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People awaiting ear wax removal in England face NHS ‘postcode lottery’

People with buildups of ear wax are being left with hearing loss and socially isolated because of an NHS “postcode lottery” in removing it, a new report claims.

Ear wax removal services have declined so dramatically that 9.8 million people in England now cannot access help on the NHS, forcing some to pay a “tax on wax” for private treatment.

The report, from the RNID hearing loss charity, also found that more than half of NHS commissioners are breaching official guidelines by not ensuring that all adults can access care.

The RNID, formerly the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said its “horrifying” findings highlighted the misery people who cannot get wax removed are suffering.

“Ear wax buildup can cause painful and distressing symptoms – such as hearing loss, tinnitus and earache – and lead to social isolation and poor mental health,” the RNID said.

“With a patchy service across England, many people are left living in silence or forced to pay for private removal,” it added. Non-NHS providers charge £50-£100 a visit to suction wax out. Older people and those who wear hearing aids are most likely to experience buildups.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 January 2024

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Hundreds of rheumatology patients wrongly prescribed drugs or misdiagnosed

Hundreds of rheumatology patients have stopped receiving drugs they did not need or had their diagnosis changed after a damning review of the service found the standard of care was “well below” what would be considered acceptable.

Jersey’s Health and Community services department has said it will be contacting some of the affected patients “over the coming weeks” and would also be seeking legal advice on “an appropriate approach to compensation”.

The independent review by the Royal College of Physicians also noted there was “no evidence” of standard operating procedures for most aspects of routine rheumatological care and, in some cases, “no evidence of clinical examinations”.

It also found that there had been incorrect diagnosis and wrongly prescribed drugs, describing the standard of care as “well below what the review team would consider acceptable” for a contemporary rheumatological service.

The review was commissioned by HCS medical director Patrick Armstrong, following concerns raised by a junior doctor in January 2022.

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Source: Jersey Evening Post, 22 January 2024

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More than 30 staff suspended from NHS hospital over allegations of falsifying records and harming patients

More than 30 members of staff at a major NHS mental health hospital have been suspended over claims of serious misconduct including falsifying medical records and mistreating patients, The Independent has learned.

The suspensions come after an internal investigation into serious conduct allegations at Highbury Hospital in Nottinghamshire, which employs hundreds of staff members.

The suspended employees include registered professionals – such as doctors, nurses and nursing associates – and non-registered professionals, which would cover healthcare assistants and non-clinical staff.

It comes just a week after the same trust – Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust – was issued with a warning by the safety watchdog over concerns about the safety of patients at Rampton Hospital, a high secure hospital which has housed patients such as Charles Bronson and Ian Huntley.

In an email leaked to The Independent, the trust told staff: “We are saddened to report that over recent weeks it has been necessary to suspend over 30 colleagues due to very serious conduct allegations.

“These allegations have included falsifying mental health observations, as well as maltreatment of patients in our care.

“We hope we have your understanding in taking action when the conduct of colleagues falls so far outside of what patients deserve.”

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Source: The Independent, 23 January 2024

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Blood test could revolutionise diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, experts say

A blood test for detecting Alzheimer’s disease could be just as accurate as painful and invasive lumbar punctures and could revolutionise diagnosis of the condition, research suggests.

Measuring levels of a protein called p-tau217 in the blood could be just as good as lumbar punctures at detecting the signs of Alzheimer’s, and better than a range of other tests under development, experts say.

The protein is a marker for biological changes that happen in the brain with Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Richard Oakley, an associate director of research and innovation at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This study is a hugely welcome step in the right direction as it shows that blood tests can be just as accurate as more invasive and expensive tests at predicting if someone has features of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain.

“Furthermore, it suggests results from these tests could be clear enough to not require further follow-up investigations for some people living with Alzheimer’s disease, which could speed up the diagnosis pathway significantly in future. However, we still need to see more research across different communities to understand how effective these blood tests are across everyone who lives with Alzheimer’s disease.”

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Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2024

 

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USA: ED boarding at crisis levels, Mass General says

Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital is requesting permission from the state to add more than 90 inpatient beds amid what it says is an "unprecedented capacity crisis." 

