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NHS boss feared waiting for ambulance after stroke

An NHS boss who had a stroke was taken to A&E by her husband rather than calling for an ambulance because of concerns over long waits.

In a series of tweets, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Deborah Lee praised his swift actions.

She said he had "bundled her into his car", last week, after she had showed the signs of a stroke because he had heard her "lamenting ambulance delays".

She is recovering but says it may have been different if they had called 999.

Waits for an ambulance in England are the longest since new targets were introduced, in 2017.

And Ms Lee's regional service - the South West - has the longest waits in the country, with category-two calls, which include strokes, taking nearly two hours, on average, to reach patients in March.

The target is 18 minutes.

In the tweets, Ms Lee said: "Naturally, I am eternally grateful to my husband for his swift actions… but I can't get one thing out of my head.

"What if my husband hadn't been there and my daughter had called for an ambulance and I'd been put in the cat[egory]-two stack?"

She went on to say it was not the fault of the ambulance service and the whole system was "working unrelentingly to this but to no great avail".

Ms Lee said hospitals were struggling to discharge patients, because of a lack of social care, and so delays were building up in the rest of the system.

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Source: BBC News, 28 April 2022

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NHS boss calls out ‘predator’ surgeon who harassed junior female medics

A top NHS boss has called out a “predatory” surgeon who was sanctioned by regulators for sexually harassing colleagues and trainees.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, has condemned the “appalling behaviour” of Oxford University Hospital-based surgeon Mr James Gilbert, who was found to have sexually harassed four female colleagues.

She also announced the NHS is working on a national sexual misconduct policy which will provide workers with a route to report anonymous incidents and gain access to independent investigators.

Mr Gilbert was sanctioned by a medical practitioners tribunal service (MPTS) panel this year with an eight-month suspension. Since then the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates doctors in the UK, has launched an appeal against the MPTS decision, calling for a harsher sanction.

In a tweet on Sunday night, Ms Pritchard quoted a story detailing Mr Gilbert’s wrongdoing and said: “Appalling predatory behaviour should never happen in our NHS – in settings that are supposed to be compassionate, caring and safe.

“To put it simply, sexual predators should never be allowed to work in the NHS. People who treat our colleagues that way should not be allowed to treat patients.”

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Source: The Independent, 1 October 2024

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NHS boss calls for sexual harassment to be ‘stamped out’ – as health service faces Me Too moment

The boss of the NHS has made a dramatic intervention in The Independent highlighting the shocking amount of sexual abuse against staff in the health service, arguing that a #MeToo moment is needed to safeguard staff.

Amanda Pritchard hit out at the “unacceptable” levels of abuse faced by doctors and nurses, demanding that health trusts be judged on their progress in tackling sexual harassment.

She has called for sexual harassment against NHS staff to be “stamped out” after it emerged that one in eight workers – 58,000 – had reported experiencing unwanted sexual behaviour last year.

Writing exclusively for The Independent, Ms Pritchard said the abuse now levelled at doctors and nurses is unacceptable – with some staff being raped at work, groped, and shown pornography.

“The #MeToo movement has powerfully called out this unacceptable behaviour and fuelled important discussions right across society, and the NHS must not be exempt,” Ms Pritchard wrote.

Around 58,000 NHS workers reported being subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour last year (PA)

“But we can’t just call out unacceptable behaviour and move on: we need to stamp it out across all parts of the NHS.”

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Source: The Independent, 13 April 2024

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NHS boss Amanda Pritchard vows that victims of falls won’t wait hours in agony

Elderly people who call for help after a fall at home will no longer be left waiting for hours on the floor, the head of the NHS has said, as she bids to keep patients out of hospital and stop the service being overwhelmed this winter.

Amanda Pritchard said she would start a new national service within weeks under which community teams would offer immediate help to people who had had an accident but had avoided serious injury.

Pritchard, who took over as chief executive of NHS England last year, said a quarter of less severe 999 calls in January involved falls. The new teams could stop 55,000 elderly people a year being taken to hospital, she said.

