Jump to content
  • articles
    6,989
  • comments
    73
  • views
    5,392,009

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

The crisis at England's NHS child gender clinic

In January, England's only NHS gender clinic for children and young people was rated "inadequate" by the country's health watchdog - the lowest rating, meaning it is performing badly.

The findings make for sobering reading with inspectors raising "significant concerns" about the way the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) works.

Nearly 5,000 children are waiting - sometimes for up to two years - for an appointment, and the management team has been disbanded following the inspection. 

Now BBC News has had exclusive sight of an external report written in 2015 which recommended GIDS take drastic action.

It argued the service was "facing a crisis of capacity" to deal with an ever-increasing demand and strikingly it should "take the courageous and realistic action of capping the numbers of referrals immediately".

With Care Quality Commission inspectors recently confirming many of the risks highlighted still remain, some have expressed concern about why neither GIDS, nor NHS England, which has ultimate responsibility for the service, have done more to help the children and young people it cares for.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 30 March 2021

Read more
 

Witness at NHS inquiry intimidated by ‘deeply disturbing’ messages

A witness to an inquiry into deaths at England’s largest mental health trust has been intimidated by “cruel and calculated pressure”, with messages described by the man leading the investigation as “truly shocking”.

In a statement at the start of hearings into the quality of care at Southern Health Foundation Trust, inquiry chairman Nigel Pascoe QC said one witness had received threatening telephone calls, messages and emails, which he said were “totally unacceptable, damaging and deeply disturbing”.

Mr Pascoe said the inquiry had been told Beth Ford, whose job title at the trust is service user involvement facilitator, had been intimidated by members of the public.

Ms Ford, who has autism, was admitted to hospital for her mental health earlier this month as a result of the abuse, but has now returned home.

It’s the latest incident to hit the controversial inquiry, which has itself faced fierce criticism from the families of five patients who died between 2011 and 2015.

The families have pulled out of the inquiry and accused the investigation and NHS England of bullying them and going back on promises to properly investigate the deaths of their relatives.

Maureen Rickman, whose sister Jo Deering died in 2011, told The Independent she didn’t believe any of the main families were involved in intimidating witnesses.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 29 March 2021

Read more

Covid vaccine: Prioritise over 16s living with immunosuppressed adults, says JCVI

People aged 16 or over who live with immunosuppressed adults should be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination alongside priority group 6 (people aged 16 to 65 who have a clinical condition that puts them at higher risk), the UK government’s vaccine advisory committee has said.

This would include people living in households with an adult who has a weakened immune system, such as those with blood cancer or HIV, or people on immunosuppressive treatment, including chemotherapy, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said. These people are not only more likely to have poorer outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 infection but may not respond as well to the vaccine as others, recent evidence indicates, said the JCVI.

The committee said it had made the new recommendation after evidence emerged showing that the covid-19 vaccines may reduce transmission, meaning that vaccinating those around immunosuppressed individuals could help reduce their risk of infection.

The JCVI’s chair of COVID-19 immunisations, Wei Shen Lim, said, “The vaccination programme has so far seen high vaccine uptake and very encouraging results on infection rates, hospitalisations, and mortality. Yet we know that the vaccine isn’t as effective in those who are immunosuppressed. Our latest advice will help reduce the risk of infection in those who may not be able to fully benefit from being vaccinated themselves.”

Read full story

Source: BMJ, 29 March 2021

Read more

Looking up health symptoms online less harmful than thought, study says

That throbbing headache just won’t go away and your mind is racing about what may be wrong. But Googling your symptoms may not be as ill-advised as previously thought.

Although some doctors often advise against turning to the internet before making the trudge up to the clinic, a new study suggests that using online resources to research symptoms may not be harmful after all – and could even lead to modest improvements in diagnosis.

Using “Dr Google” for health purposes is controversial. Some have expressed concerns that it can lead to inaccurate diagnoses, bad advice on where to seek treatment (triage), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria).

Previous research into the subject has been limited to observational studies of internet search behaviour, so researchers from Harvard sought to empirically measure the association of an internet search with diagnosis, triage, and anxiety by presenting 5,000 people in the United States with a series of symptoms and asked them to imagine that someone close to them was experiencing the symptoms.

The participants – mostly white, average age 45, and an even gender split – were asked to provide a diagnosis based on the given information. Then they looked up their case symptoms (which, ranging from mild to severe, described common illnesses such as viruses, heart attacks and strokes) on the internet and again offered a diagnosis. As well as diagnosing the condition, participants were asked to select a triage level, ranging from “let the health issue get better on its own” to calling the emergency services. Participants also recorded their anxiety levels.