The hospital's emergency department has experienced critical levels of overcrowding nearly every day for the past six months, Massachusetts General said in a news release. The hospital boards between 50 to 80 ED patients every night who are waiting for a hospital bed to open. On 11 January, Massachusetts General had 103 patients boarding in the ED, representing one of the most crowded days in the hospital's more than 200-year history.

"While hospital overcrowding has significantly affected patient care for many years, COVID-19 and the post-pandemic demand for care has escalated this challenge into a full-blown crisis – for patients seeking necessary emergency care, as well as for staff who are required to work under these increasingly stressful conditions," David F.M. Brown, president of Massachusetts General, said in a news release.

Massachusetts General's request comes as hospitals across the state grapple with capacity issues, workforce shortages and a jump in respiratory illnesses this winter. On 9 January. the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a memo urging hospitals to expedite discharge planning amid the capacity crunch. Some health plans have also waived the need to obtain prior authorisation for short stays in post-acute care facilities. 

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Source: Becker Hospital Review, 19 January 2024

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Ambulance transfer delays are 'matter of concern', coroner warns

The availability of ambulances to transfer patients to specialist units is a "matter of concern", a coroner has warned.

Darren Stewart, area coroner for Suffolk, made the comments in a Prevention of Future Deaths report.

It followed the death of 84-year-old Dennis King, who waited three hours to be transferred from West Suffolk Hospital to Royal Papworth in 2022.

Mr King had made his own way to the West Suffolk Hospital's accident and emergency department in December 2022, after being told an ambulance could take six hours to arrive at his home due to high demand in the area, the report said.

His call had been graded as category two, which should have led to a response within 40 minutes - or a target of 18 minutes.

After tests at West Suffolk Hospital showed Mr King had suffered a STEMI heart attack, emergency clinicians liaised with experts from the regional heart unit and decided he needed an urgent transfer to Royal Papworth in Cambridgeshire.

The report said a matron at West Suffolk told ambulance call handlers they needed an urgent transfer - but because Mr King was classed as being in a "place of safety", control room staff said the delay would be "several hours".

Mr Stewart said: "the availability of ambulances to carry out transfers in a timely manner, in urgent cases" was "a matter of concern".

In the report, Mr Stewart said the circumstances of the case "raised concerns about the NHS approach to centralising care in regional centres" if the means to deliver it were "inadequate".

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Source: BBC News, 23 January 2024

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National shortage of epilepsy medication putting thousands at risk

A national shortage of epilepsy medication is putting patients' safety at risk, consultants have said.

Medical professionals are becoming genuinely concerned as ever more frequent supply issues continue to bite tens of thousands of sufferers.

According to the Epilepsy Society charity, over 600,000 people in the UK have the condition, or about one in every 100 people.

Among them is Charlotte Kelly, a mother of two living in London who has had epilepsy for over 20 years. She must take two tablets a day to manage her condition but issues with supply have forced her to start rationing her medication.

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Kelly told us of the fear surrounding the restricted access to the medicate she needs to survive.

"I'm scared. If I'm truly honest, I'm scared knowing that I might not get any medication for a few weeks, or a couple of months, I just don't know when.

"It's scary to know that I have to worry about getting hold of medication. I do believe that something needs to happen very quickly because even if it's pre-ordered there's no guarantee you're going to get it.

Speaking to Sky News, Professor Ley Sander, director of medical services at the Epilepsy Society, says the supply concern is not just on the minds of patients but those in the industry too.

"It might be that we need a strategic reserve for storage of drugs, we might have to bring drugs over from other parts of the world to avoid this from recurring.

"We're not at that point yet, but this is an urgent issue."

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Source: Sky News, 21 January 2024

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‘Gaslit by doctors’: UK women with endometriosis told it is ‘all in their head

Women with endometriosis who have endured years of excruciating pain are being “fobbed off” by doctors and told their symptoms are “all in their head”, leading them to give up seeking NHS treatment, new research has found.

A study carried out by academics at Manchester Metropolitan University found women with the disease felt “gaslit” by doctors due to their lack of understanding of the condition.

The paper, due to be published in the Journal of Health Communication later this month, also found that treatment was subject to a postcode lottery. Patients in rural areas reported travelling for hours to access a specialist with full training in the complex gynaecological condition.

Endometriosis is a painful condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows around other organs inside the abdomen. It affects 1.5 million women in the UK. The study looked at the experiences of treatment and diagnosis of 33 patients and revealed how doctors’ lack of understanding of the symptoms meant women often spent years in pain before their condition was diagnosed. During this period participants were told they were exaggerating their symptoms, or their pain was dismissed as psychological.