All NHS areas will be told this week to establish the service before a “very, very, very challenging winter” for the health service.

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Source: The Times, 16 October 2022

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NHS boss Amanda Pritchard says patients not always getting care they deserve

Patients are not always getting the care they deserve, says the head of NHS England.

Amanda Pritchard told a conference the pressures on hospitals, maternity care and services caring for vulnerable people with learning disabilities were of concern.

She even suggested the challenge facing the health service now was greater than it was at the height of the pandemic.

Despite making savings, the NHS still needs extra money to cope, she said.

Next year the budget will rise to more than £157bn, but NHS England believes it will still be short of £7bn.

Ms Pritchard told the King's Fund annual conference in London that demand was rising more quickly than the NHS could cope with.

"I thought that the pandemic would be the hardest thing any of us ever had to do," she said.

"Over the last year, I've become really clear.... it's the months and years ahead that will bring the most complex challenges."

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Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022

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NHS Borders monitors high levels of scarlet fever

The health board in the Scottish Borders has said it is monitoring "unseasonably high" numbers of scarlet fever cases in the region.

Parents have been asked to be aware of the symptoms so that early treatment with antibiotics can be given.

Scarlet fever is a bacterial illness that mainly affects children under 10 but people of any age can get it.

NHS Borders said it would usually clear up after about a week but anyone who thinks they or a child may have it has been asked to contact a GP for a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

"Due to the contagious nature of scarlet fever, if you or your child has the illness, please stay at home for at least 24 hours after starting treatment with antibiotics," it added.

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Source: BBC News, 7 November 2022

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NHS board special measures call over child's hospital death

Scotland's biggest health board should be put in "special measures" over its handling of hospital infection issues, according to an MSP.

Anas Sarwar made the call after a mother accused NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) of covering up possible factors in her daughter's death.Mr Sarwar said the health board had tried to intimidate health service whistleblowers who had raised concerns.

NHSGGC said the source of the child's infection could not be determined.

Earlier this week a whistleblower revealed that a doctor-led review had identified 26 infections at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children in 2017 which were potentially linked to problems with the water supply.

Kimberly Darroch, whose daughter Milly Main died at the hospital in August 2017 while in remission from leukaemia, said health officials gave her no inkling that contaminated water could have been a factor.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said the first she knew of Milly's death was when Ms Darroch emailed her about her concerns in September.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has offered to meet the family to discuss their concerns - but said it was impossible to accurately determine the source of Milly's infection because there was no requirement for water testing at the time.

It said the hospital's water had been independently assessed as safe, and it criticised the whistleblower for causing "stress and anxiety" for Milly's parents when there was no evidence of a link.

Anas Sarwar, however, insisted the health board had let down both patients and staff.

He said: "There was an attempted cover-up of Milly's death, and there are still dozens of families who don't know the truth about infections contracted in the QEUH."

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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NHS board named in Glasgow hospital corporate homicide probe

Scotland's largest health board has been named as a suspect in a corporate homicide investigation following the deaths of four patients at a Glasgow hospital campus.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) informed families of the development via a closed Facebook group set up during a water contamination crisis.

The board confirmed it had received an update from the Crown Office. But it added there was no indication prosecutors had "formed a final view".

Police Scotland launched a criminal investigation in 2021 into a number of deaths at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) campus, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) instructed officers to investigate the deaths of Milly, two other children and 73-year-old Gail Armstrong.

Milly's mother previously told a separate public inquiry into the building of several Scottish hospitals that her child's death was "murder".

A review earlier found an infection which contributed to Milly's death was probably caused by the QEUH environment.

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Source: BBC News, 13 November 2023

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NHS blunders rise by 60% in five years as op bungles hit 14,000 and severe cases soar

Surgical blunders have soared 60% in five years – and extreme mistakes are now a daily occurrence in the NHS.

Some 13,921 people were treated for damage caused by botched operations in the year to March 31 – up from 8,695 in England in 2016/17.