The results showed a slight uptick in diagnosis accuracy, with an improvement of 49.8% to 54% before and after the search. However, there was no difference in triage accuracy or anxiety, the authors wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open.

These findings suggest that medical experts and policymakers probably do not need to warn patients away from the internet when it comes to seeking health information and self-diagnosis or triage. It seems that using the internet may well help patients figure out what is wrong.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021

Read more
 

French pharma firm found guilty over medical scandal in which up to 2,000 died

A French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people.

In one of the biggest medical scandals in France, the privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator.

The former executive Jean-Philippe Seta was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years. The French medicines agency, accused of failing to act quickly enough on warnings about the drug, was fined €303,000.

The amphetamine derivative was licensed as a diabetes treatment, but was widely prescribed as an appetite suppressant to help people lose weight. Its active chemical substance is known as Benfluorex.

As many as 5 million people took the drug between 1976 and November 2009 when it was withdrawn in France, long after it was banned in Spain and Italy. It was never authorised in the UK or US.

The French health minister estimated it had caused heart-valve damage killing at least 500 people, but other studies suggest the death toll may be nearer to 2,000. Thousands more have been left with debilitating cardiovascular problems. Servier has paid out millions in compensation.

“Despite knowing of the risks incurred for many years, … they [Servier] never took the necessary measures and thus were guilty of deceit,” said the president of the criminal court, Sylvie Daunis.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021

Read more

GPs prefer to see patients face to face, says UK family doctors' leader

Many GPs find telephone appointments with patients frustrating and want to see them in person because they fear they will otherwise miss signs of illness , the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said.

Prof Martin Marshall told the Guardian that remote consultations felt like working “in a call centre” and risked damaging the relationship between GPs and their patients.

Telephone and video appointments had proved useful during the Covid pandemic, when GP surgeries limited patients’ ability to come in for face-to-face appointments, he said. However, while that helped limit the spread of coronavirus, “this way of working has been frustrating for some GPs, particularly when most consultations were being delivered remotely, who have felt like they’ve been delivering care via a call centre, which isn’t the job they signed up for."

“Remote consultations have advantages, particularly in terms of access and convenience for patients. But we know that patients prefer to see their GP face to face."

“Remote working has been challenging for many GPs, particularly when delivering care to patients with complex health needs,” said Marshall, who is a GP in London. “It can also make it harder to pick up on soft cues, which can be helpful for making diagnoses.”

His remarks come as NHS leaders and doctors groups are discussing how far appointments should return to being in person now the pandemic is receding.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2021

Read more
 

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.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 28 March 2021

Read more
 

Blood oxygen devices potentially giving ‘seriously misleading’ results to Black people, experts warn

Devices which measure blood oxygen levels could be giving “seriously misleading” results for Black and minority ethnic people, possibly contributing to increased Covid-19 mortality, experts have warned.

Pulse oximeters attach a clip-like device to a person’s finger, toe or earlobe and send a beam of infrared light to measure oxygen levels in the blood.

The resulting reading can be used to monitor oxygen levels of people with a variety of conditions, including by people at home with coronavirus, and to assess patients in hospital.

At the moment, coronavirus patients who call an ambulance but are not yet deemed sick enough to go to hospital are being given new home oxygen monitoring kits to help spot those who may deteriorate earlier, and over 300,000 oximeters have been sent out by NHS England.

But a new paper cites a “growing body of evidence” that pulse oximetry is less accurate in darker skinned patients.

This could be contributing to health inequalities such as the increased COVID-19 mortality rates of ethnic minority patients, according to a review conducted for the NHS Race and Health Observatory.

It is now calling for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to urgently review pulse oximetry products for ethnic minority people used in hospitals and by the wider public.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 27 March 2021

Read more

Wards at trust facing patient deaths inquiry downgraded to ‘inadequate’

Wards at a trust facing an inquiry over the deaths of vulnerable patients have been downgraded to ‘inadequate’ over fresh patient safety concerns. 

The Care Quality Commission said five adult and intensive wards across three hospitals run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) Foundation Trust “did not manage patient safety incidents well”. It also criticised the trust’s leaders for failing to make sure staff knew how to assess patient risk.

The watchdog rated the trust’s acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units as “inadequate” overall as well as for safety and leadership. The trust was also served a warning notice threatening more enforcement action if the patient safety issues are not urgently addressed. At the previous inspection in March 2020, the service was rated “good”.

