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Oliver McGowan training 'lifted scales from my eyes'

A senior doctor says he is shocked at how many deaths of people with learning disabilities and autism are "potentially preventable by really basic things".

Dr Andrew Kelso is a consultant neurologist and the executive medical director at the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (SNEE ICB).

The ICB, which commissions all health services, has rolled out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism, external to its health and social care professionals.

"That's the thing that keeps me awake at night," Dr Kelso told the BBC. "How little I knew before I went and how much I knew afterwards, and what a missed opportunity that might have been for me."

The mandatory training - for all NHS staff who work with the public - is named after Oliver McGowan, an 18-year-old from Bristol who died in 2016 after he was given an anti-psychotic drug he was allergic to, despite repeated warnings from his parents.

His mother Paula had lobbied for mandatory training to potentially "save lives".

Dr Kelso, a consultant specialising in epilepsy, said: "I thought I knew quite a lot about learning disability.

"But the scales fell off my eyes when I was in the training and realised how much I didn't know - and that's in a career where I see people with learning disability all the time.

"How many gaps are there in the knowledge of people that don't spend their entire career with learning disability and may just come across them every now and then?"

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Source: BBC News, 25 April 2025

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Oldham doctor jailed for killing patient in botched procedure

A doctor who killed a mother-of-three when he botched a procedure during a routine appointment has been jailed.

Dr Isyaka Mamman, now thought to be 85, admitted gross negligence manslaughter over the death of Shahida Parveen, 48, at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2018.

He used the wrong needle and inserted it in the wrong place, piercing the sac holding Mrs Parveen's heart.

Mrs Justice Yip at Manchester Crown Court said Mrs Parveen's death was his fault and sentenced him to three years.

She also criticised the NHS trust, pointing to the fact that Mamman had both lied about his age and had been involved in two critical incidents similar to that which led to Mrs Parveen's death.

The court heard Mrs Parveen attended Royal Oldham Hospital on 3 September, 2018, to give a bone marrow sample.

This is usually taken from the hip bone but, after failing in his first attempt, Mamman tried to instead take it from her sternum.

This was a "highly dangerous" procedure, the court was told, and one which had led to another of Mamman's patients being permanently disabled three years earlier.

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Source: BBC News, 5 July 2022

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Older women ‘less likely’ to be offered ovarian cancer treatment

Older women could be less likely to receive ovarian cancer treatment.

A new report analysed data from more than 17,000 cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed across England between 2016 and 2018. Three in five (60%) of women with ovarian cancer over the age of 79 did not receive either chemotherapy or surgery, while 37% of women over the age of 70 did not receive any treatment.

The nature of ovarian cancer means surgery is essential in the large majority of cases to remove the tumour.

The researchers cautioned that with an ageing population it is vital that women of all ages have access to the best possible treatments.

Researchers also examined the various rates of treatments for ovarian cancer among women in different parts of England.

They found the probability of receiving any treatment fell below the average in the East Midlands, the East of England, Greater Manchester and Kent and Medway.

The report was jointly funded by The British Gynaecological Cancer Society, Ovarian Cancer Action, Target Ovarian Cancer and delivered by analysts at the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service.

Commenting on the report, Cary Wakefield, chief executive of Ovarian Cancer Action, said: "Neither your age nor location should decide your chance of survival if you are diagnosed with ovarian cancer."

"Our audit is the first step in addressing the health inequalities women across England face, so we can begin to dismantle them."

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Source: The Independent, 11 November 2020

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Older people dying for want of social care at rate of three an hour, claims charity

At least 74,000 older people in England have died, or will die, waiting for care between the 2017 and 2019 general elections. A total of 81 older people are dying every day, equating to about three an hour, research by Age UK has found.

In the 18 months between the last election and the forthcoming one, 1,725,000 unanswered calls for help for care and support will have been made by older people. This, said the charity, was the equivalent of 2,000 futile appeals a day, or 78 an hour.

Age UK’s director, Caroline Abrahams, said: “This huge number of requests for help did not lead to any support actually being given for three main reasons: because the older people died or will die before services were provided, because of a decision that they did not meet the eligibility criteria as interpreted by their local authority, or because their local authority signposted them to some other kind of help than a care service.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 November 2019

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Older patients on medley of drugs ‘at higher risk of adverse reactions’

Older women are at higher risk than older men of experiencing adverse reactions to drugs prescribed by their family doctor, and older patients taking more than 10 medicines are at higher risk than those taking fewer, according to a study.

