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Nearly 35,000 patients overdue follow-ups at single trust

Nearly 35,000 patients are overdue a follow-up appointment at North Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust, HSJ has learned.

Almost 20% of the 34,938 follow-up appointments are in ophthalmology. A paper from the trust’s November board meeting said the “backlog of follow-up appointments… clearly remains a risk”.

The report also said the service was failing some of the quality guidelines set out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The trust told HSJ it had introduced a clinical harm review process last year to address the backlog. It has reviewed “more than 5,000 patients”, out of the 34,938 cases to date, according to Chief Operating Officer Shaun Stacey.

He said the trust had initially identified 83 patients who could have come to “potential harm”.

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Source: HSJ, 28 January 2020

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Nearly 23 million extra deaths worldwide by 2030 as aid cuts bite, study says

Nearly 23 million additional deaths are expected by 2030 as a result of countries like the US and UK dramatically cutting their overseas aid, a new report estimates.

The peer-reviewed study, produced by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and published in the influential health journal The Lancet, finds that cuts to aid programmes in 93 countries - including 38 in Sub-Saharan Africa - will result in 22.6m extra deaths by 2030.

With that total including some 5.4 million children under the age of five, the findings have been labelled a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

“These findings give a voice to millions of vulnerable people and show the profound moral cost of the zero-sum approach many political leaders are taking,” said Dr Rajiv J Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, which helped to fund the report.

“Though it will take years to adequately assess the full toll of aid cuts, this early projection is an urgent call to action,” added Dr Shah, who is also a former administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is the agency that managed most American aid programmes before it was closed by Donald Trump last year.

“This humanitarian catastrophe is not inevitable, but preventing it will require all of us to act with urgency,” Dr Shah added.

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Source: The Independent, 2 February 2026

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Nearly 200 patients harmed in major cyber attack

The NHS has confirmed nearly 200 patients were harmed as a result of a major cyber attack last year.

One year on from the ransomware attack that shut down the IT systems used by south east London’s pathology provider Synnovis, managers confirmed nearly 600 incidents, of which 170 involved patient care suffering.

This includes one case of “severe” harm, which has prompted a patient safety incident investigation at King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust, 14 examples that were classed as “moderate”, and another 155 defined as “low harm”.

The attack in June 2024 left GPs across six boroughs unable to order blood tests, and more than 1,000 inpatient procedures were cancelled at two large hospital trusts.

The attack meant the pathology IT systems depended on by two of England’s biggest provider trusts – Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital foundation trusts – and 192 GP practices were largely inoperable. Large quantities of tests in primary care were deferred or cancelled; and those carried out had to be sent to the pathology networks in north central and south west London.

The hospitals were unable to carry out some procedures involving blood transfusion, including surgery, with many diverted to other providers. Some cancer treatments were also delayed or diverted, as well as some transplants and specialist maternity work.

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Source: HSJ, 18 June 2025

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Nearly 2,000 young patients left waiting a year or more for specialist mental health care in Scotland

Nearly 2,000 children and teenagers have been left waiting for specialist mental health care for at least a year in Scotland, according to official figures branded “damning” by psychiatrists.

New NHS Scotland data has revealed that, at the end of September, there were 1,978 patients who had been waiting 52 weeks or more for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) appointment.

That is more than double the 959 young people who were waiting that long the previous September – despite efforts by Nicola Sturgeon’s government to meet its own 2023 target for 90% of young people to receive help within 18 weeks.

Ahead of the Holyrood Budget on Thursday, the figures prompted calls from service providers for a “radical transformation of our mental health services” enacted with the same zeal as the response to the coronavirus pandemic and with a focus on earlier interventions to prevent young people “giving up on their futures”.

According to the latest figures, there were a total of 11,816 young people waiting for an appointment by the end of September – just 78% of them who had been seen within 18 weeks.

Dr Helen Smith, chair of the CAMHS faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said the long waits for help highlighted the “many problems” with these services “across the length and breadth of the country”.

“The fact that our vulnerable children and young people are still waiting to be seen is, frankly, not good enough,” Dr Smith said. “We need them to be able to access the right support at the right time, from the correct services.”

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Source: The Independent, 8 December 2021

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Nearly 19,000 NHS patients left waiting for three days in A&E over 12 months

Almost 19,000 NHS patients were left waiting in A&E for three days over a 12-month period, an investigation has revealed.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, nearly 400,000 people were left waiting more than 24 hours across A&E departments, a 5% rise on the previous year. Channel 4’s Dispatches programme also found that 54,000 people had to wait more than two days, a freedom of information request to NHS England found.

