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Patient care and safety put at risk in A&E at brand new £350m hospital

Patients visiting Wales' newest emergency department were likely to have been put at risk of harm due to the lack of processes and systems in place, inspectors found. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) carried out an unannounced inspection of The Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran between 1 and 3 November last year and published its findings on 29 March.

On the day of their arrival inspectors said The Grange was at full capacity with no empty beds in A&E or in the hospital in general. Despite the best efforts of staff who were "working hard under pressure" the report stated the emergency department had several issues which could have compromised the privacy and dignity of patients. This included problems with the physical environment of the waiting room, which was described as a "major cause of anxiety" for visitors, as well as with the flow of patients through the hospital in general.

It found that patients were not triaged and medically managed in A&E in a timely fashion with many being placed on uncomfortable chairs or in corridors for hours on end. Between 1 April 2021 and 1 November 2021, the average waiting time in the department was six hours and seven minutes.

The report said some issues required immediate action including the fact patients in the waiting area were often left to "deteriorate without being overseen". There were also infection control failures which could have led to the cross-contamination of Covid-19. "We were not assured that all the processes and systems in place were sufficient to ensure that patients consistently received an acceptable standard of safe and effective care," the report stated.

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Source: Wales Online, 1 April 2022

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Patient bleeds to death in hospital run by scandal-hit trust

Inspectors raise ‘serious concerns’ about medical wards and emergency care at Shropshire NHS trust

A patient bled to death on a ward at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust after a device used to access his bloodstream became inexplicably disconnected, The Independent has learnt.

The incident came to light as new concerns arose about quality of care at the Shropshire trust, with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) warning of “serious concerns” about its medical wards and emergency department following an inspection last month.

Although the report from the inspection has not yet been published, it is understood that the trust has been served with a legal notice by the regulator to comply with more than a dozen conditions. It remains in special measures following the inspection and is rated inadequate overall.

See full article in The Independent here

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Patient at Broadmoor Hospital died after suffocating, inquest hears

A patient at Broadmoor Hospital has died after suffocating while staff were chatting outside of his room, an inquest has heard.

Aaron Clamp, a patient at the notorious high security mental health hospital Broadmoor, died on 4 January 2021 after asphyxiating whilst in his room.

The Independent understands Mr Clamp’s death may have been the first “non-natural” death since the new Broadmoor Hospital, run by West London Trust, opened in December 2019.

According to evidence heard at the inquest, staff who were meant to be carrying out continuous “eyesight” observations on Mr Clamp, were having a conversation without direct sight into his room.

Mr Clamp’s father told The Independent he was “tormented” by the criminal justice and mental health system which resulted in his “indefinite incarceration.”

“Diagnosed with a mental illness, schizoaffective disorder, the purpose of treatment was rehabilitation.  Psychiatric treatment is conventionally centred on medication to manage symptoms and risk," his father said.

He acknowledged there is a balance to be struck between managing risks and restricting patients, but closer attention of holistic compassionate care should be given.

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Source: The Independent, 3 March 2022

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Patient and staff data stolen in Barts Health cyber attack

Personal patient and staff information has been posted on the dark web after hackers exploited a software vulnerability at Barts Health NHS Trust.

The criminal group, known as Cl0p, stole files from the trust’s database in August 2025, including names, addresses, and invoices of patients and staff who had paid for treatment or services over several years.

It also included files relating to accounting services provided since April 2024 to Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

In a statement, Barts Health said that its electronic patient record and clinical systems have not been affected by the attack and it is “confident” that its core IT infrastructure is secure.

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Source: Digital Health, 9 December 2025

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Patient and People Network to highlight individual needs first

Self-care, self-management, illness prevention and personal goals are a vital part of wellbeing for many patients and carers. That’s why the Professional Records Standard Body (PRSB) is building a Patient and People Network, in order to support them in influencing the information that is prioritised for care and decide how it’s shared. 

