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More than a million children given access to NHS mental health support at school

More than a million children and young people will have access to mental health support at school, as the NHS rapidly expands services to help deal with the huge disruption caused by coronavirus and lockdown.

From this year, teams of experts are offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues.

Around 400 mental health support teams will be up and running covering 3,000 schools in England, offering support to almost three million pupils, by 2023.

The roll-out represents a dramatic acceleration of the programme announced in the NHS Long Term Plan, funded from £79 million to boost mental health support for children and young people in England, which is part of £500 million Government pot for investment in mental health services.

Experts hope that by intervening early they can prevent problems escalating into serious mental health issues, with health chiefs warning that the isolation and upheaval of the pandemic can be compounded by factors like pressure experienced on social media platforms.

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Source: NHS England, 8 May 2021

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More than a million Americans ration insulin due to the high cost of the drug

Insulin rights activists and those who live with diabetes are calling for meaningful action to address the high costs of insulin in the United States as a new study shows the widespread habit of rationing the life-saving medicine.

A study published on 18 October in the Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the City University of New York’s Hunter College and Public Citizen, found that 1.3 million Americans rationed insulin due to the high costs of insulin in 2021. The staggering number represents an estimated 16.5% of the US population with diabetes.

The study found insulin rationing was most commonly reported by those without health insurance coverage and individuals under the age of 65 not eligible for Medicare. Black insulin users were more likely to report rationing insulin, at 23.2%.

The impact of the practice can be terrible.

Janelle Lutgen of Dubuque county, Iowa, lost her 32-year-old son Jesse, a type 1 diabetic, after he started rationing his insulin because he lost his job and with it his health insurance and died in early 2018 from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Without health insurance, Lutgen said over-the-counter insulin costs more than $1,000 (£865) a month, and that her son couldn’t afford the high cost of healthcare coverage in the marketplace without a job and wasn’t eligible for Medicaid coverage because his income from when he was working was too high.

“It would probably be impossible to really know exactly all the harm that’s been done with high insulin prices,” said Lutgen, who explained that individuals who ration insulin because of the cost, if they do survive, can still experience other health impacts such as neuropathy, or losing toes or feet. “It seems like we can’t get it through legislators’ heads that we have to make sure everyone who needs insulin can get it, not just people who have insurance or people on Medicare – everybody. The only way to do that is to go to the root of the problem, big pharma.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 November 2022

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More than 90% of female doctors have faced sexism at work, finds BMA

A new report from the British Medical Association has published results showing 9 in 10 female doctors have experienced sexism at work in the UK, including unwanted physical contact, denial of opportunities and being asked to massage male colleagues in meetings.

The findings showed 91% of female doctors have experienced sexism at work, almost one-third (31%) of female doctors had experienced unwanted physical conduct in their workplace, and two in five (42%) of female and male doctors who had witnessed or experienced sexism felt that they could not report it.

A female GP has said "I was asked at an interview if I was planning on having children. I’ve had patients refusing to see me as they want to see a proper – i.e. male – doctor … Advised I was not pretty enough to cause a distraction in meetings so they could treat me like a bloke.”

Danny Mortimer, the deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital trusts, said "NHS organisations are working hard to make sure their staff do not experience sexism, or indeed, any form of discrimination, and Amanda Pritchard’s recent appointment [as NHS England’s new chief executive] signals a more representative leadership. But as this report makes clear, there is far more work to be done.”

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Source: The Guardian, 26 August 2021

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More than 90 care home operators in England declare red alert over staffing

Care operators are facing acute staffing shortages caused by Omicron with more than 90 declaring a “red” alert, which means staffing ratios have been breached.

Over 11,000 care home workers are off for Covid reasons, according to internal health system staffing data seen by the Guardian. One of the UK’s largest private operators, Barchester, is dealing with outbreaks in 105 of its 250 homes. It said that rules meaning homes with Covid cannot accept hospital discharges will cause backlogs in the already struggling NHS.

Across England, 9.4% of care home staff are off work, according to government live data, with close to 3% absent because of Covid. The figures, which may be an underestimate because of the festive break, are drawn from submissions by thousands of care providers.