The investigation exposed “suffering and indignity faced by patients on a daily basis”, after an undercover reporter secretly filmed himself working as a trainee healthcare assistant inside the emergency department of the Royal Shrewsbury hospital for two months.

The “harrowing” scenes from the hospital’s A&E department came as an analyst from a thinktank said people were dying in emergency care in England “who don’t need to be dying”.

Footage shows one patient waiting for 30 hours in a “fit to sit” area while a suspected stroke sufferer was there for 24 hours, the broadcaster said.

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “I don’t think this is unique to this hospital by any stretch of the imagination. The things we’ve seen here today are clearly not just confined to winter. It was a year-round crisis in emergency care.

“Spending two days in an emergency department is worse than spending two days in an airport lounge. These are people who are sitting in uncomfortable seats where the lights never go off. There’s constant noise, there’s constant stress. There’s no end in sight.”

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Source: The Guardian, 24 June 2024

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Nearly 100 preventable deaths over the last decade at California psychiatric facilities, Times investigation finds

How many people die in California psychiatric facilities has been a difficult question to answer. No single agency keeps tabs on the number of deaths at psychiatric facilities in California, or elsewhere in the nation.

In an effort to assess the scope of the problem, The Times submitted more than 100 public record requests to nearly 50 county and state agencies to obtain death certificates, coroner’s reports and hospital inspection records with information about these deaths.

The Times review identified nearly 100 preventable deaths over the last decade at California psychiatric facilities. It marks the first public count of deaths at California’s mental health facilities and highlights breakdowns in care at these hospitals as well as the struggles of regulators to reduce the number of deaths.

The total includes deaths for which state investigators determined that hospital negligence or malpractice was responsible, as well as all suicides and homicides, which experts say should not occur among patients on a psychiatric ward. It does not include people who died of natural causes or other health problems while admitted for a psychiatric illness.

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Source: Los Angeles Times, 1 December 2019

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Nearly 1.7 million Texans lose Medicaid as state nears end of “unwinding”

Nearly 1.7 million Texans have lost their health insurance — the largest number of people any state has removed — in the months since Texas began peeling people from Medicaid as part of the post-pandemic “unwinding.” Around 65% of these removals occurred because of procedural reasons, according to the state.

Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission has neared the end of a chaotic and overburdened process to remove people from state Medicaid insurance who became ineligible during the coronavirus pandemic. The state had not unenrolled people before this year because of federal pandemic rules, which forbid states from cutting coverage.

As a result, more than 5 million Texans had continuous access to healthcare throughout the pandemic through Medicaid, the joint federal-and-state-funded insurance program for low-income individuals. In Texas, the program’s eligibility criteria is so restrictive, it mainly covers poor children, their mothers while pregnant and post partum, and disabled and senior adults.

But the effects of speedrunning this process have reverberated: Still-eligible Texans were kicked off both in error and for procedural reasons, adding to backlogs of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid applications and pushing wait times back several months.

“The state handled this with an incredible amount of incompetence and indifference to poor people,” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, told The Texas Tribune. “It's really appalling.”

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Source: The Texas Tribune, 14 December 2023

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Nearly 1 million ‘corridor care’ cases in past year

About one million A&E patients have been placed in corridors or similar “temporary” spaces over the past year, information obtained by HSJ reveals.

Sixty-six of England’s 118 acute trusts with accident and emergency departments responded to freedom of information requests for their record of how many times an A&E patient had been placed in a corridor or “temporary escalation space”.

The data released by hospital trusts gives the clearest picture yet of the scale of “corridor care” in crowded emergency departments – a practice labelled “unacceptable” by the government amid deep concerns over patient safety.

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Source: Health Service Journal, 4 December 2025

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Nearly £15bn wasted on Covid PPE, says UK spending watchdog

The UK health department was forced to write down £14.9bn worth of personal protective equipment and other medical items, according to a report by the independent public spending watchdog, which also issued a scathing criticism of the UK Health Security Agency.

The National Audit Office said that the Department for Health and Social Care did not complete an “effective programme of year-end stock counts” to assess the quality and quantity of coronavirus-related items, such as lateral flow tests.

During the last two financial years, the DHSC reported nearly £15bn of write down costs associated with PPE and other health items. The department estimated that the continuing cost of storage and disposal of excess and unusable equipment stands at £319mn.

The watchdog found a “lack of adequate governance, oversight and control” at the UKHSA. It noted that due to a “lack of sufficient, appropriate audit evidence and significant shortcomings in financial control” the NAO was unable to provide an audit opinion on the 2021-22 accounts of the agency.