Covid has changed health and care priorities permanently and we know that digital is here to stay. Our goal is to ensure this can be done in the best way possible to maximise patient benefits and minimise any risks. To do this we have established a people priorities team, made up of patients and engagement specialists, and developed a strategy to help us deliver a programme of work that puts patient needs and priorities at its heart. We will be aiming to expand the team of patients and carers we currently work with, to address the issues that they feel are most pressing as well as work closely with our members’ and partners’ user networks. This will include challenges such as health inequalities, lack of access to information and sharing in decision-making. We appreciate that people’s information needs may be different to the professionals who treat them, but are equally important.  

Our goals will be to work with a more diverse network of people on projects and better support people in sharing their views and concerns. We will be re-evaluating current processes to ensure that topics are accessible and that people feel they can get involved and share their views in a meaningful way to support change within the system.  The new network will also offer support and training where needed. If you’re a carer or someone who has used services in the past and would like to get involved, please contact us on [email protected].  

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Patient aggression up by a fifth despite trust’s interventions

A hospital trust, which has already implemented a series of safety measures to protect employees, has reported a 17% rise in incidents of abuse against staff by patients and the public in the last year. 

Data from the Oxford University Hospital’s clinical incident system, shared with HSJ, shows there were 1,181 cases of violence and aggression against staff in 2022, up from 1,003 in 2021.

Before late 2021, the monthly incident rate very rarely hit 100, while since January 2022 it has topped 100 in seven months, including 162 and 131 incidents respectively in January and February this year.

The ongoing growth is despite the trust launching a campaign, called “No Excuses”, in January 2022,. Measures include bodyworn cameras, and safety devices with alarms and positioning technology for lone workers. 

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Source: HSJ, 16 May 2023

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Paterson scandal: Is the NHS learning from mistakes?

Shipman, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, and now Ian Paterson, the breast surgeon that performed botched and unnecessary operations on hundreds of women. The list of NHS-related scandals has got longer. It's tempting to say the health service has not learned lessons even after a string of revelations and reviews. But is that fair? asks BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym.

The inquiry, chaired by Bishop Graham James, makes clear there were failings at every level of a dysfunctional health system when it came to patient safety.

The public and private health systems did not compare notes about suspicious behaviour by a consultant. Staff working with Paterson thought that his surgical methods were unusual but, perhaps cowed by being ignored after raising concerns, kept their heads down. Add to that the power and status of a surgeon in the medical world and, in the words of the report, Paterson was "hiding in plain sight".

So could it happen again?

James says it's clearly impossible to eliminate the activities of determined criminals in any profession. He acknowledges that some improvements have been made on policing. But he says that a decade on from the Paterson scandal, he is not convinced that medical regulators, with a combined budget of half a billion pounds a year, are doing enough collectively or collaboratively to make the system safe for patients.

The review chair notes tellingly that while regulators spoke of major improvements which should identify another Paterson, some doctors and nurses had told the inquiry that it was "entirely possible that something similar could happen now".

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Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020

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Past COVID-19 infection provides some immunity but people may still carry and transmit virus

People who recover from coronavirus have a similar level of protection against future infection as those who receive a Covid vaccine – at least for the first five months, research suggests.

A Public Health England (PHE) study of more than 20,000 healthcare workers found that immunity acquired from an earlier Covid infection provided 83% protection against reinfection for at least 20 weeks.

The findings show that while people are unlikely to become reinfected soon after their first infection, it is possible to catch the virus again and potentially spread it to others.

“Overall I think this is good news,” said Prof Susan Hopkins, a senior medical adviser to PHE. “It allows people to feel that prior infection will protect them from future infections, but at the same time it is not complete protection, and therefore they still need to be careful when they are out and about.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 January 2021

Public Health England press release

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Parts of England have one NHS dentist for thousands of people, data shows

Dental patients are still suffering from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, as parts of England are left with only one NHS dentist for thousands of people.