Cases involved an “unintentional cut, puncture, perforation or haemorrhage”.

Separately, a report from NHS England shows 134 patients fell victim to so-called Never Events from April 1 to July 31.

Extreme errors included two women left infertile after their ovaries were wrongly removed. Injections and invasive tests were given to the wrong patients and in 39 cases foreign objects, such as drill bits and wires, were left inside bodies.

There were 57 cases of surgery on the wrong body part and 12 instances of patients being given the wrong implant or prosthesis.

The Royal College of Surgeons in England said: “If the system is overstretched, there is a risk that mistakes will happen.”

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “When Never Events occur, the physical and psychological effects can stay with a patient for life.”

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Source: The Mirror, 1 October 2022

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NHS blood unit is “systemically racist” and “psychologically unsafe,” investigation finds

An independent investigation into working conditions at a unit of the NHS’s blood and organ transplant service has concluded that it is “systemically racist” and “psychologically unsafe.”

The internal investigation was commissioned in response to numerous complaints from ethnic minority staff working in a unit of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in Colindale, north London. The report, carried out by the workplace relations company Globis Mediation Group, concluded that the environment was “toxic” and “dysfunctional.”

The report found evidence that ethnic minority employees had faced discrimination when applying for jobs and that white candidates had been selected for posts ahead of black applicants who were better qualified. “Recruitment is haphazard, based on race and class and whether a person’s ‘face fits,’” it said.

“Being ignored, being viewed as ineligible for promotion and enduring low levels of empathy all seem to be normal,” the report noted. “These behaviours have created an environment which is now psychologically unsafe and systemically racist.”

Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, commented, “This report highlights all too painfully the racial prejudices and discrimination we are seeing across healthcare. We must renew efforts to challenge these behaviours and bring an end to the enduring injustices faced by black people and BAME healthcare workers here in the UK.”

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Source: BMJ, 10 June 2020

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NHS blood test tube shortage: Doctors 'facing difficult choices'

Doctors have warned GPs are having to make difficult choices about which patients get blood tests because of the ongoing shortage of test tubes, describing it as a "perilous" situation. Due to the shortages, the NHS in England and Wales have told surgeries and hospitals to temporarily stop some blood testing, which includes tests for fertility, allergies and pre-diabetes. One woman, Alison Webb, has said she cannot have her yearly thyroid and cholesterol checked due to the shortages - and her tests are already overdue by four months.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said, "The health and care system continues to work flat out with the supplier and stakeholders to put mitigations in place, and restore normal supply, and there continues to be stock in place."

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Source: BBC News, 30 August 2021

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NHS blame culture sees nurses referred to regulator without investigations

Hospitals and care homes are failing to properly investigate incidents before referring nurses to their regulator, fuelling a blame culture and repeat failures, the head of the nursing watchdog has told The Independent.

In her first national interview, Andrea Sutcliffe, head of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said some employers were referring nurses without any investigation at all, while half of initial enquiries to the NMC were rejected or required further work.

She told The Independent this emphasis on blaming the individual meant underlying causes of safety errors were being missed and so they were likely to be repeated. Her ambition is to transform the nursing regulator, which oversees 725,000 nurses and midwives across the UK, into a more forceful watchdog that will flag systemic issues of concern with NHS trusts and care homes.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ms Sutcliffe called on ministers to ensure that planned legislation to reform the way clinicians are regulated be made transparent and maintain the public’s confidence. She also stressed that the impact of coronavirus on nurses mental health meant rushing to restart routine operations in the NHS had to be carefully planned to avoid driving nurses out of the health service.

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Source: The Independent, 16 March 2021

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NHS billions wasted as bipolar patients left 'forgotten and failed'

Failing to properly diagnose and treat people with bipolar disorder, external is wasting billions of pounds a year in the UK, according to new data shared exclusively with the BBC. Experts say many of the estimated million people living with this condition are "ghosts in the system", whose lives are being torn apart by poorly managed extreme suicidal lows or manic, erratic highs.

