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Mum fought in vain to save son while waiting for ambulance, but a terrible error had been made

A 35-year-old man from Cardiff died after collapsing at home despite his mother and brother trying to give him CPR. Martyn Wright collapsed at home, and it has since been found that there were errors in the way his family's calls to the ambulance service were handled.

Martyn's mum, Claire, claimed that calling 999 was a "lottery". In a statement to WalesOnline, she, said: "Through lived experience, we have learned our 999 emergency service cannot be relied upon even when there is clearly an immediate risk to life, it's now quite simply a lottery. An ambulance initially allocated to attend my son who collapsed at home suddenly in December, 2022, was stood down in error by a novice 999 call-handler, this caused a significant delay to him receiving vital treatment.

"Despite our younger son performing CPR on his unconscious brother, when they did arrive 45 minutes later as a result of a follow up call made by myself, Martyn was tragically beyond help." Martyn's case was referred to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, who has found there were errors in the handling of his case. 

On the day of his collapse, Martyn was at home with his mum and brother. Two 999 calls were made. The first call was incorrectly downgraded from a red priority to "green 2". The second call was also not handled appropriately, with incorrect information given to Mrs Wright about resuscitation. As a result, the ambulance arrived 32 minutes late.

Through it all, Mrs Wright and her son were, the report said, "attempting to deliver CPR without instruction or support". Mrs Wright complained about how the calls were handled, how the attending paramedics kept a record of events and whether the outcome for Martyn would have been different had the ambulance arrived earlier. The ombudsman found that the Welsh Ambulance Service trust did not properly manage the two 999 calls made after Martyn had collapsed.

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Source: Wales Online, 18 March 2025

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Mum fears NHS trust cover-up over Cambridgeshire suicides review

The mother of a woman who took her own life weeks after being discharged from a mental health ward fears a "culture of cover up" within the NHS trust.

Hannah Roberts, 22, died by suicide in 2018 and her mother Sally said there were "discrepancies" in the accounts of the talented musician's discharge. She feels an ongoing internal review into all Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) suicides since 2017 should be independent.

CPFT did not respond to her comments.

The trust's chief executive Anna Hills previously said the internal review into 63 suicides would "be an important piece of work".

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Source: BBC News, 15 August 2023

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Mum fears her son could die waiting for life changing surgery

The mother of a four-year-old boy with complex needs said she fears he could die waiting for life-changing surgery.

Collette Mullan made the claim to BBC Spotlight as it examined the scale of hospital waiting lists.

Northern Ireland has the worst waiting times in the UK, with more than half a million cases queued for an outpatient or inpatient appointment.

The Department of Health has described current waiting lists as "entirely unacceptable".

Óisín, from County Londonderry, has a number of health conditions including cerebral palsy, and is currently waiting for two procedures.

He is fed with a tube that carries his food through his nose into his stomach, but since it was inserted six months ago, his mum Collette said he has struggled to breathe.

Óisín is now waiting to have the nasogastric tube removed and replaced by a different feeding system which goes directly to his stomach.

Collette said she was told it could be a three-year wait for the procedure.

She is concerned that Óisín's cerebral palsy puts him at a greater risk of complications, saying she had been warned there was a danger he could aspirate.

"He could die. Anything going into his lung really, it could be very dangerous," she said.

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Source: BBC News, 3 October 2023

 

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Mum dies after hospital's 'basic failures'

A woman died soon after the birth of her fifth child due to "basic failures" in her care, a report said.

Laura-Jane Seaman, 36, died at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex, on 23 December 2022 following a significant peritoneal haemorrhage.

A prevention of future deaths report by a coroner said the bleeding was not identified, despite Ms Seaman's repeated concerns that she was "gushing" - and her appeals to staff to "not let me die".

Ms Seaman had been admitted to the hospital on 21 December and while the birth of her baby was uneventful, she subsequently suffered a haemorrhage that was not noticed by staff for hours - despite her having a known history of haemorrhages.

Earlier this year, a coroner had found multiple "gross failures" by healthcare professionals and said if these had not occurred, Ms Seaman, from Witham, would not have died.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 December 2024

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Mum died during 13-hour wait for an ambulance

When Jean Frickel fell ill, her family called an ambulance so she could get the crucial life-extending help she needed.

