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NHS 111: child died despite 'blue lips' call

A two-year-old with a twisted bowel died despite her mother telling NHS non-emergency services about "blue lips and breathlessness", a coroner said.

Myla Deviren's mother spoke to a series of NHS 111 and out-of-hours service advisors, but none "appreciated" her symptoms and she later died. A coroner said with earlier hospital transfer and appropriate treatment Myla probably would have survived.

The 111 provider said it had made a number of changes since Myla's death.

In a prevention of future deaths report, Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, assistant coroner for Cambridgeshire, said after Mylabecame unwell in the early hours of 27 August 2015 her mother rang 111. During the call the health assistant "did not appreciate the significance of key symptoms", Ms Rhodes-Kemp said. 

Ms Rhodes-Kemp said that further steps in the 111 and out-of-hours services should be taken, including mandatory annual training for all call staff and having a "suitably-qualified" paediatric specialist clinician available. She added the "default position and precautionary advice should be - if in doubt call an ambulance".

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Source: BBC News, 7 November 2019

 

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NHS 111 offers new mental health service

People in crisis with mental health problems can now access services through NHS 111, giving them another way to get urgent help.

It makes the NHS in England one of the first countries to offer such a support service for mental health issues, as well as for physical problems.

The number connects to a local team of call handlers with mental health training, alongside nurses and clinicians who are available around the clock.

The team can organise a mental health assessment, send out a crisis team and flag up help available in the local area.

Demand for help with conditions such as depression and anxiety has been growing since the Covid pandemic.

Latest NHS figures show mental health services have treated an extra one million people a year compared with six years ago.

And the charity Mind estimates there are just under two million people on waiting lists for NHS mental health services.

The new integrated service can give patients of all ages, including children, the chance to be listened to by a trained member of staff who can help direct them to the right place, says NHS director for mental health Claire Murdoch.

"So, if you or someone you know needs urgent mental health support, please call 111, and select the mental health option."

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Source: BBC News, 27 August 2024

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NHS 111 gets new queuing system to handle coronavirus surge

An overflow system has been added to NHS 111 to help deal with the “huge increase” in calls during the coronavirus pandemic.

People displaying coronavirus symptoms who are contacting 111 either via telephone or online are now being diverted to the overspill system, freeing up space for non-covid related enquiries.

The tool has been developed by software company Advanced — alongside NHSX, NHS England and NHS Improvement — for its patient management system Adastra, which is used by 80% of NHS 111 providers in England.

The overspill add on, which started being rolled out earlier this month, can be accessed by clinicians who are working from home, including those who have been redeployed in the NHS, as well as those in 111 call centres. 

Ric Thompson, managing director of health and care at Advanced, said the new queuing extension was developed to handle the “huge increase in the number of calls to 111 but also the need to bring back many thousands of retired clinicians”.

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Source: HSJ, 29 April 2020

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NHS 111 firm admits fault for not sending ambulance to baby who later died

A private call handling firm operating the NHS 111 non-emergency service has admitted it was at fault for failing to send an ambulance to a baby boy who died shortly after falling ill, an inquest has heard.

Ben Condon, who was born premature, died aged two months at Bristol children’s hospital in April 2015 after developing a respiratory illness.

A first inquest into his death ruled that Ben died as a result of acute respiratory distress syndrome, human metapneumovirus and prematurity but the conclusion was quashed by high court judges.

On Monday, a fresh inquest opened into Ben’s death and heard that when the child went home to Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, with his parents he developed a cold.

His father, Allyn Condon, rang the non-emergency 111 service – run at the time by Care UK – at about 6pm on 10 April.

The call handler referred Ben for an out-of-hours telephone call-back appointment with a GP within two hours rather than send an ambulance, a decision the coroner said was affected by “bias” as the handler was aware of “external pressures” facing ambulances.

The court heard that by 7.45pm when Condon and his wife, Jenny, had not received the call from the GP, they took their son to the Weston general hospital.

Reading from a written statement, the assistant coroner Robert Sowersby said Care UK had apologised to the Condon family and the adviser was taken off calls for nearly three weeks and received further training.

“Care UK admitted it was at fault for having not sent an ambulance after the call,” Sowersby said. “It said that changes in the recordings of telephone calls needed to be made and apologised for their failings.