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Source: Financial Times, 27 January 2023

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Nationwide roll out of AI tool that predicts falls and viruses

An AI tool is being rolled out across the NHS that can predict a patient’s risk of falling with 97% accuracy, preventing up to 2,000 falls and hospital admissions each day. 

The predictive tool, developed by Cera, is being used in more than two million patient home care visits a month, monitoring vital health signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, to predict signs of deterioration in advance so it can then alert healthcare staff.

It is in use across more than two-thirds of NHS integrated care systems and helps to provide care at home by flagging up to 5,000 high-risk alerts a day, reducing hospitalisations by up to 70%.

Dr Vin Diwakar, national director of transformation at NHS England, said: “This new tool now being used across the country shows how the NHS is harnessing the latest technology, including AI, to not only improve the care patients receive but also to boost efficiency across the NHS by cutting unnecessary admissions and freeing up beds ahead of next winter, helping hospitals to mitigate typical seasonal pressures.

“We know falls are the leading cause of hospital admissions in older people, causing untold suffering, affecting millions each year and costing the NHS around £2 billion, so this new software has the potential to be a real game-changer in the way we can predict, prevent and treat people in the community.

“This AI tool is a perfect example of how the NHS can use the latest tech to keep more patients safe at home and out of hospital, two cornerstones of the upcoming 10-year Health Plan that will see shifts from analogue to digital, and from hospital to community care.”

The software will also be used to detect the symptoms of winter illnesses like Covid, flu, RSV, and norovirus, allowing NHS and care teams to intervene before hospital care is needed.

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Source: Digital Health, 5 March 2025

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National virtual ward system promised in 10-Year Plan

The government will procure a single virtual ward system to underpin its promised “neighbourhood health service”, the 10-Year Health Plan has said.

The document said: “We will undertake national procurement for a new platform available to all NHS provider organisations. This will include the ability to remotely monitor patients, with data flowing through to the NHS App and Single Patient Record – enabling proactive management of patients to become the new normal.”

Virtual wards, also known as hospital at home, have been widely trialled across the NHS already, with some research pointing to reduced hospital admissions and financial savings.

There was no date given for when this would be launched.

The news clarifies the digital underpinning of “neighbourhood health services” and which bodies would commission it, following the downgrading of integrated care boards.

The plan said the new system would enable “proactive management of patients to become the new normal, reaching out at the first signs of deterioration to prevent an emergency admission to hospital”.

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Source: HSJ, 3 July 2025

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National shortage of epilepsy medication putting thousands at risk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: Sky News, 21 January 2024

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National scheme to support families after baby deaths faces axe

An “overwhelmingly valued” pilot support scheme for families who have lost a child before or shortly after birth has been paused to new referrals and is being “brought to a close”, HSJ has learned.

The Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate role was proposed as an “immediate and essential action” in the 2022 review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust by leading midwife Donna Ockenden.

Pilot schemes were put in place in 16 integrated care board areas in early 2024 to run until March 2026. As of an evaluation in May this year, there had been 20 MNISAs in place who had supported 253 families. The majority of cases were still ongoing at that point.

But NHS England has now said that the pilot phase will be “brought to a close” with learning from it feeding into the Amos independent investigation of maternity and neonatal care.

Baroness Amos is expected to produce an interim report by Christmas and a final report in the spring of next year – although that may slip. Even if that report supports the continuation of the scheme, it is likely there would be a gap before it could be re-established, HSJ understands.

In several parts of the country, the advocates are already no longer taking new referrals. NHSE said those currently supported by an advocate will be given a “personalised care plan”, including a named contact to go to if they have any concerns or need more support.

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Source: HSJ, 13 October 2025

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National rollout for triage scheme which cut ambulance journeys

A scheme in which ‘category 2’ 999 calls are validated by clinicians will be extended nationally after reducing journeys by 4%in a pilot, with no adverse incidents, NHS England has told HSJ.

NHSE also confirmed that one ambulance trust in the scheme, the West Midlands, has begun delaying the dispatch of ambulances for some category 2 calls by up to 23 minutes so that the validation can take place. 

At three other trusts – London, South Western and the East Midlands – about 40% of category 2 calls receive clinical validation, but an ambulance is dispatched to them as soon it is available, as normal.

Officials said they believe the demand benefit could be greater if ambulance trusts are able to devote more clinical capacity to the validation process. About 40% of category 2 calls are judged suitable for validation, but not all of them complete the process before an ambulance arrives.

