Jump to content
  • articles
    9,970
  • comments
    84
  • views
    12,808,183

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

Radiographer shortage in England ‘is delaying breast cancer treatment’

Women are receiving late breast cancer diagnoses and experiencing treatment delays due to a shortage of specialist staff who can deliver breast cancer scans, according to leading radiographers.

Specialist scans that are used to detect breast cancer are undertaken by radiographers, also known as mammographers, who specialise in breast imaging.

According to the Society of Radiographers, the latest vacancy rate among screening mammographers stands at 17.5%, and for symptomatic mammographers, who scan women who find a lump in their breast or those who have a family history of breast cancer, at almost a fifth of the workforce (19.8%).

Dean Rogers, the director of industrial strategy at the Society of Radiographers, said that the shortages were leading to women experiencing delays in cancer diagnoses, and that more mammographers needed to be recruited urgently.

“Our members work incredibly hard in order to provide a comprehensive service, despite staff shortages. But there’s no way that a department with 20% – or higher – vacancies can do the work of a full complement of mammographers. And, unfortunately, this may mean that some women’s cancers are not detected as promptly as they should be. Inevitably, any delay in detection and diagnosis means that cases become more complex and harder to treat.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 15 August 2024

Read more

HR changes save NHS Wales board £740k and improve wellbeing

Changes in HR practices have helped an NHS Wales organisation save more than £738,000 a year and boosted employee wellbeing, new research has revealed.

In a study backed by Birkbeck, University of London, a shift in an employer’s approach to HR – specifically by not carrying out disciplinary investigations in the first instance and using informal methods of resolution, such as coaching and mentoring and training – was found to cut sickness absence and improve wellbeing.

According to researchers, NHS Wales organisation Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which has more than 16,000 employees, implemented the HR changes and benefited from a 71% drop in employee investigations. It also saw a reduction of annual sickness absences by 3,000-plus days and annual savings of more than £730,000.

Dr Kevin Teoh, senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, said: “The findings support wider research which shows that we need to focus on improving the working environments and experiences of healthcare workers as a key part of supporting their wellbeing. Often the response has been that this is not possible, or that nothing will really change. However, this intervention provides evidence demonstrating that we can, and should, make such changes.”

Read full story

Source: Personnel Today, 6 August 2024

Read more

PPP, in partnership with Patient Safety Learning, launches new patient safety policy programme

Press release

12th August 2024

Public Policy Projects, in partnership with charity Patient Safety Learning, is today announcing a patient safety policy and conference programme. The programme, chaired by Patient Safety Learning Chief Executive Helen Hughes, will consist of three roundtable events and a conference in early 2025.

  • The new programme is designed to embed patient safety as a core priority across national and local health systems.
  • PPP and Patient Safety Learning will develop the programme with a focus on how technology can enable patient centred patient safety.
  • A new editorial board will be established, chaired by Helen Hughes, where key stakeholders, including industry partners and patient leaders, will set editorial direction.
  • Global enterprise software company, RLDatix, is the first programme partner and will join the editorial board.

As Patient Safety Learning has recently highlighted, we are not getting safer. Prioritisation of patient safety remains inconsistent across health and care and there is a need for a fresh forum through which stakeholders can engage in collaborative, challenging and meaningful debates that lead to action.

PPP’s new programme, Harnessing technology to enable a system wide approach to patient safety, is the product of a unique collaboration between Public Policy Projects and Patient Safety Learning. Both organisations have established track records of engaging with system leaders and key stakeholders and will leverage their networks to convene a unique and influential audience.

PPP and Patient Safety Learning argue that patient safety needs to be a core purpose of health and care, not just one priority of many. There is a need for a new system-wide forum and network, for insight and analysis to position patient safety at the core of integrated care systems, NHS and independent health organisations, and care providers.

PPP and Patient Safety Learning, along with a range of strategically selected partners, will develop a unique programme of engagement and policy to deliver actionable insights that support systems to drive improvement and reduce avoidable harm. The programme will centre on patient safety across UK health and care, and discuss it through the lens of technology, digital innovation, and data-driven transformation.