In North Lincolnshire, there were just 54 NHS dentists – equivalent to one for every 3,199 people – at the end of March, NHS Digital figures show. This means every NHS dentist in the area would have to work nine-hour days every working day of the year without holidays for each resident to receive one annual checkup on the NHS.

Across England, 24,272 dentists treated some NHS patients in the year to 31 March – up 2.3% from the previous year, broadly in keeping with the general population increase in the same period, but lower than pre-pandemic figures for the three previous years.

The chair of the British Dental Association, Eddie Crouch, said the service was “on its last legs” and the figures underlined the need for radical and urgent change. “The government will be fooling itself and millions of patients if it attempts to put a gloss on these figures,” said Crouch. “NHS dentistry is light years away from where it needs to be. Unless ministers step up and deliver much-needed reform and decent funding, this will remain the new normal.”

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Source: The Guardian (25 August 2022)

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Partners still banned from UK maternity wards despite rule change

When Jess and Patrick discovered they were expecting their first baby in the new year, they looked forward to an early glimpse of their unborn child via an ultrasound scan.

But the couple, who live in the north-west of England, were soon told that Patrick would not be able to attend any antenatal appointments, including routine scans at 12 and 20 weeks. When their baby begins its journey into the world, Patrick will be permitted to join Jess only when labour is fully established, and he must leave an hour after delivery. He will not be able to visit his new family in hospital again.

“It’s taken the shine off the pregnancy,” said Jess, a junior doctor. “Patrick hasn’t been able to come to a single appointment. It’s making me very anxious and stressed – I’ve had actual nightmares about things going wrong and Patrick not being with me. He’s had to wait at home when I’ve gone for appointments, worrying and waiting for me to call to say everything’s OK.”

The hospital where Jess will give birth is among 43% of NHS trusts that – despite official guidance – have not eased restrictions imposed during lockdown on partners attending antenatal appointments, being present throughout labour, and staying with new mothers and babies after the birth. And as Covid transmissions rise across the UK, almost a quarter of NHS trusts have said they expect to reimpose such restrictions.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2020

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Partial victory for nurse in NHS trans changing room row

A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor has won a claim for harassment against NHS Fife but other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.

Sandie Peggie was suspended from her job in a hospital's A&E department after she complained about Dr Beth Upton - a biological male who identifies as a woman - using a female changing room.

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Source: BBC News, 8 December 2025

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Partial set up of electronic medication systems in NHS puts patients at risk

Poorly implemented electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems can result in potentially fatal medication errors, Healthcare and Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) warns today.

The report comes after HSIB looked at the case of 75-year old Ann Midson, who was left taking two powerful blood thinning medications after a mix-up at her local hospital where she was receiving treatment whilst suffering from incurable cancer.

Ann sadly died from her cancer 18 days after being discharged and the error with her medication was only picked up three days before. This led to our investigation to question why this happened, even when the hospital had an ePMA system in place.

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Source: HSIB, 24 October 2019

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Parliament to nominate Scotland’s first Patient Safety Commissioner

Next week (Thursday 15 May) the Scottish Parliament will be invited to nominate Karen Titchener to His Majesty for appointment as Scotland’s inaugural Patient Safety Commissioner.

The role of the Patient Safety Commissioner will be to advocate for systematic improvement in the safety of health care in Scotland and promote the importance of the views of patients and other members of the public in relation to the safety of health care.

Karen Titchener is currently serving as Vice President of Hospital at Home Operation in the USA and brings over two decades of senior leadership experience within the NHS, having also previously worked at Guys and St Thomas NHS Trust. Mrs Titchener is expected to take up post on 1 September 2025 for a fixed term of eight years.

Read the full article.

