancet study found.

A shake-up of adult social care is to be further delayed because of a lack of evidence that the voluntary sector is ready to cope. The cost-cutting measures mean those with moderate needs would no longer be eligible for help from Bradford Council – saving the authority £1.7 million a year.

Proposals to widen the scope and improve the delivery of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) programme by making the application process more flexible, easier and quicker are being consulted on.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA’s GPs Committee commenting on the Health Secretary’s remarks about GP pay said: “The increases in GP pay were directly linked, at government insistence, to demonstrating the quality of the services they provide.

A major new partnership initiative has been launched to coordinate and develop services for people with autism in the North East. The North East Autism Consortium, led by the National Autistic Society (NAS), will bring together local agencies and services, as well as people with autism, to establish a long term strategy to meet the needs of the 26,000 children and adults living with autism in the region.