TEWV said it has taken “immediate action” to address the issues, including a rapid improvement event for staff and daily safety briefings, and will also spend £3.6m to recruit 80 more staff. The trust’s overall rating of “requires improvement” remains unchanged after this inspection.

Brian Cranna, CQC’s head of hospital inspection for the North (mental health and community health services), said: “We found these five wards were providing a service where risks were not assessed effectively or managed well enough to keep people safe from harm."

“Staff did not fully understand the complex risk assessment process and what was expected of them. The lack of robust documentation put people at direct risk of harm, as staff did not have access to the information they needed to provide safe care."

Read full story (paywall)

Source: HSJ, 26 March 2021

Read more
 

Nurses kept on after Rachel Johnston's death 'as they knew patients'

Two nurses whose failures contributed to the death of a disabled woman carried on working at a care home because they "knew residents well".

Rachel Johnston died after an operation to remove all her teeth in 2018. Staff at Pirton Grange, near Worcester, failed to spot her decline and did not carry out basic checks.

Worcestershire Coroner's Court heard that despite their actions amounting to misconduct, they were "consistent" and it was better if residents knew carers.

Senior coroner David Reid concluded last month that neglect contributed to her death. and the 49-year-old would probably have survived if the staff acted sooner.

Agency nurses Sheeba George and Gill Bennett failed to carry out routine checks and get emergency medical assistance, the inquest heard.

Giving her delayed evidence on Friday, care home manager Jane Colbourn said she accepted their actions amounted to misconduct, but they were allowed to carry on working at the home and other residents were not at risk.

"At the time I would say, although what's happened has happened, they were consistent nurses who knew those residents well and it's better to have those nurses rather than nurses that don't know the other 34 residents at all," she said.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 27 March 2021

Read more
 

Royal College of Midwives calls for a Digital Midwife in every maternity service

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has launched a new positioning statement to call for a Digital Midwife in every maternity service in the next 12 months.

The trade union, which represents the majority of practising midwives, has called for every trust to recruit or train Digital Midwives to lead on digital transformation programmes and ensure systems that are introduced are interoperable.

The RCM has said it’s not just a call for investment but a need to ‘drive forward digital transformation and clinical informatics of maternity care’.

Hermione Jackson, RCM Digital Advisor,  said: “For too long maternity services have been overlooked, passed over and generally left at the back of the queue when it comes to digital investment. Investing in digital technology and giving staff the training and equipment they need will lead to better care, regardless of where that care is delivered.

“There is clear evidence that more and better use of digital technology is supported by women, midwives, maternity support workers and other maternity staff. We need the Government and hospital Trusts and Boards to give maternity services the tech they need to do their jobs even better. Improvements have been happening but at a snail’s pace and we need to see this move much more rapidly simply to catch-up with other areas of the NHS.”

The RCM said it will be publishing new guidance on electronic record keeping for midwives and maternity support workers later in March.

Read full story

Source: Health Tech Newspaper, 16 March 2021

Read more

Prioritising surgery inpatients for vaccinations may save lives, study suggests

Tens of thousands of post-operative deaths could be avoided by ensuring patients are given coronavirus vaccines while waiting for elective surgery, a new study suggests.

People awaiting surgery around the globe should thus be prioritised for COVID-19 jabs ahead of other groups, according to the research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Studying data for 141,582 patients from across 1,667 hospitals in 116 countries – including Australia, Brazil, China, India, UAE, the UK and the US, scientists found that between 0.6 and 1.6% of patients have developed coronavirus in the wake of elective surgery.

For patients who did contract COVID-19, their risk of death was four to eight times greater than typically seen in the 30 days after surgery.

Given the higher risks that surgical patients face, scientists calculate that vaccines are more likely to have a life-saving impact upon pre-operative patients – particularly the over-70s and cancer patients – than among the general population.

The researchers estimated that – in order to save one life in the course of a year – 351 people aged over 70 facing cancer surgery required vaccination. This figure rises to 1,840 among over-70s in general.

“Pre-operative vaccination could support a safe restart of elective surgery by significantly reducing the risk of Covid-19 complications in patients and preventing tens of thousands of Covid-19-related post-operative deaths,” said co-lead author Aneel Bhangu, from the University of Birmingham.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 March 2021

Read more
 

Miscarriage associated with higher risk of women’s early death

Miscarriage may be associated with an increased risk of early death, researchers have said.