“Care UK identified in the root cause analysis that the health adviser failed to actively listen and failed to accept the responses provided and there was a failure to select the appropriate pathway responses.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2025

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NHS 111 failures led to early Covid deaths, investigation finds

Multiple failures by the NHS 111 telephone advice service early in the pandemic left Covid patients struggling to get care and led directly to some people dying, an investigation has found.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) looked into the help that NHS 111 gave people with Covid in the weeks before and after the UK entered its first lockdown on 23 March 2020.

It identified a series of weaknesses with the helpline, including misjudgment of how seriously ill some people with Covid were, a failure to tell some people to seek urgent help, and a lack of capacity to deal with a sudden spike in calls.

It also raised concerns that the government’s advice to citizens to “stay at home” to protect NHS services deterred people who needed immediate medical attention from seeking it from GPs and hospitals, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Mistakes identified by HSIB included that:

  • The CRS algorithm did not allow for the assessment of any life-threatening illness a caller had – such as obesity, cancer or lung disease – to establish whether they should undergo a clinical assessment.
  • When many callers reached the core 111 service, there was no way to divert them as intended to the CRS, which was operationally independent of 111.
  • Although patients who had Covid-19 symptoms as well as underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, were meant to be assessed when they spoke to the core 111 service, some were not.
  • The number of extra calls to 111 in March 2020 meant that only half were answered.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2022

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NHS 111 chaos may harm patients, experts claim

Patients may come to harm as a result of NHS 111 chaos, experts claimed on Tuesday as patients were advised to avoid the service this weekend. The helpline for urgent medical advice was targeted by cyberhackers earlier this month, leaving staff working on pen and paper.

The Adastra computer software, used by 85 per cent of 111 services, was taken offline after the attack leaving call handlers unable to book out-of-hours urgent appointments and fulfil emergency prescriptions. But almost three weeks on, most staff are still operating without the system, leaving GPs unable to see patients’ medical records during urgent consultations or automatically forward prescriptions to pharmacies.

The NHS has told hospitals to prepare public awareness campaigns to “minimise” pressures on urgent and emergency care services this winter. Some hospitals have already issued messaging urging patients not to turn up at accident and emergency (A&E), unless they are facing a “serious emergency.”

Helen Hughes, chief executive of the charity Patient Safety Learning, said the continuing chaos raises “serious patient safety concerns” and will “inevitably result in avoidable harm”. 

Telling patients not to go to A&E “unless it is absolutely necessary” is only possible if GPs and NHS 111 “have the capacity and the resources to meet the demands that this places on them”, Ms Hughes said.

“Significant delays in receiving a response are potentially missed opportunities for patients to receive timely medical advice and treatment that may prevent future harm,” she added. “Delays in receiving timely care and treatment will inevitably result in avoidable harm to patients.”

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Source: The Telegraph (23 August 2022)

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NHS 111 'failed' teenager who died following delays

Failings by NHS 111 contributed to the death of an autistic teenager, a coroner has ruled.

Hannah Royle, 16, suffered a cardiac arrest as she was driven to hospital by her parents after a 111 algorithm failed to notice she was seriously ill.

A coroner said her death had exposed a risk people were being misled about the capability of the system and its staff.

An NHS spokesperson said it would act on the findings and learnings "where necessary".

Hannah's father Jeff Royle said he regretted dialling 111 and wished he had taken his daughter straight to hospital.

"I feel so dreadful, that I have let her down and she has been let down by the NHS," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 20 October 2021

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NHS "took 18 months to help after suicide attempt"

Poor treatment and aftercare for people who self-harm or attempt suicide is putting their lives at risk, the Royal College of Psychiatrists says. Many patients treated in A&E for self-harm do not receive a full psychosocial assessment from a mental health professional to assess suicide risk.

Simon Rose, who has attempted suicide many times, told BBC News it once took 18 months to receive aftercare.

NHS England said reducing suicide rates was an "NHS priority".

Last year, UK suicide rates rose for the first time since 2013, with people born in the 1960s and 1970s being the most vulnerable. Experts are now calling for all self-harm patients to be offered a safety plan – an agreed set of bespoke activities and guidelines to help them deal with depressive episodes.

Dr Huw Stone, who chairs the patients' safety group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said patients, especially those under 30, were being systematically let down in their most vulnerable state.

"With hospital admissions for self-harming under-30s more than doubling in the last 10 years, there has never been a more important time to ensure patients are getting the care that they need," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 21 February 2020

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NHS ’clearly failing’ to ensure children get measles vaccine, experts warn

Children are at risk of measles because the NHS is “clearly failing” to ensure they get the MMR vaccine and its system needs an urgent overhaul, MPs and health experts have warned.