As the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has recognised that industry collaboration will be essential to getting the NHS back on its feet, this programme aims to unite industry experts with sector leaders in strategic partnership. This will ensure the insights and policy delivered reflect all pertinent stakeholders and their ability to drive forward the improvement of patient safety in UK health and care.

The programme will also include the establishment of an editorial board, which will bring together some of the country’s foremost leaders in patient safety, along with industry experts, system and patient leaders to set the programme’s editorial direction, ensuring the outputs of the programme are practical and credible.

Commenting on the programme, Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning and programme chair, said: “Patient safety needs to be core to health and care. Despite the efforts of many, globally and nationally, the challenges of delivering safe and effective care are as great as ever.

“To make the transformational change needed, we need to collaborate system-wide to address often complex systemic issues, using the opportunity of technology innovation and user engagement to drive improvement. Bringing multi-disciplinary leaders together across the health and care system with a focus and drive on patient safety technology is an exciting and much needed innovation. We are delighted to partner with PPP on this exciting impact-focused programme with the support of RLDatix as our first programme partner.

Policy for impact

The first series of roundtables within this programme, Harnessing technology to enable a system wide approach to patient safety, will both highlight the essential role of technology and digital innovation in ensuring standards for patient safety are met, as well as stressing the importance of ensuring technology and innovations are developed and implemented with the patient front and centre.

Each roundtable will focus on a distinct area of technological advancement in health and care, and will host collaborative discussion between sector leaders, industry experts, as well as patient and end-user representatives.

Topics:

  • Session one: Uniting system partners and integrating approaches to patient safety.
  • Session two: Data, insight and safety performance: harnessing patient safety information.
  • Session three: Safety design and user engagement: the power of digitally enabled people.

Conference

PPP has a rich, vibrant and varied portfolio of conference events convening hundreds of carefully selected stakeholders for vital debate and networking.

Following the completion of the roundtable series, PPP and Patient Safety Learning will collaborate to produce an annual Patient Safety conference. These events will be used to present findings from the roundtable series as well as engaging a broader audience.

The conference will convene the patient safety community and drive strategic prioritisation of patient safety across the health system.

Programme contacts:

 

 

About Public Policy Projects

Public Policy Projects (PPP) is an organisation operating at the heart of health and life sciences policy delivery. We bring together senior leaders and practitioners in the public and private health and life sciences sectors to find realistic solutions to the most pressing issues relating to health and care delivery.

We facilitate effective collaboration between public and private sector organisations. We help businesses to grow their profile within the NHS and wider public sector. In turn, we support public sector leaders and organisations with practical recommendations on implementing policy to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for local population.

About Patient Safety Learning

Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. We harness the knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment of healthcare organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of harm.

We support safety improvement through policy, influencing and campaigning and the development of ‘how to’ resources such as the hub, our free award-winning platform to share learning for patient safety, and our unique Patient Safety Standards and support tools.

Read more

Family doctors in Scotland say patient safety now 'at risk' as they battle to source supplies of vital prescription medicines

GPs in Scotland last night warned patient safety is at risk due to a chronic shortage of prescription medicines.

Medics said their ability to effectively treat people is being compromised and that the battle to source vital medicine has reached crisis point.

A survey of practitioners, including GPs, by the Medical and Dental Defence Union Scotland (MDDUS) found nine out of ten members said the ability to ‘practise medicine safely’ has now been ‘impacted’.

Forty-five per cent said they were "seeing patients whose overall health has deteriorated’ as a result of the ‘shortage of medicine".

The issue is affecting a range of conditions and includes drugs used to treat cystic fibrosis, diabetes and epilepsy, as well as hormone replacement therapy, opioid painkillers and medicines for heart conditions.

Manufacturing and logistical problems caused by Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic have previously been cited as reasons for the supply problem.

One GP stated: ‘It is very demoralising working as hard as we can – and still being unable to meet patients’ needs due to constraints outside of our control. It makes workdays harder than necessary and mentally exhausting."

