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London: Nurses should be able to give the abortion pill to women without the need for two doctors to approve the termination, experts said yesterday.
Ethics chiefs at a British Medical Association (BMA) conference spoke up for the rules governing abortions carried out up to 14 weeks into pregnancy to be liberalised to make the procedure safer for patients.
Women who are less than nine weeks pregnant can be prescribed two tablets that induce a miscarriage, but the conference heard that delays in the system often force women to wait six weeks or more, meaning they have to undergo a surgical abortion that carries greater risks.
Tony Calland, chairman of the BMA's medical ethics committee, said: "There is a natural delay in the process even in areas where the system works well.
"It is not unusual for women to be 14 or 15 weeks pregnant before they have a termination, even if they came to the doctor at six weeks. That means they have to have a surgical termination and the delay is adding risk.
"Under a new system it could be very quick."
Last year the number of abortions carried out in England rose above 200,000 for the first time, with 68 per cent performed earlier than 10 weeks and 30 per cent carried out using the pill method.
Dr Calland said that with proper training there was no reason why nurses and midwives could not hand out the tablets.
He said many parts of the 40-year-old Abortion Act needed updating because of medical advances and changes in social attitude.
Anti-abortion campaigners attacked Dr Calland's suggestion.
Julia Millington, political director of the ProLife Alliance, said: "The proposal to allow nurses to carry out first trimester abortions is outrageous. Why should nurses be made to do the dirty work?"
Dying are forced to stay in hospitals
London: Thousands of terminally ill Londoners are forced to die in hospital because there are not enough staff and funds for home care.
Figures published yesterday show that while two out of three people want to die in their own bed, in some areas more than 70 per cent actually spend their final hours in hospital.
Cancer charity Marie Curie has unveiled a new project to tackle the problem. Chief executive Thomas Hughes-Hallett said: "Families are traumatised if their loved one has to die in hospital when they wanted to be at home. There are strong feelings of guilt and it spoils their memories of patient care. That is very damaging."
He aims to double the number of people able to die at home as part of a pilot project in Lambeth. Andrew Eyres, chief executive of Lambeth Primary Care Trust, said: "There are clear barriers which stop patients making the right choice over their place of death."
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