Calls are growing for major reform of how MMR jabs are delivered as it emerged that vaccination rates in some parts of England are now on a par with those in Afghanistan and Malawi.

More outbreaks of measles like the one in north London are inevitable, public health specialists believe, given that fewer than 60% of five-year-olds in some places have had both the recommended doses of MMR.

In Enfield, where 60 children have recently contracted measles, of whom 15 have been hospitalised, the MMR vaccination rate is only 64.3%. That is lower than the 69.3% rate in Malawi and just above Afghanistan’s 62% rate. The World Health Organization advises a 95% rate.

The outbreak in Enfield has reignited public and medical anxiety about unvaccinated children getting measles, which can damage the brain and lungs and in some cases lead to meningitis, blindness or even death. Five “catch-up clinics” have been set up in local community centres to vaccinate children who got either one or no doses of MMR when it was offered to their parents.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 February 2026

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NHS ‘workforce disaster’ threatens a million operations and could cost lives, royal college warns

More than a million patient operations could be delayed because of widespread shortages of anaesthetists in the NHS – with 9 out of every 10 hospitals reporting at least one vacancy.

As coronavirus paralysed the NHS earlier this year, more than 140,000 NHS patients have already waited over a year for treatment. 

The Health Foundation has warned that 4.7 million fewer patients have been referred for treatment because of the impact of coronavirus on NHS services.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCOA) told The Independent the scale of the vacancies was getting worse and labelled it a “workforce disaster” that could cost patients’ lives and have a widespread impact on hospital services.

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Source: The Independent, 22 November 2020

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NHS ‘woefully unprepared’ for care of an ageing England

The NHS is “flying blind” and “woefully unprepared” to cope with England’s rapidly ageing population, senior doctors have warned as stark new figures reveal the country has only one full-time geriatrician to care for every 8,000 older people.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said the drastic shortage of specially trained physicians to look after the rising number of elderly people and a lack of NHS workforce planning meant England was “sleepwalking into an avoidable crisis of care for older people”.

Its analysis of NHS and Office for National Statistics data shows there is just one full-time geriatrician for every 8,031 people over the age of 65 in England. There are also regional disparities, with one geriatrician caring for more than 12,500 over-65s in the east Midlands, while the figure in north-east and central London is one per 3,254.

Estimates suggest that by 2040 there could be as many as 17 million over-65s. But the college warns that many doctors will soon be requiring geriatric care themselves as 48% of consultant geriatricians are due to retire within the next decade.

The RCP said the health service was short of staff across all specialities and the shortage of geriatricians was one example of why the health service needed more workforce planning. It said there was no publicly available data on the number of staff the NHS needed to train now to meet future demand for care.

Dr Jennifer Burns, the president of the British Geriatrics Society, said the crisis would only worsen with the “predictable rise” in the numbers of older people across the country. “It is absolutely vital that these fundamental issues around the recruitment, retention, development and support of the workforce are addressed, and that there is a properly resourced strategy for future needs,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 3 March 2022

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NHS ‘shouting into the void’ with covid concerns

NHS leaders have sometimes been “shouting into the void” about their fears of the health service being overwhelmed by Covid because of the absence of a single national command centre for the pandemic response, a new report argues.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has published a report which recommends short and long term actions for dealing with Covid and future health emergencies. 

It says the government should have previously, and should now, set up “a national centre for response” to have overriding national responsibility for managing Covid and future crises.

The government should also shift away from traditional methods of communication, to instead listen to “communities… beliefs and fears” about Covid, and adjust messages to respond to these.

The report has been authored by the institute’s head of health Henry Dowlen, who was seconded to work on several pandemic projects such as a setting up a Nightingale Hospital and coordinating regional and national response work.

He said that if government did not change course then the NHS, along with other services and parts of society, would remain in a “vicious cycle” of operational problems.

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Source: HSJ, 20 July 2022

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NHS ‘should give councils more grief’ on health

The 10-Year Plan’s focus on the NHS risks sidelining the need for more effective action by national and local government on prevention, public health directors are warning.

Association of Directors of Public Health president Greg Fell also told HSJ integrated care boards should “give us [councils] more grief” to take more action on prevention, rather than prioritising NHS upstream interventions that are not as effective as primary prevention.

Mr Fell, director of public health at Sheffield City Council, said policy makers, NHS leaders and media too often looked to growing “preventive” treatments – such as weight management treatment, and weight-loss drugs – as the solution to problems like growing obesity and falling healthy life expectancy.

