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Pritchard warns strikes threaten elective targets and safety

NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard has warned that meeting key elective recovery targets to eliminate 65-week waiters by March and ensure the waiting list is falling by next year is becoming “increasingly challenging”.

Ms Pritchard also re-emphasised concerns already expressed by NHS England that “if strikes continue into winter, it will be extremely difficult for us to provide safe care to our patients, particularly with a twindemic of covid and flu”.

The NHSE boss was asked by HSJ at the King’s Fund’s annual conference on Thursday how confident she was about the NHS achieving its next elective recovery target on 65-week waiters and the prime minister’s pledge in January to reduce overall waiting lists.

Ms Pritchard said: “We are really encouraged that there are talks under way between the government and the British Medical Association but clearly having had the level of disruption over the last 10 months of industrial action, we have seen really significant challenge on maintaining focus on reducing both long waits and on tackling overall waiting list size.”

She said that on weeks when there were no strikes, waiting lists reduced, and there had been sustained progress on cutting long waiters “despite the pressures of industrial action”. She praised the “extraordinary amount of focus and creativity from NHS staff” to achieve this.

But she added: “[There has to be] a real recognition that with ongoing industrial action [reducing long waiters and the overall list] is going to be an increasingly challenging target.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 November 2023

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Patient left permanently blind after hospital failure

A patient was left with permanent sight loss after a hospital failed to spot the signs of a blood vessel blockage for several months. The person referred to only as Mr L, visited the emergency department at one of Wales' hospitals in January, 2018, but medics failed to consider the possibility he had suffered a watershed stroke.

Details of how it took nine months before Mr L was offered a scan to consider this diagnosis have been described in a report from the Public Service Ombudsman detailing the care under Betsi Cadwaldr University Health Board.

The Ombudsman, Michelle Morris, also slammed the health board for its failure to act promptly with the complaints process. She said she "cannot fail to be shocked by the fact that, although Mr L first complained to the health board in June, 2019, it took until February, 2023 for it to recognise any failings."

The report details how between January and September, 2018, the health board failed to promptly and appropriately identify, investigate and treat a blockage of blood vessels in his neck (a condition called carotid artery stenosis, where the blockage restricts the blood flow to the middle of the brain, face and head). Mr L also complained that when the issue was eventually identified in September, there was a delay in getting the treatment (surgery) until November.

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Source: Wales Online, 2 November 2023

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Children's health warning system rolled out by NHS

NHS England is rolling out a national early-warning system to help medics spot and treat a deteriorating child patient quickly - and act on parents' concerns.

Parents and carers are "at the heart of the new system", NHS chiefs say.

Scores for signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen levels will be tracked on a chart.

But if a parent is worried their child is sicker than the chart suggests, care will be rapidly escalated.

While similar systems already exist in many hospitals, NHS national medical director, Prof Sir Stephen Powis, said staff and patients alike would welcome the introduction of a standardised system across hospitals.

"We know that nobody can spot the signs of a child getting sicker better than their parents, which is why we have ensured that the concerns of families and carers are right at the heart of this new system, with immediate escalation in a child's care if they raise concerns and plans to incorporate the right to a second opinion as the system develops further," he said.

The rollout follows the patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, recommending that Martha's rule is delivered across England's hospitals, giving patients and families the right to an urgent second opinion and rapid review from a critical care team if they are worried about a patient's condition.

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Source: BBC News, 3 November 2023

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New MHRA rules for treatment with isotretinoin

Treatment with isotretinoin for UK patients under 18 years of age must be approved by two prescribers in a series of regulatory changes announced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to strengthen the safe use of this drug.

Isotretinoin, also known by the brand names Roaccutane and Reticutan, is an effective treatment for severe acne or when there is a risk of permanent scarring. While the drug has helped many patients with severe acne, concerns have arisen among patients and members of the public regarding suspected mental health side effects, including depression, anxiety, psychotic symptoms, and suicide, as well as sexual side effects.

Following an expert safety review, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) agreed in April of this year to a number of recommendations to strengthen the safe use of the treatment.