“The spread of Omicron across the country will bring more care homes into outbreak, put huge pressure on the already compromised staff group and mean those who need care do not get it,” said Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum. Many care operators said delays in getting PCR test results back were a key frustration, meaning workers who may not be infected were isolating longer than necessary."

Stephen Chandler, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said councils were braced for calls for help from care operators and said “the care that people experience will be affected”.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2022

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More than 800 million people around the world have diabetes, study finds

The number of people with diabetes has doubled over the past 30 years to more than 800 million worldwide, according to a groundbreaking international study.

Global analysis published in the Lancet found that rates of diabetes in adults doubled from about 7% to about 14% between 1990 to 2022, with the largest increase in low and middle-income countries.

The study is the first global analysis of diabetes rates and treatment in all countries. Scientists at NCD-RisC in collaboration with the World Health Organization used data from more than 140 million people aged 18 or older from more than 1,000 studies in different countries. They applied statistical tools to enable accurate comparisons of prevalence and treatment between countries and regions.

The study highlighted growing health inequalities. More than half of global diabetes cases were concentrated in four countries. Of those with diabetes in 2022, more than a quarter (212 million) lived in India, 148 million were in China, 42 million were in the US and 36 million in Pakistan. Indonesia and Brazil accounted for a further 25 million and 22 million cases, respectively.

Dr Ranjit Mohan Anjana, the joint first author and president of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in India, said: “Given the disabling and potentially fatal consequences of diabetes, preventing diabetes through healthy diet and exercise is essential for better health throughout the world.

“Our findings highlight the need to see more ambitious policies, especially in lower-income regions of the world, that restrict unhealthy foods, make healthy foods affordable and improve opportunities to exercise, through measures such as subsidies for healthy foods and free healthy school meals as well as promoting safe places for walking and exercising including free entrance to public parks and fitness centres.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2024

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More than 80 Long Covid clinics to be opened by NHS in England with extra £24m funding

More than 80 new clinics to assess patients suffering with symptoms of Long Covid are to be opened by the NHS by the end of this month with an extra investment of £24m.

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the health service must “continue to expand its offer for Long Covid” adding there will be even more funding earmarked for the problem in the future.

Speaking at the Health Service Journal’s leadership congress on Wednesday, Sir Simon said: “We have 69 clinics identified last year and we will have 83 long Covid clinics in place by the end of this month, so a significant expansion there.

“We will be backing that with at least £24 million revenue funding going into this New Year, up from the £10 million announced last year, and there will be more to come on the back of that as well.”

Recent estimates by the Office for National Statistics found more than a million people could be experiencing long Covid beyond four weeks with 674,000 people saying it was affecting their day to day lives. Almost 200,000 people have said their ability to carry out normal activities has been severely limited by the condition.

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Source: The Independent, 14 April 2021

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More than 75% of NHS midwives think staffing levels unsafe, says RCM

More than three-quarters of midwives think staffing levels in their NHS trust or board are unsafe, according to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

The RCM said services were at breaking point, with 42% of midwives reporting that shifts were understaffed and a third saying there were “very significant gaps” in most shifts.

Midwives were under enormous pressure and had been “pushed to the edge” by the failure of successive governments to invest in maternity services, said Gill Walton, the chief executive of the RCM.

“Maternity staff are exhausted, they’re demoralised and some of them are looking for the door. For the safety of every pregnant woman and every baby, this cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.

“Midwives and maternity support workers come into the profession to provide safe, high-quality care. The legacy of underfunding and underinvestment is robbing them of that – and worse still, it’s putting those women and families at risk.”

RCM press release

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Source: The Guardian, 16 November 2020

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More than 65,000 people are left waiting to find out if it’s cancer each month

New calculations from Cancer Research UK estimate that, on average, over 65,000 people in England are left waiting longer than 28 days to find out whether they have cancer each month.

These estimates are based on the latest data from the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS). The FDS is a performance standard introduced by Government in 2021. It’s used to better capture how long people on certain cancer-related referrals wait for a diagnosis.

This applies to people referred by their GP urgently with suspected cancer, following breast symptoms, or have been picked up through cancer screening.