Emma was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her early 30s, after experiencing a mental health crisis.

When she was 32 weeks pregnant, her grandmother died unexpectedly, sending her into a "deep low". "I felt awful, but the perinatal team wouldn't take me on," she says. "They said my symptoms weren't that serious."

When Emma gave birth, the extreme lows of her pregnancy were replaced by an unexpected high. She felt amazing in the days after her baby was born - but she didn't sleep and her behaviour became increasingly erratic.

A few weeks later, her mood flipped again. When her baby was three weeks old, Emma took an overdose.

It took a week in hospital for her liver function to return. But even after that, she was in and out of hospital for a year before finally being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and medicated correctly.

"If I had the correct care, and been listened to during my pregnancy or even earlier, I could have avoided taking that overdose - 100%," she says.

Experts have told the BBC how most people living with bipolar disorder in the UK are "undertreated, undiagnosed and left to try and survive in a system that has failed them".

The majority who, like Emma, are eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, are incorrectly prescribed antidepressants initially, which makes their symptoms worse rather than better. Experts also say there is a lack of continuity of care from GPs through to psychiatrists.

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), bipolar disorder is a manageable condition.

Dr Trudi Seneviratne, registrar at the RCPsych and a commissioner on the Bipolar Commission, says it is "completely treatable" with a combination of medication, talking therapies and lifestyle factors.

"But there are many, many people who are suffering in silence with lower levels of symptoms because there isn't a good clinical care pathway for them in the UK."

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Source; BBC News, 1 April 2025

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NHS bed occupancy beyond safe levels ahead of Christmas

Hospital wards across the country are having to look after an unsafe number of patients, with hundreds of beds closed due to an outbreak of norovirus.

NHS England has said that on average almost 900 beds were closed each day during the week to Sunday 15 December.

Hospitals have reported fewer empty beds with bed-occupancy rates reaching as high as 95 per cent, 10 per cent higher than the recommended safe level.

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Source: The Independent, 20 December 2019

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NHS backlog progress at risk from junior doctors' strike in England

Progress being made on tackling the hospital waiting backlog will be put at risk by next week's junior doctors' strike, NHS bosses are warning.

NHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis said there had been huge achievements over the winter.

But he said it was inevitable the 72-hour walkout in England, which starts on Monday, would have an impact.

It comes as the annual NHS staff survey shows a falling number happy to recommend the care at their service.

The poll found 63% would be happy to see a friend or relative treated - down by five percentage points in the past year and 11 over two years.

Meanwhile, latest performance data shows NHS emergency services are continuing to miss their targets, although the situation is not getting worse.

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said despite the situation not getting worse it still presented a "damning" picture, and warned it was "increasingly causing harm to patients".

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Source: BBC News, 9 March 2023

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NHS backlog of two-year waits for routine surgery in England shrinks to below 200

The backlog of people waiting more than two years for a routine operation in England has shrunk from 22,500 at the start of the year to fewer than 200.

NHS England figures show the number of patients waiting that length of time has fallen to just 168, excluding more complex cases.

Staff have been praised for carrying out the NHS elective recovery plan, published this year to tackle backlogs built up during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the start of the year, more than 22,500 people had been waiting two years or longer for scans, checks and surgery. A further 51,000 who would have passed the two-year mark by the end of July have also been treated, figures show.

The NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “It has only been possible because the NHS has continued to reform the way we deliver care, using innovative techniques and adopting pioneering technology like robot surgery, and through building new relationships and mutual aid arrangements across systems to offer patients the opportunity to be transferred elsewhere and get the care they need as quickly as possible.

“The next phase will focus on patients waiting longer than 18 months, building on the fantastic work already done, and, while it is a significant challenge, our remarkable staff have shown that, when we are given the tools and resources we need, the NHS delivers for our patients.”

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Source: The Guardian, 9 August 2022

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NHS backlog disproportionately affecting England’s most deprived

The NHS backlog is being disproportionately shouldered by people in poorer areas, according to new research, amid a stark warning that waiting lists are likely to “grow significantly” because millions of people did not seek help during the pandemic.

