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Need for tech to reduce medication error and improve patient safety

Omnicell UK & Ireland, a leading provider of automated healthcare and medication adherence solutions, hosted a health summit on the eve of World Patient Safety Day, to discuss the impact of medication errors on patients and the NHS. The session focussed on the role technology can play in preventing such issues.

The summit, this year held via webinar, comes off the backdrop of the Department of Health and Social Care disclosing that in England 237 million mistakes occur every year at some point in the medication process.  These errors cause serious issues for patient safety, but also place a significant cost burden on an already stretched NHS. The 2019 Patient Safety Strategy published by NHS England and NHS Improvement also found the NHS failed to save 11,000 lives a year due to safety concerns with the cost of extra treatment needed following incidents being over £1bn.

A number of high-profile panel members answered a series of questions from the audience on solutions and best practice to improve patient safety with the aim of debating and sharing ideas on how to meet challenges and the impact of COVID-19.

One of the panelists, Patient Safety Learning's Chief Digital Office Clive Flashman, agreed with the other panel members that the NHS had become more collaborative and familiar with technology since Covid: “We’ve seen a definite increase in telehealth and telemeds. Covid has forced cultural blockers that were there before to be removed out of necessity. There has been a growth in robotic pharmacy automation to free up staff time from high volume administration tasks to do more complex work that adds value for patients.”

But with the second-wave of COVID-19 still a very real threat he advised: “We don’t want to wait until the next wave to learn a lesson – we need to learn lessons now. Quality Improvement Leads should be focussed on what went right and what went wrong over that period between March and May. They need to be looking at what we can learn from that now and what we can do differently next time. If we don’t do that, we won’t succeed in the second wave where we might fail.”

Ed Platt, Automation Director, Omnicell UK & Ireland, added: “Challenges within the NHS throughout Covid has forced them to embrace technology and drive innovation."

"It’s important that when things go back to normal, we don’t go back to the same status quo. We need to invest in the right infrastructure in hospitals so unnecessary demands and stress are not put on pharmacy, supply managers and nurses so they are free to focus on patient care not administration tasks."

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Source: NHE, 17 September 2020

You can watch the webinar on demand here

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Nearly quarter of all deaths in 2020 considered avoidable, says ONS

Nearly a quarter of all deaths in Great Britain were considered avoidable in 2020, according to new analysis.

The Office for National Statistics said 153,008 deaths out of 672,015 – or 22.8% – were avoidable, the highest rate since 2010.

Of the avoidable deaths in 2020, 68.6% were attributed to conditions considered preventable, while 31.4% were attributed to treatable conditions, the ONS said. Coronavirus has been assigned as a preventable cause in the avoidable mortality definition.

Wales had the highest avoidable mortality for deaths due to Covid-19, with 36.1 deaths per 100,000 people. Scotland had the lowest rate with, 28.5 deaths per 100,000 people, and England had 34.9 deaths per 100,000 people.

Avoidable mortality rates increased for alcohol-related and drug-related deaths in 2020 in all countries, the ONS analysis showed.

Across England, Scotland and Wales, the increase in ASMRs for alcohol-related and drug-related conditions in 2020 was driven by alcoholic liver disease, and poisoning by, and exposure to, other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances, the ONS said.

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Source: The Independent, 7 March 2022

 

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Nearly one in three temporary Black and ethnic NHS workers suffer physical violence, internal report reveals

Almost one in three temporary Black and minority ethnic staff have suffered physical violence, according to a leaked NHS review revealing “shocking” levels of racism in the health service.

Tens of thousands of NHS workers on zero hour contracts, also called bank staff, have faced “unacceptable” levels of racism, the report found.

According to a survey of workers by NHS England, 28% of temporary Black and minority ethnic staff temporary experienced physical violence from patients, their relatives or the public. Compared to 23% of white temporary workers.

The report, seen by The Independent, also revealed Black temporary staff are almost six times more likely to be disciplined by NHS employers compared to their white counterparts.

Experts have called on NHS employers to act on the “shocking” findings and protect temporary workers, who are currently treated as “second class” employees.

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Source: The Independent, 6 September 2024

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Nearly one in five UK care workers feel unsafe while on shift, survey finds

Nearly one in five UK care workers feel unsafe while on shift, according to a new survey highlighting the array of pressures facing the frontline workforce.