The current FDS target is set at 75%, meaning three quarters of people being urgently referred should be told they have cancer or given the all-clear within that timeframe. However, this target has yet to be met.

In addition, the data has revealed major variation across the country – with only 78 of 143 trusts meeting the 75% target. This means that despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, chronic capacity issues mean that people continue to be failed by the system.

Michelle Mitchell, our chief executive, said: “As a country we should not be willing to accept that over 1 in 4 people on an urgent referral are left waiting over a month to find out whether they have cancer. Nor should we stand for the variation that exists across the country.”

The charity is calling on Government to include a more ambitious target within its upcoming 10-year cancer plan, to help ensure around 54,300 more people each month receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within a month.

With a robust plan and sustained investment to build a cancer workforce fit for the future, patients will be diagnosed quicker and earlier, which will save more lives.

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Source: Cancer Research UK, 9 May 2022

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More than 60,000 cancer patients in England ‘not getting necessary radiotherapy’

More than 60,000 cancer patients a year in England are not getting the radiotherapy they need at all, while some face waits of up to six months to begin the treatment, research has found.

The situation is so dire that nearly 100 heads of radiotherapy and oncology – three-quarters of England’s radiotherapy leaders – have warned in an open letter that the government is failing patients.

International experts agree that more than half (53%) of all cancer patients will typically need radiotherapy, but exclusive analysis of the latest NHS data in England shows only 35% actually receive it. The study by the charity Radiotherapy UK found 181,023 cancer patients should have received radiotherapy but only 120,569 did, leaving 60,455 patients a year without any radiotherapy at all.

Regional inequalities are rife. In south-west England, 36% of patients receive radiotherapy, meaning around 7,200 patients miss out, while in the south-east, 33.7% receive treatment, with more than 10,100 missing out.

The leading oncologist and chair of Radiotherapy UK, Prof Pat Price, said: “Thousands of cancer patients risk dying prematurely either because they are not getting radiotherapy at all or because of huge delays in starting radiation treatment.”

She added: “Radiotherapy is one of the most cost-effective and curative cancer treatments we have. It is not a ‘nice to have’, this is a life-saving treatment.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 September 2025

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More than 60 children infected in ‘fast-spreading’ London measles outbreak

Measles infections have been confirmed across at least seven schools in north London as the NHS has warned parents to immunise their children.

Cases were confirmed across several schools in Enfield and Haringey, according to a warning issued by Evergreen GP Surgery in Edmonton, who said that the infection was spreading.

More than 60 measles cases were reported in London since January, and labs have confirmed 34 cases of measles in Enfield since 12 January, with one in five of these children being admitted to hospital with the infection.

“There is no treatment for measles, only the vaccination to prevent catching it, which is part of the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Varicella (MMRV) injection,” the surgery said on the website.

“Parents should ensure that their children are up-to-date with all their immunisations. This can be done by checking the child’s immunisations ‘red book’ or contacting the practice nurse here at the GP practice.”

The MMR vaccine has been updated to also protect against chicken pox.

The outbreak comes after recent UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures showed that not a single childhood vaccine in England last year met the target needed to ensure diseases cannot spread among youngsters.

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Source: The Independent, 15 February 2026

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More than 60 care homes investigated for banning family visits during lockdown

More than 60 care homes have been investigated by the care regulator for preventing families from visiting their vulnerable elderly relatives.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it had conducted 1,282 inspections since 8 March and had taken action against 5% of care providers about which it had “outstanding concerns” relating to visiting, and had taken further steps against 37 cases of blanket bans on visiting.

The CQC was responding to criticism from the Relatives and Residents Association (R&RA) which said the regulator had failed to act to ensure that families can check whether their parents, grandparents or spouses are receiving appropriate care.

The R&RA has campaigned throughout the pandemic to allow families to see their relatives, amid concerns that depriving older people of contact with loved ones led to cognitive and physical decline.

