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Women bear brunt of ‘gargantuan challenges’ for health and care services during pandemic

Women are bearing the overwhelming brunt of the “gargantuan challenges” health and care services are grappling with during the Covid pandemic, health leaders have said.

A new study by the NHS Confederation’s Health and Care Women Leaders Network found female health and care workers’s physical and mental health substantially deteriorated due to working during the coronavirus crisis.

The survey, which polled more than 1,200 NHS staff in February and March this year after the virus peaked, found issues with mental and physical health had notably worsened since last summer.

Researchers found more than 80% of women said the pandemic meant their job had greater detrimental repercussions on their emotional wellbeing. This is a significant rise from 72% of female workers who said the same during equivalent research carried out in June.

The report, which polled nurses, doctors, administrative staff, allied health professionals and managers, warned there are “still many mountains to climb” as services strive to cope with the chaos unleashed by the Covid crisis, as well as dealing with the long-term consequences of the pandemic.

The study said: ”This includes tackling the growing issue of long Covid, meeting increased demand for mental health services, continuing to deliver the largest vaccination programme the UK has ever seen, and addressing a backlog of treatment that could extend to nearly seven million people by the end of 2021."

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Source: The Independent, 5 May 2021

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Women at greater risk of heart attack death due to medical sexism

Women are a third less likely to receive lifesaving treatment for heart attacks due to sexism in medicine, research shows.

Research led by the University of Leeds and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) pooled NHS data from previous studies looking at common heart conditions over the past two decades.

It investigated how care varied according to age and sex, finding that women were significantly less likely to receive treatment for heart attacks and heart failure.

Following the most severe type of heart attack — a Stemi — women were one third less likely to receive a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure called a coronary angiogram.

Women were significantly more likely to die after being admitted to hospital with a severe heart attack. They were also less likely to be prescribed preventative drugs that can help to protect against future heart attacks, such as statins or beta-blockers.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the BHF and a consultant cardiologist said: “This review adds to existing evidence showing that the odds are stacked against women when it comes to their heart care. Deep-rooted inequalities mean women are underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underserved by today’s healthcare system."

“The underrepresentation of women in research could jeopardise the effectiveness of new tests and treatment, posing a threat to women’s health in the long-term,” she added.

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Source: The Times, 5 October 2023

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Women asked if bladder drug should be available to buy

A pill to help treat an overactive bladder - which affects millions of women - could soon be available to buy in the UK without prescription.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) wants women and doctors to submit their views.

Aquiette tablets treat the "urge to pee" condition which can cause frequent toilet trips and distressing accidents. Symptoms include having to urinate at least eight times a day and more than once during the night.

It would be the first time a medicine for the treatment of overactive bladder would be available without prescription.

Dr Laura Squire, from the MHRA, said: "For many women, an overactive bladder can make day-to-day living extremely challenging.

"It can impact on relationships, on work, on social life, and it can lead to anxiety and depression.

"Fortunately there are treatments around, and from today you will have a chance to have your say on whether one of those treatments, Aquiette, can be available for the first time without a prescription."

Minister for Women's Health Maria Caulfield said: "When it comes to sensitive issues such as bladder control, speaking to a GP may act as a barrier for some women to seek help.

"Reclassification of Aquiette would enable women to access vital medication without needing a prescription."

The Commission on Human Medicines has been consulted and has advised that it is safe for Aquiette to be made available over-the-counter at UK pharmacies.

The consultation will run for three weeks, closing on 6 May, 2022.

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Source: BBC News, 23 April 2022

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Women are duped into believing the most common mesh operation is safe, campaigners say

The NHS have duped thousands of women into believing the most common incontinence mesh operation is safe, by not adding loss of sex life into its risk figures, campaigners say.

The move keeps figures low so surgeons can reassure women that it is a safe day case operation.

The discovery is buried in a report from five years ago, and when questioned on it, the MHRA, tasked with making sure implants are safe for patients, passed the buck and blamed the report authors.

The revelation comes after a debate in Westminster, where health minister Jackie Doyle Price said there was not enough evidence to suspend the plastic implants and quoted a risk of 1-3%.

However, those figures were blown out of the water just weeks before the debate in a landmark study using the NHS’s own hospital re-admission figures which show TVT mesh tape risk is at least 10%.