Overall, one in four older people experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to pills prescribed by their GP, the research published in the British Journal of General Practice suggests.

It has prompted calls for GPs to consider deprescribing ineffective medications and prioritise patients taking lots of drugs for a regular review of their prescriptions.

The medicines most commonly associated with ADRs included those used to treat high blood pressure and other cardiac conditions, strong painkillers such as tramadol, and antibiotics such as amoxicillin, according to the study.

The study monitored 592 patients aged 70 and older across 15 general practices in the Republic of Ireland over a six-year period. One in four experienced at least one ADR.

Patients prescribed 10 or more medicines had a threefold increased risk of experiencing a reaction, researchers said. Women were at least 50% more likely to have ADRs than men, the study found.

“ADRs can be difficult to identify in medically complex older adults as they often present as non-specific symptoms,” the researchers wrote in the British Journal of General Practice.

“GPs are well placed to detect the occurrence of ADRs from drugs prescribed in primary care as well as in other care settings. Deprescribing of ineffective medications and those no longer clinically indicated is one approach to reducing the risk of ADRs in older patients.”

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Source: The Guardian, 24 January 2023

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Older and overweight patients ‘hampering efforts to clear NHS backlogs’

Older and overweight patients are making it harder to clear NHS surgery backlogs, anaesthetists have warned.

New data reveal an “extremely worrying picture” of increasing age, rates of obesity and complexity of surgical patients across the UK, the Royal College of Anaesthetists said.

The average age of patients requiring anaesthesia increased by 2.3 years, from 50.5 to 52.8, over the last decade, while their BMI also jumped from 24.9 (borderline normal/overweight) to 26.7 (overweight).

The proportion of patients who are complex or have other comorbidities has also significantly increased, the study found.

When patients are older, overweight and have other problems, this makes anaesthetic and surgical care more complicated and higher risk, the authors said. Managing these patients safely takes longer during surgery and can lead to slower recovery times, requiring more time in hospital.

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Source: The Telegraph, 2 March 2023

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Oklahoma proposes landmark rule to keep mailed medications safe

Patients in Oklahoma, USA, who get their prescription medications by mail may soon have better protections for the safety of those drugs than any other state. On Wednesday, Oklahoma regulators proposed the nation’s first detailed rule to control temperatures during shipping, according to pharmacy experts. 

“This is a huge step,” said Marty Hendrick, executive director of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy, after the board voted to approve the rule Wednesday. “We’ve got a tremendous amount of prescriptions that get mailed to patients. … What we did today was make sure our patients in Oklahoma are receiving safe products.”

Exposure to extreme temperatures can degrade or weaken drugs, potentially changing their dosage or chemical makeup and rendering them ineffective or unsafe for patients. But while government oversight of how pharmacies store medications to keep them in defined safe temperature ranges is very detailed, an NBC News investigation in 2020 found oversight of shipping to patients — during which drugs might be exposed to heat waves and below-freezing temperatures — is largely a system of blind trust. Mail-order pharmacy is a booming business, with soaring profits for some of the nation’s largest companies last year and more than 26 million people receiving their medication by mail in 2017 — more than double the number two decades earlier, according to federal data.

NBC News found that most state pharmacy boards, the regulators responsible for pharmacy safety, did not have specific rules for how pharmacies should ship customers’ medication, few asked about this process in their inspections, and many said it was simply up to the pharmacy to ensure safe shipping. 

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Source: NBC News, 17 November 2022

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Officials sound alarm on ambulance stroke response times

National NHS officials have called for ambulance response times for stroke cases to be “urgently reviewed”.

A report on stroke services by Getting it Right First Time – an NHS England national programme – recommends modelling the impact of a change to the categorisation by ambulance services of suspected strokes.

The GIRFT report notes that the time between symptom onset and arrival at hospital has increased by 41 minutes over the last seven years, yet faster access to emergency stroke care gives a better chance of survival and reduces the impact on quality of life for survivors.

Strokes are currently treated as “category two” incidents, meaning they should get a response within 18 minutes.

However, patients are currently experiencing much longer waits, as average response times were more than three times this in March. Since the introduction of the current system of categorisation in 2017-18, the 18 minute target for category two calls was only ever hit for a few months, at the height of the covid pandemic, when call-outs were abnormally low.

However, when asked about the issue, Janette Turner, the academic who led research on the last official review of ambulance response times, warned that moving all suspected strokes to category one could lead to longer responses for the most serious calls.