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Source: HSJ, 11 July 2023

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National roll-out of ‘call before you walk’ A&Es set for winter

Trials of new systems to prevent overcrowding in emergency departments ahead of a potential second wave of COVID-19 in the winter are taking place at hospitals in Portsmouth and Cornwall and are due to shortly be expanded to other areas, with Dorset and Newcastle likely sites, HSJ can reveal.

London is also experimenting with introducing the system, having pulled back from an earlier proposal to roll it out it rapidly, shortly after the COVID-19 peak.

In the trials, NHS 111 has acted as a “triage point” enabling patients not facing medical emergencies but needing urgent treatment to book access to primary care, urgent treatment centres or same-day emergency “hot clinics” staffed by specialists. 

Patients are discouraged from attending without an appointment, but they are able to do so; and sources said performance targets would continue to apply to them, although these were already subject to review pre-covid.

Both the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and NHSE are now hopeful a new triage system for emergency care can be in place by the winter.

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Source: 15 July 2020

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National robotic assisted surgery programme to be established in Wales

A national robotic-assisted surgery programme allowing surgeons to perform complex procedures with more precision and control is being introduced in Wales, the Health Minister has announced.

The All-Wales Robotic Assisted Surgery Network, developed by health boards, the Life Sciences Hub Wales and the Moondance Cancer Initiative, will provide less invasive surgery for thousands of cancer patients across the country.

The surgery involves the use of highly advanced robotic surgical instruments under the control of a surgeon. It will initially be used in Wales for some Colorectal, Upper Gastrointestinal, Urological and Gynaecological cancers.

The Welsh Government will support the network with funding of £4.2m over five years, alongside £13.35m provided by health boards over 10 years.

Health and Social Services Minister Eluned Morgan said: "The All-Wales Robotic Assisted Surgery Network is an ambitious and important programme helping to improve outcomes for patients and the NHS in Wales. It will put Wales at the forefront of international research for the use of robotic surgical techniques. This pioneering service will also encourage specialist staff to come to Wales to train and practice".

It will initially be provided in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area, with the first patient expected to receive treatment in June. Once fully established, patients in north Wales will no longer need to travel to England to receive robotic-assisted surgery.

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Source: Welsh Government, 14 March 2022

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National probe into deaths of NHS heart patients as scale of cardiology crisis revealed

A national probe has been launched into the deaths and harm of thousands of NHS patients waiting for cardiac surgery, as doctors and experts warn of a “crisis in heart care”, an investigation by The Independent has revealed.

The audit was ordered by NHS England after concerns were raised about the impact on patients left waiting too long for specialist surgery, according to a leaked memo. Waiting times for all types of cardiac surgery are also under review.

Senior doctors have described how the NHS is struggling to provide life-saving care to those suffering heart attacks and strokes, with worsening ambulance delays meaning patients are being deprioritised.

The latest figures show waiting lists for cardiology services have doubled since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 with 412,164 patients waiting for routine care in October 2024 – up from 397,956 the year before.

The Independent can also reveal:

  • Ambulances are transferring just 31% of patients between hospitals for life-saving heart attack surgery in the target time.
  • Nearly 1,000 patients in London face a 10- to 12-week wait for heart surgery who should have had it within four weeks.
  • Multiple coroners have issued warnings in the last year after patients died waiting for routine and emergency cardiology surgery.
  • British Heart Foundation figures suggest 39,000 people died prematurely from cardiovascular disease in 2022.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), and consultant cardiologist, said: “Unacceptably long waits for time-critical heart care puts people at significant risk of life-long heart failure or even premature death."

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Source: The Independent, 9 December 2024

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National probe into deaths of NHS heart patients as scale of cardiology crisis revealed

A national probe has been launched into the deaths and harm of thousands of NHS patients waiting for cardiac surgery, as doctors and experts warn of a “crisis in heart care”, an investigation by The Independent has revealed.

The audit was ordered by NHS England after concerns were raised about the impact on patients left waiting too long for specialist surgery, according to a leaked memo. Waiting times for all types of cardiac surgery are also under review.

Senior doctors have described how the NHS is struggling to provide life-saving care to those suffering heart attacks and strokes, with worsening ambulance delays meaning patients are being deprioritised.

The latest figures show waiting lists for cardiology services have doubled since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 with 412,164 patients waiting for routine care in October 2024 – up from 397,956 the year before.

As of October this year, just 58 per cent of heart patients were seen within the NHS target of 18 weeks.