As one 27-year-old participant reported: “I feel a lot of mistrust towards the healthcare system in general, simply because I have been told that the pain was in my head, that I must have a low pain threshold or that I was in pain because I was fat.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2024

Share your experience of endometriosis: The Guardian newspaper would like to hear how you have been affected by endometriosis and your experience of being diagnosed and treated.

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Deaths unexplained, lives devastated: here’s another national tragedy hidden in plain sight

The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk is calling for a criminal investigation into an apparent scandal that decisively surfaced over the summer, centred on the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS foundation trust (or NSFT), which sees to mental health provision across those two very large English counties.

It is centred on the “unexpected” deaths of 8,440 people between April 2019 and October 2022, all of whom were either under the care of the trust, or had been up to six months before they died. The story of the failures that led to that statistic date back at least a decade; the campaign says it amounts to nothing less than “the largest deaths crisis in the history of the NHS”.

The figure of 8,440 was the key finding of a report by the accounting and consultancy firm Grant Thornton – commissioned by the trust, ironically enough, to respond to anxious claims by campaigners, disputed by the trust, that there had been 1,000 unexpected deaths over nine years.

There are no consistent national statistics for such deaths, and no universal definition of “unexpected”: in Norfolk and Suffolk, a death will be recorded as such if the person concerned was not identified by NHS staff as critically or terminally ill; the term includes deaths from natural causes as well as suicide, homicide, abuse and neglect. The period in question includes the worst of the pandemic, although the trust’s own annual deaths figures did not reach a peak until 2022-23. But the numbers still seem jaw-dropping: they represent an average of about 45 deaths a week.

To put that in some kind of perspective, earlier reports about the trust’s deaths record had raised the alarm about a similar number of people dying every month. And the Grant Thornton report included another key revelation: the fact that the trust’s record-keeping was so chaotic that in about three-quarters of cases, it did not know the specifics of how or why the people concerned had died. After its publication, moreover, there were more revelations about the trust, and its culture and practices. 

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Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2024

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USA: Massachusetts will designate hospital “Levels of Maternal Care” to improve health outcomes for higher-risk patients

To help patients with high-risk pregnancies receive care at hospitals that are staffed and equipped to deliver care appropriate to their needs, the Department of Public Health will require licensed birthing hospitals to use a system called Levels of Maternal Care. The system classifies hospitals based on their capacity to meet the needs of patients with a range of potential complications during childbirth.

The impetus is the rising levels of severe maternal morbidity, large racial disparities in outcomes, and concerns that higher-risk patients who deliver in hospitals that over-estimate the level of care they are able to provide are more likely to experience complications.

Levels of care describe a hospital’s physical facilities, capabilities and staffing, indicating its ability to serve people giving birth across a range of medical needs. For example, Level 1 is appropriate for low-risk patients with uncomplicated pregnancies, including twins and labor after cesarean delivery. To that group, Level II adds patients with poorly controlled asthma or hypertension and other higher-risk conditions. Subsequent levels include patients at increasingly high risk of complications, up to Level IV, which is appropriate for patients with severe cardiac disease, those who need organ transplant and others.

Established by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in 2015, the classification system is one tool used by states across the country to improve maternal health and birthing outcomes.

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Source: Betsy Lehman Center. 17 January 2024

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England's sexual health services 'at breaking point'

Sexual health services in England are at breaking point, according to local councils who are responsible for running the clinics.

They say that soaring rates of infections are threatening to overwhelm services and the government needs to provide extra funding.

Since 2017, more than two-thirds of council areas saw infection climb.

The Department of Health said more than £3.5bn has been allocated to local public health services this year.

The Local Government Association (LGA) - representing the councils that provide sexual health clinics - is warning that demand is soaring and services are struggling to keep up.

It is calling on the government to provide extra funding, as well as to publish a long-term plan to help prevent and treat sexually transmitted infections.

Nearly three-quarters of councils have seen a rise in rates of syphilis cases, and chlamydia infections are up in more than a third of areas.

Many of the new cases are younger people, and involve gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, but rates have also increased in heterosexual people.