Source: The Scottish Government, 9 May 2025

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Parkinson’s Excellence Network: New time critical medication resources for health professionals launched

Three new resources have been launched by the Parkinson’s Excellence Network to support UK healthcare professionals in hospitals to improve the delivery of time critical medication for people with Parkinson’s: 

  1. Self administration of Parkinson’s medication: a guide for hospital staff. This guide supports senior pharmacists and nurses who are working to develop a self administration policy or better utilise an existing policy to support the delivery of time critical medication. Read the guide.
  2. Time critical medication patients' stories: in their own words. In these short films, people with Parkinson’s share their experiences of receiving their Parkinson's medication in hospital and how this impacted on their health and well being. These films have been developed to raise awareness and support education and training of health professionals. Watch Barrie and Margot’s films now.
  3. Time critical medication: hospital awareness kit. This new collection of interactive posters, vibrant screensavers and social media graphics will help you to raise awareness of time critical Parkinson’s medication in your hospital. Access the toolkit.

Access all of the time critical medication resources.

Related resources on the hub:

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Parkinson's disease biomarker found

In an enormous leap forward in the understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD), researchers have discovered a new tool that can reveal a key pathology of the disease: abnormal alpha-synuclein — known as the “Parkinson’s protein” — in brain and body cells.

The breakthrough published in the scientific journal The Lancet Neurology, opens a new chapter for research, with the promise of a future where every person living with Parkinson’s can expect improved care and treatments — and newly diagnosed individuals may never advance to full-blown symptoms.   

The tool, called the α-synuclein seeding amplification assay (αSyn-SAA), can detect pathology in spinal fluid not only of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but also in individuals who have not yet been diagnosed or shown clinical symptoms of the disease, but are at a high risk of developing it. 

By helping to identify people at the earliest stages of PD, “We could then study what happens at different biological stages of the disease,” says Dr. Sherer. Says Ken Marek, MD, PPMI principal investigator, “αSyn-SAA enables us to move to another level in effecting new strategies for prevention of disease.” 

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Source: The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson' research, 13 April 2023

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Parkinson's blood test gives early-diagnosis hope

A simple blood test using artificial intelligence to predict Parkinson's disease years before symptoms begin has been developed by researchers.

They hope it can lead to a cheap, finger-prick test providing early diagnoses - and help find treatments to slow down the disease.

Charity Parkinson's UK said it was "a major step forward" in the search for a non-invasive patient-friendly test, but larger trials are needed to prove its accuracy.

“At present we are shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted," senior author Prof Kevin Mills, from UCL's Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said.

"We need to start experimental treatments before patients develop symptoms."

Co-author Dr Jenny Hällqvist, from UCL, said: "People are diagnosed when neurons are already lost.

"We need to protect those neurons, not wait till they are gone."

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Source: BBC News, 18 June 2024

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Parents win six-year battle for truth after NHS ‘cover-up’ of son’s death

The parents of a three-year-old boy whose death was part of an alleged NHS cover-up have won a six year battle for the truth about how he died.

Shropshire coroner John Ellery backed the parents of three-year-old Jonnie Meek in a second inquest into his death on Thursday and rejected evidence from nurses about what happened at Stafford Hospital in August 2014.

Jonnie, who was born with rare congenital disability De Grouchy syndrome, died two hours after being admitted to hospital to trial a new feed which was being fed directly into his stomach. His parents, John Meek and April Keeling, from Cannock in Staffordshire, have always maintained their son died after a reaction to the milk feed caused him to vomit and suffocate.

But they have been forced to battle what they believe was an attempt to hide what happened after they discovered attempts to alter their son’s medical history with claims he had experienced several cardiac arrests requiring resuscitation which never happened.

In 2015, healthcare assistant Lauren Tew, who was with Jonnie and his mother when he died, told the HSJ that a statement in her name submitted to a child death overview panel stating Jonnie had died from a sudden cardiac arrest was false and she had never made such a statement.

Another statement said Jonnie had been admitted to hospital for three weeks months before his death which also never happened.

After his parents exposed the false statements an independent inquiry was launched, with three independent experts agreeing with Jonnie’s parents, and in April last year the High Court quashed the original inquest verdict that Jonnie died of natural causes and pneumonia.