The BMJ published a study suggesting that this risk is particularly acute for those who have experienced repeated miscarriages, especially ones that occurred early on in a woman’s life.

US-based researchers said that women who had experienced a miscarriage were 19% more likely to die prematurely. They pointed out that a miscarriage “could be an early marker of future health risk in women.”

The authors of the paper hoped to see if there was any link between miscarriage and a risk of death before the age of 70. Data used was taken from 101,681 women as part of the Nurses’ Health Study in the US. This was made up of female nurses aged between 25 and 42 years.

The researchers followed the women for 24 years and said that 2,936 premature deaths were recorded, this included 1,346 from cancer and 269 from cardiovascular disease.

It appeared that death rates from all causes were comparable both for women with and without a history of miscarriage. However, rates were higher for women who had experienced three or more miscarriages as well as for women who had their first miscarriage under the age of 24.

The study found that the association between miscarriage, or “spontaneous abortion,” and premature death was strongest for deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 March 2021

Read more
 

BAME doctors 'still waiting for risk checks'

Many doctors from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds say key risk assessments have still not taken place, or have not been acted on.

About 40% of UK doctors in the UK are from BAME backgrounds, yet 95% of the medics who have died from coronavirus were from minority backgrounds.

The NHS said last June that its trusts should offer risk assessments to staff, but hundreds told a poll for BBC News that they were still awaiting assessments or action.

Of 2,000 doctors who responded, 328 said their risks hadn't been assessed at all, while 519 said they had had a risk assessment but no action had been taken. Another 658 said some action had been taken, with just 383 reporting their risks had been considered in detail and action put into place to mitigate them.

One of those who responded was Dr Temi Olonisakin, a junior doctor in London who has Type 1 diabetes. She had her risk assessment early on in the pandemic.

"It was as comprehensive as a side A4 paper can be," she says. "I think for a lot of people it felt more like a tick-box exercise, and one that could be used to say: 'We've done what we need to do to make people feel safe' - but I'm not sure in reality that's how people felt."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 26 March 2021

Read more

NHS to spend almost £100m improving maternity safety after Shrewsbury care disaster

The NHS is to spend almost £100m to make maternity units across the NHS safer for mothers and babies in a major victory for families and The Independent – which has been campaigning for better training for midwives and doctors.

NHS England announced the investment on Thursday in response to the care scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.

As well as boosting the numbers of midwives and doctors on wards, NHS England said the money would include an extra £26.5m for safety training for midwives and doctors across England.

The £96m represents one of the biggest investments in maternity services for decades. A total of £46m will be to used to recruit 1,000 extra midwives along with £10m for the equivalent of 80 extra doctors. As well as training cash will also be used to create new roles to oversee trusts safety and help recruit staff from overseas.

The investment is a direct response to the poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust where The Independent revealed in 2019 that dozens of babies and mothers had died or been left brain damaged as a result of persistent poor care over decades. An inquiry is examining more than 1,860 cases, making it the largest maternity scandal in NHS history.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 March 2021

Read more

40,600 people likely caught Covid while hospital inpatients in England

More than 40,600 people have been likely infected with coronavirus while being treated in hospital in England for another reason, raising concerns about the NHS’s inability to protect them.

In one in five hospitals at least a fifth of all patients found to have the virus caught it while an inpatient. North Devon district hospital in Barnstaple had the highest rate of such cases among acute trusts in England at 31%.

NHS England figures also reveal stark regional differences in patients’ risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 during their stay. Just under a fifth (19%) of those in hospital in the north-west became infected while an inpatient, almost double the 11% rate in London hospitals.

Hull University teaching hospitals trust and Lancashire teaching hospitals trust had the joint second highest rate of patients – 28% – who became infected while under their care. The former has had 626 such cases while the latter has had 486. However, the big differences in hospitals’ size and the number of patients they admit mean that the rate of hospital-acquired infection is a more accurate reflection of the success of their efforts to stop transmission of the potentially lethal virus.

Doctors and hospitals claim that many of the infections were caused by the NHS’s lack of beds and limitations posed by some hospitals being old, cramped and poorly ventilated, as well as health service bosses’ decision that hospitals should keep providing normal care while the second wave of Covid was unfolding, despite the potential danger to those receiving non-Covid care.