The safety review concluded that because of gaps in the available evidence, it was not possible to say that isotretinoin definitely caused many of the short-term or long-term mental health and sexual side effects. However, since the individual experiences of patients and families continued to cause concern, the experts recommended that action be taken to ensure patients were made aware of these potential risks and that they were carefully monitored during treatment.

"The overall balance of risks and benefits for isotretinoin remains favourable," the authors of the report concluded, but further action should be taken to ensure patients were fully informed about isotretinoin and were effectively monitored during and after treatment, they recommended.

Anna Rossiter, programme manager for Medicines for Children at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the information for young people and their families "needs to be written in a format that is easy to understand and must set out the possible side effects that might be experienced".

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Source: Medscape, 1 November 2023

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Hunt tech adviser calls for ‘new central investment’

The NHS requires a ‘new central investment’ to achieve digital maturity and realise the potential of emerging technologies, according to the person who was commissioned by Jeremy Hunt to examine the issue in 2015.

Bob Wachter was commissioned by the then health and social care secretary in 2015, and authored the 2016 report Making IT Work, which called on all NHS trusts to achieve the “realistic target” of a good level of digital maturity by 2023.

While Professor Wachter told HSJ that there had been “reasonably good” progress, he said it was “not quite what I would have hoped for” seven years on from his report. 

He acknowledged that factors such as the pandemic and the subsequent economic situation slowed progress, but added that he was “a little bit worried” at the state of digital maturity in some areas, including interoperability and reliability of key systems such as electronic patient records.

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Source: HSJ, 1 November 2023

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Launch of a new Patient Entrepreneur Programme

Are you a patient whose experience has led you to develop a healthcare innovation? Do you want to develop your skills to help scale this innovation?  

The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) is offering a 12-month pilot programme for people who have experience of a long-term health condition and are working on healthcare innovations.  

The NHS CEP Patient Entrepreneur Programme, ran by Anglia Ruskin University and in collaboration with NHS England’s Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) team, is free, part-time, and open to all patients, or carers with an innovation in healthcare. The programme aims to give individuals the skills and knowledge to develop their innovation, while giving them access to a network of mentors, healthcare experts, and patient support. 

Applications for this programme will open on the 1 November 2023, with the programme starting March 2024.  

So, if you are a patient with lived experience of an illness or condition who has developed an innovation to improve patient care, this is your chance to scale your idea with the help of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.  

Find out more

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Essex mental health inquiry relaunched with new legal powers

A public inquiry into the deaths of at least 2,000 mental health inpatients has been relaunched with new powers.

The Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry was established in 2021 to investigate the deaths of people on mental health wards in the county.

The number of initial responses to the inquiry from current and former staff was described as "disappointing".

The inquiry has converted to a statutory inquiry meaning witnesses can be forced to give evidence.

It is understood the new chairwoman is considering extending the inquiry's timeframe to include deaths from the start of 2000 until the end of 2023.

Baroness Kate Lampard, leading the inquiry, said: "I am determined to conduct this inquiry in a fair, thorough and balanced manner.

"I am also concerned to ensure that I do not take any longer than necessary - the recommendations from this inquiry are urgent and cannot be delayed."

She added: "To be clear from the outset, I will not be compelling families to give evidence.

"Evidence from staff, management and organisations will be gathered in a proportionate, fair and appropriate manner."

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Source: BBC News, 1 November 2023

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Hospitals fail people with learning disabilities, says watchdog

The safety of people with learning disabilities in England is being compromised when they are admitted to hospital, a watchdog says.

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) reviewed the care people receive and said there were "persistent and widespread" risks.

It warned staff are not equipped with the skills or support to meet the needs of patients with learning disabilities.

The watchdog launched its review after receiving a report about a 79-year-old who died following a cardiac arrest two weeks after being admitted to hospital.

As part of its investigation, HSSIB also looked at the care provided in other places to people with learning disabilities.

It warned systems in place to share information about them were unreliable, and that there was an inconsistency in the availability of specialist teams - known as learning disability liaison services - that were in place in hospitals to support general staff.

It also said general staff had insufficient training - although it did note a national mandatory training programme is currently being rolled out.

Senior investigator Clare Crowley said: "If needs are not met, it can cause distress and confusion for the patient and their families and carers, and raises the risk of poor health outcomes and, in the worst cases, harm."