Read full story

Source: Daily Mail Online, 10 August 2024

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

Are you a pharmacists working in community or hospital settings?

To help us understand how these issues impact the lives of patients and families, please share your experience and insights in our Community conversation on medication shortages.

Read more

'He'll be dead by then' - fears over drug shortage

A pancreatic cancer patient says he is "living day-to-day", as he struggles to get hold of medication which keeps him out of hospital.

RAF veteran David Allen, from Marton near Gainsborough, is unable to digest food without the enzyme replacement therapy Creon.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the drug was in short supply due to "ongoing global supply problems".

Mr Allen's wife, Maureen Allen, said one local pharmacy told them it would not have Creon in stock until 2026, prompting her to reply: "He'll be dead by then."

Mr Allen has to take four high-strength capsules with every meal, and two with a snack or milky drink, which means a box of 100 lasts less than a week.

He described the current shortage as "depressing" and "quite frightening", adding "it can get fraught when your tablets start running out and you haven't got a clue where the next supply is going to come from."

Mr and Mrs Allen said they start every day by scouring the internet and phoning pharmacists within an hour's drive of their home, trying to track down Creon, or its alternatives Pancrex and Nutrizym.

Last week, Mr Allen made a two-hour round trip to collect a 19-day supply he had found in Doncaster.

Without Creon, patients can suffer pain, extreme bloating and severe diarrhoea. Ultimately, they can become severely underweight and malnourished.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 13 August 2024

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

Are you a pharmacists working in community or hospital settings?

To help us understand how these issues impact the lives of patients and families, please share your experience and insights in our Community conversation on medication shortages.

Read more

Cancer rates in men will increase by a whopping 84% over the next three decades, researchers say

Cancer rates in men are expected to skyrocket in the next few decades, a new study reveals.

Cancer rates in men are projected to jump by 84% from 2022 to 2050, while cancer deaths are expected to increase by 93.2% over the same time frame, according to the peer-reviewed study published in an American Cancer Society’s research journal.

This gender disparity is in part because men are exposed more often to risk factors, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, according to the study. Men are also exposed to more cancer-causing workplace hazards, such as harmful chemicals, radiation and asbestos, than women, according to the study.

The researchers also noted that there are more early-detection options for cancers that impact women, like cervical cancer.

“There are no comparable programs for male-specific cancers, such as prostate or testicular cancer,” according to the study.

The authors made several recommendations to ensure cancer deaths among men decrease moving forward.

Their recommendations include promoting early-detection programs for testicular and prostate cancers, implementing universal healthcare and passing stronger regulations to protect employees from workplace hazards.

These steps “are crucial to reducing cancer disparities and ensuring cancer equity among men globally,” according to the study.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 13 August 2024

 

Read more
 

Failures at NHS hospital that left Nottingham triple killer free

Failures by the NHS trust responsible for treating Nottingham knife killer Valdo Calocane have been laid bare by the health watchdog – but The Independent can also reveal the hospital was repeatedly warned about poor care and experienced a steep rise in patient deaths over the last decade.

An investigation into mental health services in Nottinghamshire found that deaths of vulnerable patients in the years leading up to Calocane’s release from their care more than doubled from 1,694 in 2014-15 to 4,149 in 2021-22.

Calocane, a paranoid schizophrenic, stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they returned from a night out in June last year, before going on to kill 65-year-old Ian Coates.

A damning report into his care, published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), found the trust’s mental health unit “minimised or omitted” key details of the serious risk he posed to others.

The families of his victims said services caring for him in the lead-up to the attacks “have blood on their hands”. In response, the Department of Health has confirmed there will be a public inquiry into the failings in Calocane’s care.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 13 August 2024

Read more

New vaccine for respiratory disease rolls out in Scotland

A new vaccination programme aimed at protecting newborn babies and older adults against a dangerous respiratory disease is now being rolled out in Scotland.

The Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunisation programme begins on Monday morning, and will be offered in the other UK nations from September.

