Jump to content
  • articles
    6,822
  • comments
    75
  • views
    4,632,533

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Australian doctor suspended amid investigation into woman’s death after abortion

A doctor working at a women’s health clinic in Melbourne has been suspended as a regulator revealed it was aware of concerns about other practitioners there. The facility’s boss claims it is a “witch hunt”.

It follows the death of 30-year-old mother Harjit Kaur, who died in January at the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic after what was described as a “minor procedure”.

It was later identified as a pregnancy termination.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has confirmed Dr Rudolph Lopes’ registration had been suspended but did not reveal the reason behind the decision.

His registration details show he was reprimanded in 2021 for failing to respond to the regulator’s inquiries.

“[The regulator] has received a range of concerns about a number of practitioners associated with the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic,” Ahpra said in a statement.

“[The regulator] has established a specialist team to lead a co-ordinated examination of these issues which involve multiple practitioners across a number of professions and across a number of practice locations.”

Ahpra chief executive, Martin Fletcher, said he was “gravely concerned by the picture that is emerging.”

“We have taken strong action to protect the public while our investigations continue,” Fletcher said.

“National boards stand ready to take any further regulatory action needed to keep patients safe.

“While the coroner continues to examine the tragic death of a patient, our inquiries are focusing on a wider range of issues that our investigations bring to light.”

Read more

Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2024

Read more
 

Calls for public inquiry into 20,000 sexual abuse allegations on NHS wards

The government is facing calls for a public inquiry into the scandal of sexual abuse in mental health hospitals, following an investigation by The Independent.

Rape Crisis England and Wales has warned that the “alarming” scale of abuse within the UK’s psychiatric system requires “major intervention” from ministers.

It comes after an expose by the Independent and Sky News revealed that almost 20,000 reports of sexual incidents – involving both patients and staff – had been made in more than half of NHS mental health trusts in the past five years.

As well as a public inquiry, which would give survivors the chance to give evidence, Rape Crisis England and Wales wants the government to appoint a named minister with responsibility for addressing the problem.

Chief executive Ciara Bergman said: “That anyone in the already vulnerable position of needing or being detained for in-patient care because of their mental health needs should experience sexual violence and abuse whilst in the care of the state, is deeply concerning.

“We are concerned that without major intervention and leadership at the highest levels, this could lead to more incidents of sexual violence and abuse happening, and this behaviour being accepted as inevitable, when it is not, and is indeed absolutely preventable.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 15 March 2024

Read more

Parents watched 18 month old die after Shrewsbury hospital failings

Alice and Lewis Jones were forced to watch their 18-month-old baby die in front of them after a failure by a scandal-hit NHS trust left him with a “catastrophic brain injury” following his birth.

Their son Ronnie was one of hundreds of babies who have died following errors by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital, where the largest NHS maternity scandal to date was previously uncovered by The Independent.

Two years later, Mr and Mrs Jones are calling for the Supreme Court to overturn a controversial decision in February which ruled bereaved relatives could not claim compensation over the psychological impact of seeing a loved one die, even if it was caused by medical negligence.

It comes after the trust admitted to failings in a letter to the parents’ lawyers.

Ronnie’s birth in 2020 fell outside of the Ockenden review and his parents have warned it showed failures were still occurring despite warnings made during the inquiry.

Within the Ockenden inquiry, multiple cases of staff failing to recognise and act upon CTG training were found, and the final report recommended all hospitals have systems to ensure staff are trained and up to date in CTG and emergency skills.

The report also said the NHS should make CTG training mandatory and that clinicians must not work in labour wards or provide childbirth care without it.

A CTG measures a baby’s heart and monitors conditions in the uterus and is an important measure before birth and during labour to observe the baby for any signs of distress.

Ms Jones said: “We knew about the Ockenden review, but everything at Telford was new and so I think we just assumed that lessons had been learned, the same thing wouldn’t happen to us.”