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Source: BBC News, 2 November 2023

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Suicidal children have to ‘make several attempts’ before accessing NHS mental health services

Children feel they have to attempt suicide multiple times before they get treatment from NHS mental health services, the former children’s commissioner has warned.

Anne Longfield said that schoolchildren were aware that NHS mental health infrastructure was “buckling and far from being able to cope with the demand”.

She told the Times Health Commission: “When I first became children’s commissioner in 2015, the thing that children talked about most often was mental health. They said they knew they couldn’t get help and treatment easily, because there just wasn’t enough help to go around.

“Some said, we know that we’ve almost got to try and take our own life before we can get help. And I thought that was pretty shocking at the time. Now, young people are saying not only do they have to try to take their own life, they have to try and take their own life several times, and they say there will be an assessment of levels of intent within that.”

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Source: The Times, 1 November 2023

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The ‘wrecked’ lives of forgotten Long Covid sufferers

Nearly four years since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, you could be forgiven for believing the pandemic is behind us. But for many, it feels far from over.

Close to two million people face a daily battle with debilitating symptoms of Long Covid – the lasting symptoms of the virus that remain after the infection is gone – with some now housebound, unable to walk and even partially blind.

Alan Chambers, 49, is among those who have been grappling with the illness for years, having caught coronavirus in March 2020.

Mr Chambers went from being “a fit, healthy, working member of the community who would do anything to help anyone” to being “ill and isolated in our bedroom”, blind in one eye and no longer able to walk unaided, his wife Vicki said.

As of March, an estimated 1.9 million people in the UK have experienced coronavirus symptoms for more than four weeks, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. Of those, 1.5 million reported the condition had adversely affected their day-to-day activities.

It comes as coronavirus case rates have shown an overall increase since July, with fears the approaching winter will bring a further surge in infections.

Yet in May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that coronavirus no longer represents a global health emergency, which was seen as a symbolic step towards the end of the pandemic.

Dr Jo House, founding member and health advocacy lead at Long Covid Support, said the advocacy group now has 62,000 members, with about 250 more people joining every month.

“In their words, they feel ‘forgotten, unheard, disbelieved, isolated, unemployed, disabled, immobile’. 

NHS England admitted to The Independent that access to necessary support, treatment and care for Long Covid patients is still lacking. It said there was “still more to do to ensure support is there for everyone who needs it”, so that patients requiring specialist assessment and treatment for Long Covid can access care in a timely way.

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Source: The Independent, 29 November 2023

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Millions of patients given access to GP records under new rules

Millions of patients will be handed the power to view their own medical records and test results online after the NHS overruled opposition from the doctors’ union.

From 1 November every GP surgery in England will be contractually obliged to give all patients over the age of 16 access to their health information on their phones.

It means patients will no longer have to ring up their surgery or book a GP appointment to get details of blood test results, medications and repeat prescriptions, but instead they can access them by logging in to the NHS app.

The British Medical Association (BMA) had threatened to go to court over the plans, arguing that granting people access to their records would add to GP workloads and could put patients at risk.

However, Jacob Lant, the chief executive of the charity umbrella group National Voices, said: “Ensuring everyone has access to their own medical records through the NHS app is an important step in building a more equal partnership between patients and clinicians.

“It gives people much easier access to the information they need to prepare for appointments, and having quick access to test results can help patients manage their conditions better. Using technology in this way has the potential to help millions, and free up capacity of staff to help those who are less able to make use of digital services.”

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Source: The Times, 31 October 2023

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‘Short termism’ is undermining NHS savings and safety, warns CEO

The government must allow health systems to plan their finances over a longer period to help deliver ‘real’ savings by rationalising services, says a leading chief executive.

Kevin McGee, who recently stepped down from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said the “short-termism” baked into the annual NHS budget cycle is a major source of frustration for local leaders.

Many trusts and systems have struggled to deliver their financial plans this year due to the savings required, and Mr McGee warned that continuing to “salami slice” the budgets will exacerbate patient safety risks.

He said Lancashire and many other systems urgently need to rationalise and consolidate acute services on fewer sites, which would bring significant cost savings. However, changes such as these can often take years to plan and implement.