Families have also been concerned that their older relatives are more likely to suffer abuse or neglect without oversight, and even in high-quality care settings relatives can be more likely to spot signs of distress or ill-health.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 May 2021

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More than 6,000 children treated at obesity clinics in England, figures show

More than 6,000 children living with obesity, including hundreds as young as four, have required treatment at specialist NHS weight-loss clinics, new figures reveal.

NHS England data, published for the first time, underlines the scale of the growing childhood obesity crisis.

Since the first Complications from Excess Weight clinic (CEW) opened in 2021, the NHS has treated 6,497 children and teenagers. Of these, 423 were four years old, 1,088 were aged between five and eight, 1,791 were aged nine to 12 and 3,137 were aged between 13 and 17. The age of a further 58 is unknown.

All were “extremely” overweight for their age, with the four-year-olds weighing an average of 33kg (5st 3lbs), the same weight as a typical 10-year-old. About 400 of the children treated by CEWs have had weight loss jabs as part of their treatment plans.

In order to be treated at a CEW, children must be referred by a community or hospital paediatrician, a GP or childhood mental health services and have a BMI above the 99.6th percentile as well as an illness linked to their excess weight.

The research, by Sheffield Hallam University, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Leeds, the University of Bristol and the University of Sheffield, found that just under 30% had metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and 17% had obstructive sleep apnoea. About 9% had deliberately self-harmed, and the same proportion had anxiety. A significant number were neurodivergent. Just under 30% had autism and about 12% had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A further 24% had a learning disability.

Katharine Jenner, executive director at the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “These figures should be a wake-up call. All parents want their children to grow up healthy, yet seeing children as young as four needing specialist NHS treatment for their weight highlights just how early the drivers of poor health are taking hold.

“Children today are growing up surrounded by unhealthy food at almost every turn, leaving families struggling against a system that stacks the odds against healthier options.

“The fact that some children are already developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and early signs of heart disease at such a young age underlines why prevention has to begin in the earliest years of life."

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Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2026

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More than 500,000 people in UK ‘will be diagnosed with cancer each year by 2040’

More than 500,000 people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer every year by 2040, according to analysis by Cancer Research UK.

In a new report, researchers project that if current trends continue, cancer cases will rise by one-third from 384,000 a year diagnosed now to 506,000 in 2040, taking the number of new cases every year to more than half a million for the first time.

While mortality rates are projected to fall for many cancer types, the absolute numbers of deaths are predicted to increase by almost a quarter to 208,000. In total, it estimates that between 2023 and 2040, there could be 8.4m new cases and 3.5 million people could have died from cancer.

Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, Charles Swanton, said: “By the end of the next decade, if left unaided, the NHS risks being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new cancer diagnoses. It takes 15 years to train an oncologist, pathologist, radiologist or surgeon. The government must start planning now to give patients the support they will so desperately need.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2023

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More than 500,000 in England waited at least two months for vital cancer care

More than half a million people in England have had to wait longer than two months for essential cancer treatment, analysis of latest NHS figures has shown.

It has led experts to suggest thousands more patients will die unnecessarily unless the NHS gets to grips quickly with the delays.

Analysis of new NHS figures by Radiotherapy UK shows that in the decade to November 2024, 506,335 cancer patients in England waited more than 62 days for treatment.

International research shows that every four weeks of delay in cancer treatment increases the risk of death by up to 10%. But the NHS has not met its target for 85% of cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days since December 2015 – currently, only 69% begin treatment within the two-month target.

The Department of Health and Social Care is due to relaunch the government’s cancer plan on Tuesday, to coincide with World Cancer Day.

Some experts fear the government’s cancer plan will lack teeth and contribute to more deaths, after NHS England scrapped the target to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, told the Health Service Journal that the government could not commit to meeting national cancer targets by the end of this parliament.

Prof Pat Price, chair of Radiotherapy UK and a leading oncologist, said: “The last decade of leadership in cancer has normalised dangerous delays and unacceptably low ambitions. These delays will cost thousands of lives. We need a brave and bold cancer plan or even more lives will be lost needlessly in the next decade. Incremental change will fail. We need strategies to supercharge both early diagnosis and treatment.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2025

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More than 500 deaths in England last year after long ambulance wait

More than 500 seriously ill patients died last year before they could get treatment in hospital after the ambulance they called for took up to 15 hours to reach them, an investigation by the Guardian reveals.