Campaigners say even that is not a reflection of the true scale of the mesh disaster because it does not take into account women going to doctors for pain medication or those suffering in silence.

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Source: Cambs Times, 31 October 201t

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Women and babies remain at risk of unsafe NHS care, experts warn

A shortage of more than 2,000 midwives means women and babies will remain at risk of unsafe care in the NHS despite an inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in its history, health leaders have warned.

A landmark review of Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, led by the maternity expert Donna Ockenden, will publish its final findings on Wednesday with significant implications for maternity care across the UK.

The inquiry, which has examined more than 1,800 cases over two decades, is expected to conclude that hundreds of babies died or were seriously disabled because of mistakes at the NHS trust, and call for changes.

But NHS and midwifery officials said they fear a growing shortage of NHS maternity staff means trusts may be unable to meet new standards set out in the report.

“I am deeply worried when senior staff are saying they cannot meet the recommendations in the Ockenden review which are vital to ensuring women and babies get the safest possible maternity care,” said Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

The number of midwives has fallen to 26,901, according to NHS England figures published last month, from 27,272 a year ago. The RCM says the fall in numbers adds to an existing shortage of more than 2,000 staff.

Experts said the shortage was caused by the NHS struggling to attract new midwives while losing existing staff, who felt overworked and fed up at being spread too thinly across maternity wards.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2022

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Women aged 50-60 at greatest risk of ‘long Covid’, experts suggest

Women aged 50-60 are at greatest risk of developing “long Covid”, analysis suggests. Older age and experiencing five or more symptoms within the first week of illness were also associated with a heightened risk of lasting health problems.

The study, led by Dr Claire Steves and Prof Tim Spector at King’s College London, analysed data from 4,182 COVID Symptom Study app users who had been consistently logging their health and had tested positive for the virus.

In general, women were twice as likely to suffer from Covid symptoms that lasted longer than a month, compared with men – but only until around the age of 60, when their risk level became more similar.

Covid vaccine tracker: when will a cor

Increasing age was also associated with a heightened risk of long Covid, with about 22% of people aged over 70 suffering for four weeks or more, compared with 10% of people aged between 18 and 49.

For women in the 50-60 age bracket, these two risk factors appeared to combine: They were eight times more likely to experience lasting symptoms of Covid-19 compared with 18- to 30-year-olds. However, the greatest difference between men and women was seen among those aged between 40 and 50, where women’s risk of developing long Covid was double that of men’s.

“This is a similar pattern to what you see in autoimmune diseases,” said Spector. “Things like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and lupus are two to three times more common in women until just before menopause, and then it becomes more similar.” His guess is that gender differences in the way the immune system responds to coronavirus may account for this difference."

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Source: The Guardian, 21 September 2020

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Women 32% more likely to die after operation by male surgeon, study reveals

Women who are operated on by a male surgeon are much more likely to die, experience complications and be readmitted to hospital than when a woman performs the procedure, research reveals.

Women are 15% more liable to suffer a bad outcome, and 32% more likely to die, when a man rather than a woman carries out the surgery, according to a study of 1.3 million patients.

The findings have sparked a debate about the fact that surgery in the UK remains a hugely male-dominated area of medicine and claims that “implicit sex biases” among male surgeons may help explain why women are at such greater risk when they have an operation.

“In our 1.3 million patient sample involving nearly 3,000 surgeons we found that female patients treated by male surgeons had 15% greater odds of worse outcomes than female patients treated by female surgeons,” said Dr Angela Jerath, an associate professor and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Toronto in Canada and a co-author of the findings.

“This result has real-world medical consequences for female patients and manifests itself in more complications, readmissions to hospital and death for females compared with males.

“We have demonstrated in our paper that we are failing some female patients and that some are unnecessarily falling through the cracks with adverse, and sometimes fatal, consequences.”

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Source: The Guardian, 4 January 2022

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Women ‘traumatised’ by invasive hysteroscopies that are often carried out with just paracetamol

Some women are being left “traumatised” following a routine gynaecological procedure that is often carried out with minimal pain relief, with one pain expert warning there is an “apathy” within the NHS in changing how it is done.