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Source: HSJ, 1 November 2023

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Black and Asian people find it harder to access NHS mental health services

Black, Asian and minority ethnic people experience longer waiting times, and are less likely to be in recovery after treatment, when accessing NHS mental health services compared with their white counterparts, a report has found.

The research looked at 10 years’ worth of anonymised patient data from NHS Talking Therapies, formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – an NHS programme that launched in 2008 to improve patient access to NHS mental health services. A total of 1.2 million people accessed NHS Talking Therapies services in 2021-22, and by 2024 the programme aims to help 1.9 million people in England with anxiety or depression to access treatment.

The report, Ethnic Inequalities in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory and undertaken by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, found that people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds were less likely to go on to have at least one treatment session, despite having been referred by their GP, than their white counterparts.

Dr Lade Smith, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “For far too long we have known that people from minoritised ethnic groups don’t get the mental healthcare they need. This review confirms, despite some improvements, it remains that access, experience and outcomes of talking therapies absolutely must get better, especially for Bangladeshi people.

“There is progress, particularly for people from black African backgrounds, if they can get into therapy, but getting therapy in the first place continues to be difficult. This review provides clear recommendations about how to build on the improvements seen. I hope that decision-makers, system leaders and practitioners will act on these findings.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 November 2023

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Warning as patients hospitalised after taking fake Ozempic weight-loss drug

People have been hospitalised after taking a fake version of the weight-loss control jab Ozempic, with 369 drugs seized by the UK’s medicines safety regulator.

The fake jabs, obtained without prescription through black market suppliers, were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, and demand for the medicine has contributed to shortages in the product, which is also used for people with type 2 diabetes.

The watchdog said a low number of patients had been hospitalised and reported serious side effects, including hypoglycaemic shock. Others ended up in a coma, which indicates the pens may have contained insulin rather than semaglutide.

It has urged the public not to buy drugs without a prescription and warned buying prescription-only medicines online “poses a direct danger to health”.

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Source: The Independent, 29 October 2023

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Patients waiting months could travel for treatment

Patients who have been waiting more than 40 weeks for treatment in England will be offered the option of getting seen in another part of the country.

About 400,000 will be contacted in the coming weeks and asked whether they would be willing to travel and how far.

Patients already have a right to ask for treatment elsewhere. But NHS England believes that by proactively contacting the longest waiters they will help unlock some of the worst bottlenecks in the system.

Only those who do not have an appointment already scheduled within the next eight weeks will receive the offer via text, email or letter.

The 400,000 figure represents about 5% of the total number waiting for treatment.

If a patient is happy to travel, the treatment could either be in an NHS or private sector hospital.

Those on low incomes will be entitled to some financial support to enable them to travel for treatment.

Patients will retain their place on the waiting list at their local hospital while other options are explored.

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Source: BBC News, 31 October 2023

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Parents of babies who died or were harmed in NHS care demand inquiry

Parents of babies who have died or been harmed as a result of poor care are demanding that ministers order a public inquiry into repeated failings in NHS maternity units.

They want Steve Barclay, the health secretary, to set up a judge-led statutory inquiry to investigate recurring problems in maternity services, which cost the NHS in England £2.6bn a year in damages.

Babies are still being damaged and dying, despite previous inquiries into maternity scandals at the Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, and East Kent NHS trusts recommending changes. The NHS’s failure to improve maternity safety is so alarming that a public inquiry is needed to finally ensure that women and babies no longer come to harm, the families say.

The Maternity Safety Alliance, a group of relatives of newborns who have died due to lapses in NHS childbirth, warned that scandals will continue unless such an inquiry is held.

“Our babies are too precious to keep on ignoring the reality that despite a raft of national initiatives and policies implemented in the wake of investigations and reports, systemic issues continue to adversely impact on the care of women and babies.

“Far too much avoidable harm continues to devastate lives in circumstances that could and should be avoided. Fundamental reform is needed,” they said in a letter urging Barclay to intervene.

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Source: The Guardian, 31 October 2023

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'My NHS hell waiting for surgery and information'

Former BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, now a writer and podcaster, has Parkinson's disease. Two weeks ago, after fracturing his elbow in a nasty fall, he found out just how difficult it can be to get answers from the NHS.