But she died before it arrived. She had waited for 13 hours.

The head of Wales' ambulance service said the number of hours lost while crews waited to hand over patients had quadrupled since 2018.

One patient in Wales waited 46 hours and 46 minutes - almost two days - for an ambulance after a fall.

Jean's case is one of 39 across England and Wales over the past two years where coroners have called for changes to the system to prevent these avoidable deaths.

A coroner ruled Jean's 13-hour wait was because ambulances were queuing to offload patients and unable to answer 999 calls.

Jean's daughter, Helen Underhill, 62, said: "It’s unforgiveable that an ambulance should be waiting outside hospital for someone to be seen, when somebody else is sitting at home, like my mum, in need.

"It’s not the doctors, it’s not the nurses, it’s not the paramedics. It’s getting the ambulances back on the road."

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Source: BBC News, 8 August 2024

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Mum died days after birth after being given 'wrong drug' and sent home twice

A first-time mum died from a bleed on the brain just days after giving birth following "inadequate care" by medics who sent her home twice from hospital, a coroner has ruled. Ilona Kazik, 32, suffered a major obstetric bleed just hours after her first child Antony was born via a planned c-section at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.

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Source: Mirror, 25 November 2025

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Mum alarmed at 'out-of-depth' admission

The mother of a seriously ill boy said she was "very alarmed" when a doctor at an under-fire children's ward admitted they were "out of their depth".

In October, Carys's five-year-old son Charlie was discharged from Kettering General, but she returned him the next day in a "sort of lifeless" state.

She said it seemed "quite chaotic" on Skylark ward before he was transferred to another hospital for further tests.

Since the BBC's report in February that highlighted the concerns of parents with children who died or became seriously ill at the hospital, dozens more have come forward.

In April, Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors rated the Northamptonshire hospital's children's and young people's services inadequate.

Among the findings, inspectors said "staff did not always effectively identify and quickly act upon patients at risk of deterioration".

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Source: BBC News, 6 June 2023

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Multiple whistleblowers flag ‘heartbreaking’ incidents at major trust

Clinicians within a major teaching hospital’s cancer services have raised multiple concerns over patient safety, which they believe have resulted from badly planned service changes in response to the covid crisis.

HSJ has spoken to several staff members who have worked in the haematology speciality at University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust since last June, when the services underwent significant changes to free up capacity for coronavirus patients.

This involved most haematology services at Heartlands Hospital in east Birmingham moving to the trust’s main Queen Elizabeth Hospital site in Edgbaston.

The staff, who all wished to remain anonymous, told HSJ the transfer happened at just one week’s notice and was poorly planned. Once implemented, they said QEH’s newly enlarged service suffered from extreme staffing shortages, leading to several “never events”, such as patients being given the wrong blood type.

In one resignation letter, a nurse who had transferred to QEH told managers patients’ “basic care needs are not being met”.

The nurse said most shifts were understaffed, with examples of three nurses looking after 30 patients and added in the resignation letter: “I am witnessing strong and knowledgeable colleagues breaking down on each shift.

“Furthermore, never events are happening at an alarming rate, necessary resources are commonly unavailable and communication between all levels of seniority is poor…"

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Source: HSJ, 2 February 2021

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Multiple sclerosis could be caused by the common ‘kissing disease’ virus, scientists say

The debilitating disease multiple sclerosis could be caused by the common virus behind "kissing disease", scientists claim.

A new study from Harvard University suggests the chronic disease could be from an infection of Epstein-Barr, a herpes virus that causes infectious mononucleosis.

Mono or glandular fever, as it’s otherwise known, is colloquially known as "the kissing disease" for being highly contagious through saliva.

While causing fatigue, fever, rash, and swollen glands, researchers propose that the Epstein-Barr virus could also establish a latent, lifelong infection that may be a leading cause of multiple sclerosis.

Affecting 2.8 million people, there is no known cure for the chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.

