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Woman bled to death after hip replacement operation

A 79-year-old woman bled to death following a hip operation after being rushed to a hospital which lacked a service to save her, a coroner has said.

Christine Booker from Wareham died on 24 February 2023, the day after her hip replacement.

Coroner Brendan Allen said she was initially transferred to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, which had no out-of-hours interventional radiology (an imaging procedure), before being sent to Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths report, he said patients in west Dorset faced a "potentially considerable and significant delay in the provision of urgent and life-saving treatment".

Writing to Dorset County Hospital, external, the coroner said the lack of an out-of-hours service in Dorchester exposed patients to an "increased risk of death".

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Source: BBC News, 10 June 2024

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Hundreds of cancer patients hit by NHS cyberattack as thousands of appointments cancelled

Patients with cancer and those needing emergency operations were among those who had their treatment cancelled this week due to a major cyberattack on NHS hospitals in London.

More than 200 emergency and life-saving operations, including those which should be done within 24 hours, had to be cancelled by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust (GSTT) and King’s College University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

It is not yet clear how long the disruption will last, however hospitals are concerned they will struggle if it continues for more than a few days. According to a source, Synnovis carries out tens of thousands of tests a day but is unable to do so as it cannot access systems.

The Independent revealed:

  • More than a third of procedures and operations have been cancelled, which includes over 3,000 non-surgical appointments and hundreds of patients who have been referred for urgent cancer diagnosis.
  • Mothers waiting to have c-sections have also had their procedures cancelled and hospitals are investigating potential harm.
  • Transplant operations have been cancelled and hospitals have had to reduce the number of people they’re able to book in.

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Source: The Independent, 10 June 2024

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NHS appeals for O-type blood donations after cyberattack delays transfusions

An appeal has been launched for O blood-type donors to book appointments across England after the ransomware attack affecting major London hospitals.

NHS Blood and Transplant is appealing for O blood-type donations as this is safe to use for all patients. The cyber-attack means the affected hospitals cannot match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual.

Several London hospitals last week declared a critical incident, cancelled operations and tests, and were unable to carry out blood transfusions after the attack on the pathology firm Synnovis, which Qilin, a Russian group of cybercriminals, is thought to have been behind.

Memos to NHS staff at King’s College hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ (including the Royal Brompton and the Evelina London Children’s hospital) and primary care services in London said a critical incident had been declared.

NHS Blood and Transplant is calling for O-positive and O-negative blood donors to book appointments in one of the 25 NHS blood donor centres in England to boost stocks.

The hospitals affected by the cyber-attack cannot match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual, NHS Blood and Transplant said.

For surgeries and procedures requiring blood to take place, hospitals need to use O-type blood as this is safe to use for all patients. Blood has a shelf life of 35 days, so stocks need to be continually replenished, the NHS said.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2024

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Parents hope documentary will help maternity inquiry bid

A couple whose child died before birth due to failings in her care hope a new documentary can support their calls for a public inquiry into England's maternity services.

Jack and Sarah Hawkins' daughter Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham City Hospital in April 2016.

They hope an ITV programme - Maternity: Broken Trust - shown on Sunday evening can help their bid for a wider probe.

An independent review into failings in maternity services in Nottingham is now the biggest maternity investigation in NHS history, but a report is not expected to be returned until 2025.

Dr and Ms Hawkins - who received a £2.8m settlement over failings in their daughter's care - said a wider investigation was needed to highlight national issues.

"I think maternity services across England are absolutely terrible," Ms Hawkins said.

"We're in contact with people with dead babies from Leeds to Plymouth, and I think what really needs to happen is for there to be a public inquiry into England's maternity services.

"It's not just Nottingham, it's everywhere, and hopefully this platform will give people the strength to come forward and speak up."

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Source: BBC News, 10 June 2024

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My schizophrenic son killed his father. We speak every day

Dan Harrison, who had schizophrenia and psychotic delusions about his parents, had been sectioned ten days before he attacked his father. He was detained at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, run by the Swansea Bay University Health Board.

During those ten days he received no treatment or medication. He escaped through a door being held open by a member of staff who was talking to someone else and immediately headed for the family home where he killed his father.

The attack came after Dan's mother, Jane, and her husband repeatedly asked for help from mental health services as their son’s state of mind and behaviour deteriorated. They were refused.