RSV is common and highly infectious. It affects the breathing system and can cause severe illness in vulnerable groups, including infants and older people. It is the leading cause of emergency respiratory admissions to hospital in infants.

In 2022-23, more than 1,500 infants under the age of one and more than 500 people aged 75 and over were hospitalised with RSV, according to Public Health Scotland.

Across the UK as a whole it results in 25-30 infant deaths each year. While for many the symptoms are mild, the infection is easily spread and 90% of children will catch it within the first two years of their lives.

The vaccine is being administered on the advice of the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Doses are being offered to women from 28 weeks into their pregnancies, to protect newborns, as well as those aged 75 and as a one-off catch up for those aged 75 to 79.

Dr Sam Ghebrehewet, head of immunisation and vaccination at Public Health Scotland, said: "RSV can be very serious for those who are more vulnerable, such as newborns, infants and older adults. If you are eligible, getting vaccinated is the best and simplest thing you can do to protect yourself or your newborn baby from RSV."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 12 August 2024

Read more

About 400 million people worldwide have had Long Covid, researchers say

About 400 million people worldwide have been afflicted with Long Covid, according to a new report by scientists and other researchers who have studied the condition. The team estimated that the economic cost—from factors like health care services and patients unable to return to work—is about $1 trillion worldwide each year, or about 1 percent of the global economy.

The report, published Friday in the journal Nature Medicine, is an effort to summarize the knowledge about and effects of long Covid across the globe four years after it first emerged.

It also aims to “provide a road map for policy and research priorities,” said one author, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. He wrote the paper with several other leading long Covid researchers and three leaders of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, an organization formed by long Covid patients who are also professional researchers.

Read full story (paywalled)

Read the research study, Long COVID science, research and policy

Source: New York Times, 9 August 2024

Read more

‘Unstoppable’ sloth borne virus detected in for first time in Europe after two die in Brazil

A debilitating virus originating in sloths and spread by midges has been reported for the first time in Europe, officials have confirmed.

In June and July, 19 imported cases of the Oropouche virus were reported in Europe, according to the European Center for Disease Control. Twelve were reported in Spain, five in Italy, and two in Germany.

The disease is mainly spread by insect bites - including mosquitos - and originates in pale-throated sloths, non-human primates and birds.

There is currently no vaccine to treat the virus, which comes from the same family of diseases that includes Zika virus and Dengue Fever.

Dr Danny Altmann, a professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph: “We should definitely be worried. Things are changing and may become unstoppable.”

Read full story

Source: Independent, 11 August 2024

Read more

Doctor warned Nottingham attacker could kill

A doctor warned three years before the Nottingham attacks that Valdo Calocane's mental illness was so severe he could "end up killing someone."

This was one of a series of missed opportunities over three years that could have prevented the killings, Calocane's mother and brother told BBC Panorama in their first interview. The doctor's warning appeared in a 300-page summary of medical records the family received only after Calocane was sentenced for the killings, which they have shared with Panorama.

The chief executive of Nottinghamshire's NHS trust said he would do everything he could to stop such a tragedy happening again.

Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and was sectioned four times in less than two years.

In June 2023, he went on a rampage through the streets of Nottingham, killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, with a knife as they returned from a night out, before stabbing to death Ian Coates, 65, near the school where he worked as a caretaker. Calocane then stole his van and crashed into three other people, inflicting serious injuries.

The warning was given by one psychiatrist while the medical team reviewed Calocane on the ward and was set down in medical records held by Nottinghamshire NHS trust.

Elias and Celeste, Calocane's brother and mother, said the mental health system was "broken" and led to a "tragedy that could have been prevented."

Read full story

Source: BBC news, 12 August 2024

Read more
 

‘I lived, Maeve died’: ME patient who got help writes to coroner

A patient with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) has told a coroner that the death of a young woman could have been avoided if she received the same tube feeding which has kept him alive for the past decade.

Whitney Dafoe, a 41-year-old American who suffers from the debilitating disease also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), has written a letter to Deborah Archer, the assistant coroner for South Devon, describing the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill as a travesty.