“The hypothesis that EBV causes MS has been investigated by our group and others for several years, but this is the first study providing compelling evidence of causality,” the study’s senior author Alberto Ascherio, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard Chan School, said in a press release.

“This is a big step because it suggests that most MS cases could be prevented by stopping EBV infection, and that targeting EBV could lead to the discovery of a cure for MS.”

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Source: The Independent, 13 January 2022

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Multiple reporting systems undermine patient safety, says watchdog

A single system to report patient safety concerns would “keep people safer”, a newly appointed NHS watchdog has told HSJ.

Henrietta Hughes – who will take up the post of patient safety commissioner in September – said both clinicians and patients faced a bewildering choice when looking to raise a safety concern, and that there was a need for a “report once” system.

She said that when ”exhausted” clinicians “come to the end of a 12-hour shift, they don’t want to have to do a Datix report and a yellow card report, and if they’ve got a safeguarding concern or a concern about an individual condition, [to have to] send that somewhere else”.

Dr Hughes added: ”Wouldn’t it be better if we had one report that you do, and all the information that comes from that report just gets sent to the appropriate authority? That’s the type of change that I think we’d like to see. I know, as a GP myself, that’s what I would rather do as a professional. But also, I think, for all the organisations, we could get so much more richness of information, we would get more reporting, and we’d keep people safer as a result of it.”

She added that if a patient “wanted to report an individual clinician” they often ended getting bounced around the system, like a pinball. They get sent from pillar to post.”

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Source: HSJ, 8 August 2022

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Multiple patients harmed at ‘overly cautious’ trust

Multiple glaucoma patients were harmed at a trust that was “overly cautious” about surgical intervention and did not follow national care guidelines, a royal college review has found.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists reviewed 14 patients at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust who experienced delays in being seen by the glaucoma team. Seven of these patients had suffered some level of harm while in three other cases the review team was unable to decide if harm was caused through “aspects of service delivery”.

The trust would not confirm what level of harm these patients suffered but said they had all now received treatment.

HSJ obtained a redacted copy of the review, which also raised concerns that patients were left on maximum medical therapies while their glaucoma progressed and that assessments done by the trust were not in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. It urged the department to ensure best practice was put in place.

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Source: HSJ, 29 August 2025

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Multiple opportunities missed to prevent suicide death at NHS mental health unit, inquest hears

A 40-year-old mother of four took her own life at an NHSmental health unit after multiple opportunities were missed to keep her safe, an inquest has found, prompting her family to call for a public inquiry.

Azra Parveen Hussain was allegedly the seventh in-patient in seven years to die by the same means while in the care of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHT).

Despite this, an inquest at Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court last week heard that the Trust had not installed door pressure sensor alarms, which could have potentially alerted staff to the fatal danger these patients faced.

While BSMHT is now taking action to install pressure sensors at Mary Seacole House, where Hussain died on 6 May, Coroner Emma Brown noted a lack of national regulation or guidance on the risks presented by internal doors in patients’ bedrooms and is issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths report calling for this to be remedied across the country.

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Source: The Independent, 28 March 2021

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Multiple deaths due to care delays highlighted in damning CQC report

Dozens of patients died or suffered ‘severe harm’ after long waits for ambulances during a three-month period in a health system facing ‘extreme pressure’ on its emergency services.

The 29 serious incidents in Cornwall included patients waiting many hours for assistance despite being in “extreme pain”, patients having suspected sepsis, patients in cardiac arrest, and patients experiencing a stroke.

The incidents were reported to the Care Quality Commission by staff at South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust during an inspection of the Cornwall integrated care system’s urgent and emergency care services.

According to the CQC, the pressures on the ambulance service were “unrelenting”, while “significant work” was needed to “alleviate extreme pressure”.

This meant there was a “high level of risk to people’s health when trying to access urgent and emergency care in the county”, the report said.

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Source: HSJ, 27 May 2022

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Multi-cancer blood test shows real promise in NHS study

A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer has shown real promise in a major NHS trial, researchers say.

The test correctly revealed two out of every three cancers among 5,000 people who had visited their GP with suspected symptoms, in England or Wales.

In 85% of those positive cases, it also pinpointed the original site of cancer.