Last month Kirsten Heaven, assistant coroner for Swansea, recorded in a narrative verdict that there had been repeated failings by the Swansea University Health Board and local council. She said multiple system failures had contributed to Kim’s death and warned of more deaths if they were not addressed.

Jane is speaking out now, with her son’s permission, after a Sunday Times investigation highlighted the scale of mental health-related killings in Britain. There have been at least 233 reported since 2020 and there have been repeated warnings about NHS services failing to provide crisis care.

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Source: The Times, 1 June 2024

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Three more babies die after developing whooping cough, says UKHSA

Three more babies have died from whooping cough this year as cases continue to rise across the country, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

Since January, there have been 4,793 confirmed cases of whooping cough, with 181 babies under the age of three months diagnosed with the illness. A total of eight babies have now died from whooping cough this year.

Pregnant women have been urged to get the whooping cough vaccine in order for their babies to be protected before they are old enough to receive the vaccine themselves.

Babies can first be vaccinated against the disease when eight weeks old, while pregnant women are advised to get the vaccine at 16 and 32 weeks.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, a consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with those families who have so tragically lost their baby.

“With whooping cough case numbers across the country continuing to rise and sadly the further infant deaths in April, we are again reminded how severe the illness can be for very young babies.

“Pregnant women should have a whooping cough vaccine in every pregnancy, normally around the time of their mid-pregnancy scan (usually 20 weeks). This passes protection to their baby in the womb so that they are protected from birth in the first months of their life when they are most vulnerable and before they can receive their own vaccines.

“The vaccine is crucial for pregnant women, to protect their babies from what can be a devastating illness.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 June 2024

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Antidepressant withdrawal affects one in six people

One out of every six people have symptoms when they stop taking antidepressants - fewer than previously thought, a review of previous studies suggests.

The researchers say their findings will help inform doctors and patients "without causing undue alarm".

The Lancet Psychiatry review looked at data from 79 trials involving more than 20,000 patients.

Some had been treated with antidepressants and others with a dummy drug or placebo, which helped researchers gauge the true effect of withdrawing from the drugs.

Some people have unpleasant symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea and insomnia when they stop taking antidepressants, which, the researchers say, can cause considerable distress.

Previous estimates suggested antidepressant discontinuation symptoms (ADS) affected 56% of patients, with almost half of cases classed as severe.

But this review, from the Universities of Berlin and Cologne, estimates one out of every every six or seven patients can expect symptoms when stopping antidepressants and one in 35 will have severe symptoms.

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Source: BBC News, 6 June 2024

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Patient violence against staff falls to five-year low

The proportion of NHS staff who have experienced physical violence from patients has fallen to its lowest levels in five years, according to the latest survey data.

New figures showed the percentage of staff reporting at least one incident of physical violence from patients or the public, within the last 12 months, had declined from 15.1 per cent in 2019, down to 13.7 per cent in 2023. That is also almost one percentage point lower than 14.6 per cent in 2022, which is the biggest year-on-year percentage point fall in the five years. 

The 2023 NHS staff survey, first published in early March, was updated recently to include the questions on physical violence. NHS England said earlier this week it had received a “higher than expected rate of missing data” for the questions, which meant they were not originally reported, but these issues had now been resolved. 

However, ambulance workers remain disproportionately affected by physical violence compared to other roles, with 27.6 per cent saying they had experienced at least one instance of physical violence from patients or the public in the past year. This is down from 32.5 per cent five years ago in 2019.

Acute and community staff were the next highest (13.7 per cent), followed by mental health (13.5 per cent), community (7 per cent), and then acute specialist (5.3 per cent). 

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Source: HSJ, 5 June 2024

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Trust suspends treatment for premature babies after several deaths

A national study is examining whether a treatment for premature babies could cause harm, amid concerns about the deaths of four infants last year, it has emerged.

HSJ has learned a national study into the use of prophylactic low-dose hydrocortisone steroids, also known as “premiloc”, is being carried out at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, part of the Imperial College London Medical School.

Meanwhile, University College London Hospitals Foundation Trust confirmed that four children died in January and February 2023 last year, having been transferred from UCLH to nearby Great Ormond Street Hospital, after receiving the treatment.