Archer has been holding an inquest into the death of Boothby O’Neill, who died aged 27 in October 2021 after suffering with severe ME which left her bedridden and starving because she was too exhausted to eat.

Archer, who will deliver her verdict and findings on Friday, was told by NHS consultants that they could not attempt total parenteral nutrition (TPN), a type of tube feeding which bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and places nutritional fluids into a vein, because they couldn’t feed Boothby O’Neill while she was lying flat. Nor could they create “the required sterile conditions” in her bed, they said, because she couldn’t bear to be washed for periods of time.

In a letter to the court, Dafoe said that Boothby O’Neill’s death could have been avoided had she undergone the procedure. 

“Luckily, I had doctors who viewed ME/CFS as the serious physiological disease that it is, and understood that the risk of needing to take antibiotics occasionally or add a few extra steps to my daily routine was better than the certainty of death from starvation, dehydration or malnutrition, which is what killed Maeve.

“Maeve just needed a way to get nutrition into her body. I got TPN and lived. Maeve was denied TPN and died.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 8 August 2024 

Read more

Doctors practising despite sexual assault and rape allegations

Hundreds of doctors and nurses have been left free to practise unchecked despite being accused of serious sexual assault and rape in the last six years, The Independent can reveal.

Between 2018 and 2024, some 248 doctors faced allegations of rape, sexual assault or attempted rape without their licences being suspended, according to new figures from the General Medical Council (GMC).

The Independent can reveal:

  • Between 2018 and 2024, 11 doctors were accused of possessing indecent images of children but no interim orders were made.
  • Over the same period, 261 doctors faced no restrictions despite allegations of physical assault.
  • In 2018, one doctor accused of murder had no restrictions placed on their ability to practise.
  • A doctor found to have sexually assaulted colleagues was able to practise as long as he informed the GMC of his job movements.

The shocking figures, obtained via a freedom of information (FOI) request, call into question the decision-making of the UK’s two biggest health watchdogs after a series of exposés by The Independent.

Helen Hughes, chief executive of the charity Patient Safety Learning, said the figures were “deeply troubling” from both patient and staff safety perspectives.

She said: “In healthcare, patients are often faced by a significant power imbalance. When serious allegations are made against healthcare professionals, there must be robust processes in place to safeguard both staff and patients while these are being investigated.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 12 August 2024

Read more
 

Patients for Patient Safety US to celebrate new patient safety rules on World Patient Safety Day

Press Release: 8 Aug 2024 

As World Patient Safety Day 2024 approaches on 17 September, Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US) commends the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for adding a game-changing new Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM) to the payment and policy rules for hospitals providing services under Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Starting on 1 October 2024, the PSSM asks hospital leaders to attest to whether their hospital uses recognized best practices to ensure patient safety. The attestation statements are structured under five domains: 1) Leadership Commitment to Eliminating Preventable Harm, 2) Strategic Planning & Organizational Policy, 3) Culture of Safety & Learning Systems, 4) Accountability & Transparency, and 5) Patient & Family Engagement. When fully implemented, hospital-specific results will be publicly reported by CMS, reinforcing public confidence in hospital safety and informing patient choice. 

“These best practices aren’t new, but patients don't know which ones are and which ones are not in place in the hospitals we use,” said Beth Daley Ullem, a co-founder of PFPS US. “CMS, the Joint Commission, and State licensing bodies do not know either. It’s astounding that 25 years after the To Err is Human report’s call to action, so much patient safety performance information is still hidden.”

Carole Hemmelgarn, PFPS US co-founder, added, “Inclusion of the PSSM in the Medicare Program exemplifies federal leadership on patient safety. This is a great step forward for transparency.”

In 2022, PFPS US published "Who Killed Patient Safety?" to reignite the prioritization of patient safety as a public health issue, which led to significant strides. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra established the National Action Alliance for Healthcare and Workforce Safety, CMS set a goal of "zero preventable harm," new federal rules have strengthened patient access to medical records, and President Biden’s prestigious Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued transformational patient safety recommendations.