Ronnie’s parents are campaigning to reverse the Supreme Court which ruled that “secondary victims” – including parents who are not directly harmed by the birth – are not eligible to bring claims for psychiatric injury following medical negligence.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 14 March 2024

Read more

Trust ordered to make second £400k-plus payment to a whistleblower

A trust which last year was ordered to pay a whistleblowing nurse nearly £500,000 must now give a surgeon £430,000 to compensate him for the racial discrimination and harassment he faced after raising patient safety concerns.

Tribunal judges previously upheld complaints made by Manuf Kassem against North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and have published a remedy judgment this week setting out the levels of damages the NHS organisation must pay.

The judgment comes just over a year after a former senior nurse at the trust was awarded £472,600 for unfair dismissal after she warned high workloads had led to a patient’s death.

Mr Kassem raised 25 concerns regarding patients’ care during a grievance meeting in August 2017. He alleged patients had “suffered complications, negligence, delayed treatment and avoidable deaths”.

A trust review concluded appropriate processes were followed in the 25 cases. However, the tribunal ruled Mr Kassem was subjected to detriment after making the protected disclosure.

According to the judgment, Mr Kassem was subsequently removed from the on-call emergency rota and his identity as a whistleblower was revealed by clinical director Anil Agarwal.

In September 2018, he was the subject of a disciplinary investigation following several allegations against him made by colleagues and others, which concerned “unsafe working practices,” “excessive working hours,” and “potential fraudulent activity.”

The investigation lasted 17 months and none of the allegations against Mr Kassem were upheld or progressed to a disciplinary hearing. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 15 March 2024

Read more

‘Continuity risk’ to abortion services triggers national intervention

NHS England has told integrated care board (ICBs) leaders they must intervene over failures in abortion services in their patches amid “unprecedented demand” for such provision, HSJ has learned.

NICE guidance states people should be assessed within a week of requesting an abortion, while procedures should take place within a week of assessment.

However, NHSE said in a letter to ICBs today that “significant service pressures” have driven up waiting times for surgical abortions – approximately 13% of procedures – to three weeks or longer.

NHSE has told ICBs to work with providers to, by July 2024:

  • Respond to cases of “acute service disruption” and instances where rising waiting times risk limiting access to services;
  • Establish referral pathways and procedures to ensure smooth transfers of care between independent and NHS providers when required;
  • Ensure contracts for 2024-25 are sustainable and follow guidance in the NHS payment scheme; and
  • Commission services in a more managed and collaborative way, including coordination of provision locally to bring waiting times in line with NICE standards.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 12 March 2024

Read more

Oxford palliative care 'virtual ward' launched

A "virtual ward" enabling patients who want to die at home get the palliative care they need has launched.

Hospice Outreach provides a "specialised pathway" for patients identified by existing services who would benefit from support.

It is part of a project that supports people at the very end of their life.

Dr Victoria Bradley, of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH), said it was about giving people "control and agency".

OUH claims Hospice Outreach's virtual ward will mean more people will receive personalised care, including in their own homes if that is their choice.

It said specialist palliative care would be "provided virtually or in person, depending on what is best for the patient".

Amelia Foster, chief executive at Sobell House, said: "Being able to offer a virtual ward to those in a palliative crisis or at the end of their lives helping them to remain at home means more people can access our care in the way that they wish."

Dr Bradley, who is the clinical lead for palliative medicine at OUH, said: "We can support with discharge from hospital to people's homes if that is their wish, and by reducing people's time in hospital and caring for them at home, we can offer the right support in their chosen surroundings."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 14 March 2024

Read more

Covid patients wrongly issued with ‘do not resuscitate’ orders, watchdog finds

Doctors made do-not-resuscitate orders for elderly and disabled patients during the pandemic without the knowledge of their families, breaching their human rights, a parliamentary watchdog has said.

In a new report on breaches of the orders during the pandemic, the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found failings from at least 13 patient complaints.