There are various pain relief options for the procedure, including general anaesthetic. However, campaigners say it is common for women to be told just to take paracetamol before they arrive at the hospital.

Doctors claim this is sufficient pain relief for most patients, however a significant number of women have reported pain so severe that it has left them feeling “traumatised” and “violated”.

Jenny Wade, 51, had a hysteroscopy carried out this year after her GP referred her to Leicester General Hospital to investigate her postmenopausal bleeding.

Ms Wade said she asked if she could have the procedure under general anaesthetic and was told she could, but there would be a wait.

She decided to go ahead with the procedure without the anaesthetic, as she was worried she could have cancer and did not want to delay a diagnosis.

“I’ve never known pain like it. I had tears flooding down my face,” she said describing the procedure.

“It was so traumatic. The only way I can describe the pain is similar to childbirth. I’d say it could have even been worse because I had an epidural during childbirth.”

According to a best practice paper published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists this year, women should be given accurate written and verbal information about hysteroscopies ahead of their appointment, including the various pain control options.

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Source: iNews, 4 June 2023

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Women 'failed at every stage' of maternity care with 'many made to feel they were to blame'

Women are being "failed at every stage" when it comes to maternity care, say campaigners, as they call for more support for those experiencing traumatic births.

Mumsnet found 79% of the 1,000 women who answered their questionnaire had experienced some form of birth trauma, with 53% saying it had put them off from having more children.

And according to the snapshot of UK mothers, 44% also said healthcare professionals had used language implying they were "a failure or to blame" for what happened.

Conservative MP Theo Clarke is leading calls for more action after her own experience, where she thought she was "going to die" after suffering a third degree tear and needing emergency surgery.

Now, she has set up an all party parliamentary group on birth trauma.

She said: "[It is] clear that more compassion, education and better after-care for mothers who suffer birth trauma are desperately needed if we are to see an improvement in mums' physical wellbeing and mental health.

"It is vitally important women receive the help and support they deserve."

Chief executive of Mumsnet, Justine Roberts, said the trauma had "long-lasting effects", adding: "It's clear that women are being failed at every stage of the maternity care process - with too little information provided beforehand, a lack of compassion from staff during birth, and substandard postnatal care for mothers' physical and mental health."

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Source: Sky News, 15 September 2023

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Women 'angry and frustrated' over smear test review

Women affected by a review of cervical smears in the Southern Health Trust have said they are "angry, frustrated and scared" for their future.

About 17,500 patients in the trust are to have their previous smears re-checked as part of a major review of cervical screening dating back to 2008.

Some of these women will be recalled to have new smear tests carried out. But the process has not started yet and will take at least six months to complete.

Letters were sent out by the trust earlier this month to those affected.

The Southern Trust says it expects to recall around 4,000 women for a new smear test after it reviews 17,368 historic slides.

The Trust's medical director, Dr Steve Austin, told its board meeting that the review of slides was expected to start next week.

It also emerged that the number of calls from concerned women has increased with many asking for more "specialist" answers.

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Source: BBC News, 27 October 2023

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Woman's 'complete shock' at skin cancer misdiagnosis

A woman has spoken of her "complete shock" at being misdiagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery when she never had the condition at all.

Megan Royle, 33, from East Yorkshire, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2019.

As part of her treatment, she underwent immunotherapy and her eggs were frozen due to the risk to her fertility.

But after she was given the all-clear in 2021, a review showed she never had cancer and she has now won compensation from the two NHS trusts involved.

Ms Royle, from Beverley, said: "You just can't really believe something like this can happen, and still to this day I've not had an explanation as to how and why it happened.

"I spent two years believing I had cancer, went through all the treatment, and then was told there had been no cancer at all."

"You'd think the immediate emotion would be relief and, in some sense, it was - but I'd say the greater emotions were frustration and anger."

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Source: BBC News, 18 October 2023

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Woman, 33, scared she'll 'never be the same again' after six-month COVID-19 battle

A 33-year-old woman says she's been suffering awful coronavirus symptoms for six months and says it's "ruined her life".

Stephanie, from London, says her symptoms began in mid-March when she started experiencing loss of taste and smell, body aches, headaches, a fever, shivering, hot and cold sweats, and sickness. But six months later she still has had no sense of taste and smell, she suffers brain fog and chronic fatigue and says just walking across her flat leaves her chest feeling tight.