Experts believe there has been a rebound effect after the restrictions connected to Covid, but infections were rising well before the pandemic hit.

There has also been a greater effort to test more people and improve access to services which may have led to more cases being identified.

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Source: BBC News, 20 January 2024

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One in 20 patients in England wait at least four weeks to see GP, figures show

One in 20 patients has to wait at least four weeks to see a GP at a time when funding for family doctor services is falling, NHS figures show.

In November 2023, 1.5m appointments in England at a GP surgery took place four weeks or more after they were booked, 4.8% of the 31.9m held that month.

In one in six appointments, 5.4m (17.3%), the patient was forced to wait at least two weeks after booking it to see a GP, practice nurse or other health professional.

“Millions of people are being left anxious or waiting in pain because they can’t get an appointment with their GP,” said Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who highlighted the latest evidence underlining the long delays that many patients face to see a GP.

“Staggering” numbers of patients now have to wait a long time, he said.

GP leaders blamed the situation on the widespread shortage of family doctors, which they said was making it impossible to keep up with the rising demand for appointments. Burnout due to intense workloads is prompting more GPs to work part time.

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Source: The Guardian, 22 January 2024

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Medics told not to report illegal abortions to police

Healthcare workers are being told not to report women to the police if they believe their patients may have illegally ended their own pregnancy.

The Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (RCOG) says "deeply traumatised" women are being prosecuted following abortions.

By law, patients' data must not be disclosed without their consent.

The new guidance follows a recent rise in police investigations into abortions.

NHS staff can breach confidentiality rules to give information to the police about possible crimes, but only if it is in the "public interest". The RCOG says it is "never" in the public interest to report women who have abortions, and that they must be safeguarded.

In the first official guidance issued of its kind, a healthcare worker must "justify" any disclosure of patient data or "face potential fitness to practice proceedings".

The organisation says it is "concerned" by the rising number of police investigations following abortions and pregnancy loss, and the effect this might have on "especially vulnerable" patients.

Dr Jonathan Lord, RCOG's medical director, told the BBC: "A law that was originally designed to protect a woman is now being used against her.

"We have witnessed life-changing harm to women and their wider families as a direct result of NHS staff reporting women suspected of crimes, and we just don't think that would happen in other areas of healthcare.

"We deal with the most vulnerable groups who may be concerned about turning to regulated healthcare at all, and we need them to trust us".

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Source: BBC News, 22 January 2024

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Whorlton Hall: Four carers sentenced for abusing hospital patients

Four carers who were convicted of abusing patients at a secure hospital have been given suspended sentences.

An undercover BBC Panorama investigation showed patients being mocked by staff at Whorlton Hall in County Durham between 2018 and 2019.

The four former staff, who are all men, were sentenced on Friday after being convicted by a jury last year.

Judge Chris Smith said Whorlton Hall was an "unpredictable and inherently frightening place to live".

The specialist hospital for people with complex needs was privately run by Cygnet, but funded by the NHS.

It has since closed.

Judge Smith said Whorlton Hall had a "malign culture" and was an "unpredictable and inherently frightening place to live."

He added: "Each of you failed those patients and their families. It was a fundamental breach of trust."

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Source: BBC New, 20 January 2024

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Theatre staff 'deliberately slow down' operations, review finds

Theatre staff at a major hospital “deliberately slowed down” elective activity to limit the number of operations that could be done each day, an NHS England review has been told.

The culture in theatres at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, run by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, was a “significant issue” according to an education quality intervention review report into trauma and orthopaedic training at the hospital.

The review, dated October and made public by NHSE in December 2023, was launched after concerns were raised by staff at the trust in the General Medical Council’s national training survey, published every July.

Problems raised by junior doctors and their supervisors to the NHSE review included perceptions that juniors were made to feel uncomfortable by the trauma theatre team and that there was also “animosity” from the trauma theatre team towards surgeons.

The review said trauma theatre staff were heard “bragging” about their behaviour towards surgeons and that they resisted the number of cases scheduled on a list, claiming it was “unrealistic".

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Source: HSJ, 19 January 2024

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Stark UK divide in health and wealth with sickness ‘clearly linked to poverty’

People living in the most deprived parts of the country are more than twice as likely to be in poor health as those living in the most affluent, a new report has revealed.

People in Liverpool are almost three times more likely to be in poor health than those in Oxfordshire, and twice as likely to be economically inactive, research by the cross-party IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity found.