The research, carried out with the charity Dignity in Dying, found “unacceptable” failures in how end-of-life care conversations are held, and in particular with elderly and disabled patients.

Following a review of complaints in 2019 and 2020 the PHSO found evidence in some cases that doctors did not even inform the patient or their family that a notice had been made and so breached their human rights.

The report calls for health services in Britain to improve the approach by medics in talking about death and end-of-life care.

In examples of cases reviewed, the PHSO revealed the story of 58-year-old Sonia Deleon who had schizophrenia and learning disabilities and a notice which was wrongly applied during the pandemic.

In 2020, she was admitted to Southend University Hospital after contracting Covid-19 at age 58. On three occasions a notice was made but her family were never informed.

Following Sonia’s death her family found out the reasons given by doctors for the DNAR which “included frailty, having a learning disability, poor physiological reserve, schizophrenia and being dependent for daily activities.”

Sonia’s sister Sally-Rose Cyrille said: “I was devastated, shocked and angry. The fact that multiple notices had been placed in Sone’s file without consultation with us, without our knowledge, it was like being hit with a sledgehammer.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 14 March 2024

Read more

Staff whistleblowers raise concerns over patient safety at hospital at Royal Victoria Hospital

Staff whistleblowers have raised concerns over patient safety at one of Northern Ireland's biggest health trusts.

Information received by UTV under Freedom of Information shows that most of the worries from health workers at the Belfast Health Trust relate to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Belfast Health Trust said any concerns raised by staff are investigated.

The Royal College of Nursing NI was due to hold a webinar with members on Tuesday evening to discuss concerns members have about safety of patients being treated on corridors.

The RCN's Rita Devlin said that the number of concerns raised with health trusts through the whistleblowing policy is only the tip of the iceberg.

The concerns included unsafe staffing levels, bed shortages, boarding of patients, ED overcrowding, alleged drug dealing on a hospital site, staff sleeping on night duty, lack of mental health beds and the quality of staff training.

The Belfast Trust said all staff are encouraged to make management aware of issues giving them concern through the whistleblowing process.

The Trust added: "Any concern we receive is subject to a fair and proportionate process of investigation.

"Whistleblowing investigations are of a fact finding nature and all relevant learning is shared as appropriate and taken forward by the Trust."

Read full story

Source: ITVX. 12 March 2024

Read more

Egg freezing patients ‘misled’ by clinics

Women who freeze their eggs are being misled by some UK clinics about their chances of having a baby, a fertility charity says.

The Fertility Network was reacting to BBC analysis that found 41% of clinics offering the service privately could be breaching advertising guidance.

The watchdog which sets guidance says clinics "must not give false or misleading information".

It comes as a record number of people are freezing their eggs.

The UK fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), also said it was concerned about the information given to those considering egg freezing.

A successful pregnancy is not guaranteed by the procedure.

Egg freezing for non-medical reasons, also known as social egg freezing, is an increasingly popular method for women to preserve their fertility in order to have children at a later date.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 13 March 2024

Read more

NHS England trusts advised to offer women two weeks’ miscarriage leave

Women working for the NHS will be entitled to two weeks’ leave if they have a miscarriage, in a move hailed as a major step to wider recognition of the trauma of baby loss.

NHS England has announced that all staff who lose a baby before 24 weeks should receive up to 10 days’ paid leave to help them recover from the distress involved.

“Baby loss is an extremely traumatic experience that hundreds of NHS staff experience each year and it is right that they are treated with the utmost care and compassion when going through such an upsetting experience,” said Dr Navina Evans, its chief officer for workforce, training and education.

Women will also be able to take further paid time off after a miscarriage for medical examinations, scans or other tests, or to receive mental health support, as well as the two-week grieving period.

Rachel Hutchings, a fellow at the Nuffield Trust health thinktank, said its recent research into how parenting and caring responsibilities affect surgeons found that some staff who had a miscarriage did not feel well supported by the NHS.