The fatalities included people who had had a stroke or heart attack or whose breathing had suddenly collapsed, or who had been involved in a road traffic collision. In every case, an ambulance crew took much longer to arrive than the NHS target times for responding to an emergency.

Bereaved relatives have spoken of how the pain of losing a loved one has been compounded by the ambulance crew having taken so long to arrive and start treatment. Coroners, senior doctors and ambulance staff say the scale of the loss of life illustrates the growing dangers to patients from the implosion of NHS urgent and emergency care services.

“These 500-plus deaths a year when an ambulance hasn’t got there in time are tragic and avoidable,” said Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E doctors. “These numbers are deeply concerning. This is the equivalent of multiple airliners crashing.”

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Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2023

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More than 5,000 mental health patients sent over 62 miles for treatment

More than 5,000 mental health patients have been sent at least 62 miles from home for treatment in the two years since ministers pledged to banish the “dangerous” practice.

The disclosure prompted calls for the “scandal” of out of area placements in mental health care to end, with claims that it represents “another broken government promise on the NHS”.

Chronic shortages of mental health beds have for years forced the health service in England to send hundreds of patients a month to be admitted for care, sometimes a long way from their own area.

Mental health campaigners, psychiatrists and patients’ families have argued that being far from home can make already vulnerable patients feel isolated, deprive them of regular visits from relatives, increase the risk of self-harm and reduce their chances of making a recovery.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 June 2023

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More than 5,000 early career nursing staff quit profession in one year

A fifth of the nursing and midwifery professionals who left the register in the last year did so within 10 years of joining, figures show.

Nursing leaders described the statistic as “deeply alarming” and called on ministers to “grasp the nettle and make nursing an attractive career”.

The latest Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) annual report on its register of nurses, midwives and nursing associates in the UK shows 27,168 staff left the profession between April 2023 and March 2024, a slight decrease on the previous 12 months.

However, 20.3% of the total - or 5,508 - did so within the first 10 years. This is compared to 18.8% in 2020/2021 and “reflects a rise over the last three years”, according to the report.

Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “It is deeply alarming that over 5,000 young, early-career nursing staff chose to quit the profession last year, most vowing never to return.

“When the vacancy rate is high and care standards often poor due to staffing levels, the NHS cannot afford to lose a single individual.

“New ministers have to grasp the nettle and make nursing an attractive career.”

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Source: The Independent, 19 July 2024

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More than 400 pregnant women prescribed topiramate in the past year

Between April 2021 and March 2022, more than 400 pregnant women were prescribed the anti-epileptic medicine topiramate, which has been found to cause congenital malformations, figures published by NHS Digital have revealed.

The data, published on 29 September 2022, covers prescribing of anti-epileptic drugs in females aged 0–54 years in England from 1 April 2018 through to 31 March 2022. Overall, it shows a reduction in the number of females prescribed sodium valproate; from 27,441 in April 2018 to 19,766 in March 2022.

However, the numbers also show that sodium valproate, which can cause birth defects, is still being prescribed during pregnancy, with 42 women being prescribed the drug at some point during their pregnancy between April 2021 and March 2022, compared with 43 in the previous year.

In addition, the data show that, during that same time period, 430 females were prescribed topiramate, which is used for treatment of migraines as well as epilepsy, during their pregnancy.

In 2021, a safety review, carried out by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found that carbamazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin and topiramate were associated with an increased risk of major congenital malformations.

In July 2022, the MHRA launched a further review looking specifically at the safety of topiramate, after study results showed an increased risk of autism, developmental disorders and learning difficulties among babies exposed to the medicine during their mother’s pregnancy.

Daniel Jennings, senior policy and campaigns officer at Epilepsy Action, said it was “concerning” to see that prescribing figures for valproate had not decreased, compared with the previous year, and that despite the MHRA identifying other epilepsy medicines that could pose a risk if taken in pregnancy, there had been “little or no communication” about these risks.

“There is also still a large group of epilepsy medicines where we don’t have an adequate bank of evidence about their safe use during pregnancy,” he added.