They had been given hydrocortisone steroids at UCLH to reduce the risk of developing a lung condition called bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

UCLH said its own internal investigations “did not confirm a direct link” between the deaths and the drug, “but concern remained” so they were reported to the regional neonatal network. UCLH noted that the national study at Imperial was now under way, although the Imperial team told HSJ it was not specifically aware of the UCLH/GOSH deaths last year.

A report from GOSH’s safety team last year, seen by HSJ, said: “In all four deaths the mortality review group identified modifiable/potential modifiable factors around the administration of premiloc prior to admission to GOSH. Administration of premiloc (hydrocortisone steroids) to these babies may have been associated with the subsequent perforations. A series of incidents of perforations was flagged to the UCLH neonatal unit who reviewed data and have stopped the administration of premiloc.”

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Source: HSJ, 5 June 2024

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USA: National Nurses United pushes back against deployment of 'unproven' AI in healthcare

The United State's largest nurses union is demanding that artificial intelligence tools used in healthcare be proven safe and equitable before deployment. Those that aren’t should be immediately discontinued, the union says.

Few algorithms, if any, currently meet their standard.  

“These arguments that these AI tools will result in improved safety are not grounded in any type of evidence whatsoever,” Michelle Mahon, assistant director of nursing practice at National Nurses United, told Fierce Healthcare. 

NNU represents 225,000 nurses in the US and has a presence in nearly every state through affiliated organisations, like the California Nurses Association, which protested the use of AI in healthcare in late April. NNU nurses also represent nearly every major hospital and health system in the nation. 

Most AI nurses interact with is integrated into electronic health records and is often used to predict sepsis or determine patient acuity, union nurses said at an NNU media briefing last month. 

EHRs cause an estimated 30,000 deaths per year, which is the third leading cause of death in the nation, Mahon said. Adding what they call “unproven” algorithms to EHRs is not how the health system should be spending dollars, NNU says.

The union is demanding that all AI used in healthcare meet the precautionary principle, a philosophical approach that requires the highest level of protection for innovations without significant scientific backing. Any AI solution that does not meet this principle, which NNU claims is most of the AI currently on the market and deployed in hospitals, should be immediately discontinued, they say.

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 3 June 2024

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Loss of NHS specialist nurses will lead to deaths of people with learning disabilities, experts warn

More hospital patients with learning disabilities will die if politicians do not tackle the “devastating collapse” in specialist nurse numbers, a leading charity and a union have warned.

The number of specialist learning disability nurses working in the NHS has dropped by 44 per cent over the course of the Conservative party’s time in government, a new analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed.

The nursing union found a 36 per cent drop in applicants for specialist nursing degrees, while applicants are so low some universities have stopped funding courses altogether, according to a report shared exclusively with The Independent.

The RCN and the charity Mencap have warned specialist nurses are vital in keeping patients with learning disabilities in hospital safe, as they are trained to spot life-threatening illnesses, such as sepsis, which can present differently.

Dan Scorer, head of policy at Mencap, said: “Learning disability nurses have that in-depth training and understanding about the complexity of how people with a learning disability can present, and about how they will show they are experiencing pain. They’ve got vital expertise and insights to make sure that we don’t miss things.”

He said the government must increase the number of training places available, and warned some universities have stopped courses altogether. He added: “I think the government removing bursaries for nurse training was pretty devastating. The impact of that was really significant, and whilst that’s been partially reversed, it significantly impacted the undergraduate training capacity that was available.”

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Source: The Independent, 4 June 2024

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Critical incident declared as cyber attack affects major London hospitals

Major hospitals in London have declared a critical incident after a cyber attack led to operations being cancelled and patients being diverted elsewhere for care.

NHS officials said they were working with the National Cyber Security Centre after the attack on Synnovis, which provides pathology services to large hospitals and GP surgeries in the capital.

The company said the ransomware attack has affected all of its IT systems, which has impacted its pathology services.

Some procedures and operations have been cancelled or have been redirected to other NHS providers as hospital bosses continue to establish what work can be carried out safely.

Synnovis was the victim of a ransomware cyberattack. This has affected all Synnovis IT systems, resulting in interruptions to many of our pathology services.