“Although some organisations had already introduced additional support for people who experienced baby loss, it is incredibly welcome that this policy recognises the experiences of these individuals and will ensure a more consistent approach”, said Hutchings.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2024

Read more

Trusts offered up to £4m to make last-ditch attempt on A&E target

NHS England has confirmed new financial incentives for trusts to deliver strong performance against the four-hour emergency target this month.

National leaders are desperate for the NHS to hit the four-hour target in 76% of cases in March, telling trusts earlier this month that it was necessary to restore confidence in the health service.

They took the unusual step at the start of the month of asking local leaders to sign a commitment to deliver the necessary performance. The recent pressure has come under criticism for encouraging hospitals to prioritise four-hour performance over caring for the sickest patients.

It was also indicated there would be new financial incentives for those delivering the best performance.

In a letter, NHSE confirmed a significant expansion to the criteria for trusts to claim a share of a £150m incentive fund, by improving their headline accident and emergency performance.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 12 March 2024

Read more

Trust’s treatment of Muslims heavily criticised by board director

A board director has publicly criticised his trust for its treatment of Muslim staff and patients.

Mohammed Hussain posted on social media that some board members at Bradford Teaching Hospitals “are not heard and listened to”, and that there is a “dissonance” between its espoused values and the “lived experiences” of minority ethnic staff.

Mr Hussain, a non-executive director since 2019, was responding to a post by CEO Mel Pickup, who had said the trust had a “variety of support offers for colleagues observing Ramadan”.

He said there are “many examples” of Muslim families experiencing poor responses to complaints to the trust, while claiming that “outstanding” Muslim staff are having to “move out of the area to progress because they are not promoted internally”.

The trust said its launching an investigation into the concerns raised by Mr Hussain. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 12 March 2024

Read more
 

New RPS project investigates medicines shortages

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is leading a new project to examine the causes of the growing challenge of medicines shortages and help tackle their impact on patients and pharmacy practice.

A new advisory group, convened by RPS and chaired by RPS Fellow Dr Bruce Warner, will meet later this month and bring together experts from primary and secondary care, patients, the pharmaceutical industry, suppliers, regulators, government and the NHS.

Read full press release

Source: The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 13 March 2024

Read more
 

NHS England to stop prescribing puberty blockers

Children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed.

The decision comes after a review found there was "not enough evidence" they are safe or effective.

Puberty blockers, which pause the physical changes of puberty, will now only be available as part of research.

It comes weeks before an independent review into gender identity services in England is due to be published.

An interim report from the review, published in 2022 by Dr Hilary Cass, had earlier found there were "gaps in evidence" around the drugs and called for a transformation in the model of care for children with gender-related distress.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield said: "We have always been clear that children's safety and wellbeing is paramount, so we welcome this landmark decision by the NHS.

"Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and is in the best interests of the child."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 13 March 2024

Read more

Mental health trust failed to heed safety warnings, campaigners say

A mental health trust linked to thousands of unexpected patient deaths repeatedly failed to act on coroners' safety warnings, campaigners say.

BBC News has been given exclusive access to new evidence from coroners' reports gathered by a campaign group.

It wants a criminal investigation into why so many patients died at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust - and has sent police the evidence.

Campaigners, including patients and bereaved families, claim it is failing to make vital safety improvements despite promising to do so.

Last summer, a report found more than 8,000 mental-health patients had died unexpectedly in Norfolk and Suffolk between 2019 and 2022. This is defined as the death of a patient who has not been identified as critically ill or whose death is not expected by the clinical team.

The new evidence, based on 38 coroners' prevention of future death (PFD) reports since 2013, suggests there were repeated warnings more patients could die unless safety issues were addressed, including:

  • dangerously poor record-keeping and communication
  • family concerns being ignored
  • unsafe levels of staffing at the trust.