An NHS spokesperson said: “Patients who come to emergency departments with heart attacks and strokes should be transferred as quickly as possible to units that are able to offer this care and prioritised accordingly. Despite significant pressure on services and thanks to staff across the country, the NHS is making good progress with the overall waiting list coming down, however, we know boosting capacity for cardiovascular care remains crucial to improving outcomes. We’re committed to using innovations like surgical hubs and implementing the “right procedure, right place model” to help release capacity and speed up access for patients.”

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Source: The Independent, 9 December 2024

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National mental health review must address ‘lack of compassion’ towards patients, watchdog says

The government’s national review of mental health hospitals must urgently address the “lack of sympathy and compassion” towards patients if safety is to improve, the health ombudsman has said.

Rob Berhens said the investigation, prompted by The Independent’s reporting on deaths and abuse of vulnerable patients, must look at three key issues, including a lack of empathy for those with mental health challenges, a lack of resources and poor working conditions for staff.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced last week that a new safety body, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSIB), would look into the care of young people, examine staffing levels and scrutinise the quality of care within mental health units.

Mr Berhens said: “I trust [HSIB] to be able to understand what are the key issues, they’re about the lack of sympathy and compassion for people who have mental health challenges, which to me is a human rights issue."

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Source: The Independent, 1 July 2023

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National Medical Examiner update

Latest National Medical Examiner update on national and regional infrastructure, funding the medical examiner system, medical examiners and referrals to coroners, working with registrars, and face to face training.

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National maternity review will not ‘sideline’ Nottingham probe, pledges chair

The high-profile chair of a major maternity review into care failures in Nottingham has pledged to ensure its results “will not be sidelined” by the government’s national investigation.

Concerns Donna Ockenden’s findings could be sidelined, followed ministers announcing in September that the national maternity review’s recommendations would “supersede the multiple existing actions and recommendations already in place”.

While Ms Ockenden’s Nottingham University Hospitals Trust inquiry began in 2022, it is not due to report until June. And a spokesman for the Nottingham families told HSJ this week that they had heard “credible rumours of an attempt to minimise and overshadow” the review.

The government’s national review, led by Baroness Valerie Amos – which this week published a call for evidence  – is due in the spring.

Ministers also said that “Baroness Amos and her team will draw on [previous reviews] to create one clear, national set of actions to improve care across the country”.

In response to the concerns about the status of her independent inquiry, Ms Ockenden said: “I cannot see any reason why anyone who has any understanding of maternity services would even be thinking of sidelining Nottingham.

“Nottingham is the largest ever inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS. We, as a review team, have worked with diligence with families across Nottinghamshire.”

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Source: HSJ, 23 January 2026

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National maternity probe ‘not apportioning blame’

The national maternity safety inquiry launched by the Government in June this year will “not investigate failing trusts or apportion blame”, its leader has said – drawing criticism from campaigning families.

In a private briefing, Baroness Valerie Amos told the 12 trusts involved in the review that “she’s not investigating ‘failing’ trusts and she’s not in the business of apportioning blame”, according to one of the trusts involved.

This is despite Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Steeting Streeting alluding to “failures in the system” when launching the review in June. The terms of reference for the review also make repeated promises of “accountability”, including “help[ing] bereaved and harmed families to receive justice and accountability in the future”.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 17 November 2025

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National Insurance: Minister says social care must be properly funded amid tax hike claims

According to reports, the government plans to raise national insurance of at least 1% to help improve social care and tackle NHS backlog. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said the government must find a way for social care to be adequately funded. 

Labour has said the NHS and social care needed proper investment but it was wrong to raise national insurance, which would disproportionately affect people on low incomes, young people and businesses.

"Boris Johnson still hasn't come forward with the plan for social care he promised over two years ago, and instead they're proposing a manifesto-breaking tax rise that would hit working people and businesses hard," said shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Bridget Phillipson.

Read full story.

Source: BBC News, 03 September 2021

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National incident declared over polio virus findings in London sewage

Public health officials have declared a national incident after routine surveillance of wastewater in north and east London found evidence of community transmission of poliovirus for the first time.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said waste from the Beckton sewage treatment works in Newham tested positive for vaccine-derived poliovirus in February and that further positive samples had been detected since.

No cases of the disease or related paralysis have been reported, and the risk to the general public is considered low, but public health officials urged people to make sure that they and their families were up to date with polio vaccinations to reduce the risk of harm.

“Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly in communities where vaccine uptake is lower,” said Dr Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA. “On rare occasions it can cause paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated, so if you or your child are not up to date with your polio vaccinations it’s important you contact your GP to catch up or if unsure check your red book.”

“Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk,” she added.

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Source: The Guardian, 22 June 2022

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