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Source: HSJ, 4 May 2022

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Officials slow to act on Covid contact-tracing warnings, leaked evidence says

Public health leaders were slow to act on repeated warnings over Christmas 2020 that contact tracing and isolation should be triggered immediately after a positive lateral flow test result, leaked evidence to the Covid inquiry shows.

A scathing “lessons learned” document written by Dr Achim Wolf, a senior test and trace official, and submitted to the inquiry, gives his account of a trail of missed opportunities to improve the NHS test-and-trace regime in the first winter and spring of the pandemic – before vaccines were available.

It suggests that people will have unnecessarily spread the virus to friends and relatives in the first Christmas of the pandemic and subsequent January lockdown period because they were not legally required to isolate and have their contacts traced as soon as they got a positive lateral flow test.

Instead, for around two months, those eligible for rapid testing were told to get a confirmatory PCR test after a positive lateral flow. About a third of those who subsequently got a negative PCR result were likely to have had Covid anyway.

In the “lessons learned” document seen by the Guardian, Wolf says: “Over the winter months, the prevalence in individuals who had 1) a positive lateral flow; followed by 2) a negative PCR; may have been upwards of 30%. These individuals were then allowed to return to their high-risk workplaces.”

The former head of policy at NHS test and trace highlights how it took too long to get clear advice from Public Health England about policy on contact tracing and isolation rules in the face of changing scientific evidence on the accuracy of lateral flows.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 November 2022

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Official UK records confirm cyberattacks put NHS patients at risk of clinical harm

Two cyberattacks affecting the NHS last year put patients at risk of clinical harm, according to official data obtained by Recorded Future News.

The data, recorded by the government under the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, does not identify specific incidents but highlights the growing threat that financially motivated cyber incidents pose to public safety.

It follows the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, telling cybersecurity practitioners earlier this month that their work was “not just about protecting systems, it’s about protecting our people, our economy, our society, from harm.”

One of the two incidents is likely to be the ransomware attack on pathology services provider Synnovis, which severely disrupted care at a large number of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals and care providers in London by delaying and cancelling operations and appointments. 

Criminals similarly disrupted care in an attack on Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, causing delays to cancer treatments as reported by The Register.

The government data records no incidents that led to excess fatalities or excess casualties, the two highest categories for NIS incidents.  Two incidents, however, passed the threshold of the third category of causing potential clinical harm to more than 50 patients, with clinical harm defined as harm resulting from medical care or the lack of it.

Patient safety concerns in England and Wales, potentially including concerns resulting from cyberattacks, are investigated by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB).

HSSIB’s chief executive Dr Rosie Benneyworth told Recorded Future News that while the board hadn’t “carried out specific investigation work examining the impact of cyberattacks […] as expert independent investigators, we understand the impact of emerging risks, and we can see that there is potential with a cyber attack to make patient safety incidents more likely.”

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Source: The Record, 19 May 2025

 

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Official data masking long waits for the sickest patients

Several trusts are failing to admit their sickest emergency patients in a timely fashion, despite performing well in official waiting time statistics, HSJ can reveal. 

The internal NHS England data, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, reveals 12 trusts which have performed above the average against the four-hour accident and emergency target are delivering relatively poor waiting times for patients who require admission, as opposed to those who, for example, can be discharged after being seen. 

The unpublished provisional data shows an average of just 30% of admitted patients in England spend four hours or less in A&E against the 95% target.

But many trusts are falling significantly below this – including those trusts at or around NHSE’s interim target of 76% for four hours performance for all patients by March 2024.

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Source: HSJ, 24 November 2023

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Offer stroke patients three hours a day of rehab, NHS urged

Stroke patients should be offered extra rehabilitation on the NHS, say updated guidelines for England and Wales.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) had previously recommended 45 minutes a day.

But it believes some patients may need more intensive therapy for recovery and is suggesting three hours a day, five days a week.

Experts welcome the advice, but question how feasible it will be for a stretched health service to deliver.

NICE accepts it may be "challenging", but it says patients and families deserve the best care possible. That includes help regaining speech, movement and other functions caused by the damage that happens to the brain during a stroke.

NHS England has said increasing the availability of high quality rehabilitation is a priority. More people than ever are surviving a stroke thanks to improvements in NHS care, it added.

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Source: BBC News,18 October 2023

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Oesophageal cancer test ‘should be made more available in UK’

A test that can detect oesophageal cancer at an earlier stage than current methods should be made more widely available to prevent deaths, charities have said.