The photographer, who lives alone, says she sleeps for 10-12 hours but is still always tired. "I'm only 33," she said.

Stephanie wants to raise awareness of 'long Covid' and says more research needs to be done on how to treat the long-term effects of the disease.

She said she's scared she'll 'never be the same again'.

Stephanie says she has a hospital appointment on Friday to have tests on her lungs and heart as doctors are concerned she has lung damage.

She added: "I think some people don't believe in long Covid, so I want to raise awareness of what people are going through. We need more research of how to treat people with long Covid because there isn't much available, it's so awful."

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Source: Mirror, 1 October 2020

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Woman worried after no ADHD medicine for months

A woman said she has been unable to get her ADHD medication for months.

Hannah Huxford, 49, from Grimsby is one of thousands of patients unable to get hold of medicine to manage their symptoms due to a national shortage.

Mrs Huxford, who was diagnosed with the condition two years ago, described the situation as a "huge worry".

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it had taken action to improve the supply of medicines but added that "some challenges remain".

Mrs Huxford said the medicine made a "huge difference" and got her life back on track.

"It enables me to function and concentrate so I can be more proactive, I can be more productive," she explained.

She said she had been unable to get her usual supply since October 2023 and has to ration what she can get hold of.

"Christmas time it was just getting beyond a joke. I was going back to the pharmacy, probably two or three times in a month, just to collect the little IOUs and it was getting to the point where that, in itself, was becoming a stress," she said.

"All of a sudden, if this medication is taken away from me, I'm frightened that I will go back to not being able to cope."

James Davies, from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said the supply shortage has been caused by manufacturing problems and an increase in demand.

"There are more people who are being diagnosed with ADHD, more people seeking to access ADHD treatments. That's not just related to the UK, this is a global problem," he said.

Mr Davies said some ADHD medication has come back into stock but added "it's quite a fluid situation at the moment".

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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2024

Have you (or a loved one) ever been prescribed medication that you were then unable to get hold of at the pharmacy? 

To help us understand how these issues impact the lives of patients and families, please share your experience and insights in our community thread on the topic: 

 

You'll need to register with the hub first, its free and easy to do. 

We would also like to hear from pharmacists working in community or hospital settings, and others who have insights to share on this issue. What barriers and challenges have you seen around medication availability? Is there anything that can be done to improve wider systems or processes?

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Woman with endometriosis forced to pay £25,000 for private care after condition ‘missed’ for 8 years

A woman says she was forced to pay around £25,000 for private healthcare to treat endometriosis after her symptoms were “overlooked” for eight years.

Aneka Hindocha, 34, started voicing her concerns about painful periods when she was aged 25 but says she was initially told by doctors this was normal.

Ms Hindocha, who described the pain of endometriosis as “someone ripping your insides out”, says the condition should have been diagnosed sooner but argued women’s pain often gets overlooked and ignored.

Endometriosis is a very common chronic inflammatory condition, impacting an estimated 1.5 million women in the UK. An inquiry by the All-Party Political Group found that like Ms Hindocha, it takes an average of eight years to get a diagnosis.

The condition sees tissue comparable to womb-lining grow in other places in the body - with symptoms often debilitating and spanning from infertility to painful periods, tiredness, pain while having sex, as well as depression and anxiety.

“I was told painful periods were normal, which they are not, but I believed that at the time,” Ms Hindocha told The Independent. “I thought the issue was me. I thought I was being a hypochondriac.”

Her health massively deteriorated in the summer of 2020 and she became bedbound for three days.

“I needed someone to find out what was wrong with me,“ Ms Hindocha added. “I was crying I was in so much pain.”

She says that two years later she still had not received her laparoscopy despite the fact her pain was getting more severe and so she ended up paying for a private scan. She finally got diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis a week later.

“By the time of having my surgery at the end of February 2022, it had been nearly two years on the NHS waiting list and I was still being told to wait.”

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Source: The Independent, 18 October 2022

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Woman with anorexia 'faced delays' before death

A woman described as a "high risk" anorexia patient faced delays in treatment after moving to university, an inquest has heard.

Madeline Wallace, 18, from Cambridgeshire, was told there could be a six-week delay in her seeing a specialist after moving to Edinburgh.