The stark finding comes as part of a global survey published on the fifth anniversary of Covid being declared a global pandemic, amid warnings from the World Health Organization of a looming shortage of 11 million healthcare workers by 2030.

In the report from Uni Global Union, which surveyed more than 11,000 health and social care workers from 63 nations, with 2,132 in the UK including doctors, more than a third reported experiencing or witnessing violence or harassment at work at least monthly.

And in what the union described as a global staffing crisis, less than half of those surveyed worldwide believed their career to be sustainable until retirement age.

In the UK, where more than 700 care workers were polled, two-thirds said they were frequently too short-staffed to provide a high quality of care to patients, defined in the survey as “when the number of staff is too low compared to the needs of patients”. This included 33% who said this was “always” the case, while just 8% said they were “never” or “rarely” short-staffed.

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Source: The Independent, 10 March 2025

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Nearly one in five of world’s newborns with sepsis die, study finds

A study in 11 countries over four continents has shown the “catastrophic impact” of antibiotic resistance on babies with sepsis, with nearly one in five dying.

The two year observational study enrolled 3204 babies with clinical sepsis in 19 hospitals in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. It found that 17.7% were blood culture pathogen positive, and mortality rates among infants up to 60 days old with culture positive sepsis was 17.7%.

The research, published in PlOS Medicine, also highlighted wide variation in treatment and frequent switching of antibiotics because of resistance, with 206 antibiotic combinations used by the hospitals studied in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Greece, India, Italy, Kenya, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, and Uganda.

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Source: BMJ, 9 June 2023

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Nearly one in five of most critically ill Covid patients are unvaccinated pregnant women

Unvaccinated pregnant women accounted for nearly a fifth of the most severely ill coronavirus patients in England in recent months, according to health officials.

Between July and September, 17% of COVID-19 patients who required a special lung bypass machine while in intensive care were mothers-to-be who had not received their first vaccine dose, NHS England said.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by Covid-19 that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels.

While just six per cent of the women aged 16 to 49 who needed ECMO at the start of the pandemic were pregnant, nearly a third of women among that age group who required the lung bypass in recent months were unvaccinated mothers-to-be.

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) called the statistics a “damning indictment of the lack of attention given to this vulnerable group as restrictions have eased”.

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Source: The Independent, 11 October 2021

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Nearly nine in ten GPs have faced verbal abuse in the last year

GPs have warned that the extent of verbal abuse directed at them and their practice staff ‘is increasing’, with the majority reporting that things are worse now than during the height of the Covid pandemic.

A UK-wide survey of more than 2,000 doctors – of which 617 were GPs – found that 85% of GPs have reported receiving verbal abuse from patients within the last 12 months.

The research conducted by Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS) also found that 15% of GPs reporting verbal abuse said they ‘had to resort to involving the police’ to deal with abusive patient situations over the past year.

In the survey, GPs identified key triggers such as ‘lack of access to a face-to-face consultation’ and ‘complaints about their quality of care’ as the factors that could escalate to verbal abuse.

One GP who responded to the survey said: "During a consultation with a young adult, they got very irate and demanded I just give them what they came for.

"I explained they had to calm down and we would only proceed then at which they called me an ugly, fat, c**t and threatened to smash my face in. That consultation stayed with me for quite a while after that."

Another said: ‘A patient smashed the surgery front door (it needed replacing) because he didn’t get what he wanted when he wanted it.

"This was very scary for staff and other patients and the police didn’t even come until the next day. I felt alone, defensive and wondered why we bother to try to provide a service when some patients have already decided it isn’t good enough for them."

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Source: Pulse, 7 December 2023

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Nearly half of trusts report no BAME staff in top management tier, HSJ investigation reveals

Nearly 100 trusts have no ‘very senior managers’ (VSM) who are declared to be from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background, HSJ analysis has revealed.

According to data obtained from every NHS provider in England, 96 out of 214 (45%) did not have any VSMs declared as being from a BAME background.

This includes several large providers, such as The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust — where around 9 per cent of the workforce and 15 per cent of the city’s population are BAME — and Liverpool University Hospitals FT.

Jon Restell, chief executive of the Managers in Partnership trade union, said the underrepresentation of BAME staff in leadership positions has “dangerously damaged” the NHS’ response to coronavirus, labelling it the “ultimate wake-up call”.