The researchers found a “stark divide” in health and wealth throughout the UK was leaving many “bad health blackspots”, with people more likely to be out of work.

Overall, people living in the most deprived parts of the country are more than twice as likely to be in poor health as those living in the most affluent – and are around 40% more likely to report economic inactivity.

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Source: The Independent, 18 January 2024

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Patients’ hearts stopping in ambulance queues for A&E

Patients have suffered cardiac arrests while waiting in A&E departments or in ambulances queueing outside because Scottish hospitals are overwhelmed, doctors have warned.

At least three cases in which patients’ hearts stopped beating while they were waiting for care have been reported to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland. Some of the incidents, the college said, may have been preventable.

One frontline doctor told The Times that a patient with heart problems had died waiting in a queue of ambulances outside an emergency department. Staff could not take the patient inside because there was no capacity.

JP Loughrey, vice-president of the college and an A&E consultant in the west of Scotland, said that people who should be in resuscitation rooms with a team of experts and equipment to monitor their vital signs were instead lying in ambulances outside hospital buildings. He also said that tensions were growing between frontline staff and NHS managers in large hospitals because doctors and nurses, who were already struggling to cope, were under increasing demands to work harder to process more patients.

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Source: The Times, 19 January 2024

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Women feel ‘violated and traumatised’ by painful hysteroscopies – and say the NHS misinformed them

Caroline remembers screaming. It was like an electric shock which went from her neck to her toes. It was like being tasered in her most intimate area. She could not move because she was scared. She called out to the doctor to stop.

“I can’t believe what happened to me was done in an NHS hospital,” Caroline, 56, says. “I feel that if they were wearing black balaclavas it would have suited what I experienced more. I felt like I was subjected to a very violent assault. That is the trauma that I’m dealing with now.”

Caroline is one of thousands of women who have faced excruciating pain when undergoing a hysteroscopy, a medical procedure used to examine inside the womb, where biopsies may be taken. It is used to detect cancer, pre-cancer and other benign abnormalities.

One in three women face severe pain during a hysteroscopy – rating it at least seven out of 10 – according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. That means thousands of women in the UK could be left traumatised by this medical procedure each year.

Campaigners believe the NHS is failing to properly inform patients of the pain they may endure. The NHS website describes it as a “simple” and “relatively quick” procedure which is “not usually carried out under anaesthetic”.

But women who have spoken to The Big Issue describe feeling “violated” during a hysteroscopy. They believe they were unable to give “informed consent” and some have been left with long-term physical and psychological trauma.

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Source: The Big Issue, 18 January 2024

Related reading on the hub:

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National call for action as measles cases surge across UK

A “national call to action” has been made by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) after a worrying surge in the spread of measles in London and the West Midlands.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the health board, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people have “forgotten what measles is like”, and that children can be unwell for a week or two with symptoms including a nasty rash, high fever and ear infections.

She added that the virus is highly infectious, with health officials warning that serious complications can arise that include hospitalisations and death.

This comes as official figures show uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is at its lowest point in more than a decade.

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Source: The Independent, 19 January 2024

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Long Covid: NHS legal action launched by family of girl

The mother of an 11-year-old Aberdeenshire girl with Long Covid has launched a legal action against their health board, in what lawyers claim is the first case of its kind in Scotland.

Helen Goss, from Westhill, is seeking damages from NHS Grampian on behalf of her daughter, Anna Hendy.

The action claims the health board is responsible for "multiple failings" in Anna's treatment and care.

The claim alleges failings were avoidable, that they caused Anna "injury and damage", and led to her condition worsening.

Anna became unwell after contracting Covid in 2020.

The action alleges a number of failings by the health board.

These include claims that requests for Anna to be referred to the specialist paediatric services of immunology and neurology were refused.

It also claims no further help was offered after Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).

And it says these failings "could have been avoided had NHS Grampian followed contemporary guidance on diagnosis and treatment".

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Source: BBC, 19 January 2024

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Leak reveals trust omitting two-year waits from reported figures

A hospital trust has been breaching national guidance by excluding some long waiters from its reported waiting list figures, in a move experts warned could put patient safety at serious risk.

The practice appears to have helped Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals report zero patients waiting more than two years for treatment during most of last year.