Mark Dollar, Synnovis chief executive

Health service leaders said there has been a “significant impact” King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ – including the Royal Brompton and the Evelina London Children’s Hospital – and GP services in south-east London.

A memo to staff said the “critical incident” has had a “major impact” on the delivery of services, with blood transfusions particularly affected.

Patients have described last-minute cancellations to operations and blood tests.

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Source: The Independent, 4 June 2024

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WHO member states agree better ways to detect health threats and set new deadline for pandemic treaty

The negotiation of a pandemic accord intended to prevent the global disaster seen during Covid-19 should be completed in the next year, WHO have announced.

“The amendments to the international health regulations will bolster countries’ ability to detect and respond to future outbreaks and pandemics by strengthening their own national capacities and coordination between fellow states, on disease surveillance, information sharing, and response,” said WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “This is built on commitment to equity, an understanding that health threats do not recognise national borders, and that preparedness is a collective endeavour.”

The revised international health regulations includes a commitment to strengthening access to medical products and financing, and stronger, more precise language that should accelerate the detection of health threats and the necessary global action to manage them.

“Full implementation of the international health regulations brings the world closer to being safer from pandemic threats. A new pandemic agreement with equity at its heart would further strengthen the rules around and guide international collaboration,” said Helen Clark, former New Zealand prime minister and co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

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Source: BMJ, 4 June 2024

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Gonorrhoea cases reach record high in England

A record number of people in England were diagnosed with gonorrhoea last year, annual UK Health Security Agency figures show.

Diagnoses rose 7.5% - from 79,268 in 2022 to 85,223 in 2023.

Syphilis, meanwhile, rose 9.4% - from 8,693 to 9,513, the highest number since 1948 - with more heterosexual men and women becoming infected.

Overall, sexually transmitted infection diagnoses, including several different STIs, rose 4.7%.

The British Association of Sexual Health and HIV said the rise in STIs was a “concerning indicator” of pressure on sexual-health services and called for a new strategy.

President Prof Matt Phillips said: “We find ourselves at a critical point for securing the viability of sexual-health services.

“From recruitment challenges, to public-health funding, to ensuring the right experts are supporting every clinic, the next government has an opportunity to change the tides and address these barriers, to ensure everyone has timely access to expertise to support good sexual health and wellbeing.”

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Source: BBC News, 4 June 2024

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Cyber attack strikes multiple hospitals

A major health system’s pathology IT has been hit by a cyber attack, HSJ understands.

A letter sent by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust chief executive last night said his £2.5bn-turnover trust was unable to connect to the servers of Synnovis.

The problem is ongoing, and several senior sources told HSJ the system had been the victim of a ransomware attack. One said gaining access to pathology results could take “weeks, not days”. 

As well as GSTT – the NHS’s largest provider – neighbouring King’s College Hospital FT, which runs several hospitals in the system, and is thought to be affected. Synnovis also provides pathology services for primary care across all six of south east London’s boroughs.

The news would make it one of the largest critical NHS systems brought down by a cyber attack.

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Source: HSJ, 4 June 2024

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Politicians and NHS criticised as they fail to carry out actions urged by Jimmy Savile inquiry after 10 years

The NHS and government have failed to implement a single recommendation from a key Jimmy Savile inquiry – almost 10 years after plans to prevent future sex abuse of patients in hospitals were put forward, The Independent can reveal.

The shocking discovery was uncovered by the panel tasked to chair the public inquiry into Lucy Letby, the nurse who killed several newborn babies in her care.

Analysing the progress made by the NHS and government after some of the most high-profile health scandals in the UK, it found across 30 inquiries, dating back to 1967, just 302 out of more than 1,400 key recommendations had been adopted.

Alan Collins, a lawyer who represented dozens of victims in claims against Savile’s estate, slammed politicians and public bodies over the failure.

He says: “The thread that runs through the numerous reports, the investigations behind them, and the ongoing failures with lack of implementation is the lack of accountability.

“We have seen time after time the lack of professional curiosity in the face of glaring wrongdoing yet this cultural vacuum rarely sees those charged with responsibility for safeguarding subject to any consequences.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 June 2024

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NHS patients face intimate examinations in corridors and nights sleeping in chairs, warns union

Patients are being squeezed onto wards, forced to have intimate examinations in front of each other and left dying in hospital corridors as nurses are forced to play “trolley tetris”, NHS staff have revealed.