The student "struggled" while at university and a coroner said there appeared to be a "gap" in her care. Ms Wallace died on 9 January 2018 due to complications from sepsis.

A parliamentary health service ombudsman report into her death was being written at the time of Ms Wallace's treatment in 2017 and issues raised included moving from one provider to another and higher education.

Coroner Sean Horstead said Ms Wallace only had one dietician meeting in three months, despite meal preparation and planning being an area of anxiety she had raised.

Dr Hazel said she had tried to make arrangements with the Cullen Centre in Edinburgh in April 2017 but had been told to call back in August. The Cullen Centre said it could only accept her as a patient after she registered with a GP and that an appointment could take up to six weeks from that point.

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Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020

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Woman with agonising burns sent away from two hospitals: new rules mean people have to get urgent care at unit closest to home

Patients needing urgent care may be sent to the unit closest to their homes under new rules, the Manchester Evening News revealed.

Hospital bosses admitted the ‘protocol’ after one patient, suffering horrific burns, reported being sent away from two hospitals before receiving any care.

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Group has introduced the directive as part of a ‘reconfiguration of services across Greater Manchester’, saying that patients will be sent to the 'most appropriate place for their needs', 'closest to their home', in the 'quickest time possible'.

However, anyone needing care for emergency and life-threatening conditions can still go to their nearest A&E department for treatment, hospital chiefs have stressed.

The group operates Salford Royal Hospital, the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital, and Rochdale Infirmary, among other local care services.

The instructions come as a 64-year-old woman from Norden in Rochdale suffered with severe burns after accidentally tipping scalding water on herself while on holiday in Northumberland.

The woman - a former nurse of more than 30 years - was unable to treat the burns alone, and she returned home with her husband, immediately attending Rochdale Infirmary's Urgent Care Centre.

Noting that there would be a 'five-and-a-half hour wait' for urgent care, a staff member sent the patient to Fairfield General's Accident and Emergency Department in Bury, she says.

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Source: Evening Manchester News, 29 September 2021

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Woman who suffered complications from vaginal mesh implant awarded at least £1m

A woman who suffered traumatic complications from a vaginal mesh implant has been awarded a record settlement of at least £1m from the NHS.

Yvette Greenway-Mansfield, 59, was given a mesh implant at Coventry’s University Hospital in 2009 and went on to suffer serious complications. Her medical negligence claim against the hospital trust found that the surgery was carried out prematurely and unnecessarily and that her consent form had been doctored to include additional risks after Greenway-Mansfield had signed it.

Greenway-Mansfield said that being awarded the compensation was a “huge relief”, but added that many other women who have suffered similar damage had received little or no compensation, and criticised the government’s failure to establish a financial redress agency for victims.

“I’m not the only one. There are thousands of mes,” she said. “There should be a pot of money to provide damages for these women and a care plan in place as an automatic response to mesh-damaged people. It comes down to a perception of women and women’s health problems. We’ve all had enough of it.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2023

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Woman watched mother dying on the floor for four hours as she waited for ambulance, Ireland's health minister told

A woman spent “four hours watching her mother dying on the floor waiting for an ambulance in a journey that should take just ten minutes”, the Irish Oireachtas Health Committee was told today.

Committee deputy chairman Sean Crowe said the “woman died on her way to hospital”.

Her bereaved daughter was left with the memory of her mother “gasping for breath”, he told Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

He said ambulance delays, compounded by them having to wait backed up for hours outside hospitals because of a lack of trolleys in emergency departments, were leading to serious consequences.

In response the minister said: “The national ambulance service needs significant additional funding and that is happening now.”

He said there is work under way to rebuild ambulance bases as well as add to the fleet, along with hiring more advanced paramedics.

He added: “We need to recognise response times from ambulances are not where they need to be and vary around the country. It is not yet where it needs to be and some areas are worse than others.”

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Source: Independent Ireland, 30 November 2022

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Woman was left with PTSD after routine NHS medical check caused pain worse than childbirth

Every week for nearly a year, Lorraine Shilcock attended an hour-long counselling session paid for by the NHS.