"Getting information about one's treatment seems like an obstacle race where the system is always one step ahead. But communication between medical staff within and between hospitals also appears hopelessly inadequate, with the gulf between doctors and nurses particularly acute.

"I also sense that, in some cases, new computer systems are slowing not speeding information through the system. On Saturday morning, as we waited in the surgical assessment unit, four nurses gathered around a computer screen while a fifth explained to them all the steps needed to check-in a patient and get them into a bed. It took about 20 minutes and appeared to be akin to mastering some complex video game beset with bear traps."

Rory's latest experience as a customer of the health service has left him convinced that more money and more staff won't solve its problems without some fundamental changes in the way it communicates.

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Source: BBC News, 29 October 2023

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Soaring private healthcare use piling pressure on NHS GPs, survey finds

Soaring use of private healthcare for tests and treatments is piling pressure on overstretched GP surgeries, with family doctors warning that standard NHS care is being squeezed as a result.

Record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare, with some having procedures such as cataract surgery and hip replacements, amid mounting frustration at NHS hospital waiting lists. Others are opting for private health checks, genetic testing or cosmetic surgery such as liposuction.

But the surge in private healthcare use is increasing the workload of GPs, many of whom say they are increasingly having to interpret questionable health checks done privately, organise blood tests or scans and manage additional administration related to private care. Some say more of their hours are being taking up providing follow-up appointments after patients paid for treatment or surgery abroad.

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Source: Guardian, 29 October 2023

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Whistleblowing ‘cost Hampshire doctor dearly’ after he loses tribunal

Dr Martyn Pitman claimed retaliatory victimisation after raising morale concerns but tribunal says it was his manner that cost him his job.

A doctor has said raising whistleblowing concerns about maternity care at his hospital “cost me very dearly” after he lost his employment tribunal.

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Martyn Pitman was dismissed earlier this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire county hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked for 20 years.

He told the Southampton tribunal, which concluded earlier this month, that he had been “subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation” after exercising his rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

A tribunal judgment released on Friday said there had been “unanimous” agreement that the arguments behind the whistleblowing claim “fail and are dismissed”.

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Source: Guardian, 29 October 2023

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The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames

Babylon Healthcare won NHS contracts after being championed by Matt Hancock but the company’s AI tech was oversold and it has now collapsed.
The NHS spent millions of pounds on a flawed AI chatbot whose creator used aggressive sales techniques and overpromised what it could do, former staff have claimed.

Babylon Health, a tech start-up championed by Matt Hancock and advised by Dominic Cummings, promised that its AI chatbot could keep patients who didn’t need to be seen by a health professional out of the overstretched NHS.

But the technology was not as sophisticated as the company claimed, with former staff now claiming that what began as a crude tool based on “decision trees written by doctors, put into an Excel spreadsheet” never realised its promised potential. Concerns — including the fact the app missed clear signs of a heart attack or dangerous blood clots — were raised.

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Source: The Times, 28 October 2023

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‘Misleading’ A&E figures in England hiding poor performance

NHS bosses are using misleading figures to hide dangerously poor performance by A&E units in England against the four-hour treatment target, emergency department doctors claim.

Some A&Es treat and admit, transfer or discharge as few as one in three patients within four hours, although the NHS constitution says they should deal with 95% of arrivals within that timeframe.

How well or poorly A&Es are doing in meeting the 95% target is not in the public domain because the data that NHS England publishes is for NHS trusts overall, not individual hospitals.

That means official figures are an aggregate of performance at sometimes two A&Es run by the same trust or include data for any walk-in centres, minor injuries units or urgent treatment centres that a trust also operates. Forty-eight trusts have two A&Es and many also run at least one of the latter.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), which represents A&E doctors, wants that system scrapped. It is urging NHS England to start publishing data that shows the true performance of every individual emergency department against the 95% standard.

“The current data is misleading,” Dr Adrian Boyle, the college’s president, told the Guardian. “It’s a good example of a lack of transparency and also of performance incentives. Being open about the long delays in some A&Es would shine a light in some dark places.”