Testimonies from nurses, given to the Royal College of Nursing and seen by The Independent, reveal they are regularly forced into “unsafe” practices, such as squeezing more patients into wards with insufficient space and staffing.

The warnings come as the RCN has urged the next government to act on the “national emergency” with a survey of thousands of nurses revealing patients are being left without access to oxygen and put in undignified situations.

RCN deputy chief nurse Lynn Woolsey said in May: “We have increasing evidence from members up and down the country of patients being cared for in undesignated bed spaces, vending machines being moved out of A&E to make space for patients, two patients being put in one bed space, with one patient being asked to face the wall while a rectal exam was carried out on the other patient... shocking, shocking information and situations.”

In the face of the worsening A&E and ambulance waiting times last year, The Independent revealed hospital staff in many areas were ordered to move patients from emergency departments on, regardless of space.

In one example, a nurse said her trust ordered workers to accept patients from A&E at midday every day, adding: “Doesn’t matter what capacity A&E is or the ward. It’s just what has to be done. We have no space, no tables, no curtains.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 June 2024

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Parents call for inquiry into maternity services

The families of nine babies who died at a scandal-hit NHS trust over a three-year period have called for a public inquiry into the standard of its maternity care.

A collective letter has been sent to each of the families' MPs after they lost babies at hospitals run by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

Of the nine bereaved mothers, four said they too almost died as a result of "poor standards of care" from maternity teams between 2021 and 2023

The trust said it had recruited more midwives and "changed" how it supported families, with outcomes now better "than most other trusts in the country".

But the Sussex-based families said they had called for a public inquiry into its maternity services to ensure accountability for "systemic failures", and so the trust learns from past mistakes.

In the letter to the MPs, the parents said: "With the volume and repetition of errors in maternity care by the trust, we believe that babies and potentially mothers will continue to unnecessarily die under the trust’s care unless there is additional intervention."

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Source: BBC News, 4 June 2024

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Deaths blamed on health board improvement failures

Families have warned a health board that more patients could die if lessons about poor mental health care are not learned.

A report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found less than half of 84 recommended improvements to a hospital trust’s mental health department have been made.

In the past 10 years, four separate reviews have outlined changes to be implemented by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Patient watchdog Llais said people had continued to die during this time.

At a meeting in Llandudno on Thursday morning, the health board, which runs the NHS in north Wales, apologised to families and said it was committed to improving.

Problems with mental health services at the health board first became public in December 2013 when the Tawel Fan dementia ward at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd near Rhyl was closed. A report said elderly patients there were treated "like animals in a zoo".

Before that, the board was aware of problems at Hergest mental health unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor. An investigation found a culture of bullying and low morale, which meant patient safety concerns were not addressed.

During the meeting earlier, Phill Dickaty, who’s mother Joyce Dickety died on Tawel Fan in 2012, told the board families felt “let down again".

"As things stand, despite the passage of time and false reassurances offered by BCUHB, the Tawel Fan families have a real and significant concerns over the lack of progress," he said. "Be it patient or otherwise, nobody should ever have to endure a situation like Tawel Fan and the atrocities that took place. As well as the disappointment felt at the lack of progress, the risk of history repeating itself again in the future weighs heavily in the minds of Tawel Fan families."

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Source: BBC News, 29 May 2024

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New AI tool ‘can rapidly rule out heart attacks in people attending A&E’

A new artificial intelligence tool (AI) developed in the UK can rapidly rule out heart attacks in people attending A&E and help tens of thousands avoid unnecessary hospital stays each year, according to its creators.

Known as Rapid-RO, the AI tool has been found to successfully rule out heart attacks in over a third of patients across four UK hospitals during trials.

Professor James Leiper, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which funded the study, said: “This research demonstrates the important role AI could play in guiding treatment decision for heart patients.

“By quickly identifying patients who are safe to be discharged, this technology could help people avoid unnecessary hospital stays, allowing valuable NHS time and resource to be redirected to where it could have the greatest benefit.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 June 2024

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Rise in hospital ‘corridor care’ is national emergency, union warns

Overcrowding is forcing hospitals to treat so many patients in corridors and storerooms that it constitutes a “national emergency”, the UK’s nursing union has said.