“We'll celebrate these important steps on World Patient Safety Day, and encourage our leaders to continue this urgent work,” said Sue Sheridan, co-founder of PFPS US. Established by the World Health Organization, World Patient Safety Day 2024 kicks off a year of focus on Improving Diagnostic Safety. PFPS US is planning several activities in Washington, DC, from September 15-17th to recognize loved ones lost to or harmed by unsafe care and call for further action. “We must shine a light on the preventable harm related to missed, delayed or failure to communicate diagnoses, which contributes to the harm or death of up to 795,000 Americans annually,” added Sheridan.

About Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US) (www.pfps.us)

As part of the World Health Organization's global Patients for Patient Safety initiative, PFPS US is a patient-led nonprofit based in the United States. We are dedicated to enhancing healthcare through transparency, accountability, and active engagement of patients and families.

Media Contact: Sue Sheridan, [email protected]

Read more

Patients miss out on new drugs as struggling NHS cuts trials

Patients are missing out on the latest drugs because the overstretched NHS is struggling to conduct groundbreaking research, the head of Britain’s biggest charitable foundation has warned.

John-Arne Rottingen, chief executive of the Wellcome Trust, which invests more than a billion pounds in UK research each year, said a fall in the number of commercial clinical trials would directly affect the care of thousands.

Rottingen said the “constrained NHS” meant drug companies “decide to go elsewhere”. He said: “This will mean patients will have less opportunity to benefit from being part of clinical research and they will have reduced opportunities to have advanced new treatments, which will have an impact on their opportunity to recover and be treated.”

He said the NHS was a key asset for research but that strength was dwindling because it was struggling to maintain its ability to run clinical trials. “We see the proportion of consultants who are academically qualified is going down, and the proportion of consultants that can do research as a part of their service to the NHS and the system is going down,” he said. “It’s a big concern for UK faculties of medicine that it’s harder to get clinical academics.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 4 August 2024

Read more
 

Mum died during 13-hour wait for an ambulance

When Jean Frickel fell ill, her family called an ambulance so she could get the crucial life-extending help she needed.

But she died before it arrived. She had waited for 13 hours.

The head of Wales' ambulance service said the number of hours lost while crews waited to hand over patients had quadrupled since 2018.

One patient in Wales waited 46 hours and 46 minutes - almost two days - for an ambulance after a fall.

Jean's case is one of 39 across England and Wales over the past two years where coroners have called for changes to the system to prevent these avoidable deaths.

A coroner ruled Jean's 13-hour wait was because ambulances were queuing to offload patients and unable to answer 999 calls.

Jean's daughter, Helen Underhill, 62, said: "It’s unforgiveable that an ambulance should be waiting outside hospital for someone to be seen, when somebody else is sitting at home, like my mum, in need.

"It’s not the doctors, it’s not the nurses, it’s not the paramedics. It’s getting the ambulances back on the road."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 8 August 2024

Read more

A&E in England has busiest summer ever with 4.6m visits in two months

The NHS in England has had its busiest summer ever in A&E with 4.6m attendances over the past two months, while 1.5m hospital appointments were rescheduled because of the junior doctors’ strikes, according to the latest figures.

The three busiest months for A&E staff in history have been in 2024, with 77,945 attendances a day in May, 76,469 in June and 74,459 in March.

The surge in demand came at a time when the NHS was hampered by industrial action. Junior doctors were on strike between 27 June and 2 July, which led to 61,989 acute appointments needing to be rescheduled. As a result, nearly 1.5m appointments have been affected since the start of the dispute.

Meanwhile, the overall hospital waiting list for elective care, which refers to non-urgent services such as hospital scans and diagnostics, rose again in June to 7.62m – an increase of 19,100 compared with the previous month.

Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said: “A&E staff are under significant pressure and the NHS is in the middle of what could be its busiest summer ever, with a total of 4.6m attendances in the last two months alone and 2024 now having seen the three busiest months for A&E on record.

“While we have seen improvements in the number of patients seen and treated within four hours in A&E, slightly faster ambulance response times and more than three-quarters of cancer patients receiving an all-clear or diagnosis in four weeks, it is clear that waits for patients across a range of services remain unacceptable and there is much more to do to deliver more timely care for those who need it."