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Source: HSJ, 30 November 2020

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Nearly half of trust’s beds filled by patients fit to be discharged

A chief executive has described her ‘considerable regret’ that growing difficulty in discharging patients has resulted in nearly half of her trust’s inpatients being clinically ready to leave.

Debbie Richards, who leads Cornwall Partnership Foundation Trust, a community and mental health provider, highlighted the issue at the trust’s board meeting last month, amid a “dearth of adult social care provision” across the country.

In her update to the board, Ms Richards said delays in finding onward care for patients awaiting discharge meant “almost 50 per cent of our community hospital beds are occupied by patients who have no medical need to be in hospital”.

In her report to the board, Ms Richards said: “Despite having over 5,000 care home beds in Cornwall, the majority of these are full, or care home providers are unable to offer beds because of a lack of staffing.

“Where there is capacity, this tends to be for lower-level residential beds where unfortunately there is much less demand.”

Siobhan Melia, chair of the NHS Community Network and CEO of Sussex Community FT, said the “dearth of adult social care provision” was the biggest limiting factor in discharging delayed patients home, followed by high staff vacancies and sickness absence."

She called for a national long-term funding settlement for social care and reform of the sector to address the key challenges.

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Source: HSJ, 10 May 2022

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Nearly half of those recovering from coronavirus infection endure ‘long Covid’ symptoms, study finds

An analysis of data from 50 studies looking at 1.6 million people suggests that as much as 43% of those infected with the coronavirus experienced post-Covid conditions, pointing to the need for better diagnosis and care for “long Covid” patients.

Post-Covid conditions are clinically defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as mid- and long-term symptoms – also known as Long Covid – occurring in individuals after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The research, published this week in the Journal of Infectious Disease, assessed 23 symptoms reported across 36 of the studies and found that shortness of breath, sleep problems, and joint pain was widely reported by those who had recovered from the novel coronavirus infection.

Researchers say fatigue (23%) and memory problems (14%) were the most common symptoms of individuals experiencing post-Covid conditions.

While about 34% of non-hospitalised coronavirus patients report lingering post-Covid symptoms, scientists say this rate jumps to over 50% for hospitalised Covid patients.

“Long Covid is quite common overall and across geographic regions, sex and acute COVID-19 severity. Knowing this, providers should take proactive approaches such that their patients are well-supported when experiencing long-term health effects of Covid-19,” scientists wrote in the study.

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Source: The Independent, 21 April 2022

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Nearly half of NHS Trusts reported risks classified as ‘significant’, Labour analysis shows

Almost half of NHS Trusts in England have reported risks classified as “significant” or “extreme”, with issues facing funding, buildings and failing equipment, according to an analysis by Labour.

Highlighting warnings of staff shortages and patient safety, the party demanded urgent action from the government to prepare the health service for the winter months as cases of COVID-19 accelerate across the country.

Labour said its study of 114 NHS Trusts’ risks registers showed that over three quarters of trusts logged a workforce risk. 

The analysis also revealed that 66% reported a financial risk, 82% highlighted risks directly related to COVID-19 and 84% recorded a risk to patient safety. Almost half of Trusts (54), the party said, had outlined risks described as “significant” or “extreme”.

One hospital trust reported it was “not financially stable” beyond the current financial year while another recorded a potential risk to patient safety due to “structural deficiencies” in roof structure.

NHS hospitals are expected to consider risks to their operations and processes and when risks are identified, it is likely they will have been considered at board level and mitigations put in place.

Describing the registers – compiled between March and August - as “worrying” in a normal winter, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “In the coming winter, with the incompetent handling of the test and trace system leaving the NHS wide open and poorly supported, they take on a whole new meaning."

"We urgently need a commitment from ministers to fix the problems with test and trace and a timetable by which these issues will finally be sorted. On top of this it is vital that ministers confirm that the NHS will get the additional support it needs to address these risks."

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Source: The Independent, 6 October 2020

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Nearly half of eye patients at Hancock’s local trust waiting more than a year

The East of England has been revealed as the worst-performing region for long ophthalmology waits, with almost half the waiting list at one acute trust already breaching the 52-week milestone.

Eleven per cent of the region’s 59,000 ophthalmology patients had already been waiting more than a year for treatment at the end of February, compared to 6 per cent in London, the best performing region.