Speaking to The Independent Jonnie’s father said: “This does bring us some peace after six years. For the coroner to say he believes April over the nurses after all this time is a big weight lifted off her.

“The hospital definitely decided to try and cover up what happened to Jonnie. We have always said we knew what happened and this has been a massive waste of resources. I am still very concerned about how these things can happen in the first place.”

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Source: The Independent, 15 October 2020

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Parents watched 18 month old die after Shrewsbury hospital failings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Independent, 14 March 2024

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Parents want answers following tragic death of their 12-day-old baby

Victoria and Thomas Gillibrand's baby Pippa died after a carefully planned home birth resulted in her suffering a severe brain injury due to a lack of oxygen during her delivery.

Concerned about reports of staff shortages and safety concerns in maternity services prior to Pippa’s delivery and after carrying out extensive research, Victoria and Thomas believed the labour and their baby would be more closely monitored by a dedicated one-to-one home birth team and that a home birth was the safer option.  

Following Pippa’s death, an investigation was initiated by the Trust, with several concerns being highlighted, including:

  • The risk assessment for a homebirth was not fully completed; there was no documented discussion regarding a small risk of serious medical problems for the baby, compared to planning the birth in other settings for mothers having their first baby.  There was also no discussion of a plan to continue labour on the midwife led unit when the homebirth team were already called out to a homebirth.  This meant Victoria was not fully informed of all the risks when she was planning her homebirth.
  • The Trust’s homebirth service can safely provide resources for one homebirth. If any further homebirths occur at the same time the assumption is that the labouring mother will receive care on the midwife led unit. This was not documented in Trust guidance. This meant that Victoria was not invited to attend hospital when the homebirth team were initially not available to provide one to one care at home.
  • There were no bleep holders or senior managers on call to escalate safety concerns to or get advice from. Awareness of the whole maternity service was not recognised due to the high acuity on the labour ward, with no escalation of safety concerns when the maternity service was under pressure outside of the hospital setting.
  • The Trust does not provide enough equipment for two homebirths to be held simultaneously.
  • There was no risk assessment done when Victoria’s husband, Tom, first called the labour ward.  It was not the role of the labour ward coordinator to triage telephone calls from mothers requesting the homebirth team to attend.  There was no follow up telephone call to Victoria from the homebirth team due to them being at another homebirth, which led to a missed early opportunity to assess Victoria and Pippa’s wellbeing.
  • Pippa’s wellbeing was not assessed in line with national and Trust Guidelines.  When Victoria was assessed as being in the second stage of labour, intermittent auscultation was not performed every 5 minutes, only recorded twice in the first 30 minutes.  This was due to the midwifery team focusing on other activities, such as the staffing issues and setting up the homebirth equipment. 
  • There was a delay in recognition of difficulties to auscultate Pippa’s heart rate due to the staff’s previous positive experiences at homebirths which led to a delay with subsequent actions.
  • There was incomplete documentation of the advice and care given during telephone calls, at Victoria’s home and during the events of her labour. This was due to a very busy labour ward and poor connectivity of the laptops in the homebirth setting, which meant staff were initially unable to document in the electronic patient record system and document Pippa’s heart rate on the partogram; there was no alternative method for documentation available for staff to be able to effectively capture vital information regarding Pippa’s wellbeing. This did not support clinical oversight or risk assessment during labour.

Rebecca Cahill, specialist clinical negligence senior associate with JMW, representing the family, said: “The death of this tiny baby is utterly tragic. Vicky and Tom’s loss is devastating and unimaginable, but to learn that Pippa’s monitoring was not in line with NHS Guidelines, and that staff shortages appear to have impacted the care that they received only compounds their loss.

 “They obviously have a number of concerns and so welcome the coroner’s investigation to ensure that no stone is left unturned in trying to find out why Pippa died.”