Waiting lists for routine treatments have grown by 50% in the most deprived parts of England, compared with nearly 35% in the most affluent areas. Those in deprived areas were also nearly twice as likely as those in the wealthiest to wait more than a year for treatment, according an analysis by the King’s Fund.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, warned that the long waiting lists were in danger of leading to privatisation of the NHS.

“Waiting times have got so bad that you’ve got people taking out payday loans, sometimes even remortgaging their homes, because they cannot bear the pain, or the disruption to their lives, or fear they will lose their lives,” he said. “That is eroding the fundamental universal system that we created.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 September 2021

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NHS Ayrshire & Arran team hailed for Parkinson's medication breakthrough

A team from NHS Ayrshire & Arran has successfully created a system to ensure that people with Parkinson’s get their medication on time while they are in hospital.

Parkinson’s nurse specialist Nick Bryden, who led the team, explains: “The timely administration of medication is hugely important in helping to control symptoms in people with Parkinson’s.

"Guidance states that Parkinson’s medication should be administered within 30 minutes, either side, of the prescribed time which can be challenging within a busy hospital ward environment."

Nick, who works out of Biggart Hospital in Prestwick, added: “When we initially worked with our digital pharmacist, Richard Cottrell, it was to develop a system that would alert us to when a Parkinson’s patient was admitted to hospital.

"It then became clear that we could take the system a step further and use it to monitor if people are on the right medication and whether or not it is being administered at the right time.”

The team worked to develop a further system of clear visual prompts with NHS Digital services, which appear alongside relevant patient details on wards’ electronic whiteboards.

Every patient prescribed Parkinson’s medication has a tulip symbol beside their name which changes colour and flashes when it’s close to the time to administer the medication. The system was initially piloted in a couple of wards and, due to its success, has now been rolled out to almost every ward in Ayrshire and Arran.

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Source: The Herald, 19 April 2023

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NHS at risk of paralysis while waiting for Wes Streeting’s reforms, says thinktank

The NHS is at risk of paralysis while it waits for Wes Streeting’s 10-year plan for reform and needs to be empowered to get on with change in the face of huge waiting times for care, a thinktank has said.

Victor Adebowale, a cross-bench peer and chair of the Institute for Public Policy Research, said a clear message is needed from Streeting that leaders in the health service should be able to start bringing in reforms where they are aligned with the government’s priorities.

He described long waits for care as “the tragic new normal” for many patients in the NHS and highlighted IPPR analysis showing that 25 times more people waited over four hours in A&E this summer than during the same period in 2009.

Lord Adebowale is also chair of the NHS Confederation, the membership body for health authorities and trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Writing in his role as IPPR chair, he said several senior NHS leaders have described to the thinktank “a feeling of ‘sitting and waiting’ for the 10-year plan, unable to initiate major change in the meantime”.

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Source: The Guardian, 26 December 2024

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NHS at 75: CPR call for ailing Northern Ireland health service

Northern Ireland's health system cannot expect its staff to "step up time and time again" to provide patient care and ensure their safety.

That is according to the head of Northern Ireland's Confederation for Health and Social Care, which is marking the NHS's 75th anniversary.

A long-term funding plan, political leadership and transformation are all overdue, Michael Bloomfield said.

"There is a clear vision for what needs to happen, the leaders across the health and social care system know what needs to happen - we just need political leadership to make sure it happens," he told BBC News NI.

Amid all the celebrations, there are mixed feelings about the current condition and future of health and social care.

The director of the Royal College of Nursing NI, Rita Devlin, described the idea of not having an NHS as "unthinkable".

"We need to make sure that the environment that we are asking our nurses to work in is one that values the work that they do and fairly pays and rewards them for what they do," she said.

Other issues that need addressing, she added, were career pathways, training and ensuring that "when a nurse wants to stay at the bedside, that that is valued equally as the nurses who want to go into management".