The Galleri test looks for distinct changes in bits of genetic code that leak from different cancers. Spotting treatable cancer early can save lives.

The test remains very much a "work in progress", the researchers, from Oxford University, say, but could increase the number of cancers identified.

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Source: BBS News, 2 June 2023

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Muckamore inquiry: Staff accused of ignoring TB symptoms

The mother of a patient at Muckamore Abbey Hospital has described how her son contracted tuberculosis (TB) while at the hospital.

She said he had been left severely disabled after a series of associated strokes.

Patient P116 is now 40 years old and has suffered from severe epilepsy since he was a baby.

His mother told the inquiry into abuse at the hospital that her concerns over her son's health were ignored.

She said that even after he began developing symptoms - including losing six stone (38kg) of weight - staff seemed "not to care".

In the end, he was only diagnosed with TB after his mother took him to hospital herself.

Due to the delay in the diagnosis and the way the family's complaint was handled, a serious adverse incident review was carried out and P116's mother received a letter of apology from the then permanent secretary at the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, and Theresa Villiers, who was Northern Ireland secretary at the time.

His mother told the inquiry her son's time in Muckamore remained a "major trauma" for the family and she still found it very difficult to talk about.

She told the inquiry she felt strongly that "independent expert support" should be given to patients abused or neglected in Muckamore, including specialist counselling for the patients and their families.

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Source: BBC News, 12 October 2023

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Muckamore Abbey Hospital: seven face prosecution for alleged mistreatment and wilful neglect of patients

Seven individuals face prosecution for alleged ill-treatment and wilful neglect of patients at a hospital for people with severe learning disabilities.

The alleged offences took place at the psychiatric intensive care unit at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Prosecution follows ongoing police inquiries

A police investigation into claims of abuse at the hospital has been ongoing since 2018, following reports of inappropriate behaviour and alleged physical abuse of service users by staff.

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Source: Nursing Standard, 19 April 2021

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Muckamore Abbey Hospital: Inquiry into alleged patient abuse begins

A public inquiry into allegations of abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital is under way.

The hospital is run by the Belfast Health Trust and provides facilities for adults with special needs.

With the terms of reference agreed, the inquiry panel will begin trying to establish what happened between residents and some members of staff, and also examine management's role.

Seven people are facing prosecution. There have been more than 20 arrests.

It was announced in June 2021 that the inquiry will be chaired by Tom Kark QC, who played a key role in the 2010 inquiry into avoidable deaths at Stafford Hospital in England.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Kark said it was a "significant date for all those patients and families who have been affected by the issues under examination by the inquiry, many of whom have campaigned very hard to ensure this inquiry takes place".

"I want to reassure you that a thorough and impartial investigation will be carried out by the Muckamore Abbey Hospital Inquiry," he added.

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Source: BBC News, 12 October 2021

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Muckamore Abbey Hospital: Bid to suspend public inquiry dismissed

A legal bid to suspend the public inquiry into alleged abuse at Muckamore Abbey hospital has been dismissed by a High court judge.

The applicant in the case has been granted anonymity.

They challenged Health Minister Robin Swann's refusal to suspend the public inquiry until criminal proceedings against them had concluded.

Lawyers argued that the applicant's article six right to a fair trail had been jeopardised.

The applicant's lawyers cited "adverse and prejudicial" commentary already in the media.

Rejecting the application the judge, Mr Justice Colton, said that the applicant's article six rights were fully protected within the criminal trial process.

The judge referred to submissions from the applicant's legal team who had argued that if the inquiry recommences as planned this month, it would consider evidence reported by the media which could affect the ability of a jury to act impartially.

The judge told the court there was nothing to suggest that there had been a "virulent media campaign" about the applicant.

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Source: BBC News, 15 September 2022

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Muckamore Abbey Hospital abuse inquiry to begin

An inquiry into allegations of abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital officially begins on Monday.

The Co Antrim facility treats patients with severe learning difficulties and mental health problems.

Allegations of abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital - which is run by the Belfast Trust and located on the outskirts of Antrim - first came to light in 2017.

Police said they reviewed thousands of hours of CCTV footage as part of a major investigation.