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Source: Warrington Guardian, 24 January 2026

 

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Parents urged to get children flu vaccine as infections rise

Parents of children under five are being urged to get them a flu vaccine after a 70% jump in hospitalisations.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said an 11% fall in the uptake of the vaccine among two and three-year-olds came as flu circulated at higher levels than in previous years.

Anjali and Ben Wildblood from Bristol saw their two-year-old son Rafa become "very sick" with flu just days before he was due to have the vaccine.

The pair, who are both NHS consultants, said their concerns prompted them to take him to A&E where he was treated and sent home.

"But his condition got worse again, with a soaring temperature and exhaustion - he had no strength whatsoever and what was so extremely worrying was that he barely had the strength to breathe - every parent's worst nightmare," they said.

After returning to hospital, Rafa was admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit where he was put under general anaesthetic and intubated.

Covid restrictions have meant most young children have never encountered flu and have no natural immunity to the virus, the UKHSA said. This increased risk has coincided with the uptake of the flu vaccine among two-year-olds standing at 31% and 33% among three-year-olds.

All children under five can get vaccinated at their GP surgery.

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Source: BBC News, 30 November 2022

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Parents sue over failures in child hearing service at NHS Lothian

More than a dozen families are seeking compensation following "significant failures" at NHS Lothian's hearing service for children.

The health board apologised to more than 155 families after an independent investigation found serious problems diagnosing and treating hearing loss.

Sophie was born partly deaf and failed repeated hearing tests for years. Her family say no help was offered by the paediatric audiology department at NHS Lothian who kept saying she would be fine. But her parents say she is not.

Sophie is now seven. Her speech and language has not developed fully and is sometimes hard to understand. Her confidence has been affected.

Her mum Sarah said: "They failed Sophie. You kind of trust what they were doing, you thought maybe she doesn't need hearing aids, maybe she will just catch up and now she's almost eight years old and she's still not caught up and you think 'OK, maybe there were mistakes made then'."

An independent investigation by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA), published in December last year, found "significant failures" involving 155 children over nine years at NHS Lothian.

Several profoundly deaf children were diagnosed too late for vital implant surgery. The health board has "apologised sincerely" to those affected.

The BAA looked at more than 1,000 patient records finding "significant failures" in almost 14% of them.

The BAA said it found "no evidence" that national guidelines and protocols on hearing tests for children had been followed or consistently applied "at any point since 2009".

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Source: BBC News, 2 March 2022

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Parents seek second inquest into baby's hospital death

The parents of a baby who died after medical errors are to push for a new inquest into his death, after they say a "cruel" inquest denied them justice.

Hayden Nguyen died in 2016 after medics failed to treat an infection properly. However, despite the NHS trust admitting mistakes, coroner Shirley Radcliffe concluded the infant died of natural causes, after raising concerns about the hospital's initial investigation.

Hayden was six days old when his parents took him to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in west London in August 2016. He initially had a fever but rapidly deteriorated; he had a cardiac arrest and died within 12 hours of arriving there.

An internal NHS investigation concluded eight errors were made in Hayden's care, and the root causes of his death were failure to identify the signs of shock and failure to act on abnormal test results.

"When they had completed the investigation, they sat us down and took us through it line by line," says Alex Nguyen, Hayden's mother. "Although the content was incredibly disturbing, it was in a way healing and it helped a little bit with the grieving process."

An inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court, conducted by Dr Radcliffe, followed. However, the coroner was not happy with the hospital's investigation.

The hospital to issue a second report into Hayden's care, which halved the number of errors, and said the root cause of his death was the infection "which is known to have a high mortality".

Armed with this second report, the coroner concluded that Hayden had died of natural causes.

"What the coroner did was kill Hayden a second time," Hayden's father, Tum, told the BBC.

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Source: BBC News, 14 May 2021

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Parents of toddler who died from flu after hospital failings speak out on five-year wait for answers

The bereaved parents of a toddler who died from the flu after a “catalogue of failings” by a hospital say they are still waiting for answers about their daughter’s tragic death.