He said the routine “framing” of prevention as something the NHS can solve with upstream treatments risked diverting from national and local government actions that could make a much bigger difference.

Mr Fell said such interventions – and the high-profile GLP-1 drugs for obesity – may be worthwhile, but for overcoming the big health threats were “like emptying an ocean with a teaspoon or, being kind, a soup ladle”.

He said: “The answer is way upstream of better treatment. [It] is effective regulation of junk food industries, and that isn’t primarily a Department of Health and Social Care thing, and certainly not an NHS problem. It’s a problem across the government.”

Mr Fell said he expected the 10-Year Plan “would be pretty good” but means “the bandwidth has been taken by the NHS”.

He called for government to outline its plan for preventive cross-government action as part of its health mission, beginning a “debate about the right mix of policies” across multiple government departments, local government, and others. 

“We haven’t yet seen much on the health mission,” the director of public health said, adding that it would need to cover tobacco control, alcohol, air quality, obesity, and “how does all that hang together across the totality of government?”

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Source: HSJ, 31 March 2025

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NHS ‘routinely failing’ deaf patients in England, report finds

Deaf patients face systemic discrimination when it comes to learning about their own health due to NHS failings, with some not understanding that they might have a terminal illness, according to a damning report.

The study by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) accuses the NHS of “routinely failing” deaf people.

A survey of more than 1,000 people in England who are deaf or have hearing loss found that almost one in 10 had avoided calling an ambulance or attending A&E due to their disability, and a quarter had avoided seeking help for a new health concern.

The survey also found that about half of sign language users reported not having understood their diagnosis, or how their treatment worked. NHS staff said a lack of training, time and a poor IT system were major factors in being unable to provide these accessibility requirements for deaf people.

The report also highlights instances of deaf people receiving particularly poor NHS care. In one instance, a woman was not provided with an interpreter, which meant she was unaware she had had a miscarriage.

Another example was a patient receiving no food or water during a hospital stay as they could not hear staff offering it to them.

Sharing her experiences as part of the report, Dr Natasha Wilcock, a deaf doctor who works in palliative care, said she had met patients who had been referred to palliative care services who, due to the lack of communication, did not understand they were dying and no longer receiving cancer treatment.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 April 2025

Further reading on the hub:

Top picks: 11 resources to support people with hearing loss or deafness

 

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NHS ‘needs thousands more staff to meet cost of living crisis demands’

NHS therapy services won’t be able to manage increased demand driven by the cost of a living crisis as they are already thousands of therapists short, The Independent has been told.

NHS counselling services in England are not meeting therapy access targets due to a shortfall of 2,000 workers, according to sources.

The findings come as a poll by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and YouGov, shared with The Independent, found that almost one in two adults felt the cost of living crisis was affecting their mental health.

According to the survey of more than 2,000 adults, 25 to 34 years old were most likely to say the cost of the living crisis was impacting their mental health.

Adam Jones, policy and public affairs manager for the UKCP, said “I think what we’re concerned about is the fact that already, there is a record level of demand for mental health services. We also know there are record rates of prescription for antidepressant medication as well. We’re concerned the capacity currently is already falling short.

“So with the rising demand going forward, we’re concerned that services are going to be stretched, waiting time is going to go up, average number of therapy sessions received is going to go down

He warned that although the NHS is focussed on training new therapists, there was already an existing workforce of psychotherapists and counsellors who don’t work in the NHS.

“We’d like to see more targeted recruitment of psychotherapists and counsellors who are already trained, and so that most would only require a short adaptive training to be able to work in an NHS context.”

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Source: The Independent, 23 November 2022

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NHS ‘must show patients more respect’

The NHS must be more welcoming to patients who often feel they should not bother doctors, the new patient safety commissioner for England has urged.

Dr Henrietta Hughes, who takes up the role this week, said it was vital that patients had time to ask questions, despite pressures on the health service.

Clinicians and managers need to put themselves in the shoes of their patients, she said, highlighting “highly inappropriate” interactions between doctors and patients that showed “a total lack of care and respect”.

Hughes said it was not a surprise that all the groups affected in the Cumberlege report were women. “That’s something which is a societal problem, and it’s really important that the voices of all patients, including those of women, are listened to and taken really seriously,” she said. “Because otherwise untold harm happens and it can not only extend to the individual patient themselves, but to their families, to their children, to their livelihoods. This role is a real opportunity for championing patients’ voices, and also making sure those who are in charge who are able to make the changes, listen and respond appropriately."