The capsule sponge test, previously known as Cytosponge, involves a patient swallowing a dissolvable pill on a string. The pill then releases a sponge which collects cells from the oesophagus as it is retrieved.

The test can detect abnormalities that form as part of a condition known as Barrett’s oesophagus, which makes a person more likely to develop oesophageal cancer.

In the UK 9,300 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer a year, according to Cancer Research. The disease is difficult to detect because the symptoms for the cancer are not easily recognisable – and can be mistaken for indigestion – until a it is at an advanced stage.

The capsule sponge test can detect the cancer at an earlier stage than the current methods, such as an endoscopy, used to diagnose oesophageal cancer. However, it is only currently available to higher-risk patients as an alternative to endoscopy as part of NHS pilot schemes.

Cancer Research UK is working with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) on a trial that will recruit 120,000 people to see if the capsule sponge test can reduce deaths from oesophageal cancer. If successful, the test could be rolled out more widely.

Mimi McCord, the founder of Heartburn Cancer UK, who lost her husband, Mike, to oesophageal cancer in 2002, said: “Cancer of the oesophagus is a killer that can hide in plain sight. People don’t always realise it, but not all heartburn is harmless. While they keep on treating the symptoms, the underlying cause might be killing them.”

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Source: The Guardian, 5 February 2024

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Ockenden to head fourth maternity review

A chair finally been appointed for an independent review into maternity and neonatal services in Sussex, nearly 10 months after the investigation was first announced by Wes Streeting.

Midwife Donna Ockenden will lead the review, which is now expected to look far wider than the nine deaths at University Hospitals Susex Foundation Trust it was originally expected to examine.

Families affected have been calling for Ms Ockenden to be chosen.

She is already chairing the inquiry into maternity at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, and was recently appointed to head a similar inquiry into Leeds Teaching Hospitals. She previously led the inquiry into Shrewsbury and Telford maternity.

The health and social care secretary, who met with Sussex families on Wednesday afternoon, said afterwards: “Donna Ockenden has earned the trust of families across the country through her tireless work to uncover the truth and drive lasting change in maternity care. I know she will bring that same dedication to Sussex.”

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Source: HSJ, 16 April 2026

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Occupational health staff told not to get involved in decisions on mandatory covid vaccination

Occupational health professionals should avoid employment and management matters related to unvaccinated NHS staff, new guidance has warned.

The Faculty of Occupational Medicine guidance comes as trusts are considering their options of how to approach patient-facing staff who remain unvaccinated, including their potential redeployment or dismissal.

However, HSJ understands some occupational health practitioners are concerned they may become entangled in difficult ethical issues, such as the vaccination status of individual employees, or disciplinary processes.

Today’s FOM guidance said: “There is no scope for occupational health practitioners to provide an opinion on medical exemptions, whether to confirm or refute them…

“Redeployment, dismissal and other employment consequences of vaccine refusal by a worker, within the scope of the proposed regulations, are entirely employment and management matters, and not an area in which occupational health should be involved.”

FOM president Steve Nimmo said: “When the programme is implemented, occupational health professionals should be mindful of ethical and consent issues, and be careful not to be associated with any disciplinary process.”

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Source: HSJ, 7 January 2022

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Obstetricians and gynaecologists: Suicidal thoughts and burnout rose after pandemic, survey suggests

Obstetricians and gynaecologists have become more likely to report suicidal thoughts since the Covid pandemic, a UK survey has found.

Researchers at Imperial College London surveyed 1400 practising doctors who had been registered with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) from June to August 2022 and compared the findings with the previous questionnaire results from 2018.

They found that 72% (805) of respondents met the criteria for burnout, up from 36% (1116) in 2018. Trainees experienced the highest levels of burnout at 80% (344), while consultants reported the lowest levels at 67% (393).

The proportion of doctors reporting anxiety and depression had also risen: anxiety increased from 33% of doctors (1008) to 62% (643), and depression rose from 14% (416) to 31% (317). Doctors having suicidal thoughts rose from 3% (90) to 9% (98).

However, researchers highlighted that the post-pandemic study had a smaller response rate of 19% (1400 of 7388 members)—much lower than the 55% rate (3102 of 5661) in 2018. 

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Source: BMJ, 30 July 2025

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Obsolete imaging equipment raises concerns in NI hospitals

A report from the Northern Ireland Audit Office has found that 16% of imaging equipment used in healthcare settings is “effectively obsolete”. 

Comptroller and Auditor General Dorinnia Carville has raised concerns over the “substantial proportion of out-of-date equipment” and a growing gap between demand and capacity.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Health said that while some of the equipment base “would ideally be replaced at a quicker rate”, it remains “safe and fit for purpose”.