And campaigners say the trust's failure to improve safety has led to more deaths.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 12 March 2024

Read more

50,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer by 2029 unless NHS gets major investment, charity warns

At least 50,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer over the next five years unless the government gives more funding to improve how quickly the condition is diagnosed and treated, a major charity has warned.

Pancreatic Cancer UK hit out at 50 years of “unacceptably slow progress” compared to other types of cancer as it warned that thousands of lives will be lost unless £35m of “urgent” investment is put towards improving survival rates of the disease.

The charity predicted that pancreatic cancer – described by experts as the “quickest-killing cancer” – is expected to kill more people each year than breast cancer by 2027, which would make it the fourth-biggest cause of cancer deaths in the UK.

The charity has also called for a commitment to treat everyone diagnosed with the cancer within 21 days, which it says would double the number of people getting treatment in time.

Figures show that, compared to the 52.5% survival rate across the 20 most common cancers in the UK, those with pancreatic cancer have just a 7% survival rate.

Around 10,500 people are diagnosed with the disease each year, with 9,558 deaths a year, according to Cancer Research UK, with more than half of people dying within three months of diagnosis.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 12 March 2024

Read more

Millions urged to get free NHS check for ‘silent killer’

Millions of people are being urged to get checks for a condition which has been described as the “silent killer”.

If left untreated, high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and vascular dementia.

Up to 4.2 million people in England are thought to be living with high blood pressure without knowing it – around a third of all those with the condition.

Now, a new NHS Get Your Blood Pressure Checked campaign has been launched, backed by health charities, to warn people the condition often has no symptoms.

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, said: “High blood pressure usually has no symptoms but can lead to serious health consequences.

“The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to get a simple, non-invasive blood pressure test.

“Even if you are diagnosed, the good news is that it’s usually easily treatable.

“Getting your blood pressure checked at a local pharmacy is free, quick and you don’t even need an appointment, so please go for a check today – it could save your life.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 11 March 2024

Read more

Warning over use in UK of unregulated AI chatbots to create social care plans

Britain’s hard-pressed carers need all the help they can get. But that should not include using unregulated AI bots, according to researchers who say the AI revolution in social care needs a hard ethical edge.

A pilot study by academics at the University of Oxford found some care providers had been using generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard to create care plans for people receiving care.

That presents a potential risk to patient confidentiality, according to Dr Caroline Green, an early career research fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford, who surveyed care organisations for the study.

“If you put any type of personal data into [a generative AI chatbot], that data is used to train the language model,” Green said. “That personal data could be generated and revealed to somebody else.”

She said carers might act on faulty or biased information and inadvertently cause harm, and an AI-generated care plan might be substandard.

But there were also potential benefits to AI, Green added. “It could help with this administrative heavy work and allow people to revisit care plans more often. At the moment, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to do that, but there are organisations working on creating apps and websites to do exactly that.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 March 2024

Read more

‘My GP suggested it’: Britons explain why they went private for surgery

Private hospitals are caring for a record number of patients paying through their own savings or private medical insurance, according to figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network. 

Helen, a semi-retired frontline worker in south-east England, spent nearly £50,000 of her retirement savings on major spinal surgery to get her life back after two years of debilitating pain.

Helen, 56, began experiencing extreme lower back pain and leg pain in September 2021, triggered by a dog colliding with her leg in the park. Though it was not caused by the trigger, she was diagnosed by the NHS with spondylosis in November 2021, and then a pars defect (a condition affecting the lower spine), and offered scans and physiotherapy. She said six months of physiotherapy, beginning in early 2022, resulted in no improvement, and she was offered pain management and a steroid epidural, which she said also did not help.

“I rarely ventured out in these two years … due to the extreme pain I was in when sitting, standing or walking. Life effectively stopped in 2021,” she said. Desperate, she booked a consultation in May 2023 with a neurosurgeon and was told she needed an operation.