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Source: BBC News, 5 July 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2024

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NHS App upgrade to give patients more choice over treatment

Plans for an upgraded NHS App to allow more patients in England to book treatments and appointments will be part of a package of measures unveiled by the government on Monday.

The changes will allow patients who need non-emergency elective treatment to choose from a range of providers, including those in the private sector.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) said there was a risk the policy would "discriminate or alienate" patients who did not have access to digital technology.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC on Sunday: "The NHS needs investment, but it also needs reform, otherwise we will not break this cycle of annual winter crises."

The plan will set out how the government intends to meet one of its key election pledges - for more than 9 in 10 patients to have their treatment or be signed off within 18 weeks of a referral by the end of this parliament.

Announcing the plan, he said the move would shift the NHS "into the digital age" and help cut waiting times "from 18 months to 18 weeks".

The app would "put patients in the driving seat and treat them on time", and they would be "put in control of their own healthcare", the health secretary said.

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Source: BBC News, 5 January 2025

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NHS App to get new digital features by 2023

The NHS App will soon be updated with features to help offer people in England more personalised care.

It is part of the government's plan for a digital revolution to speed up care and improve access while saving the health service time and money.

By March 2023, more users will receive messages from their GP and be able to see their medical records and manage hospital elective-care appointments.

By March 2024, the app should offer face-to-face video consultations.

The government's ambition is for at least 75% of adults to be using it by March 2024. Currently, less than half - about 28 million - have it on their phone or tablet.

The government also wants 90% of NHS trusts to have electronic patient records in place or be processing them by December 2023 and for all social-care providers to adopt a digital social-care record.

And patients across the country should be able to complete their hospital pre-assessment checks from home by September 2024.

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Source: BBC News, 29 June 2022

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NHS App to become default patient communication channel

The NHS App should be the main channel for all types of patient communication by the start of 2029, new national guidance has stated. 

The medium-term planning framework published by NHS England today places the app at centre of its plans for patient triage, appointment booking and all other forms of communication.

The document said the rules “set the scene” for “a crucial new principle that services should be delivered digitally as the default wherever possible”.

The guidance insists the service must “move to a unified access model, using AI-assisted triage, that can effectively guide patients to self-care or to the appropriate care setting, through a single user interface delivered via the NHS App but with an integrated telephony and in-person offering”.

Providers are also told to “fully adopt all existing NHS App capabilities as a priority” over the next three years. This includes ensuring patients can manage their medicines, view waiting times and make appointments via the NHS App.

Patient-initiated follow-ups (PIFU) pathways in which patients trigger their own appointments should also be integrated with the app no later than 2028-29.

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Source: HSJ, 24 October 2025

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NHS app paves the way for 'immunity passports'

Facial recognition has been added as a way of logging in to an NHS app that lets people order prescriptions, book appointments and find healthcare data.

Initially, it will allow faster access to the services on the app, which is separate from the contact-tracing one, but its developers say it could also be used for COVID-19 "immunity passports".

The NHS facial-recognition system, built by iProov and available for both Android devices and iOS, requires users to submit a photo of themselves from an official document such as their passport or driving license. They then scan their face using their phone and, following a short sequence of flashing colours, their identification will be verified and they will have access to all the services on the NHS app.

Immunity passports need to link a person's identity to their coronavirus test results, so would require a robust way of allowing people to verify themselves. Those deemed clear of the virus could then prove their status via a code generated by an app.

However, the idea is controversial, not least because there is no hard scientific evidence that having had the coronavirus provides people with long-lasting immunity.

The World Health Organization has warned countries against implementing such passports, saying: "There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection."

 Dr Tom Fisher, a senior researcher at Privacy International, said the implementation of such measures needed to be "necessary, proportionate and based on the epidemiological evidence".

"For the moment, immunity passports do not meet this test," he said. "We must be concerned about the broad societal impact of such immunity passports. They are essentially about limiting the rights of those who are not deemed to be immune. This is a route to exclusion and discrimination."

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Source: BBC News, 27 May 2020

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