The report noted that around 90% of all hospital patients have images taken and interpreted. It said that increasing recognition of the benefits of imaging services has resulted in a “growing demand for them”.

The report added: “Combined with changing patient demographics, and an absence of sustainable funding and resources, capacity has been unable to keep pace.”

The report found that between 2018 and 2024, the health service delivered a total of 350,000 fewer scans (MRI, CT, and non-obstetric ultrasound scans) than what was required to meet demand. Similarly, waiting lists and waiting times for imaging services have risen in that period.

The report said that timely replacement of imaging equipment is one of the “key components to service delivery and quality”.

It said: “Currently 16% of all HSC imaging equipment is over 10 years old and is effectively obsolete. Older equipment can result in increased downtime and maintenance costs. It can also be potentially slower, reducing the number of patients which can be scanned, and may produce lower quality images meaning an increased risk of missed disease.”

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Source: Medscape, 31 March 2025

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Obesity surgery to butt lifts: UK concern over unregulated plastic surgery expo

Organ replacement procedures to obesity surgery, Brazilian butt lifts to hair transplants and full body MOTs. This is not the body modification menu of a sci-fi novel, but packages for sale at the Health Tourism Expo – a two-day sales conference for surgical alterations held in London last month.

The event was teeming with doctors and hospital representatives staffing promotional stands, many of them from Turkey where clinics attract thousands of British tourists looking for surgical alterations at a lower price, with flights and accommodation thrown in.

There is no suggestion that any of the clinics exhibiting at the London expo have been involved in malpractice, but while the business of surgical tourism appears to be booming, one aspect of the industry seem to be missing entirely: regulation of promotional events such as this one.

According to data from the Foreign Office, six Britonsa died in Turkey in 2023 after medical procedures, while data from the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has revealed the number of people needing hospital treatment in the UK after getting cosmetic surgery abroad increased by 94% in three years, with 324 patients requiring surgery once they returned home in the four years to 2022.

Marc Pacifico, the president of BAAPS, said the lack of oversight of events such as the Health Tourism Expo was concerning. “I think it is truly remarkable that an exhibition like this seems to fall between the cracks of all the UK regulatory bodies that are responsible for healthcare and the safety of patients,” he said. “I would have thought it would be common sense for there to be some sort of oversight.”

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Source: The Guardian, 18 July 2024

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Obesity increases risk of COVID-19 death by almost 50%, study suggests

Obesity may double the risk of falling seriously ill with Covid-19 and increase the chances of dying by almost 50 per cent, according to researchers, who also warned any future vaccine may be less effective for the clinically overweight.

Health issues caused by obesity include a number of pre-existing conditions known to exacerbate a Covid-19 infection – including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Now a global assessment of health data gathered since the start of the the pandemic by researchers at the University of North Carolina has found people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 30 were 113 per cent more likely to be hospitalised.

Those admitted to hospital were found to be 74% more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit, while the risk of death among obese patients increased by 48%.

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Source: The Independent, 26 August 2020

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Obesity in pregnancy ‘contributing to avoidable harm’ as doctors issue new warning

Doctors have warned that rising obesity rates among pregnant women are endangering both mothers and babies.

Over a quarter of pregnant women in the UK are now classified as obese.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has urged that this be "recognised as an urgent and growing public health challenge".

Obesity is “contributing to avoidable harm” while also putting increased pressure on NHS maternity services, according to the new report.

The college said there must be “bold, joined-up action” from food policy, education and healthcare to better prevent obesity in general.

The “stigamatisation” of women’s weight also “remains an issue” and should be replaced by non-judgmental care before, during and after pregnancy, experts said.

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Source: The Independent, 4 February 2026

 

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Obesity ‘epidemic’ leading to 1.2m deaths a year in Europe, says WHO

Obesity has reached “epidemic proportions” in Europe, the World Health Organization says, as a major report shows the disease is causing 200,000 cancer cases and 1.2 million deaths a year.

In the first such study for 15 years, the WHO said overweight and obesity rates had hit deadly levels and were “still escalating”. No country in the region was on track to meet the WHO global noncommunicable disease (NCD) target of halting the rise of obesity by 2025, it said.

Across Europe, 59% of adults are overweight or obese as well as 8% of children under five and one in three children of school age. Obesity prevalence in Europe is higher than in any other part of the world except the Americas, according to the report presented at the European Congress on Obesity.