Its policy means cases that unexpectedly “pop up” as two-year waits in its datasets are temporarily removed. The trust will then review whether the cases are data errors or genuine two-year waits, and if genuine, aim to provide treatment within a month.

If not treated within a month, the cases would be added back to the reported waiting list the following month.

Rob Findlay, an expert on RTT waiting lists, said the implications of the SWBH policy are far more serious than simply reporting incomplete numbers for a month.

He said allowing a month to deal with the pop-up without declaring it “relieves them of pressure to solve the problems that are causing patients to be lost in the first place”.

He added: “Some patients – the hospital would never know – might never pop up and be lost from the waiting list forever.

“[This is] a serious patient safety issue which could potentially have a significant impact on how long patients are waiting for treatment.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 January 2024

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US cancer death rates down but younger Americans see rise in certain cancers

Fewer Americans are dying of cancer, part of a decades-long trend that began in the 1990s as more people quit smoking and doctors screened earlier for certain cancers.

However, the American Cancer Society warned that those gains are threatened by an increase in cancers among people younger than 55, in particular cervical and colorectal cancer, and by the continued disparities between white Americans and people of colour.

“The continuous sharp increase in colorectal cancer in younger Americans is alarming,” said Dr Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice-president for surveillance and health equity science at the American Cancer Society.

“We need to halt and reverse this trend by increasing uptake of screening, including awareness of non-invasive stool tests with follow-up care, in people 45-49 years, [old]” said Jemal.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 January 2024

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Thousands of surgeons blame burnout as half consider leaving NHS

Half of surgeons in England have considered leaving the NHS amid frustration over a lack of access to operating rooms, a new survey shows.

More than 3,000 surgeons contemplated quitting the health service in the last year, with two-thirds reporting burn out and work-related stress to be their main challenge, a new survey by the Royal College of Surgeons England has revealed.

As the NHS tries to reduce the 7.61 million waiting list backlog, the survey, covering one quarter of all UK surgeons, found that 56% believe that access to operating theatres is a major challenge.

RCS England president, Mr Tim Mitchell, said: “At a time when record waiting lists persist across the UK, it is deeply concerning that NHS productivity has decreased.

“The reasons for this are multifactorial, but access to operating theatres and staff wellbeing certainly play a major part. If surgical teams cannot get into operating theatres, patients will continue to endure unacceptably long waits for surgery.

“There is an urgent need to increase theatre capacity and ensure existing theatre spaces are used to maximum capacity. There is also a lot of work to be done to retain staff at all levels by reducing burnout and improving morale.”

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Source: The Independent, 18 January 2024

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Physician associates aren’t doctors and shouldn’t be regulated as such, says BMA

Senior doctors are urging MPs to reject government plans to regulate “physician associates”, whose growing use in the NHS has divided the medical profession.

The British Medical Association has said that allowing the General Medical Council (GMC) to regulate physician associates (PAs) would “blur the lines” between doctors and non-doctors.

Many medics are opposed to the increased use of PAs, who they fear patients will wrongly see as doctors, even though they do not have a medical degree. They have expressed concern that letting the GMC – which regulates doctors – regulate PAs from April, as ministers plan, is “potentially dangerous” because it could confuse the public, diminish the status of doctors, and leave patients at risk of being treated by someone without the appropriate skills.

The BMA is running advertisements in the Guardian and on social media asking MPs on a Commons committee examining the plan to vote against it when they consider it on Thursday. “PAs are not the same as doctors, and blurring the lines can have tragic consequences for patients who think they have seen a doctor when they have not,” the adverts say.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2024

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Final infected blood inquiry report delayed until May

The publication of a final report into the infected blood scandal has been delayed until May.

The chairman of the public inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, said more time was needed to prepare "a report of this gravity".

Victims and their families were initially told they would learn the findings in autumn last year.

That date was pushed back until March, and the inquiry has now confirmed the further delay to 20 May 2024.

"I am sorry to tell you that the report will be published later than March. That is not what I had intended," added Sir Brian.

"When I reviewed the plans for publication, I nonetheless had to accept that a limited amount of further time is needed to publish a report of this gravity and do justice to what has happened."

It is thought about 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

More than 3,000 have died in what has been described by MPs as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.

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Source: BBC News, 17 January 2024

Further reading on the hub:

UK Infected Blood Inquiry

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