Helen asked whether it would be possible for the neurosurgeon, who also works within the NHS, to do it on the NHS rather than privately. A referral could be made, she was told – but the surgery was likely to involve a waiting time of 18 months to two years. “My husband and I discussed it, and he said: you’ve already had no life for the last two years, do you really want to wait another two?”

She had the spinal surgery in August 2023 and is now managing her pain with over-the-counter medication, rather than the stronger painkillers she was on before. It cost her a staggering £48,345.

The financial hit has been huge. “I was absolutely gutted to have to go private. This has knocked us both; we didn’t see us in our lives having to pay for something like this. We’ve managed our finances carefully and always saved where we can. But that lump sum [that we] can access when we retire … That lump sum has just gone now.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2024

 

Read more

Bereaved families continue to wait for Essex mental health inquiry

Bereaved relatives have accused ministers of dragging their feet over an inquiry into the death of almost 2,000 patients across NHS mental health trusts in Essex.

The inquiry has still not started more than eight months after the announcement that it would be relaunched with beefed-up powers.

In June last year, the government gave in to pressure from families and the then chair of the inquiry, granting it legal powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. In December, the new terms of reference were sent to ministers, setting out what the inquiry will investigate.

But the terms of reference have yet to be approved by ministers, leaving relatives frustrated, with another “unnecessary” death reported a few weeks ago.

Melanie Leahy, whose son, Matthew, died at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford in 2012, said: “I know that this inquiry, the first of its kind nationally, if carried out in a timely and comprehensively investigative manner, it has the power to prevent more deaths, not just in Essex but all over the UK.

“Why am I and all the other bereaved families and injured individuals still waiting? Worse, why are we being met with such callous and terrifying indifference? Why are our legal team being ignored? We can only conclude that our government simply does not care. If the government continues to drag its feet in this way then they must be held to account for their failings. If there are more deaths during this interminable wait, this government needs to be held responsible.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2024

Read more

Hospital declares critical incident as beds full

A large number of people in hospital beds waiting for onward care has forced an NHS trust to declare a critical incident to "protect patient safety".

Isle of Wight NHS Trust said on Monday demand for its emergency departments was outstripping the number of free beds, leading to delays.

People are being asked to collect their relatives as soon as they are ready to be discharged.

In a statement, interim chief operating officer Victoria Lauchlan said: "We currently have a high number of people in hospital beds who are waiting for onward care arrangements in the community.

"We are working as an island healthcare system to do everything we can to ensure we can help better support these people to be discharged home with a package of care or to care and nursing homes.

"At this time we are asking people to help by collecting their relatives or friends as soon as they are ready to leave and helping with any additional care and support at home."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 12 March 2024

Read more

USA: 10 urgent patient safety challenges in 2024

While employment for new clinicians was positive in the last year with 96% of new nurses finding work, the issue is transitioning those clinicians from education into bedside and hospital practice, which is the most pressing safety challenge of 2024, according to the ECRI's annual report on patient safety.

"[T]here is growing concern about the difficulty of transitioning new clinicians from education to practice — in the face of several factors exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic," an overview of the report states. "Without sufficient preparation, support, and training, new clinicians can experience loss of confidence, burnout, and reduced mindfulness around culture of safety. The combination of these factors may lead to preventable harm."

The ECRI publishes independent medical device evaluations, annually aggregates scientific literature and patient safety events, concerns reported to or investigated by the organization, and other data sources to create its top 10 report.

Each topic that landed in this year's top 10 "represents a failure in at least one of these areas; in fact, many overlap and their roots are found in multiple areas," the report notes. 

Read full story

Source: Becker Hospital Review, 11 March 2024

Read more
 

Priory healthcare group fined £650,000 over death of patient

The Priory healthcare group has been fined more than £650,000 over the death of a 23-year-old patient who was hit by a train after absconding from a mental health hospital.

