Doctors suspended over patients' deaths

Two Birmingham doctors have been suspended while investigations into the deaths of two patients are carried out.

Jamalapuram Hari-Gopal and his wife Samrajya Lakshmi have been stopped from working at the Philip Clarke Medical Centre while the multi-agency inquiry into the deaths takes place.

In February this year the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) inspected the Maypole Nursing Home the couple owned and raised serious concerns about the standard of care there.

West Midlands police are now investigating the deaths of two elderly female residents who died while in the nursing home's care.

Closed voluntarily

Birmingham City Council's Social Services Department had decided to terminate the home's contract, but the owners decided to close the Kings Heath premises voluntarily in March.

Residents were relocated to new homes and the NCSC said today that former patients are "well settled and much improved" in their new homes.

The Strategic Health Authority and South Birmingham Primary Care Trust have now launched their own investigation into the provision of GP services to the residents of the home.

Temporary cover has been arranged for the patients on both GPs' lists.