She needed the therapy, which ended in November, to cope with the terrifying nightmares that would wake her five or six times a night, and the haunting daytime flashbacks. Lorraine, 67, a retired textile worker from Desford, Leicester, has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Her psychological scars due to a routine NHS medical check, which was supposed to help her, not leave her suffering.

In October 2018, Lorraine had a hysteroscopy, a common procedure to inspect the womb in women who have heavy or abnormal bleeding. The 30-minute procedure, performed in an outpatient clinic, is considered so routine that many women are told it will be no worse than a smear test and that, if they are worried about the pain, they can take a couple of paracetamol or ibuprofen immediately beforehand.

Yet for Lorraine, and potentially thousands more women in the UK, that could not be further from the truth.

Many who have had a hysteroscopy say the pain was the worst they have ever experienced, ahead of childbirth, broken bones, or even a ruptured appendix, commonly regarded as the most agonising medical emergency.

Yet most had no warning it would be so traumatic, leaving some, like Lorraine, with long-term consequences. But, crucially, it is entirely avoidable.

Do you have an experience you would like to share? Join our conversation on the hub on painful hysteroscopy. We are using this feedback and evidence to help campaign for safer, harm-free care.

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Source: Mail Online, 3 March 2020

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Woman waits six hours for ambulance after fall on her 100th birthday

A woman has described how she spent more than six hours of her 100th birthday waiting in agony for an ambulance after slipping and fracturing her pelvis while getting ready for a family lunch.

Irene Silsby was due to be picked up by her niece, Lynne Taylor, for a celebration to mark her centenary on 9 April. But she fell in the windowless bathroom of her care home in Greetham, Rutland, and staff called an ambulance at 9am after she managed to summon help.

“All I remember is I was in terrible pain,” said Silsby from her hospital bed on Saturday. When asked of the ambulance delay, she said: “It’s disgusting. I don’t know how I stood it so long, the pain was so severe.”

Taylor expected to meet the ambulance as she arrived 45 minutes later. But when she reached the care home, the manager said it would be a 10-hour wait, she said.

What was to be her aunt’s first trip outside the care home in more than five months turned into her lying on a cold floor surrounded by pillows and blankets to keep her warm and quell some of the discomfort.

Taylor, 60, recalled her aunt saying: “They’re not coming to me because they know I’m 100 and I’m not really worth it any more.”

Taylor said she had never felt so scared, frustrated and worried. After calling 999 and expressing her outrage, she was told that life-threatening conditions were being prioritised.

“I thought she was going to die,” she said. “I didn’t think that any frail, tiny, 100-year-old body could put up with that level of pain on the floor.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2022

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Woman told she had ‘postnatal depression’ diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer

A mother of two prescribed antidepressants after complaining of fatigue was devastated when she learned she had stage four bowel cancer and had just nine months to live.

Helen Canning complained of anaemia and low energy for more than a year, but as a 37-year-old with two children under the age of five, her symptoms were put down to prolonged postnatal depression and work stress.

“At the end of the school day, I’d sit at my desk and lose half an hour of my time just sitting and staring,” the A-level science teacher from Suffolk said. “I was so tired. Then I would get even more stressed because I was getting behind on my work.”

She went to the GP because she was concerned about her symptoms. Despite being told her iron was low, she said she was never offered a blood test to investigate this further. As well as prescribing antidepressants, the GP referred her to a gynaecologist for an ultrasound scan on her left side in December 2020, but the scan did not detect anything.

But less than a year later in August 2021, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer after she was rushed into A&E with a “crippling, stabbing pain” and violent vomiting, the night before her ninth wedding anniversary. She was told she had advanced colorectal cancer, a primary tumour in the right side of her colon, with secondary growths on her ovaries, liver, and peritoneum.

Though Mrs Canning was given only nine months to live after her diagnosis, the mother of two leaned on her family for strength as she started chemotherapy. It has now been over two years and she continues to fight. Now she is determined to raise awareness of the common signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, and urges people to “know their own ‘normal’ and not be afraid to keep pushing for further testing and answers when doctors don’t”.

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Source: Independent, 22 October 2023

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Woman suffering mental health crisis left waiting eight days in A&E

An 18-year-old woman suffering a mental health crisis was forced to wait eight-and-a-half days in A&E before getting a bed in a psychiatric hospital – believed to be the longest such wait seen in the NHS.