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Source: The Times, 14 July 2022

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NHS ‘lifeline’ for hundreds of stroke survivors

Hundreds of NHS patients have received personal, specialised care thanks to a new service set up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Stroke Connect, a partnership with the NHS and the Stroke Association provides stroke survivors with support and advice in the early days following hospital discharge, without having to leave the house.

Experts have said that the new offer is providing a ‘lifeline’ during the pandemic and has helped more than 500 people to rebuild their lives after having a stroke since it launched last month.

Patients are contacted for an initial call within a few days of discharge from hospital, from a trained ‘Stroke Association Connector’, an expert in supporting people after stroke.

The connector provides reassurance, support with immediate concerns and links the stroke survivor to support they can access in the long-term as part of their recovery journey as well as signposting them to other sources of support. A further call is offered within the month to check in on the stroke survivor’s progress and identify any further support needed.

The new service complements existing rehabilitation services and ‘life after stroke’ care, which has continued throughout the pandemic.

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Source: NHS England, 31 August 2020

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NHS ‘ignores staff, patients and families’, says minister

Health minister Gillian Merron has declared many patients have a poor experience of NHS care as a result of a “culture that has ignored the voice of staff [and] of patients and families for too long”.

Baroness Merron, who is the patient safety minister, said “much of what is wrong with the NHS and needs to change goes back to a culture that has ignored the voices of staff [and] of patients and their families for too long”.

She said there had “been good progress in improving patient safety, but we all know there is a long way to go”.

The minister was speaking at the launch of the new National State of Patient Safety report by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation, for Patient Safety Watch.

She said the government planned to improve culture, including with professional regulation of managers and a professional duty of candour. Baroness Merron said the new safety report was “going to contribute massively” to the government’s 10-year health plan.

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Source: HSJ, 13 December 2024

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NHS ‘haemorrhaging’ senior emergency department nurses

Experienced emergency department nurses are “leaving in droves” because they feel unable to do their jobs properly under the current conditions, a doctor has warned.

Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee yesterday, Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, raised concern about nurse retention and morale in emergency departments.

“We are haemorrhaging experienced emergency nurses because they are finding it very frustrating"

He said: “What I'm also seeing is that a lot of nurses, particularly the experienced nurses, they're almost like the [non-commissioned officers] of the health service, the sergeants who know how to get things done, are leaving in droves.”

Dr Boyle added: “We are haemorrhaging experienced emergency nurses because they are finding it very frustrating.

“The problem is not because there's too much work but they're unable to do the work that they're trained to do."

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Source: Nursing Times, 25 January 2023

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NHS ‘doesn’t need any more money’, says Sajid Javid as waiting lists rise

The NHS needs reform rather than more money, the health secretary has said, while admitting that record-high waiting lists will continue to rise before they fall.

Sajid Javid said the health service already had the resources it needed and did not require more to care for patients effectively. “The NHS now has locked in the resources it needs. It doesn’t need any more money. What it needs to deliver for more people is not money. It needs reform,” he said.

In an interview with the Times, he compared the NHS to the now defunct video rental chain Blockbuster, arguing that it needed to be dramatically restructured in order to continue delivering healthcare free at the point of use.

“You want to have a system that, yes, it’s got the values of 1948 but looking at delivery towards 2048,” he said.

The health secretary’s remarks on funding for the health service follow a damning report that showed the NHS had lost almost 25,000 beds across the UK in the last decade. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the drop had led to a sharp increase in waiting times for A&E, ambulances and operations, and was causing “real patient harm” and a “serious patient safety crisis”.

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Source: The Guardian, 11 June 2022

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NHS ‘bed-blocking’ fuelled by 50 steps needed to discharge fit patients

Hospital staff have to complete 50 separate steps on average to discharge a patient, it has emerged, as the NHS grapples with a bed-blocking crisis.

On average, around 14,000 patients deemed fit to leave hospital are stuck in beds every day, according to the latest official figures. The congestion is helping to fuel the backlog in accident and emergency (A&E) departments, where more than 55,000 patients waited 12 hours or longer last month.

Steve Barclay, Health Secretary, announced an additional £250 million in funding last week to buy up care beds to help discharge thousands of patients.

But doctors, social care experts and families have warned discharges are being delayed by NHS “bureaucracy” and excessive form filling.

Dr Matt Kneale, co-chair of the Doctors’ Association UK and a junior doctor in Manchester, said patients are held up by “numerous bottlenecks” before being sent home.

“While social care shortages are the predominant issue, smaller factors stack up to create a big problem,” he told The Telegraph.