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 8 August 2024

Read more

Muslim NHS workers report rise in racist abuse since far-right riots began

The head of an association representing Muslim health workers has said it has recorded an increase in racist abuse since the beginning of the far-right riots last week, with “unprecedented” fear among NHS staff.

Dr Salman Waqar, the president of the British Islamic Medical Association (Bima), which represents about 7,000 healthcare staff, said health workers had been left in fear and affected personally and professionally.

Waqar said: “I’ve seen some really terrible messages, particularly coming out from Belfast and in Greater Manchester, of people having to close up their GP surgery early, of people being trapped in their practices, of people having to take taxis back and forth from work, people not going on home visits, people working remotely from home, there’s too many to mention and to count.”

He shared a video and screenshots of text messages from NHS staff, who contacted him about the abuse they had faced in the past week including being called a racial slur and an individual threatening to “kill this Muslim man”.

Waqar said: “From our perspective, in terms of our members reporting how fearful they are, reporting how they’re having to think twice about what they do, international colleagues questioning whether or not they have a future in the UK. That is unprecedented, I’ve never seen anything like this before. In terms of the volume, in terms of the strength of feeling, there is no comparison to it.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 9 August 2024

Read more
 

National design for ‘new hospitals’ being downsized

The national design for “new hospitals” will be reduced in size, HSJ understands, amid concerns over “unnecessary” space and cost.

The New Hospitals Programme is expected to make changes to the “Hospital 2.0” standardised design that schemes will be expected to follow.

Changes to the national design are likely to include reduced sizes for rooms and corridor areas as part of ongoing design development. It is also understood these changes will reduce costs.

The changes come amid trusts involved in the New Hospitals Programme raising concerns about the scale of the Hospital 2.0 template after the design was updated in May. They said the update would drive up the potential footprint and cost of their schemes, with the size of wards commonly cited as an issue.

The government did not comment on the expected downscaling of Hospital 2.0, but said designs continue to be “developed and refined”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 7 August 2024

Read more

NHS sets out 'safer' child gender services model

Six new regional centres created to support under 18s struggling with their gender identity will open over the next two years, NHS England has confirmed.

They will join two existing clinics, as part of an overhaul of gender services for children and young people.

The emphasis will be on providing a more holistic approach, with a particular focus on supporting mental health and those with conditions such as autism.

It follows a ban earlier this year on the routine prescription of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria. The changes come in response to a landmark review published in April, which was critical of the way young people had been supported.

NHS England has also announced details of how the clinics will work.

GPs will no longer be able to refer patients directly. Instead, referrals will have to come via children and young people’s mental health services and hospital child health specialists.

The move is designed to ensure the wider needs of these children are assessed before they are sent to a specialist centre, and follows a sharp rise in referrals in recent years.

NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the new system was about establishing a “fundamentally different and safer model of care for children and young people”.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 7 August 2024

Read more

Opioid painkillers put millions at risk of addiction or dependency

Millions of people are addicted to, or at risk of becoming dependent on, prescription opioid painkillers, according to international research.

The study found that one in three people taking prescribed opioid analgesics, which include codeine, tramadol, oxycodone and morphine, show symptoms of being dependent on them, while one in 10 become fully dependent on the drugs.

The research, led by academics from the University of Bristol and published in the journal Addiction, also showed that one in eight people are at risk of prescription opioid misuse.

It examined data from 148 international studies involving more than 4.3 million patients aged 12 and over who had non-cancer pain for three months or longer and who were prescribed the medicines.

While they are useful for short-term acute pain and managing end-of-life care, “opioid painkillers are not effective in the management of long-term pain,” said Kyla Thomas, a professor of public health medicine at the University of Bristol and lead author of the study. “They are associated with many harms. Our findings show that opioid misuse is much more common among patients taking them for long-term pain than perhaps people imagine.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 7 August 2024

Read more

Third of NHS doctors struggling as GMC warns health services in critical state

NHS doctors are “at breaking point”, with almost a fifth cutting their hours and two in five refusing to take on extra work to avoid becoming burnt out, new research has found.