“The MHRA and NHS England need to work together to communicate the risks and carry out research to protect women with epilepsy.”

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Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal. 7 October 2022

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More than 400 care homes investigated over deaths

A special Crown Office unit set up to probe Covid-linked deaths is investigating cases at 474 care homes in Scotland, the BBC can reveal.

The unit was set up in May to gather information on the circumstances of all deaths in care homes. Prosecutors will eventually decide if the deaths should be the subject of a fatal accident inquiry or prosecution.

Care homes say the investigation is "disproportionate" and placing a huge burden on overstretched staff.

The COVID-19 Deaths Investigation Team (CDIT) had received 3,385 death reports as of Thursday. The majority of them relate to people who lived in care homes.

Behind the Crown Office statistics are hundreds of families grieving for loved ones who died in Scotland's care homes.

Alan Wightman's 88-year-old mother Helen died in May last year during a Covid outbreak at Scoonie House in Fife

Helen's death is part of the Crown Office probe and Mr Wightman's hopes for the investigation are that it looks "at the bigger picture and appreciates that on the ground people were doing the best they could".

He added: "I thought that Scoonie House did the best they could in a very difficult situation, sourcing their own PPE and stopping people coming from hospital."

"My own view is that care homes were put in an impossible situation because we had successive governments which did not properly prepare for a pandemic, you only have to look at the lack of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic to see that."

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Source: BBC News, 22 January 2021

 

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More than 40 NHS mental health patients make fresh rape and sexual assault allegations

Dozens of new allegations of sexual assault and abuse, including claims of rape and of patients being made pregnant, have emerged following an investigation into Britain’s mental health wards.

One patient with a mental health disorder became pregnant by a member of staff. Allegations of rape, and of children being groomed by healthcare assistants, were among the 40 horrifying new reports of abuse made against rogue NHS Trusts.

The investigation, conducted by The Independent, alongside Sky News, revealed more than 20,000 allegations of sexual assault and harassment across more than 30 NHS England mental health trusts since 2019.

Several patients, who have come forward with their own harrowing stories, had allegedly been harmed by healthcare assistants, who currently are not regulated.

Natalie, whose name has been changed, was one of several patients groomed and asked to share sexually explicit photos by a healthcare assistant working at a children’s mental health ward in 2020.

Natalie, who was 16 at the time, told The Independent: “The first few conversations [after I was discharged] were very innocent. However after weeks and months, he started speaking in a sexual nature, asking me to send explicit photos of myself, posting explicit photos of himself and asking to meet up for sexual advances, I didn’t realise it at the time, but he was grooming me; this was all over Snapchat.

“I feel and still feel very small, and that I wasn’t looked at as a person [by the hospital], and they only saw me as a patient with no feelings that mattered. It felt like another incident at ... that just got swept under the rug.”

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Source: The Independent, 10 February 2024

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More than 380,000 A&E patients forced to wait 12 hours as NHS accused of hiding true scale of crisis

More than 380,000 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E last year, new figures show, amid claims ‘misleading’ public data masks the true scale of the problem.

A Royal College of Emergency Medicine report shows 381,991 people across 74 NHS trusts waited half a day or longer from the time they arrived at hospital in 2021.

The figures are 14 times higher than the official numbers published by the NHS – which say 25,553 people waited more than 12 hours during the same period at the same trusts – due to the different ways waiting times are measured.

While NHS England publishes data every month, it only shows how long patients have waited after a decision by doctors to admit them. Experts claim this is misleading and have called for the NHS to publish the figures from point of arrival instead.

It comes after The Independent revealed leaked data in May, showing that more than 3,000 patients a day were regularly facing 12-hour waits in the first four months of 2022.

Dr Adrian Boyle, RCEM vice president, said the new figures were “staggering” and “make clear that measuring 12-hour waits from decision to admit masks the reality facing patients and staff.

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Source: The Independent, 14 June 2022

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More than 30 staff suspended from NHS hospital over allegations of falsifying records and harming patients

More than 30 members of staff at a major NHS mental health hospital have been suspended over claims of serious misconduct including falsifying medical records and mistreating patients, The Independent has learned.