Matthew Caseby, a personal trainer, was able to leave Birmingham’s Priory hospital Woodbourne by scaling a wall after being “inappropriately unattended” for several minutes in September 2020, an inquest jury ruled in 2022.

The healthcare company pleaded guilty to a criminal safety failing linked to the death of a patient, breaching the 2008 Health and Social Care Act, at Birmingham magistrates court on Friday.

The London-based provider was charged after an investigation into the death of Caseby conducted by the Care Quality Commission.

Caseby’s father, Richard Caseby, who had been campaigning for a prosecution of the healthcare organisation, told the court the company attempted to “evade accountability for its gross failures”.

In a victim impact statement which he presented as part of the prosecution on Friday, he said: “I found it unbelievable that a private company commissioned by the NHS to care for its most vulnerable psychiatric patients in the greatest crisis of their lives could be so cruel and resort to such desperate tactics to hide the truth.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2024

Read more

£35 million investment to boost maternity safety

Almost £35 million will be invested to improve maternity safety across England with the recruitment of additional midwives and the expansion of specialist training to thousands of extra healthcare workers.

The investment, which was announced as part of the Spring Budget 2024, will be provided over the next 3 years to ensure maternity services listen to and act on women’s experiences to improve care.  

The funding includes:

  • £9 million for the rollout of the reducing brain injury programme across maternity units in England, to provide healthcare workers with the tools and training to reduce avoidable brain injuries in childbirth
  • investment in training to ensure the NHS workforce has the skills needed to provide ever safer maternity care. An additional 6,000 clinical staff will be trained in neonatal resuscitation and we will almost double the number of clinical staff receiving specialist training in obstetric medicine in England
  • increasing the number of midwives by funding 160 new posts over 3 years to support the growth of the maternity and neonatal workforce 
  • funding to support the rollout of maternity and neonatal voice partnerships to improve how women’s experiences and views are listened to and acted on to improve care.

Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said:

"I want every mother to feel safe when giving birth to their baby.

Improving maternity care is a key cornerstone of our Women’s Health Strategy and with this investment we are delivering on that priority - more midwives, specialist training in obstetric medicine and pushing to improve how women are listened to in our healthcare system.

£35 million is going directly to improving the safety and care in our maternity wards and will move us closer to our goal of making healthcare faster, simpler and fairer for all."

Read full story

Source: Gov.UK, 10 March 2024

Read more

UK report reveals bias within medical tools and devices

Minority ethnic people, women and people from deprived communities are at risk of poorer healthcare because of biases within medical tools and devices, a report has revealed.

Among other findings, the Equity in Medical Devices: Independent Review has raised concerns over devices that use artificial intelligence (AI), as well as those that measure oxygen levels. The team behind the review said urgent action was needed.

Prof Frank Kee, the director of the centre for public health at Queen’s University Belfast and a co-author of the review, said: “We’d like an equity lens on the entire lifecycle of medical devices, from the initial testing, to recruitment of patients either in hospital or in the community, into the early phase studies and the implementation in the field after they are licensed,.”

The government-commissioned review was set up by Sajid Javid in 2022 when he was health secretary after concerns were raised over the accuracy of pulse oximeter readings in Black and minority ethnic people.

The widely used devices were thrown into the spotlight due to their importance in healthcare during the Covid pandemic, where low oxygen levels were an important sign of serious illness.

The report has confirmed concerns pulse oximeters overestimate the amount of oxygen in the blood of people with dark skin, noting that while there was no evidence of this affecting care in the NHS, harm has been found in the US with such biases leading to delayed diagnosis and treatment, as well as worse organ function and death, in Black patients.

The team members stress they are not calling for the devices to be avoided. Instead the review puts forward a number of measures to improve the use of pulse oximeters in people of different skin tones, including the need to look at changes in readings rather than single readings, while it also provides advice on how to develop and test new devices to ensure they work well for patients of all ethnicities.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 11 March 2024

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...