Louise (not her real name) had to be looked after by the police and security guards and sleep in a chair and on a mattress of the floor in the A&E at St Helier hospital in Sutton, south London, because no bed was available in a mental health facility.

She became increasingly “dejected, despairing and desperate” as her ordeal continued and, her mental health worsening while she waited, self-harmed by banging her head off a wall. She absconded twice because she did not know when she would finally start inpatient treatment.

Louise arrived at St Helier on the evening of  Thursday 16 June and did not get a bed in an NHS psychiatric unit until the early hours of Saturday 25 June, more than eight days later. She was diagnosed last year with emotionally unstable personality disorder and ADHD.

The mental health charity Mind said it believed it to be the longest wait in A&E ever endured by someone experiencing a mental health crisis, and described it as “unacceptable, disgraceful and dangerous”. It called for urgent action to tackle the inadequacy of NHS mental health provision and bed numbers.

“An eight-and-a-half day wait in A&E for a mental health bed is both unacceptable and disgraceful. Mind has never heard of a patient in crisis waiting this long to receive the care they need, and serious questions need to be raised as to how anyone – let alone an 18-year-old – was left to suffer for so long without the care she needs,” said Rheian Davies, the head of Mind’s legal unit.

“This is dangerous for staff, who are not trained to give the acute care the patient needs, and dangerous for the patient, who needs that care immediately – not over a week later."

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Source: The Guardian, 4 July 2022

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Woman stored baby’s remains in fridge after London hospital refused them

A London hospital has launched an investigation after a woman whose baby died in the womb had to deliver her son at home due to lack of beds and keep his remains in her fridge when A&E staff said they could not store them safely.

Laura Brody and her partner, Lawrence, said they were “tipped into hell” after being sent home by university hospital Lewisham to await a bed when told their baby no longer had a heartbeat but no beds were immediately available to give birth, the BBC reported.

Two days later, after waking up in severe pain, Brody, who was four months into her pregnancy, gave birth in agony on the toilet in their bathroom. “And it was then,” she told the broadcaster, “I saw it was a boy”.

The couple, who wanted investigative tests to be carried out at a later time, dialled 999 but were told it was not an emergency. They wrapped their baby’s remains in a wet cloth, placed him in a Tupperware box, and went to A&E where they were told to wait in the general waiting room, they said.

She was eventually taken into a bay and told she would require surgery to remove the placenta. But, with the waiting room hot and stuffy and staff refusing to store the remains or even look inside the Tupperware box, they decided as it got to midnight they had no option but for her partner to take their baby’s remains home.

Brody said the whole experience “felt so grotesque”.

“When things go wrong with pregnancy there are not the systems in place to help you, even with all the staff and their experts – and they are working really hard – the process is so flawed that it just felt like we had been tipped into hell,” she told Radio 4’s Today programme.

The case is said to have raised wider concerns among campaigners who argue that miscarriage care needs to be properly prioritised within hospitals including A&E.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 May 2022

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Woman screaming in pain waiting years for hip op

"Seeing how much pain she's in is killing me," the mother of a woman waiting four years for a hip operation has said.

It is only by screaming that Marie Morgan, from Carmarthenshire, can express her level of suffering.

The 30-year-old, who has multiple brain conditions, can speak only a few words and needs round-the-clock care. 

"Her hip is out and is rubbing against bone... there's no socket there," Marie's mother Sandra said. "She can't travel because every time I move her she's screaming in pain.

Marie has cerebral palsy, severe epilepsy and fluid on the brain and the constant agony caused by the wait has meant these conditions, including her seizures, have become "horrendous".

Sandra said: "She used to be so happy, we used to go to the pool, play music... Now she's gone downhill. I don't think she can last much longer to be honest with you."

Marie, from Penygroes, is on a waiting list to have surgery in Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

Her mother said staff have told her she is considered to be high priority, but despite her best efforts, she is still in the dark about when the operation will happen.

"They said because of Covid they weren't operating, now they say it's staff shortages so it's something all the time.

"I feel I'm knocking my head against a wall. It's not fair, she's only 30 and suffering the way she is."

Swansea Bay Health Board said it hoped to tackle the backlog by increasing capacity at one of its hospitals.

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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2022

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