Medical matters dominate papers

Medical Matrix

Medical stories are a dominant theme across Saturday's papers. In particular, much attention is given to new plans to allow nurses to decide over resuscitating patients.   The front pages of the Daily Mail, the Times and the Daily Telegraph all go with the news that nurses will be able to decide whether to resuscitate patients. The idea is anathema to the Daily Mail. It reports the views of one patients' group under the headline, "Nurses to have the power to end a life".   The Times is in favour, noting that nurses are closer to patients than doctors.   In the Telegraph, a Christian Medical Fellowship spokesman says it is unfair to place the responsibility on nurses.   Together in death There are more medical matters in the Sun, one of many papers to relate the demise of Lionel and Rosemary Owen.   The elderly couple's daughter claims they both died from Clostridium Difficile at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, only a few minutes apart.   Nina Griffith tells the Sun the hospital knew her mother had the superbug but allowed her to visit for treatment, and she gave it to her husband.   She tells the Daily Express her mother believed in the NHS but it failed her.   The hospital tells the Sun it is investigating the "complex" circumstances surrounding the deaths.   Brain injury fear A Guardian exclusive reveals the Ministry of Defence is holding a major study into brain injuries in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.   The report says the soldiers may have suffered the injuries after being exposed to high-powered bomb blasts.   Troops are at risk due to increased use of road-side bombs, the paper explains, and even the most advanced helmets cannot protect the brain from the shock waves.   Victims suffer symptoms such as acute memory loss and flashbacks, it says.   Galloping prices The Financial Times is preoccupied with the price of oil. It says the price of crude has hit a new record, jumping above 92 dollars for the first time.   According to one futures trader quoted in the paper momentum in the oil market is like "riding on a galloping horse".   "Scotland-10, England-nil", reads the inflammatory headline on the front of the Independent.   The paper looks at how life has changed for Scots since devolution, and concludes that they have never had it so good.