West Suffolk Foundation Trust — which is in health and social care secretary Matt Hancock’s local constituency — had by far the biggest problem on this measure of any trust in England, with 42% of the waiting list (660 patients) referred for treatment more than a year ago.

Papers submitted to West Suffolk FT’s board meeting in April said there were “limited option[s] for independent sector capacity” and patients were reluctant to travel to other hospitals for treatment.

The trust did not respond when asked to comment.

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Source: HSJ, 13 May 2021

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Nearly half of doctors in Scotland witness care failings every week

A General Medical Council survey has found that 46 per cent of clinicians in Scotland see care failings weekly, a higher proportion than elsewhere in the UK.

The survey showed a reduction in the number of doctors noting safety incidents weekly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2023 — but an increase in Scotland.

Backlogs in accident and emergency departments, resulting in thousands of patients stuck on trolleys for hours queueing for beds, are thought to be one of the issues driving potential errors.

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Source: The Times, 7 August 2025

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Nearly half of cancer patients don’t feel involved in treatment decisions, survey finds

Almost half (47%) of patients with cancer do not think that they have been sufficiently involved in deciding which treatment option is best for them, a new survey shows. The survey of nearly 4000 patients across 10 countries also found that around four in 10 (39%) said that they were never or only sometimes given enough support to deal with symptoms and side effects.

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Source: BMJ, 25 July 2019

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Nearly half of Americans hold some form of vaccine skepticism, poll finds

Nearly half of Americans are somewhat skeptical of vaccines, a new poll has found.

Some 46% of U.S. adults who responded to a Public First poll by Politico in March agreed that “facts on vaccines are still up for debate and it is damaging to enforce their uptake.”

In contrast, only 39% said that the science on vaccines “is clear and it is damaging to question it.”

The results of the survey are in line with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic and founder of the Republican “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

“What stands out is that vaccine safety and vaccine choice are no longer fringe issues,” Mary Holland, CEO of anti-vax group Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy previously led before taking his post in government, told Politico.

“People want to be able to make their own medical decisions.”

Astonishingly, overall, 39% of respondents to Politico’s survey said they would allow vaccine-preventable diseases to return, rather than force people to have vaccines, in contrast to 47% who said they would rather not.

During his tenure as Health Secretary, Kennedy has overseen several major changes within his department and its policies, including the attempted overhaul of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the elimination of Covid-19 vaccine recommendations.

Last week, it was reported that the CDC had delayed publishing a report showing the benefits of the Covid vaccine, further sparking concerns that the information conflicted with Kennedy’s views. The CDC insisted that the move followed standard procedure.

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Source: The Independent, 14 April 2026

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Nearly half of 999 patients don’t need major A&E treatment

Nearly half of patients who arrive at hospital in ambulances are being discharged without needing major care, according to data obtained by HSJ.

Experts said the research also revealed a “postcode lottery”, with patients more likely to be taken to A&E in some areas due to a lack of alternative settings.

The internal NHS England data has tracked how many ambulance patients were later discharged without any inpatient or “same day” emergency care, or transfer to another service, at different sites. These patients may have required hospital-based diagnostics, for example, or review from emergency clinicians before they could be sent away.

At 24 hospitals, more than 50% of ambulance patients are being discharged without going to an inpatient or ambulatory unit. The highest proportion was 85% at St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey.

It was at less than a third at other sites. This put the national average at 46%, according to data obtained by a Freedom of Information request.

There was a wide range of acuity levels among ambulance patients discharged without further serious care.

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Source: HSJ, 8 April 2026

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Nearly all NHS trusts failing to hit cancer target

Almost every hospital trust in England is failing to meet the key NHS waiting time target for cancer care, BBC analysis shows.

Just three trusts out of 121 in England are treating cancer patients quickly enough - within 62 days - with experts warning delays could be putting lives at risk.

The government accepted waits were too long, but said it was investing in the NHS to improve performance.

Research shows getting treatment quickly is crucial, with every four-week delay reducing patient survival by an average of 10%.

Dr Timothy Hanna, a leading global expert on cancer who led that research, said the BBC findings were "worrying".

"It's not a few outliers. It's the norm for trusts in England to not hit these waiting time targets and they are set for a reason - timely treatment can improve survival rates."

Paul, who has stage three colon cancer, is one of many patients who has faced delays. His first biopsy was taken in January 2024 when cancer was suspected.