Many hospitals have limits on the times their pharmacies are open, he explained, meaning patients can often be stuck on the ward all day, or an extra night, waiting for their medication.

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Source: The Telegraph, 15 January 2023

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NHS ‘accused vaginal mesh victim of lying about pain and subjected her to surveillance’

The NHS accused vaginal mesh victims fighting for compensation of lying about pain, it has been claimed.

Women suing hospitals over harm they suffered following mesh operations are being subjected to “devastating” treatment, according to Robert Rose, the head of clinical negligence at law firm Lime Solicitors.

Campaign group Sling the Mesh, which represents thousands of patients, said it had received reports of those injured claiming they have been told their symptoms are psychosomatic, that their evidence is not convincing because of their mental state, or that they are lying about their pain.

It comes as MPs are set to hold an inquiry following up on the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices (IMMD) Safety Review, chaired by Baroness Cumberlege in 2020, which looked into cases of patients being harmed by mesh procedures, sodium valproate, and hormone pregnancy tests.

Lady Cumberlege called for the government to launch a redress scheme for patients in order to provide them with financial support without the need for them to go through clinical negligence battles.

Lisa, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, launched her claim in 2016, and it was settled this summer when a judge ruled in her favour.

Documents shared with The Independent reveal that NHS lawyers argued she was being “dishonest” about her injuries, and presented video surveillance. The judge subsequently ruled that she had not been dishonest.

Speaking about her ordeal, Lisa said: “Once they decided that I’d been dishonest, it changed from admitting liability to basically working out pain levels and stuff like that, and I had to prove that I wasn’t being dishonest. It was genuinely the worst thing I’ve ever gone through, ever. There’s not even a word that I can use to describe it, to say how it made me feel. The stress of it was just immense."

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Source: The Independent, 11 September 2022

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NHS ‘a long way’ from being ‘proactive’ on safety, watchdog warns

Integrated care systems (ICSs) should factor patient safety into all their operational and financial decisions, the Healthcare Safety Investigations Branch’s chief investigator has urged.

Rosie Benneyworth, who was appointed as interim chief investigator last summer, said other safety-critical industries made decisions on the basis of a “triad” of operations, finances and safety. She said the NHS needed to be “more proactive” to take action before things go wrong.

Dr Benneyworth said in an interview with HSJ: “I think it’s fundamental that ICSs put safety at the core of everything they do. And I don’t think operational decisions or financial decisions should be made without considering the implications for safety.”

Dr Benneyworth – a former GP and commissioner – also spoke about whistleblowing in the wake of the Lucy Letby scandal, saying national organisations should “lead the way” on being proactive over safety and supporting whistleblowers. Major cultural problems were uncovered at HSIB several years ago, while NHSE has been under the spotlight in recent weeks for implementation of the “fit and proper person” test for board members.

“I think it’s very difficult as national organisations to tell providers what they should [be] doing, if we’re not doing it ourselves,” Dr Benneyworth said.

She added: “What we need is a much more proactive approach to safety, where we actually identify those things that could go wrong and take action before they do go wrong."

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Source: HSJ, 5 September 2023

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NHS ‘a cat’s whisker’ from hitting headline targets

The NHS was within touching distance of its headline urgent and emergency care targets in March – falling just short of the key asks in A&E and ambulance wait times.

Four-hour accident and emergency response times hit 77.1% in March, against a national recovery target of 78% for the end of the financial year.

Meanwhile, the category two ambulance response time target of 30 minutes across 2025-26 was missed by just four seconds after a couple of months of sustained improvement.

NHS England said A&Es faced a record 2.43 million attendances in March, pointing to last month’s meningitis outbreak. Meanwhile, the category two ambulance response time of 26:18 in March alone was the best performance since May 2021.

HSJ analysis reveals around 34 acute trusts deteriorated against the four-hour A&E target in 2025-26 compared to the previous year; however, the vast majority improved.

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Source: HSJ, 16 April 2026

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NHS 'to employ half of public sector by 2026'

The NHS workforce plan will cost £50 billion and result in the health service employing half the public sector by the 2030s, analysis concludes today.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has in effect “stolen more than a decade’s worth of budgets” from his successors by setting out plans to hire almost a million extra NHS staff without a clear way to pay for them, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.

Hunt has been urged to use his autumn statement to start setting out whether tax rises, borrowing or cuts elsewhere will be used to fund the “massive spending commitment”.

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Source: The Times, 30 August 2023

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