Obesity is linked to a string of other diseases, including musculoskeletal complications, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and at least 13 types of cancer. The report said excess body fat led to premature death and was a leading risk factor for disability.

“Across the WHO European region, obesity is likely to be directly responsible for at least 200,000 new cancer cases annually, with this figure projected to rise in the coming decades,” the report said. “For some countries within the region, it is predicted that obesity will overtake smoking as the main risk factor for preventable cancer.”

Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said reversing the obesity epidemic in Europe was still possible. “By creating environments that are more enabling, promoting investment and innovation in health, and developing strong and resilient health systems, we can change the trajectory of obesity in the region.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 May 2022

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Obese patients denied knee and hip replacements to slash NHS costs

Obese patients are being denied life-changing hip and knee replacements and left in pain in a bid to slash spiralling NHS costs, The Independent can reveal.

One-third of NHS areas in England and multiple health boards in Wales are blocking patient access based on their body mass index (BMI).

The move, deemed “unfair” and “discriminatory”, goes against guidance from the National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE), which states BMI shouldn’t be used to restrict patients’ access to joint replacement surgery.

Patients are instead being told they must lose weight before they are eligible but waiting lists for NHS weight loss programmes have ballooned, with some people waiting up to three years to be seen while other services have shut, unable to cope with demand.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England criticised the policy, saying that denying patients care could cost them their mobility and cause their health to deteriorate, while Tory peer and former health minister James Bethell called on the government to do more to tackle the obesity crisis and end the “misery for millions”.

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Source: The Independent, 31 May 2025

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Obese patients cost NHS double the amount of healthy people

Obese patients cost the NHS double the amount that people who are a healthy weight do, a landmark new study has revealed.

One million patients who were a healthy weight cost the NHS £638 on average in 2019, the research found. Meanwhile, £1,375 was spent per year on morbidly obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40.

Experts warned the future viability of the NHS relies on combatting increasing obesity as it was leading to record levels of long-term sickness.

The research, presented at the European Congress of Obesity in Dublin, is the first to show how NHS spending varies depending on a patient’s weight.

The findings showed a staggering rise in spending on heavier patients because they develop obesity-related conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

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Source: The Independent, 18 May 2023

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Obese patients ‘being weight-shamed by doctors and nurses’

Doctors and nurses often “weight-shame” people who are overweight or obese, leaving them feeling anxious, depressed and wrongly blaming themselves for their condition, research has found.

Such behaviour, although usually the result of “unconscious weight bias”, leads to people not attending medical appointments, feeling humiliated and being more likely to put on weight.

Dr Anastasia Kalea and colleagues at University College London analysed 25 previous studies about “weight stigma”, undertaken in different countries, involving 3,554 health professionals. They found “extensive evidence [of] strong weight bias” among a wide range of health staff, including doctors, nurses, dieticians, psychologists and even obesity specialists.

Their analysis found that a number of health professionals “believe their patients are lazy, lack self-control, overindulge, are hostile, dishonest, have poor hygiene and do not follow guidance”, said Kalea, an associate professor in UCL’s division of medicine.

She added: “Sadly, healthcare, including general practice, is one of the most common settings for weight stigmatisation and we know this acts as a barrier to the services and treatments that can help people manage weight.

“An example is a GP that will unconsciously show that they do not believe that the patient complies with their eat less/exercise more regime they were asked to follow as they are not losing weight."

“The result is that patients are not coming back or they delay their follow-up appointments, they avoid healthcare prevention services or cancel appointments due to concerns of being stigmatised due to their weight.”

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Source: The Guardian, 10 August 2022

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Obese adults set to outnumber those at healthy weight in UK within five years, report warns

Obese adults in Britain are on course to outnumber those who are a healthy weight within five years, a stark report has revealed.

Experts have warned there will be a “tipping point” in 2027 when one third of adults will be obese if current trends continue.

By 2040, they predict there will 21 million people classed as obese in the UK, and 19 million deemed to be overweight.

The analysis by Cancer Research UK shows seven in 10 (71%) people will be overweight or obese by 2040. Of this, almost four in 10 (36%) adults will be obese.

At present, 64% of adults are overweight or obese, with figures rising every year.

Being overweight or obese increases the risk of at least 13 different types of cancer and also causes other conditions such as high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

The new data comes after former Conservative leader William Hague attacked the government for postponing a ban on “buy one get one free” deals for foods high in fat, salt and sugar for a year because of the cost-of-living crisis.

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Source: The Independent, 19 May 2022

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