A third of medics are “struggling” and unable to cope with heavy workloads that force them to regularly work extra hours to keep up with the demands for care, the General Medical Council (GMC) said.

Its findings paint a grim picture of the working lives, morale and wellbeing of doctors in the UK.

The GMC, which regulates the medical profession, warned that exhausted, overworked doctors could pose a threat to patients’ safety. “UK health services are in a critical state and those who work within them are at breaking point,” said Charlie Massey, the GMC’s chief executive.

Prof Dame Carrie MacEwen, its chair, also described doctors’ experiences in the annual report.

“Seeking to protect their wellbeing, doctors are taking matters into their own hands. Many are reducing their hours and declining additional work,” she said. “A concerning proportion are taking time off due to stress.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 8 August 2024

Read more

‘Hierarchical cultures’ reported at trust after doctor jailed

A trust has been told to improve its culture of speaking up and sexual safety by a review of its handling of a doctor who was later convicted of downloading child abuse images.

The review, commissioned and published by Royal Devon University Hospital Foundation Trust, examined the trust’s handling of its former consultant anaesthetist Alexander Knight (Grice), who in March was convicted of five charges of downloading and viewing indecent images of children.

The external review, carried out by consultant forensic psychiatrist Helen Smith and published by RDUH in July, praised the trust for “contain[ing] the situation” when Dr Knight was arrested, and for working closely with the police and other agencies to enable the investigation and ultimately his conviction.

But it also found some staff had found it difficult to speak up about previous incidents involving the doctor, in which he had acted “inappropriately”.

It said the trust should address “hierarchical” cultures in some teams which prevent staff from being able to speak up about sexual safety. The trust said it has begun work to address this.

The review said: “Many people who took part in this review describe feeling unable to speak up, or if they did speak up, an experience of not being heard, their concerns not being valued, or being dismissed, not understood.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 7 August 2024

Read more

‘Scrap single-word CQC ratings’, say trust bosses

Most trust leaders want the Care Quality Commission’s single-word ratings scrapped, NHS Providers has said based on survey feedback.

NHS Providers said written feedback from its annual regulation and oversight survey showed leaders thought the ratings – of “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement”, and “inadequate” – were “too simplistic”. They are currently used to rate providers overall quality, sites, services, and performance on particular domains such as safety.

Staff often found the ratings “demoralising” while patients thought they were “confusing”, according to the findings, shared with HSJ ahead of publication.

NHSP, which represents trusts and foundation trusts, also told HSJ it backed scrapping the single-word rating approach.

The findings come with an overhaul of the CQC’s regulation approach highly likely to be instigated later this year. Wes Streeting, the new health and social care secretary last month published a damning interim report by integrated care board chair Penny Dash, which found major flaws across its processes, methodology, staffing, and systems.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 8 August 2024

Read more

Falsified patient records linked to 12 deaths

A mental health trust may have falsified records of up to 12 deceased patients, according to a coroner’s report.

Saba Naqshbandi KC, assistant coroner for Inner North London, said staff at East London Foundation Trust had faked observation records, claiming to have checked on patients when they had not. 

A member of the trust’s staff admitted to falsifying records in the case of 40-year-old patient Mahamoud Hussain Ali.

In a prevention of future deaths report published last week, the coroner said investigations commissioned by ELFT following Mr Ali’s death uncovered 11 further “fatal incidents” where records may have been fabricated. 

In a message to staff in October 2023, seen by the coroner, ELFT admitted that instances of records being fabricated were increasing.

It said: “We have seen an increase in occasions where observation records have not been completed but records falsified to reflect that they had been done.” 

Ms Naqshbandi wrote in the PFD report: “I am concerned that action undertaken thus far by the trust has not been sufficient to ensure that observations are being conducted and/or recorded as required, which in my opinion gives rise to a concern that future deaths will occur.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 8 August 2024

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.