He did not receive any further contact from his cancer services, despite his best efforts, until January this year. He eventually had surgery on his colon in February.

“The waiting was horrendous and now I think that if I had been treated properly and not had to wait so long it wouldn't have progressed to stage three,” Paul said.

He is due to have further surgery next year.

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Source: BBC News, 11 November 2025

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Nearly a third of US teens have prediabetes, CDC finds

Nearly a third of U.S. teens are prediabetic, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2023, a count found that an estimated 8.4 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 – or 32.7 percent – fell into that category.

The alarming results are a “wake-up call,” Dr. Christopher Holliday, the agency’s top official in charge of diabetes prevention, said in a statement to ABC News. He said that the risk of type 2 diabetes poses a "significant threat" to young people's health.

With prediabetes, a person’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Having prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as well as heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

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Source: The Independent, 8 July 2025

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Nearly 900 children test positive for HIV in Pakistan after doctor ‘reuses syringes’

Nearly 900 children in a Pakistani city have tested positive for HIV after a rogue paediatrician allegedly reused infected syringes.

About 200 adults have also tested positive for the virus since the epidemic in Ratodero was confirmed in April. But health officials fear the true number affected could be far higher, with less a quarter of city’s 200,000 residents tested so far.

The outbreak was initially blamed on Dr Muzaffar Ghanghro, a paediatrician who at 16p a visit was one of the cheapest in the small central city. He was arrested and charged with negligence and manslaughter after his patients accused him of frequently reusing syringes on their children.

Despite an initial investigation by police and health officials concluding Dr Ganghro’s “negligence and carelessness” as the “prime” reason for the outbreak, officials believe he is unlikely to be the sole cause. Visiting health workers often see doctors in Ratodero reusing syringes, while dentists use unsterilised tools in roadside surgeries and barbers use the same razor on various customers, The New York Times reported.

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Source: The Independent, 27 October  2019

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Nearly 70,000 patients injured in Ontario’s hospitals each year, auditor says

Nearly 70,000 patients are injured while receiving care in Ontario's hospitals each year, the province's auditor general said Wednesday, calling for immediate government action to help reduce that number.

In her 2019 annual report, Bonnie Lysyk said her team's audits of acute-care centres found that six in every 100 patients treated and discharged from provincial hospitals were harmed during care.

"Each year, Ontario hospitals discharge one million people," Lysyk said. "Of those, about 67,000 people were harmed during their hospital stay."

The audit found that hospitals are currently not required to report to the Ministry of Health so-called "never-events" — a medical error that should never happen, such as leaving a foreign object inside a patient.

Lysyk said her team visited six of the 13 hospitals that track "never-events," and found that 214 such incidents had occurred since 2015.

Ontario's rates of patient harm are the second-highest in Canada, after Nova Scotia.

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Source: Niagara Falls Review, 5 December 2019

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Nearly 7,000 ambulance workers in England left in past year, figures show

Ambulance services in England have experienced a mass exodus of staff in the past year with nearly 7,000 leaving their jobs, figures have revealed.

The number of emergency service crew leavers has risen sharply compared with 2019 levels, prompting concern for patient safety during the next NHS winter crisis.

The government has been called on to launch an urgent recruitment drive before winter to cover the 2,954 vacancies across all ambulance services in England.

Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrats' health and social care spokesperson, said: “With patients struggling to see a GP at the front door of the NHS and unable to access social care at the back door of the NHS, ambulance crews are unfairly caught between a rock and a hard place, picking up the slack from a health and care system that is broken at both ends.

“Patients who struggle to access the care they need, when they need it, are then left waiting for emergency assistance in pain and distress for an ambulance. The shortage of NHS staff has caused untold pain for millions of people across the country, especially those left to wait for hours in pain for an ambulance to arrive.

“The government must begin an urgent recruitment drive before winter begins and our ambulance services are yet again put under unsustainable strain. There is no time to waste.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 August 2023

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Nearly 50% of blood cancer patients insufficiently protected against Omicron after three jabs, study says

Nearly half of patients with blood cancer are insufficiently protected against the Omicron variant after three vaccine doses, according to a new study.

Experts from the Francis Crick Institute and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said their research highlights the need for a fourth jab among these vulnerable people.

As part of the ongoing Capture study, scientists have been monitoring the antibody response of hundreds of patients with different types of cancer, after one, two and three vaccine doses.