The suspensions come after an internal investigation into serious conduct allegations at Highbury Hospital in Nottinghamshire, which employs hundreds of staff members.

The suspended employees include registered professionals – such as doctors, nurses and nursing associates – and non-registered professionals, which would cover healthcare assistants and non-clinical staff.

It comes just a week after the same trust – Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust – was issued with a warning by the safety watchdog over concerns about the safety of patients at Rampton Hospital, a high secure hospital which has housed patients such as Charles Bronson and Ian Huntley.

In an email leaked to The Independent, the trust told staff: “We are saddened to report that over recent weeks it has been necessary to suspend over 30 colleagues due to very serious conduct allegations.

“These allegations have included falsifying mental health observations, as well as maltreatment of patients in our care.

“We hope we have your understanding in taking action when the conduct of colleagues falls so far outside of what patients deserve.”

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Source: The Independent, 23 January 2024

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More than 30 poisoned after suspected fake Botox

Thirty-eight cases of botulism poisoning have been recorded in England in the last six weeks after the suspected use of unlicensed Botox-like products in cosmetic procedures, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

Botulism is a rare but life-threatening condition caused by toxins produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, a key ingredient in the injection.

Cases have been recorded in the East, East Midlands and the North East regions.

The UKHSA urged those seeking treatments to obtain proof that their Botox practitioner was qualified and that their products were licensed.

According to the UKHSA, the evidence so far suggests clinics involved in the cases have used unlicensed Botox-like products.

In the most recent cases, recorded in East England and the East Midlands, patients had difficulty swallowing, slurred speech and breathing difficulties requiring respiratory support.

Other symptoms of botulism can include droopy eyelids, double vision and weak facial muscles.

Dr Gauri Godbole, of UKHSA, said botulism related to aesthetic procedures was rare but could be serious. She added that symptoms could take up to four weeks to develop and urged anyone who suspected they were suffering to contact the NHS 111 service.

Botox can only be prescribed after a consultation between you and a healthcare professional, such as a doctor or nurse.

While the person signing the prescription doesn't have to give the injection, they should ensure the person injecting is qualified to do so.

Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: "Buying botulinum toxin in any other circumstances significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not licensed for use in the UK.

"This means that there are no safeguards to ensure products meet the MHRA's standards for quality and safety."

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Source: BBC News, 18 July 2025

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More than 3,000 patients have died following incidents in Irish health service since 2018

More than 3,000 patients have died following incidents in the Irish health service since 2018, new data shows.

New HSE data shows more than 480,000 incidents potentially causing harm were recorded across hospitals and community healthcare groups since 2018. These include falls, attacks on patients or staff, problems with medication, treating the wrong limb, or reactions to medical devices, among other issues.

Last year’s total of 106,967 was the highest of five years recorded, up from 94,422 in 2018.

While around half the incidents annually led to no injury, last year 0.65% or 556 led to a death. That stood at 0.59% or 557 deaths in 2018.

A spokesperson for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the figures are very high, but not surprising.

“Hospitals are not supposed to be dangerous places," she said.

"No matter how highly skilled your staff are, patient safety issues and the risk of missed care incidents are inevitable in a situation where patients are lining corridors on trolleys and there aren’t enough staff to care for them."

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Source: Irish Examiner, 18 August 2023

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More than 250,000 dementia patients in England could miss new treatments

More than 250,000 dementia patients could miss out on new treatments for the disease because they do not have a formal diagnosis, according to government figures.

NHS data published for the first time shows the prevalence of different types of dementia with which people in England have been diagnosed.

Dementia is an umbrella term for many different conditions, affecting more than 55 million people worldwide.

This week, health regulators were urged to approve two new game-changing dementia drugs, after a landmark study confirmed that donanemab slowed cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients by 35%, while last year, a second drug, lecanemab, was found to reduce the rate by 27%.

The NHS primary care dementia figures estimate that there are about 708,000 people over 65 with dementia in England, but only about 450,000 have a recorded diagnosis. That means that more than 250,000 are missing out on these potential new treatments. 

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Source: The Guardian, 20 July 2023

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