At present seven people are to be prosecuted and more than 20 have been arrested for a range of offences, including alleged ill-treatment and wilful neglect.

The core objectives of the inquiry are "to examine the issue of abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital (MAH), to determine why the abuse happened and the range of circumstances that allowed it to happen and ensure that such abuse does not occur again at MAH or any other institution providing similar services in Northern Ireland".

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Source: Belfast Telegraph, 11 October 2021

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Much of NHS in England ‘does not take obesity seriously enough’

Much of the NHS does not take obesity seriously enough, despite it being an unfolding health disaster that costs the UK £98bn a year, says a report.

Only five of England’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) – regional groupings of NHS trusts which coordinate care over wide areas – have made tackling obesity or sticking to a healthy weight one of their top priorities, according to the Future Health thinktank.

Its analysis found that the other 37 ICBs did not identify obesity as a key issue in their forward plans, which set out what they see as the most pressing issues over the next five years.

“Too many parts of the NHS are giving obesity too little priority,” said Richard Sloggett, the report’s author, a former special adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care.

“Given what a huge and worsening problem obesity is – for individuals, the NHS, society at large and also its impact on the economy – I was concerned to see that so few NHS bodies regarded tackling it as one of their key priorities,” he added.

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Source: The Guardian, 7 July 2024

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MS patients suffer side-effects after NHS England switches to cheaper drug

Scores of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have suffered debilitating side-effects after being put on to a cheaper new drug as part of an NHS drive to save money.

About 170 MS patients at Charing Cross hospital in London have had complications, including a relapse of their illness, after being switched from Tysabri to a different drug called Tyruko, made by the pharmaceutical company Sandoz.

In a handful of cases, the people affected developed such serious symptoms that they had to be taken to hospital for treatment. Patients have told doctors about side-effects including an inability to use their legs, other mobility problems, fatigue, pain and sudden weight gain.

It is unclear how widespread the adverse reactions to Tyruko are. NHS England said the problem has only been seen at the London hospital. However, one of the patients there claimed to know of people with MS being treated at 15 other hospitals in England who have experienced similar setbacks to their health after being moved on to Tyruko after sometimes years taking Tysabri.

Problems have arisen since NHS England began moving patients across the country with very active relapsing remitting MS from Tysabri on to Tyruko, a “biosimilar” drug, last April. A biosimilar is a version of a drug that has fallen out of patent, allowing other pharmaceutical firms to legally make a medicine that is as safe and effective as the original but on average 72% cheaper.

The side-effects from Tyruko are causing so much concern within the health service that NHS England is in discussion with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) about what to do.

A spokesperson for Sandoz said: “Patient safety is our first priority. We are seeking to understand the situation at Imperial healthcare NHS trust, which appears to contrast with the experience of patients at other UK hospitals. We believe it’s premature to draw conclusions at this point. We continue to work with the NHS and regulatory authorities to resolve this.”

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Source: The Guardian, 24 May 2025

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MS patients in England to benefit from major roll out of take-at-home pill

Thousands of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to become the first in Europe to benefit from a major roll out of an immunotherapy pill.

Current treatments involve regular trips to hospital, drug infusions, frequent injections and extensive monitoring, which add to the burden on patients and healthcare systems.

The new tablet, cladribine, can be swallowed at home, and needs to be taken only 20 times in the first two years of a four-year cycle. The regime consists of a maximum of 10 days of treatment in the first year and 10 days in the second; no additional treatment is needed in the next two years.

Patients thinking about having children can also safely conceive in the third and fourth years of the treatment cycle. This is an important development, as MS is most commonly diagnosed in women in their 20s and 30s.

The NHS in England is the first healthcare system in Europe to widely introduce the drug to patients with active relapsing-remitting MS after it received the go-ahead from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

As well as benefits for the patient, the rollout is expected to save thousands of clinical hours each year, freeing up NHS capacity by reducing the need for hospital appointments and time consuming treatments.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2025

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MS patient’s life ‘crumbling’ after being switched to cheaper drug under NHS cost-cutting drive

A woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) says she has been left with debilitating symptoms after the NHS switched her to a cheaper drug.