The growing and widespread practice is endangering patients’ safety by leaving them without oxygen or easily able to attract staff’s attention, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned.

“Corridor care” also deprives patients of their dignity because they have to undergo intimate examinations in view of others and do not have easy access to a toilet, it added.

Hospitals become so stretched that some patients have died while being looked after in what the RCN said were “inappropriate areas”, which can also include car parks and fracture rooms.

The RCN called on the NHS to recognise the serious risk “corridor care” posed to patients by recording every time it happened and classifying it as a “never event”. The latter would put it on a par with incidents such as surgeons operating on the wrong part of someone’s body.

A new RCN report, based on a survey of 11,000 nurses across the UK, includes evidence of the impact on patients and staff of care being delivered in such settings. One nurse said: “You wouldn’t treat a dog this way.”

Nurses described patients being told they had cancer while they were in public areas, and someone with dementia being left for hours without oxygen in a corridor.

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Source: The Guardian, 3 June 2024

Related reading on the hub:

A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift

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Women with painful condition 'ignored' by doctors

Young women from West Yorkshire have criticised a "lack of support" available for a painful and debilitating medical condition.

The three patients, all in their 20s, said they either struggled to get a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) confirmed despite numerous GP appointments, or were not given effective treatment.

PCOS causes painful and irregular periods, and affects up to one in 10 women in the UK.

The NHS said it "strongly advised" any woman concerned about their health to contact their GP.

Alex Offer, 24, from Leeds, said it took nine years before she was told she had PCOS after doctors "ignored" her concerns from the age of 15.

One GP dismissed her symptoms as being caused by stress and anxiety, she said.

Laaraib Khan, 24, also from Leeds, reported a similar experience.

Although she received her diagnosis at the age of 13 after her mother pushed her GP to take her complaints seriously, in the past 11 years she said she had been given "little support" and was left to manage the syndrome herself.

"You have to lean on other women who are going through it rather than going to your GP, who will most likely turn you away," she said.

Research by the charity Verity PCOS UK found that 60% of women with the disorder have struggled to get a diagnosis, while 95% said they had encountered problems trying to access NHS support.

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Source: BBC News, 3 June 2024

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Concerns over ‘essential’ newborn breathing equipment at one in five hospitals

One in five recent inspections of maternity services have raised concerns over “essential” breathing equipment for newborn babies, HSJ has found. 

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors have flagged fears over shortages and overdue maintenance of resuscitaire, a device commonly used by midwives if babies require additional support with breathing. Experts say the equipment should be immediately available to ensure safe resuscitation.

The CQC itself said the lack of such equipment was impacting patient safety at some hospitals.

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Source: HSJ, 31 May 2024

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NHS computer issues linked to patient harm

IT system failures have been linked to the deaths of three patients and more than 100 instances of serious harm at NHS hospital trusts in England, BBC News has found.

A Freedom of Information request also found 200,000 medical letters had gone unsent due to widespread problems with NHS computer systems.

Nearly half of hospital trusts with electronic patient systems reported issues that could affect patients. NHS England says it has invested £900m over the past two years to help introduce new and improved systems. Some hospital trusts have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on new electronic patient record (EPR) systems, but BBC News has discovered many are experiencing major problems with how they work.

Quoted in this article, Clive Flashman, Chief Digital Officer of Patient Safety Learning, said, “If you look at the sorts of serious issues that are coming out around the country where patients are being harmed, in some cases dying, as a result of these systems not working properly, I would imagine there are tens of thousands of these that are happening that probably never get discussed”.

Read the full story.

Source: BBC News, 30 May 2024

Read more about Patient Safety Learning's reflections on these issues and the importance of patient safety being at the heart of the development and implementation of EPRs here.

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Trust and manager deny corporate manslaughter

A mental health trust and a band seven ward manager it employed have denied manslaughter charges over a death on an inpatient ward.

North East London Foundation Trust and Benjamin Aninakwa entered not guilty pleas to manslaughter by gross negligence at the Old Bailey on Friday (24 May).

It is believed to be the first time a named NHS manager at a trust has faced corporate manslaughter charges, alongside the organisation that employed them.

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Source: HSJ, 29 May 2024

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