Cristiana Banciu died in January 2020 after a rare reaction to the flu, while under the care of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2021, an inquest identified multiple failings by trust staff, who it found had “failed to provide basic medical attention” to the two-year-old.

Three years later, the trust agreed to pay her parents Alexandru and Georgiana £25,000 following a civil claim for bereavement costs and to cover Cristiana’s funeral expenses.

However, the couple say the trust has not admitted legal liability or sent a formal apology directly to them – an apology has only come via the media.

The parents want reassurance that such a tragic event will not happen again.

At Cristiana’s inquest, assistant coroner Jacqueline Devonish said healthcare professionals had “failed to provide basic medical attention”, which contributed to her death. The coroner could not, on the balance of probabilities, say that she would have survived had she been treated sooner, but suggested that she would probably have had a better chance, describing the failure to record her score on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) as “very serious”.

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Source: The Independent, 3 January 2025

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Parents of teenager who took his own life sue OpenAI

A California couple are suing OpenAI over the death of their teenage son, alleging its chatbot, ChatGPT, encouraged him to take his own life.

The lawsuit was filed by Matt and Maria Raine, parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, in the Superior Court of California on Tuesday. It is the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.

The family included chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining he has suicidal thoughts. They argue the programme validated his "most harmful and self-destructive thoughts".

In a statement, OpenAI told the BBC it was reviewing the filing.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the Raine family during this difficult time," the company said.

It also published a note on its website on Tuesday that said "recent heartbreaking cases of people using ChatGPT in the midst of acute crises weigh heavily on us". It added that "ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help," such as the 988 suicide and crisis hotline in the US or the Samaritans in the UK.

The company acknowledged, however, that "there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations".

The lawsuit, obtained by the BBC, accuses OpenAI of negligence and wrongful death. It seeks damages as well as "injunctive relief to prevent anything like this from happening again".

According to the lawsuit, Adam began using ChatGPT in September 2024 as a resource to help him with school work. He was also using it to explore his interests, including music and Japanese comics, and for guidance on what to study at university.

In a few months, "ChatGPT became the teenager's closest confidant," the lawsuit says, and he began opening up to it about his anxiety and mental distress.

By January 2025, the family says he began discussing methods of suicide with ChatGPT.

Adam also uploaded photographs of himself to ChatGPT showing signs of self harm, the lawsuit says. The programme "recognised a medical emergency but continued to engage anyway," it adds.

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Source: BBC News, 27 August 2025

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Parents of sudden-death children 'let down by NHS'

The NHS is failing some parents whose children die unexpectedly, a leading paediatrician has told BBC Panorama.

About 50 children's deaths in the UK every year are termed as "sudden unexplained death in childhood" (SUDC). Little is known about what causes them.

Gavin and Jodie's two-year-old son Addy died unexpectedly in November 2022.

BBC Panorama followed the parents over nine months as they searched for answers to why their son died - and whether it could have been prevented.

Even after a forensic post-mortem examination, no-one could work out why the little boy went to sleep and never woke up, so his death was categorised as SUDC.

When a child dies unexpectedly, a review is held to gather information about what happened. The NHS is required to assign a key worker to help bereaved parents to navigate this process, and provide emotional support. The role of key worker can be taken by a range of practitioners and is often a specialist nurse.

However, even though it is a mandatory requirement, a survey carried out by the Association of Child Death Review Professionals (ACDP) found that more than half of NHS areas in England do not have a specialist nurse to visit parents after an unexpected death.

"It makes me really angry," says paediatrician Dr Joanna Garstang, the chair of the ACDP, who runs one of the few teams in England that support parents.

"Bereaved families after the sudden death of a child are the most vulnerable people. And if we don't put in early support… we're setting these parents up for a lifetime of misery."

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Source: BBC News, 5 February 2024

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