“These heartbreaking figures show how patients and NHS staff have been abysmally let down by the failure to suppress the virus ahead of and during the second wave,” said Layla Moran MP, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2021

Read more
 

PHIN responds to Government update on the Paterson Inquiry

Following the statement from Nadine Dorries MP, Minister for Patient Safety, providing an update on the Paterson Inquiry, Matt James, Chief Executive of the Private Healthcare Information Network, said: 
 
“Although we were expecting the Government’s full response by now, it’s reassuring to know that this is still firmly on the agenda. The updates provided today are all welcome, but perhaps most telling is what remains to be addressed – most notably whole-practice information and better information for patients (recommendations one and three).
 
“While it’s disappointing not to see more specifics, it is crucial that the recommendations are implemented properly and with the right consideration, resisting the temptation to create new systems from scratch and instead build on the excellent progress made by organisations such as NHS Digital, GIRFT, NCIP and PHIN.
 
“We will continue to work with our partners across the NHS and private sector to make positive changes which improve transparency, accountability and information for patients. We will continue to liaise with the Department of Health and Social Care when invited to do so.”
 

Press release

Source: PHIN, 23 March 2021

Read more
 

MHRA pilots patient involvement in new applications

A pilot project that puts patient involvement at the heart of clinical trials and medicine development has been launched by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

From the 23 March, when new applications for selected medicines (new active substances and new indications) are received, the applicant company will be asked for evidence on the patient involvement activities they undertook when developing their product. For clinical trials, whilst additional information won’t be requested at this early exploratory stage of the pilot, the MHRA will be documenting in medical assessment reports if there is evidence of patient involvement in clinical trial applications in order to better understand the current scope of activities.

In considering how patient involvement is integrated into the approvals process, the MHRA hopes to learn from any patient-related activities that take place during development, and use this knowledge to improve the quality of clinical drug development and health outcomes in the future.

During the pilot, the information provided by the applicants will be voluntary and will not alter the outcome of their application. However, in future, the agency hopes that a successful pilot will lead to patient involvement playing a greater role in the final assessment process, when clinical trials are approved, or medicines are licensed.

Dr June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive, comments:

"Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Gathering this information will help us gain a better understanding of the current landscape and give us important insight into the valuable work being done across our innovative life sciences sector.

I’m excited for the opportunity to learn more so that we can work together to shape the future of effective patient involvement and better outcomes for all."

Read press release

Source: MHRA, 23 March 2021

Read more
 

CQC to assess equality issues arising from Covid under new human rights agreement

The CQC will consider equality and human rights policy issues that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic under an agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

In a statement published on the new memorandum of understanding (MoU), the CQC and the EHRC confirmed they will work together on five ‘key areas of focus’.

These also include looking at how leadership can reduce inequalities in patients’ access to – and outcomes from care – in local areas, and ‘collaborating for better leadership on equality for staff working in the NHS and social care’, the regulator said.

In a separate blog on the agreement, Ted Baker, CQC’s chief inspector for hospitals, said: ‘We will continue to work together to respond to the equality and human rights issues that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the EHRC contributing to our work on use of DNACPR and CQC supporting the dissemination of key findings relating to health and social care from EHRC key reports and briefings.’

The memorandum, which applies to all providers regulated by the CQC, also outlines how both organisations will share information on human rights issues.

Read full story

Source: Management in Practice, 15 March 2021

Read more
 

Flagship death review programme had ‘unclear and limited’ impact

A flagship government programme to improve care for people with learning disabilities has had an ‘unclear’ and ‘limited’ impact after six years, an NHS England report has found.

A report into the national learning disability mortality review programme (LeDer) has criticised it for failing to impact improvement of services both nationally and locally.

The national LeDer programme was launched in 2015 after high profile failures by Southern Health Foundation Trust to investigate the deaths of patients with learning disabilities. Since its launch, the programme has consistently struggled to carry out the number of reviews required, with the backlog growing to 3,800 last year.

The news follows a year of increasing concern over the disproportionate death rate for those with learning disabilities during the pandemic.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 24 March 2021

Read more

Probe into hospital oxygen shortage finds staff missed safety meetings

Doctors and nurses were absent from crucial meetings about oxygen supplies to hospital wards in the run up to the coronavirus crisis, a safety watchdog has warned.

At one hospital trust, which was forced to declare a major incident during the second wave of the crisis, doctors had not attended the hospital’s medical gas committee (MGC) since 2014.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) said it had discovered a similar lack of input at other NHS trusts and also warned that none of the urgent alerts and guidance from NHS England ahead of the Covid surge had been discussed at the committee.

HSIB has launched an investigation into the failure of oxygen piping systems during the Covid surge after a number of hospitals were forced to declare major incidents and divert patients to other hospitals.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 24 March 2021

Read more
 

'She did not get the anorexia help she needed'

People living with an eating disorder and their families should be offered greater support, according to a aScottish government review of services.