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Source: The Guardian. 28 October 2023

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Trusts may no longer be fined for missing quality standards

Trusts may be spared financial penalties if they fail to meet care quality standards under new proposals from NHS England. 

NHSE is looking at “pausing” the financial element of the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme from next year according to information seen by HSJ. This states “a wider review of incentives for quality” is also under way.

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Source: HSJ, 30 October 2023

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Death of baby after UK hospital missed vitamin jab ‘beyond cruel’, parents say

The parents of a baby boy who died at seven weeks old after a hospital did not give him a routine injection have described the failure as “beyond cruel”.

William Moris-Patto was born in July 2020 at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, where it was recorded in error that he had received a vitamin K injection – which is needed for blood clotting. The shot is routinely given to newborns to prevent a deficiency that can lead to bleeding.

His parents, Naomi and Alexander Moris-Patto, 33-year-old scientists from Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, want to raise awareness about the importance of the vitamin after a coroner concluded William would not have died had the hospital administered the injection. On Friday, the coroner Lorna Skinner KC described the omission as “a gross failure in medical care amounting to neglect”.

Alexander Moris-Patto, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who recently co-founded William Oak Diagnostics to test for deficiencies in babies, said: “What’s come out of the inquest for me is that the systems they [the trust] put in place to try to prevent this happening again are not satisfactory.”

He stressed the importance of the vitamin K injection, adding that about 1% of the UK population opt out of it. “We want people to know more about it, to understand how critical it can be, and for hospitals to take seriously the responsibility they have in those first precious hours of a baby’s life,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2023

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Complaints about poor NHS dental services rise 66% in five years

Record numbers of patients are complaining to the NHS Ombudsman about poor care, exorbitant fees and difficulty getting treatment from NHS dental services in England.

Mistakes by dentists mean some patients are being left in agony – in some cases unable to eat – while others are being landed with huge bills for work on their teeth.

“Poor dental care leaves patients frustrated, in pain and out of pocket,” said Rob Behrens, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman.

The number of complaints he receives every year about NHS dental services has jumped from 1,193 in 2017-18 to 1,982 in 2022-23 – a rise of 66%.

Behrens also disclosed that the proportion of complaints he upholds about NHS dentistry after an investigation has increased from 42% to 78% over the same period. That 78% figure for upheld complaints about dental services is “significantly more” than for any other area of NHS care, such as GP, hospital or mental health care, where the overall average is 60%, he said.

Dentistry has become one of the public’s main concerns about the NHS, especially the obstacles many people face when trying to access NHS care. A BBC survey last year found that 90% of surgeries across the UK were not accepting new adult patients and 80% were not taking on children as new patients.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 October 2023

Related reading on the hub:

“I’ve been mocked, scolded and gaslighted”: a harmed patient’s experience of orthodontic treatment

A patient harmed by orthodontic treatment shares their story

We want to hear from patients with experience of NHS and/or private orthodontists and dentists in any healthcare setting, including community practices and hospitals.

  • Did the orthodontist/dentist give you the treatment and support you needed?
  • If you had ongoing problems, how did the orthodontist/dentist and other healthcare professionals respond?
  • Have you tried to make a complaint?

Share your experience of orthodontist and dentistry services

 

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Michael Watt hearing: Lawyers withdraw over mental health concerns

Lawyers for a doctor at the centre of Northern Ireland's biggest patient recall have withdrawn from his new fitness to practise hearing.

Legal representatives for Michael Watt said they are "concerned about his serious mental health condition".

They told the Medical Practice Tribunal Service that the continuation of the hearing in public "presents a real risk to his mental health".

A new fitness to practise hearing began in September.

The legal team has also formally withdrawn an application to the tribunal for Michael Watt to remove himself from the medical register.

It followed a ruling by the High Court earlier this year to quash a decision where he previously was voluntary erased from the medical register.

 

The tribunal is inquiring into the allegation that, between 7 and 22 of October 2018, Michael Watt underwent a General Medical Council assessment of the standard of his professional performance.

It is alleged that that performance was unacceptable in the areas of maintaining professional performance, assessment, clinical management, record keeping and relationship with patients.

Read full story

 

Source: BBC News, 27 October 2023

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