Specifically, the researchers measured levels of neutralising antibodies which identify, attack and block the Omicron variant from infecting the body’s cells.

Patients with solid tumours appeared to generate antibody responses similar to people without cancer. But among patients with blood cancer who had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, only 56 per cent generated neutralising antibodies, according to the study, which has been published as a research letter in The Lancet.

This means that 44% of patients with blood cancer did not generate a sufficient antibody response.

The study supports the need for four jabs among these immunocompromised groups of people.

“We found that a third vaccine dose boosted the neutralising response against Omicron in patients with cancer, but the effect was blunted in patients with blood cancer compared to those with solid cancer,” the authors wrote.

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Source: The Independent, 25 January 2022

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Nearly 400,000 people still have long Covid a year after initial infection, new stats show

The number of people suffering from symptoms of long covid more than a year after their initial Coronavirus infection has jumped to almost 400,000.

New data from the Office for National Statistics based on a survey of patients found the numbers of patients with persistent symptoms after 12 months jumped from 70,000 in March to 376,000 in May.

Overall, the ONS said an estimated one million people had self-reported signs of long Covid which last for more than four weeks.

The effects of long Covid were reported to be affected the day-to-day activities of 650,000 people, with 192,000 of those saying their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.

Fatigue was the most common symptom reported, with 547,000 people affected. A total of 405,000 people reported a shortness of breath, while 313,000 had muscle aches. More than a quarter of a million patients, 285,000 people, said they had difficulty concentrating.

According to the ONS the prevalence of long Covid was higher among those aged between 35 and 69-year-old and women were more likely to be affected than men along with those living in the most deprived areas as well as staff working in health and social care.

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Source: The Independent, 3 June 2021

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Nearly 400 people killed by mental health patients in six years

NHS mental health trusts are refusing to say how many of their patients go on to kill, saying they do not want to risk identifying offenders.

Figures provided via freedom of information requests revealed that an average of 65 mentally ill people carry out homicides in England every year. However, this figure is thought to be a significant underestimate because nearly a quarter of trusts refused to give exact numbers.

Julian Hendy, founder of the charity Hundred Families, which made the FoI requests, said some trusts denied the full request, claiming that the small numbers of homicides in question could lead to the identification of offenders.

NHS England was recently accused of attempting to suppress details of serious failures in the treatment of Valdo Calocane, the paranoid schizophrenic responsible for the deaths of three people in Nottingham.

It had intended to publish a bland 30-page summary that did not contain damning details in the case of Calocane, who fatally stabbed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, in June 2023.

NHS England reversed its decision after the plan was exposed by The Times. The full review detailed how Calocane had been discharged with no follow-up the year before the attacks — despite having been sectioned four times, possessing a history of violence, and staff being aware he was not taking his medication.

Dr Sanjoy Kumar, Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, warned that “there is no accountability when there is no transparency”.

He said that in other areas, such as maternal deaths, specific figures were published annually. “To not have this information published is a cover-up. They are covering up their failures. These are avoidable deaths.”

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Source: The Times, 20 March 2025

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Nearly 40,000 wrongly told to get a flu jab

The NHS has erroneously written to thousands of patients who have had glandular fever in the past asking them to get a flu jab from their GP.

The error left some GPs with practice phone lines blocked last week while reception staff have had to explain to patients they are not actually eligible for free flu vaccination.

Nearly 40,000 letters were sent out to patients with a past history indicating glandular fever because of a coding error at NHS Digital. This was meant to identify patients with suppressed immune systems which would include those who currently have glandular fever and encourage them to contact their GP practice to arrange vaccination.

However, the historical cases were not excluded, leading to the letters being automatically generated even when the glandular fever diagnosis was decades old.

When NHS Digital realised the error, it contacted NHS England – which was responsible for posting out the letters – and managed to stop others being sent out.

An NHS Digital spokesman said: “During a process to identify patients eligible for a flu vaccination, glandular fever was incorrectly included in a complex list of conditions that cause persistent immunosuppression. This led to some patients incorrectly receiving a letter encouraging them to seek a flu vaccination.

“There has been no adverse clinical impact for patients and the issue was quickly resolved before the majority of letters were sent.” NHSD said patients who had received the letter would receive another one to explain and to reassure them."

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Source: HSJ, 4 November 2020

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