The clinicians and psychologists who led the review said that seven of Scotland's health boards had been an 86% increase in referrals for eating disorders over the last year. Figures also showed a 220% jump in paediatric admissions at two regional adolescent in-patient units.

Their report made 15 recommendations including self-help packages, peer support networks and emotional and practical support for families and carers as well.

Christine Reid's daughter Madeline Wallace died from anorexia in January 2018.

The 18-year-old from Peterborough had been studying medicine at Edinburgh University when she became gravely unwell. An inquest into her death found that she "rapidly lost weight" during her first weeks as a student.

"It was very strange," Ms Reid says. "It was almost like watching someone disintegrating from the inside out. It is a horrible illness."

"She got this illness and she really didn't want to have it but she couldn't see a way to recover from it," Ms Reid says.

"She just didn't feel like she got the help she needed."

An independent review in to Maddy's death made 14 recommendations for changes to eating disorder care at a national and regional level including advice for GPs on anorexia complications.

"It feels like if lots of different decisions had gone different ways it could have been avoided and that is hard to take," her mother says.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 24 March 2021

Read more
 

Previously secret report into scandal hospital reveals safety concerns dating back years

A previously secret report into children’s services at a scandal-hit NHS hospital has revealed concerns over the safety of services including care of seriously ill babies were raised with managers back in 2015.

A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) raised serious concerns over children’s services at East Kent Hospitals University Trust in 2015 including senior consultants refusing to work beyond 5pm and a shortage of nurses and junior doctors.

It also found the neonatal intensive care unit was being staffed by general paediatric doctors instead of specialist neonatal consultants.

The confidential report was given to The Independent and posted on the trust’s website this week after being mentioned in the terms of reference for an independent inquiry examining dozens of baby deaths at the trust.

It had never been published by the trust, which three years later had its children’s services rated inadequate. A second major report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2016 highlighted concerns that were not acted on and later featured in the avoidable death of baby Harry Richford, in 2017 which sparked the scandal into dozens more deaths and brain injuries.

Bill Kirkup, who is leading the inquiry into East Kent’s maternity services, previously recommended Royal College reviews be registered with the CQC and shared openly by NHS trusts.

In its report, the RCPCH said there was “resistance from some consultants to work extended hours” across the trust’s different services with signs of clinicians worked in silos at the different hospitals run by the trust.

It warned that paediatric consultants were “spread too thinly across the service” and consultants were providing specialist clinics based on their interests rather than local need.

There was “insufficient middle grade doctors to cover both sites” and there were “too few skilled nurses on the wards.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 24 March 2021

Read more

Middle-aged women 'worst affected by long Covid', studies find

Middle-aged women experience the most severe, long-lasting symptoms after being treated in hospital for COVID-19, two UK studies suggest.

Five months on, 70% of patients studied were still affected by everything from anxiety to breathlessness, fatigue, muscle pain and "brain fog".

But the researchers say there is no obvious link with how ill people originally became.

How women's bodies fight off illness could explain their poorer recovery.

The larger study - led by the University of Leicester - which is yet to be peer-reviewed, followed up more than 1,000 patients who had been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in the UK last year. It found that up to 70% had not fully recovered, an average of five months after leaving hospital, with women most affected.

A separate smaller pre-print study, led by University of Glasgow, found women under 50 were seven times more likely to be more breathless, and twice as likely to report worse fatigue than men of the same age who had had the illness, seven months after hospital treatment.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 25 March 2021

Read more
 

“9 years of suffering" says victim of Boston Scientific Implant as new mesh class action is filed in Australia

Deborah Stanford is one of many women who have received a Boston Scientific implant and suffered complications. She has joined Shine Lawyers’ class action, which was filed today in the Australian Federal Court, to hold the manufacturers to account for the continuous pain she has endured since the Obtryx sling was implanted on 12 September 2012.

Ms Stanford’s bladder was sitting in the birth canal and the sling was placed, on medical advice, to reposition her bladder.

“It has been 9 years of suffering."

“If I knew how hard this was going to be, I never would have gone through it,” said Ms. Stanford.

Boston Scientific is the third pelvic mesh manufacturer to face a class action over their range of prolapse mesh and incontinence sling implants. Shine Lawyers has filed all three actions against Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon and American Medical Systems (AMS).

Read full story

Source: Shine Lawyers, 22 March 2021

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

 Accept Cookies  Reject Cookies