Julie Cowdrill is among scores of MS patients who say they have suffered a regression in their condition after being switched from a drug called Tysabri to one called Tyruko, with complaints that a “cost-cutting exercise” is coming at the expense of their health.

NHS England is hoping to save £1bn over the next five years by switching to biosimilar drugs – medicines that have been shown not to be clinically different from the original drug, but are made far more cheaply.

However, in Ms Cowdrill’s case, she has been left suffering from headaches and extreme fatigue, and has experienced worsenening mobility since she started taking the drug in December 2024.

“Myself and many others have said that it feels like we’ve regressed 10 or 15 years after all the work we’ve done to get better. It’s like the rug has been pulled from under you – it’s dreadful,” she told The Independent.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it is “aware” that some patients have experienced side effects, but that a rigorous assessment has “demonstrated no clinically meaningful differences” between the drugs.

A spokesperson for the MS Trust said it had been contacted by patients who have noticed “significant symptom changes” after switching from Tysabri to Tyruko (both of which are natalizumab products).

“It is vital that we fully understand the experiences of people with MS when switching from one natalizumab product to another. We are talking to all stakeholders, including people with MS, to ensure that this data is collected and shared transparently with the MS community and the healthcare teams responsible for prescribing them,” the spokesperson said.

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Source: The Independent, 26 May 2025

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MRSA reported at Manston in migrant who tested positive for diphtheria

A case of MRSA has been reported at the congested asylum processing centre at Manston in Kent, the Guardian has learned, after it emerged that Suella Braverman ignored advice that people were being kept at the centre unlawfully.

The antibiotic-resistant bacteria was identified in an asylum seeker who initially tested positive for diphtheria. But the asylum seeker was moved out of the site in Ramsgate to a hotel hundreds of miles away before the positive test result was received, raising concerns about the spread of the infection.

The Manston site is understood to now have at least eight confirmed cases of diphtheria, a highly contagious and potentially serious bacterial infection.

Migrants are meant to be held at the short-term holding facility, which opened in January, for 24 hours while they undergo checks before being moved into immigration detention centres or asylum accommodation such as a hotel.

But giving evidence to a committee of MPs last week, David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said he had spoken to a family from Afghanistan living in a marquee for 32 days, and two families from Iraq and Syria sleeping on mats with blankets for two weeks. Conditions at the site left him “speechless”, he said.

On a visit to the site on 24 October, Neal was told there were four confirmed cases of diphtheria. 

Protective medical equipment for staff has now been brought on to the site. Although diphtheria is a notifiable disease, meaning cases must be reported to authorities, those at Manston have not appeared on weekly public health reports.

A Home Office spokesperson said it was “aware of a very small number of cases of diphtheria reported at Manston”, and that proper medical guidance and protocols were being followed.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 October 2022

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MRI blunders: Hundreds of patients with metallic implants narrowly avoid death or serious injury after being wrongly referred for scans

Hundreds of patients with metallic implants narrowly avoided death or serious injury after being wrongly referred for MRI scans, an investigation revealed yesterday.

The powerful magnets used in the machines can displace and damage metallic items such as pacemakers, ear implants and aneurysm clips.

Doctors should question patients and check medical records before requesting a scan because of the risk of injury. But hospitals in England recorded 315 near-misses from April 2020 to March 2022 involving patients sent for an MRI.

An MRI scan at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust was ditched after staff confirmed the skin over the patient’s pacemaker had begun heating up. Another patient – at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Trust – told staff about a metal plug implanted in their nose only after the scan had begun. Many of the incidents involved forms being filled out incorrectly on behalf of elderly and disoriented patients.

At East Kent Hospitals University Trust, a patient described as ‘not compos mentis’ was given the all-clear by a care home nurse and again by a clinician for MRI – only for staff to realise at the last moment that metal clips were implanted in their chest. Information about the incidents was obtained using freedom of information requests.

Helen Hughes of Patient Safety Learning, said: "It is vital that near-misses are regularly reported, their causes understood, and that this learning is acted on to prevent future avoidable harm."

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Source: MailOnline, 15 October 2022

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